by Dave Cottrell
What is a recessive pied? What is the difference between a
recessive and dominant pied?
A recessive pied is a bird where the body color is broken, into
either green and yellow or blue and white. In a recessive pied
the bird will have a solid plum eye, while a dominant pied will
have a normal eye complete with iris (white ring in the eye).
You must check the eye of any pied to determine if it is
dominant or recessive. Any bird with an eye ring is classed as
dominant and is shown in the dominant class.
Three Pairings - How do you breed recessive pieds?
There are three main ways of breeding visual recessive pieds.
-
Recessive pied x
recessive pied.
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Split recessive x
split recessive.
Pairing No. 1, visual recessive pied x visual recessive pied,
will produce 100% visual recessive pieds.
Pairing No. 2, visual recessive pied x split recessive pied,
will produce 50% visual split recessive pieds.
Pairing No. 3, split recessive x split recessive, will produce
25% visual recessive pieds, 50% split recessive pieds and 25%
normal (Non-Pieds).
There is no way of telling which of the non pieds are normal and
which are split pieds except by breeding them. This pairing is
therefore not one that I would suggest and I can not recall ever
having used this pairing. I would recommend that for the first
couple of years pairing No. 2 would be best. Pairing of visual
recessive pied of either sex and of split hens is so that I can
see the degree of dark feathers in the wing. Nearly all
recessive pied hens have dark wings while the cocks are usually
much better marked. I would think very long and hard before I
used visual cocks that are dark wing. I am very lucky now in the
fact that I have a number of top quality visual pied cocks to
use, but I use very few dark wings. I have found over many years
that these dark winged birds breed youngsters with the same
markings. Should the bird be a very high quality I would still
retain it but use it in a different way. Hens that are dark are
not such a problem and are still capable of breeding well marked
youngsters. If a dark winged cock of exceptional quality was
retained, I would use it in pairing No. 1, visual pied x visual
pied. The hen would have to be very well marked to compensate
for the cock and, as these hens are very valuable in the
breeding cages, must be used to the best advantage.
As I have progressed through the hobby, I have tried a number of
different pairings and the way I now breed most of my recessive
pieds is the opposite to that I used when I first started with
the variety. In 1991 I put down 10 pairs to breed recessive
pieds. Out of these 10 pairs only two split hens were used and I
did not use any split cocks. The reason being that the visual
birds I have is so high a standard that the visual pieds are
better birds than the splits I have available. The results of my
1991 breeding season are already proving themselves on the show
bench. I took the breeder C.C. at the Specialist & Rare variety
show with a recessive pied light green cock, and two weeks later
took the C.C. at Merseyside B.S. with a Cinnamon recessive pied
olive green hen. This young hen was bred from the Cinnamon
Recessive Pied Dark Green Cock which won at Convention 90. A
further week later at Clwyd B.S., where no fewer than 98
recessive pieds were entered, we benched both the C.C. winner
and the best breeder.
I also put down two pairs to produce splits for use in 1992. I
am very short of good blue series birds so I put down a pair to
breed blue splits, a cobalt cock bred from a family that has
bred several C.C. winners paired to a recessive pied yellow face
violet hen from the same family as my Convention winning cock.
This pair produced in the first round 3 very good quality
yellowface hens which I think will prove to be very useful in my
future breeding programs. I also paired my best normal cock, a
light green that won the C.C. at Clwyd B.S. in 1990 and was 4th
Best Champion Any Age at Preston B.S. Championship show. This
pairing failed to produce any youngsters but both birds bred
later in the year with different partners. This will indicate
the quality of normals I now demand for use in breeding splits.
Readers should not feel that they have to have normals of C.C.
quality before they can start with recessive pieds; you don't.
It all depends on the area in which you live. Within 30 miles of
my house are a large number of recessive breeders, such as Mike
Ingham, who has benched C.C. winners at the B.S. Club Show. Only
two years ago I lost a large number of my birds with an outbreak
of Psittacosis, which although treated successfully, still
resulted in a number of deaths in my breeding team. Mike Ingham
offered me any birds that he did not require. With these birds
being related to my stud, I accepted this very kind offer. I
bred several useful youngsters from these pairings and tried to
incorporate them into my main families. Recessive pieds are the
ideal challenge for the lower sections as well as the
established breeders. If the newcomer has birds to dispose of,
the recessive pieds are always good sellers and are popular with
the public as pets unlike the greens. The challenge to improve
this variety up to the standard of the normals is going to be a
long one, but only by a large number of breeders taking up the
challenge can this end result be achieved.
A large number of the countries most respected and successful
budgie breeders now have recessive pieds in their aviaries, such
breeders as Vic Smith, Amos and Thumwood and, the KING himself,
Harry Bryan. Take up that challenge now and see if you can win
one of those coveted B.S. Challenge Certificates.
|
Budgerigar Society Scale of
Points |
|
|
Size, shape, balance and deportment |
45 points |
|
Size and shape of head |
20 points |
|
Color including contrast in
variegation |
15 points |
|
Wing markings including contrast in
variegation
|
20 points |
|
|
|
|
Note: Black undulations or polka dot
markings should not cover more
than 15%-20% of the wings. |
|
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