The Old Wives tales of Budgerigars: Always Pair Best to Best The majority of budgerigar breeders know exactly what they want to achieve that s the easy part. The difficult part is how do we achieve what we want? In my experience, there are various theories that are supported by fanciers and passed on from one generation to the next. One of those theories, which has been advocated by breeders that I have come across is always pair best to best. From my experience, this concept is flawed on a number of levels. If breeding budgerigars was all about pairing best to best, it would be one of the easiest hobbies in the world. All you would have to do is get your cheque book out and buy a super cock bird and then a super hen bird, pair them up and bingo I wish! My mentor in the early days of my time in the hobby, Peter Corkhill, supported this theory. He was so adamant that he was correct that he would not buy in an outcross unless it was a better visual bird than something he had at home. The first time I saw this concept being challenged was when my father and I visited Frank Silva s aviary in 1999. Frank had best in show winning cock birds paired to totally inferior hens not pet hens but certainly not in the same league as the cocks. The situation was reversed with the best hens in his shed. When I asked Frank why he paired his top birds in this way, he explained just look at the chicks outside the nest box. If ever there was a killer argument in a debating competition, that was it! The youngsters feathering up in the nest box and those under the shelter were out of this world and were consistent across all of the best to worst pairings that I had the opportunity to view. When I pressed Frank further on this point, he explained to me that each of the inferior birds were bred from super birds and had nest mates, which were in the same league as the superior cocks and hens that were being used. I have had the opportunity to test the theory of pairing best to best and best to worst on a number of occasions. Firstly, upon returning from the Budgerigar Society Club Show in 2005 with the Best Opposite Sex Young Bird in Show violet hen, the decision needed to be made what to pair this super bird to. Looking at the hen, it had everything except perhaps a greater spot size and a little bit more style. By coincidence, the other best bird that we had bred that year was an Opaline grey cock which had fantastic spots and bags of style. The two birds were also related. Therefore, it was an obvious pairing give best to best one more go I said to myself. The pictures below show the two birds in question and the bird to the right was the best of a very very bad bunch of youngsters!!!
= As you can see, the results were disappointing to say the least. In 2006, the violet hen returned to the aviary as the winner of best in show at the Budgerigar Society Club Show a very rare honour. However, when asked the question; what are you going to pair the hen to this year, the answer was easy I m going to pair it to the worst sky blue cock in our aviary!. This idea may have seemed bonkers but I had learned my lesson by now and having witnessed the results of this proposition in Frank s breeding program, I knew I was on to a winner. The sky blue cock in
question is shown below and the lovely cobalt hen on the right is probably the worst specimen of a very very pleasing clutch of youngsters! = In reality, the sky blue cock was the runt of the best nest of youngsters my father and I ever produced, as shown below:
Therefore, the theory that I advocate is pair best to worst (worst of the best that is!). This was again proved to be right when my father and I produced our best family of violets. In 2006, we had a superior sky blue cock (a brother to the bird shown above) and we selected a totally inferior olive cinnamon hen as his mate. She had no spot, was pinched in the head and was very small in size. However, she was the full sister to the best olive cock we have ever bred. The results speak for themselves:
The theory relates to the common method of breeding of pairing opposites. Pairing a very buff bird to another buff bird can eventually lead to problems such as over buff birds, reduced breeding numbers and feather problems. Therefore, common sense dictates that a buff feathered bird should be paired to something with finer feather. It s the same as pairing a bird with flecking to one that is as clean as a whistle. The only counter argument is when a breeder seeks to fix a feature into his pedigree line. In these circumstances, pairing birds of similar qualities can be adopted but I view this is as more of a temporary breeding method to produce a desired result rather than something one should adopt year after year. I appreciate that this theory may appear to be controversial and I am sure there are breeders who could provide evidence to show that best to best has worked for them. However, in my experience, with our birds, it certainly does not. There is an argument that when you breed a really super bird, it is a specimen that has reached the peak of its pedigree. Therefore, there is only one way for that bird to produce and that is beneath itself. From our breeding program with the violet hen, we never produced anything like the violet hen again from the same family. However, the birds produced from the hen paired to less substantial cock have fitted into other family lines and enhanced the desired features. In conclusion, do whatever works for your birds and do not be governed by an old wives tale which may work for someone else but will never work for you and your birds.