by Cy Thorne
I started keeping budgerigars in 1988 which was with one breeding cage which I kept in my bedroom where I bred my first chick, it was a normal grey cock. Then for my birthday I had a small flight bought for me. I then decided to go to my local club which was Leicester Budgerigar & Foreign Bird Society, and at one of the evening shows there were some Spangles. This was the first time that I had seen Spangles and decided I would like to have a go at breeding them.
I acquired a Spangle Dark Green cock from a local member and I paired it to a normal Grey Green hen in the hope that I could breed some Spangles, but this proved to be very difficult and did not have much success. In 1991 I purchased a Spangle Skyblue cock and a Skyblue hen and paired them up. To my surprise I bred a superb Spangle Skyblue cock which won at every nest feather show and the few shows that I had shown at. This bird also won it’s class at The Budgerigar Society Club Show.
In 1999 I bred a lovely Spangle Dark Green hen which did very well on the show bench. The highlight of the year was winning the Midlands Budgerigar Association Breeder of the Year award and also best opposite sex young bird at Peterborough & South Lincs Budgerigar Society.
I joined The Budgerigar Society Judges’ Training Scheme and found that one of the hardest varieties to judge was the Spangled variety because many of the Spangles were of high quality and taking into consideration the variety content it became quite a challenge sorting out the best from the worst.
I thought that the Judges’ exam was quite difficult and was pleased when I passed. Now that I am a champion I am finding it hard to keep up with the "big boys", so I am still trying to breed that good Spangle to win Best in Show at The Budgerigar Society Club Show.