norfolk flyer

Graeme, Go to www.zebrafinchsociety.co.uk and you will see how to join it's easy to follow.Trevor

Graeme, Welcome to the ZFF, and all the best for 2012.Trevor

Dean, It's really up to you and your birds if you notice they are coming into breeding condition let them breed. I've just paired mine up in my shed and i've no heat at all in there, this is what i've had for several years now and no problems (touchwood). I always leave nest boxes in the aviary it gives them some where to get into at nights, you can get 4+ in the boxes and they are really cozy.I believe Gary has got 10 young and Josh has young also so different peolpe have different ways and 99.99% work.All the best for your 1st season of breeding,Trevor

Hi all and a happy 2012, Well dec went quick, i managed to get all my cages (13) refurbed. Not because i did them but they really look the dogs bits. I did the cages in stages each weekend 2 here and 3 there, thats one of the problems with this time of year, the daylight hours. On the dark evenings i've sat down (not every night) and wrote down possible pairings for 2012 scrubbed some added some and finally got the finished artical, worked out the possible breedings from each pair and noted everything. Actually caught all the pairs up today and fitted the boxes, so now it's fingers crossed and wait, compare my notes to see how far out i am with my predictions. Hope you all have a good year, and hopefully i will be able to tell you of any happenings in my cages next month (feb). Trevor

Dean, If they are Penguin, in my oppinion i would breed them to grey zeb's or if they are fawn penguins breed to fawn.If you split them up and pair to grey or fawn you will get 100% greys or fawns split for penguin. Then if you breed then young together from each nest this will then give you:-50% Normal/Penguin 25% Normal 25% Penguin This way it will enable you to build a penguin stud quicker than pairing the two penguins together. Also you would have to buy anymore birds everything will be your stock apart from the 2 penguins & the 2 grey or fawn you started with.Good luck with the penguins for 2012.Trevor

Lmm, Welcome to the forum, hope you enjoy your time on here.All the best,Trevor

All, Here is the bird in question, any comments would be good and i'll pass on to my mate.Thanks in advance,Trevor

Dave / Peter, This is just me but i wouldn't put a BC fawn male with a BC grey hen even if he'd got black flanks.I think if you have a BC male with good flanks put him to a grey hen or bring in any BC male on the greyside ie cfw,lightback or you could use BFBC grey combo. My thoughts on this is that it can be bred out with time and patience.Trevor

Josh, From what i can see you're right, it looks as if there the same as my mate had for sale.Trevor

Ricky, Welcome to the ZFF, glad to hear you're getting back on track, hope everything works out for you and all the best for 2012.Trevor

Dean, Wecome to the ZFF, anything you need to know, we are all here to help each other.All the best for xmas and 2012 breeding.Trevor

Peter, Appolies for butting in on Daves question, but i've had the same problem with BCCFW's and BFBB they seem to pop out fawn flanks but like you said take time and you can start getting results.Glad to be of help.All the best,Trevor

Peter, Sorry for confusion, Dave has put it a bit better than me. What i meant to say is the better marked birds thicker tear mark etc.Your best results would be deffo using pairs 1 & 2 and i would probually keep them in a seperate line to pairs 3 & 4.If by pairing split young from pairs 3 & 4 you do get a good BC then use it later on and gradually omit the ones with the lesser black markings.Might be a bit clearer now ? Trevor

All, Been over to my mates and he's been telling me that he's got an unusual pied, so finally i managed to get around to seeing him. He has shown me this pied and straight away i knew it was a BB grey pied it's in the moulting stage so it looks a bit scruffy 1st one i've ever seen.What we need to know is where has the BB come from, the parents are grey male x grey pied hen (both his birds). The other pied which came out of the nest is a grey pied hen, (is this split BB)?For him to produce a BB pied, they both have to be split BB yes? he dos'nt breed BB, so how long can the BB gene be passed on for?At some stage i will try a get a pic, but it won't be this side of xmas i wouldn't think.Trevor

Peter, Lets call the BC male with black flanks 1, his sister 2, the other male 3 and his sister 4.In my own oppinion, i would pair no.1 with a grey hen. This would then give you 100% BC's black sided splits.The other bird no.2, i would put to grey as well you would then have 100% split BC's to use.The young from grey x no.2 and no.1 x grey would be ideal to put back together, this then would bring you the black side out. This would give you 50% grey/BC, 25% BC and 25% grey.I would only use the young males from pairing no.3 x grey and grey x no.4, cos you would be certain of seeing the black sided birds.Hope this helps,Trevor

Chris, Silver is a seperate mutation to the lightback.If you go to www.efinch.com there is some info here which will help you a lot.Hope this is of use,Trevor

Chris, Not 100% sure but i think it's silver x fawn approx 25%/50% cream.Once you have cream, breed with fawn this will give you 50% nest rate.These are a dominant form, i wouldn't really put 2 creams together because of the dominant inheritance.Mark on here breeds and shows this type he will give you more info on them but at least i've pointed you in the right direction.Hope this has helped youTrevor

Pete, Oh no, it's always the case the one you want it dies, sorry to hear about that. Trevor

All, 2011 is history now for the breeding, went to newark sold a few zeb's + bought one as well a male BBCFW. Started my 2 year refurb over the last 2 weeks, 2 cages done completely last weekend and 3 more this weekend completed. 5 down 8 more to go. Keep tinkering about on a A4 what to put with what i know roughly, suppose you call it fine tuning. Next blog will be in 2012 (could have a few pairs down) so have a happy christmas and a good 2012 for breeding and to yourselves as well. All the best! Trevor

All, If you go to "Alquraini photostream" on flickr.comVery nice birds well worth a look, different colours.Trevor

Hi, Congrat's on getting some stock and all the best with the breeding + welcome to the forum.Trevor

Paul, Spot on to what i think, just a quickie are they Dom,Res or S/LTrevor

All, This pic was on another site, what do you think it could be ?I've an idea but i'll open it to you all, just one little clue this bird is actually a hen.Trevor

Adam, Welcome to the forum and all the best for the future.Trevor

All, I've been at a couple of shows this year and looking at the classes of zeb's. Apart from your prem league zeb's ie Grey, Fawn, Cfw Cream etc classes, how would you get on if you entered say BF Cream or BFBBBC what class would they go in?I've read an interesting topic on the zfs site from nick (excelent read) now from my own perspective none of my birds would get on very well against the more established mutations, but newcomers to showing would probually never see any of the types which i breed, it's a bit of a catch 22.Take for instance the bird which my mate sold the other week, really good colourfull bird BFBBOB grey. The interest was incredable but on the show bench it would have got hammered.This is difficult to put into words but i hope you can see my aim here, you enter shows to win thats everyones target, but breeding the rarer colours to show i think is nearly impossible, but it would be good for people to see and introduce them to other colours and in turn, more on the show bench.I'm not having a moan at showing because i think that a lot of these birds are amazing and you can really appreciate the time and effort the owners put into it, plus some of there set ups must be fantastic to.Regards Trevor