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kevin

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Posts posted by kevin

  1. Posted · Report reply

    Thank you all very much , I have just come back from a  holiday  in Croatia, and that's where I had my birthday ,lovely weather and lovely people .

    Regards Kevin

    PS I am having to much fun to retire working makes the world go round if you are lucky enough to have the right  job.

     

  2. Posted · Report reply

    Welcome to the forum, you will get to know a great bunch on this forum , Gary works his socks of to keep it going and it goes from strength to strength, I met Gary and Wife at Stafford show in October and I still do not know how he gets the time to make this forum run so smoothly. There is always someone to give you sound advice and with a bit of luck you may meet some of them  when showing your birds, they are a little spread out around the country, I have been very lucky to have Chris Green about ten miles from me he is a cracking young man (visited him today) he works with birds at the Cotswold Wildlife Park . near Burford  he takes me to other breeders around our area and further afield, there's Broughy over at Banbury he is always happy to give advice, I brought most of my first birds from him.I am rambling on a bit now so I will wish you the same luck as me.

    Kevin.

  5. Posted · Report reply

    Hi eamonn

    Welcome to the forum, where are you in West Berkshire I am in Faringdon Oxfordshire it was Faringdon Berkshire until they changed the boundaries, I use to laugh when they said Pam Ayres had an Oxfordshire accent, she lived two miles from me in Berkshire( oh,ar)

    Kevin

  14. Posted

    Dave

    Thank you for that, I thought the fat was coming up to the eyes not down.

    but I have had another look, and I have to agree with you, I have been miss let and only looked at it through tunnel vision , (I should have gone to spec-savers) I have taken every thing that you have said on board and after looking at my own birds very closely I can see what you mean, the gentleman I was showing around my birds who was a very good breeder of canaries some years ago.told me that my birds looked fat, I must admit that most of my remarks came from the influence that he had placed if you like in my mind, I suppose that you could say I have been easily lead.

    I would like to apologize to all of you that have been offended by my post, and most of all to the Harrison link that I viewed and I hope that we can all go forward together in our quest to win on the show bench.

    My Kindest Regards

    Kevin

    PS

    Dave

    I hope with all of my heart that you do not get on the same stuff as me or the stuff that I shall be taking in the future.

    • Like 1

  15. Posted

    Alan

    I have just looked at the link you put up( Harrison) from left to right, picture 3 looks like two birds with their guts hanging over the perch,

    picture 6 one really fat bird with half open eyes,picture 9 another very fat bird picture 10 this one looks that fat it has covered its eyes.

    if this is what they have done to the zebra after sixty years I hate to think of what it will look like in anther sixty. if this goes on the poor little birds will not be able to fly. There goes my chances of winning at the zfs shows.

    Kevin.

    PS Paul you have hit the nail on the head health birds that is the most important thing.

  17. Posted

    Hi Paul

    That would make life much more interesting I would go for that.mind you man has been trying to refine woman for thousands of years with out much success.

    If you think breeding a champion Zebra is hard, try breeding a racehorse to be a champion. I am glad I only rate them and that's hard enough.

    Kevin

  18. Posted

    Pete

    I would prefer the zebra to be the size that it is in the wild. But As I have said or should have said I will go with the flow.

    As we are all confused maybe we should start another topic. confused or not I have enjoyed the banter. good luck at the shows with whatever size bird you show.

    I must get on with the form work on some horses, or I shall get shot.

    Regards Kevin

    PS I look forward to meeting you at a show some time.

  19. Posted

    Nick

    You assume wrong Pieds did not enter the question. why not read the post yourself I am not sure how you get the post back up I will give you the tile and you can look it up.

    As for finding my post very confusing I find it hard to follow them myself, My show birds will I hope be the big fat variety just like yours.

    Kind Regards to you Nick

    Kevin

    PS The post are on the zfs forum, under the heading Breeding ,(1 year ago), I hope this helps

  20. Posted

    Pete

    thank you for your views I enjoy a good discussion must be my age, and yes my birds are from the bigger variety, and they I hope one day will be the birds that I shall show, I suppose we have to go with the flow or not show.

    Im not sure if they are a lot bigger. I am thinking on the lines of colour at some time in the future.I quite like creams,and hope to breed my own from silver/fawn pairings, I have one good fawn hen that I like so I would just prefer to buy a silver cock. when the time comes I shall get my brain refreshed from this forum.

    I must log of soon as I have to do some entries and handicapping on the horse racing for some owners horses that will be running in the next few days.

    Regards

    Kevin

  21. Posted

    Hey Pete

    Hold up I am not and never have criticised any forum member, you must be reading me wrong, You must have missed the post that read it will take me another two years before I have the right show bird maybe longer, the point of posting on the forum is to air your views.as i have said before in my post,it is not my intention to offend. I just prefer nature to be as natural as it can without to much human intervention. what is wrong with the natural zebra if they should be as big as pigeons nature would have made them that way, would it not.

    Kind Regards

    Kevin

  22. Posted

    Hi Pete

    I have 31 birds in large flights, yes there is some feather plucking, but i have notice that it is minimal as they have more room, when the time comes for me to show (I hope) I would place them in breeding cages may be for a few weeks as long as they have not been pluck,if they have i would give them longer in the breeding cage.I am lucky to have plenty of room, I understand that others may not.

    The point that I am trying to make is simple, the Zebra in its natural habitat would not be the size of the birds that are winning the shows, like it or not Pete its the bigger birds that win most shows.If you follow the post you can see that most exhibitors are talking about size that is the general view.I am not worried about it, but I would prefer to see the bird as near to the wild one as possible.

    Regards

    Kevin

  23. Posted

    Hi

    Nick I think that you've got the wrong end of the stick, I am happy with the Zebra finch I am not looking for a smaller species, but I would like the Zebra to stay a Zebra as it was when if first came into captivity. if it is bigger birds that you are after, why not try canaries. my birds came from zfs breeders, and I could not be more pleased with them.

    Why is size so important surely when they came to the breeding program they where breed to be as normal as possible. I honestly can not understand why you cannot keep them housed in longer flights until a few weeks before you show them.

    my very best regards

    Kevin

  24. Posted

    Hi Dave

    It was Peter Cannan from the ZFS. I did not take that advice, and I started with five pairs, use three parings to produce twenty birds, I shall be looking to buy three more birds to introduce to the stock for my next years breeding two years I hope from then I may have the class of bird to show, at the age of 63, I hope that I a not rushing my fences.

    Hi Paul

    You have just strengthen my views about the over breeding, i am sure that their are aviary breed mixed birds at the pet shop. I do not see the need to keep birds of any quality being kept in breeding type cages if they are not breeding, I have flights for cocks/hens, as soon as the chicks are about five weeks old they go into the large flights, as soon as I know the sexes they are split, firstly the chicks go in with the hens. most of the time they have their long flights with access to the indoor flights. I sure that you did have a look at the aviary that your birds went to. But come on how many breeders go around looking for the purchaser they don't all ask the pet shop owners for the numbers of the breeds.

    Another point I would like to make is why are the breeders intent on making the little Zebra finch bigger than it would be in its natural state, how on earth can we improve on the way nature intended,after all they are not an endangered species. I think we should show the bird as it would be in its natural state,

    a friend of mine use to breed canaries, but stopped when he thought that they started to look like yellow pigeons.

    I have no intention to offend anyone with this post, its just my view, and i take everything that the more experienced of you say on board, as we are never to old to learn thank you for your views.

    Kevin

  25. Posted

    If you have thirty two pairs + breeding. what percent would be good enough to show. Now is the big question what would you do with the birds that do not make the grade, before you reply, try to think how many breeders there are and how many pairs go into breeding each year. I visited a pet shop last month and ask if they would be interested in buying birds, Yes was the answer but not at the moment because they are not selling , but keep in touch, I did and he is still not selling birds. so we are not talking of a few hundred birds are we, It is one of the reason that I am sceptical about buying from breeders at this time of year as they are also trying to sell the birds that they do not believe will make the show bench.

    Kevin