The fancy – as seen by a 24-year-old club secretary

Roy Stringer talks to Colin Harvey

Thanks to Roy Stringer & Cage & Aviary for permission to display

COLIN Harvey owned his first budgerigar when he was seven years old but it was another six years before he had his own birdroom; a converted 8ft x 6ft (2.4m x 1.8m) garden shed.

In the interim, his interest in budgerigars remained lively and he read everything he could find about them. It was in 1994, when he was 14 and delivering newspapers, that he became aware of Cage & Aviary Birds. He has read every copy since. He joined Great Yarmouth & Gorleston CBS in 1995 and the Budgerigar Society a year later.

The first chick he ever bred was an albino hen – that came from a dominant pied skyblue cock and a dominant pied opaline cinnamon skyblue hen. Young Colin had already studied the genetics of colour expectation so he did not need to be told that the cock must be split ino. He went on to study genetics at university and now teaches science, specialising in biology, to students up to the age of 18.

Although he had built up a useful stud, based on budgerigars acquired from champions, birdkeeping had to go onto the back burner during the four years he was away at university but he soon became active again once he had gained his degree.

Before too long he had one flight containing lovebirds and another that was shared by budgerigars and zebra finches. Surfing the Internet, Colin found Brian Sweeting’s website http://www.sweeting-budgerigars.co.uk/. Brian has won most of the top prizes up for competition at national level and his site contains many photographs of outstanding budgerigars he has bred. Colin was particularly impressed by the dominant pieds, a variety for which he still has a soft spot.

This started him thinking about entering into the competitive side of the hobby and when, the following week, he spotted an advertisement for the open show of his local specialist club, Waveney Valley BS, he decided to go along to increase his knowledge of budgerigar exhibiting. He enjoyed the experience and picked up a schedule for the Great Yarmouth, Gorleston and Lowestoft CBS show.

He sent in an entry and received a call from the show secretary Jimmy Wells, who remembered Colin from his junior days and invited him around for a chat. As a result, he rejoined the club and worked as a steward during the show. His own opaline grey green hen came third out of a five; a result he readily accepted as the hen, although large, was finer feathered and shorter in the mask than the first and second prize winners.

Although they do not form a large proportion of his stud, opalines are his favourites. One reason for the low number is that he has set very high standards for any birds to be retained. He would love to be as strict on markings as he is on other features, such as size, shape and head quality, but he accepts the need to be realistic about opalines these days and so has to compromise. Even so, only one of his opalines has head flecking.

In his short experience, Colin has found that the best pairings for diluting head flecking are normal split opaline cock x opaline hen and opaline cock x normal hen.

Colin Harvey’s greater involvement in club affairs resulted, in January 2004, in an invitation to take on the job of secretary of Waveney Valley BS. It has not been easy to find sufficient time with the pressure of Planning, marking school examinations and course work but, to date, the club is running reasonably smoothly. He is also assistant show secretary at both the Great Yarmouth and Waveney Valley clubs and, with training, hopes to become a full show secretary in the future.

The age of 24 is relatively young, these days; to be secretary of a bird club and the experience has permitted Colin to form his own opinions about the state of the budgerigar fancy.

He is a member of the Exhibition Budgerigar List, a Yahoo Internet group where budgerigar breeders from all over the world exchange views (can be accessed by going to http://www.egroups.com and signing up.).

Colin finds the wide-ranging interchange both enjoyable and enlightening. Among recent subjects of debate have been depth of mask and spot size and the most humane methods of euthanasia of budgerigars. It soon became clear that the use of ether is the main method used in the United States.

Joining clubs, exhibiting, the Internet and the recent completion of a new 20ft x 8ft (6m x 2.4m) birdroom have greatly increased Colin Harvey’s enjoyment of the hobby and he recommends newcomers to budgerigar keeping to follow his example.

 

What 24-year-old club secretary, Colin Harvey, says about the current state of the budgerigar fancy.

 

·        “We need to look to the future when deciding what type of budgerigars to breed. As budgerigars have got bigger the length of time they live has shortened. Recent reports of feather cysts that cause budgerigars not to grow tails and flights serve as a timely warning. Exhibition budgerigars should not be permitted to get bigger and a case could be made for breeding them smaller.”

 

·        “Communication needs to be improved. The outcry that greeted the requirement to install disinfectant mats at shows is a prime example of messages not being properly received. When I saw the precautions in action at Lincs. & East Anglia Budgerigar and Foreign Bird Society  2003 CC show and at Waveney Valley BS members’ show, I wondered why so much fuss had been made.”

 

·        “Although we must always be prepared to learn from the past, history should not be permitted to dictate the way we operate today. It is noticeable the number of times that events that happened a long time ago enter into discussions – even though they often have no bearing on present circumstances. Past events are sometimes used to block progress.”

 

·        “Suggestions, such as a recent one that subscription rates should be increased by one-third, do more harm than good. They are more likely to persuade people to give up than to remain members.”

 

·        “Fortunately, there are enough open-minded people involved to safeguard the future of the fancy – though it does help if ideas, suggestions and decisions are explained properly in advance.”

 

 

·         “Communication and participation by the majority are vital; ingredients for the future of our hobby” (This a quotation he found in a 1979 issue of the Budgerigar Bulletin from a London & Southern Counties BS club report.)

 

·        “More than ever before, following the lack of activity caused by the virus in 2003, fanciers need to give whole hearted support to events like the Budgerigar Society Club Show and the BS Convention being staged at Stoke Rochford, in Lincolnshire, in 2005.”

 

 

·        “We must never forget that our common interest lies in budgerigars – and not the politics that surround them.”

 

There speaks a wise 24 year old.