JONTER STUD JTR1

John started keeping and breeding budgies in 1980 obtaining birds from T&C Pilkington and Barry Wild.  However he was only in the hobby for a period of three years, before unfortunately due to work commitments he had to give them up, However during that time he won three Best Beginner Young Bird awards at Elgin, Keith and Peterhead.  Knowing it was a hobby he loved he always said he would return when the time was right.

Due to a freak accident on Boxing Day 1999, that severly damaged his spine, John found that he had a lot more time on his hands and thoughts of returning to the hobby were re-kindled during 2000.  He started to refit his old bird room and purchased some birds again from T&C Pilkington.  These birds were to be the foundation of the stud.  Subsequently he joined the Budgerigar Society.

In 2002 when the kids were in full time schooling I started to spend more time with the birds and became very interested in the breeding side of the hobby. The budgie bug had bitten.  Acquiring our private ring number JTR1 from the B.S. the partnership was also formed during 2002 as we both found it rewarding and could see exciting times ahead as the quality of the birds improved and developed.

Our present bird room measures 22ft x 9ft and is of wooden construction.  It consists of 15 breeding cages with three stock cages for housing youngsters.  Opposite is the flight of 17ft x 4ft and this gives the birds plenty of exercise keeping them fit and in top condition for breeding and showing.  At the entrance to the avairy is a 5ft x 9ft area where we have our training and spraying facilities.  We also use this area to segregate any sick birds, using a hospital cage.  There is a door to separate this part of the building from the breeding cages and flight.

We are in the process of building our new bird room which is 30ft x 15ft and is brick built.  There will be 40 breeding cages with the flight being 15ft x 12ft.  The interior, walls, cages and flight are all lined with a white plastic material for easy maintenance, meaning no painting every year or so.  The floors are all tiled with the top half of the flight in punch bar, with the bottom half solid and tiled. There is also a separate area measuring 8ft x 6ft that is again fully lined and will be used for show preparation.  This houses a spray booth and three drying cages for preparing birds for the show season.  Out with the show season it will be used if necessary to segregate any sick birds using our hospital cage facilities.

We are really looking forward to using the new bird room as we have put a lot of thought and work into it.  Looking ahead it will be ready for the new breeding season 2008/2009.

The original bird room will be kept and once it has been re-arranged to suit, with perhaps 12 breeding cages and flight, Teresa will use it to develop the Rarer varieties as she has a keen interest in them.  Our thoughts at this stage are to use the new building to further develop and improve our top bloodline families.

Currently we have in the region of 200 birds and this figure includes 50 youngsters with 2008 rings.  Most varieties in all colours are held including Normals, Spangles, Opalines, Cinnamon,Dark Factor, Dom. and Rec Pied, Yellow Face, Lutino, Albino and the Rares.

The Champion bloodlines we work with include some prestigious names, B Sweeting, P&G Norris, T&C Pilkington, F Silva,and T Deacon.  These birds have tied in nicely with our own stock and have produced really well for us.  We aim to breed in the region of 100-120 birds a year, using our fifteen breeding cages most times of the year.

As Beginners we were quite successful, winning Best Beginner Any Age and Young Bird awards frequently, with our own-bred Cinnamon and Normal lines.  Our Dark Green Cock won best Cinnamon at the Scottish Convention at Perth during 2004 and he also won several Any Age Awards.

2007 was our first year in the Novice section, and we were more than happy with our results.  Top of the list has to be Best in Show at the S.B.S Rare Variety Show held in Perth, with our Grey Green Spangle cock.  Doncaster was another amazing event we were absolutely chuffed to win Best Novice A/A Double Factor Green Series Spangle cock and Best Novice Y/Bird Double Factor Blue Series Spangle hen.  Elgin was another great day as we won the Sky Blue Challenge Certificate.      We obviously hope to continue and enjoy some success presenting quality birds on the show bench in 2008 and beyond.

We are members of Aberdeen B.S and enjoy the company and friendship of other members.  One task taken on board is that we mix and distribute Johnston & Jeff seed for the club members and will assist in any way we can to promote the hobby.

Looking ahead and into the future, we hope to enjoy this wonderful and enjoyable hobby meeting our friends at the various shows.  It would be nice to be recognised as being genuine people, striving to breed and exhibit quality budgerigars.

All work done on our profile and photographs for the Scottish Budgerigar Society Magazine were professionaly done by Robert Nawarauckas.  We would both like to thank him dearly and wish him all the success on the show bench in the intermediate section this year. J&T