Exhibitor Spotlight: Linda Brandt
By Blake Ma
--> (This article was featured in the Apr/May/June 2006 issue of Agapornis World)
At my very first love bird show I attended in Chicago of 2003, a very special person befriended me on her own accord, and ever since then she has held a very special place in my heart. When most others did not quite have time for my questions, Linda Brandt always made the time. Linda has motivated, supported, and encouraged many new exhibitors as well as made significant contributions to the Love Bird World. Linda has been breeding love birds for 15 years and exhibiting for over 12 and is one of the top love bird exhibitors. She has a world of knowledge and many things to share. I love asking people how they started showing and breeding love birds and hearing the interesting stories they have to tell. I like to think of the history of ALBS as a book, and each member a page in it. The experiences that each person brings to the organization and shares with others is one of the things that makes ALBS such a great society. When we hear the stories that are told, we’re reading a page in the history of ALBS. Thank you Linda for sharing your story with all of us and for again answering all of my questions. Linda Brandt can be contacted at lbrandt@sssnet.com.
When did you begin breeding love birds?
I acquired my first love bird, a “Dutch Blue” hen, Spanky, in 1990. When she was about 18 months old, I bought a 6 month old male “Dutch Blue” as a mate for her. Together we raised a few clutches of beautiful blue babies, which I took to work with me in a shoebox, and handfed during my breaks and lunch hours. Most of the babies went to pet homes of my co-workers. I took early retirement from GTE (Verizon) in May 1993, and by that time, I owned a 2 nd pair of peachfaced love birds, a Blue Fronted Amazon and a Yellow Naped Amazon.
You have kept many types of parrots in the past, but why did you decide to mainly focus on love birds?
I found them fascinating from the beginning. The first ones I ever saw were on a business trip to Ft Wayne, IN with my boss. They were both pied greens, and I thought the most beautiful little parrots I’d ever seen. I assumed all love birds looked like this.
My nail tech told me she had baby love birds that were “Dutch Blues”, and that she would bring them in for me to watch her handfeed at my next appointment. I was enthralled when I watched her handfeed them baby cereal from a spoon. I came home to tell Fred, my husband, how cute they were, and he said he was surprised I didn’t bring one home. Already having one of the Amazon parrots, I never even considered it. So, see, it was all Fred’s fault. I called the nail tech, and said I wanted one of the babies, which turned out to be Spanky, and the most fun pet I’d ever had. Once I had a mate for Spanky, and had raised babies, I was so in love with love birds, how could I not continue with this special species?
You have the most organized and aesthetically pleasing indoor aviary I have ever seen. If someone were to design their own, what are things you would recommend that they include? What are some of the things you do to more efficiently keep and organize so many birds?
Thank you. When we built our new home in 2000-2001, I had put a lot of thought into the design of the aviary. Initially, it was to be a separate building, but due to our Township ordinances, the builder said we would need to integrate or attach it to the house. It was decided to attach it to the back side of the garage, giving the house an “L” shape. This turned out to be fantastic, as I don’t have to go outside during Ohio winter weather in order to get to the aviary.
My aviary is 30’ x 60’, and includes a full kitchen, bathroom, garage, 2 rooms for love birds, a utility room, and 4 open stall-type rooms for the parrots with a sprinkling system. The doorframes are 4’wide to accommodate movement of most of the larger cages when needed. The floor is cement, and is sloped to the middle of the hallway that runs though the middle of the aviary, with drains. The floors are painted with a special paint that cleans up well when scrubbed. The walls are raised slightly above the floor level so that the water can drain off. They are made of a waterproofed drywall, and painted with a waterproof paint that was applied prior to moving the birds in.
In the hallway that goes down the middle of the aviary, I have a stackable washer and dryer, cabinets where I store food and water cups, and a laundry type sink which I use as a feeding station. This sink has the only cold water that does not go through the softener system, so that the birds can have fresh drinking water straight from the well with no city water additives.
In my aviary kitchen, I have a full sized refrigerator and freezer. I mix all my seed and freeze it in gallon freezer bags to keep from getting seed moths. I have 2 dishwashers to wash and sterilize food and water cups daily. I did look into commercial dishwashers, but the cost was prohibitive. The kitchen sink is stainless steel with a garbage disposal, and was custom built to be large enough to wash cages. I have a low counter area where I do handfeeding.
The garage area is used for storage of cages, etc. The overhead door is great for seed and other supply deliveries. I also have an old homemade bar in there that I brought from our previous house, and I use it as a utility table and it works great when training love birds in show cages. It is higher than a normal table or counter would be, and has built in storage below where I keep the nestboxes when not in use.
There is a separate security system for the aviary, so that I can set it while I am in the house, and not worry about someone breaking in to steal my precious babies. The screens in the aviary windows are part of the security system, with wires running through them. If anyone would remove one or cut it, the alarm would be set off.
I did have a Vacuflo system installed in the aviary, which is nice. I vacuum daily, but have to admit, I actually prefer my old portable Dirt Devil vac on wheels. It is lighter weight and easier for me to use.
My love birds are set up in cages by pairs or singles, and each cage is on a table. All bird rooms have Vita-Lites, and I don’t like to stack cages because I want all birds to take advantage of the lighting. My cages are all set up identically with the same amount of perches, cups, a toy and a swing, cuttlebone, etc. in order to make quick inspections to make sure everything is okay. I do walk through inspections 2 to 4 times a day, in addition to feeding and watering.
I realize everyone is not as fortunate as I am to have this type set-up. I do recommend the following items if you are setting up a new aviary:
1. Whatever cage set-up you use, keep it uniform.
2. Have a sink large enough to wash cages and nest boxes.
3. Lighting is very important.
4. If possible have 2 sets of dishes and cages. This truly helps with cleaning and feeding time.
How did you get into exhibiting love birds? Was there anyone who helped you along the way initially?
It’s all Joe De Luca’s fault! LOL! I really do thank him for all his help in getting me started in exhibiting. He was active in the Cleveland Cage Bird Society, and encouraged all members to become exhibitors. I had to drive 80 miles each way monthly for the club meetings, but I loved it. I am so sorry the club became defunct after over 40 years. Joe was in charge of the annual bird show for many years, and I took over doing it the last 5 years. It is a lot of work when other club members are not interested in helping, and was just too far from where I lived to continue year-after-year.
I attended my first bird shows in Cleveland in October 1992 and October 1993 as an observer. In October 1994, I exhibited for the first time in Cleveland , and won the show with a Seagreen Ino hen I had purchased a year prior from Joe DeLuca. The judge was Dr. Al Decoteau. Of course, that was all it took to get me hooked on exhibiting. I was already obsessed about learning about the birds, and read everything I could find, and picked the brains of Joe and other exhibitors and judges as much as they would allow. That year (’94), I attended my first National Cage Bird Show in New Hampshire, and although I did not place, it was exciting for me to see Joe DeLuca win the Love Bird Division.
In 1994, I joined ALBS, and started banding my babies with ALBS bands. I purchased birds that produced lutinos, creaminos, pieds in blue and green, American cinnamons, Australian cinnamons, and whitefaced. I was having a wonderful learning experience. Learning genetics did not come easily, but seeing it first hand was the best teacher.
I often hear people refer to you as the “Opaline Queen”. : ) I know that you’ve worked on Opalines for many years now from the onset and have also been instrumental in spreading the Opaline mutation to many other countries in the World. What Opaline variations are you working with now in your aviary? What other variations would you like to see others work on? What have you found the most challenging Opaline variation to produce?
I blame or credit Dr. Scott McDonald, DVM, for that nickname! Actually, it is quite flattering. I acquired the Opalines from Becky Anderson in January 2000, and integrated them into my aviary of most all of the other Roseicollis mutations. I have had a lot of fun doing this. I recently sold most of my birds other than the Opalines in order to concentrate on them specifically. 2005 was the first year I bred visual Opaline to visual Opaline, while I tried to integrate new bloodlines. I have not yet bred Opaline Ino to Opaline Ino, but do plan to try it this year, both in normal and orangefaced. The most challenging of all the Opaline mutations has been to get a Whitefaced medium DF violet Opaline. I have raised one, and it died at 3 weeks. I now have a WF Dark DF violet Opaline cock, but the dark factors hide the violet. He is almost breeding age, and I am anxious to set him up with just the right hen. His head is actually closer to white than I had experienced in the past with blue series Opalines, but this is definitely something to continue striving to improve.
I find the orangefaced Opalines to be stunning, especially in the Opaline Lutino. I would like to see other breeders integrate the Longfeather into the Opaline mutations. I know that some are working on this currently.
What are some of your favorite birds and any entertaining things they may have done?
I’ve had many pet birds over the years. My number one and favorite pet bird will always be Kelly, my Yellow Naped Amazon, who is now 15 years old. I currently also have Hootie, a Senegal hen; Moe, a Lesser Jardines cock; Cherub and Angel, Congo Grey pair; and Benny, an Orangefaced medium green peachfaced love bird.
Benny loves to be out with me and gives kisses, but is not as much fun as Spanky, my first pet love bird was. I do believe that in spite of the biting, love bird hens are more fun than the cocks. Spanky did not talk, as do many of the hens, but she would play games. We would usually get her out to have coffee with us in the morning at the kitchen counter. Fred used packets of sweetener in his coffee, so she would take the empty packet and place it in his coffee cup. We then started to give her a cup of her own, but then she wanted us to immediately retrieve the empty packet(s). We decided to then give her pennies, and it would take her longer to place all the pennies in the cup, and keep her busy before she’d come to us to take them back out to start all over again.
I have always loved how it is okay to have a love bird on your shoulder, where I don’t recommend doing it with larger parrots. They are so cute as they try to get around to look you in the face when they want your attention. Earrings and glasses are always a temptation. I love their sassy nature, and am always amazed at their intelligence.
How do you get your birds ready for a show?
I set up show cages on the “bar” countertop in the aviary about 10 days prior to show day. I decide about how many birds I will take, and start to fill the cages with what I feel will be the best qualified birds. I look for condition, size, color, birds with already accumulated points, young birds that I think might have particularly nice conformation, and check to make sure a hen isn’t about to lay an egg. I also try to choose some of the newer mutations so that other exhibitors can see them, especially novices.
Once the birds are chosen, I keep a misting bottle and a training stick available in front of them at all times. Where the counter is located, I need to walk by frequently, and with the help of the stick, they soon learn that when I walk up, they need to be on their perches. I mist them at least twice a day. My birds are used to misting, as they all get misted 3 to 4 times a week in their regular cages. With frequent misting, most birds will groom themselves. If they have more pins on their head than normal, I might place them back in their regular cage with their mate to help preen.
When I travel to shows, I carry Velcro and a soft toothbrush to use to help groom. I do not like to remove the bird from the show cage once they are set up for the show, but it is occasionally necessary. I do not use seed mix with color or sunflowers for the show cages due to the birds getting the color on them. I carry Dawn Dishwashing soap with me, and have needed to wash the tails of the lighter colored birds prior to a show. It is very necessary to make sure it is rinsed well, and will have time to dry prior to showtime.
I have had a few birds that do well at home, but freak out at a show because of the bright lights. I have some portable fluorescent lights that I can place directly above the practice setup, and I use them to help while training.
Some birds are naturals, and need little or no training. Others need to be reminded to get on the perch instead of the bottom or front of the cage. They require more work. Hopefully, they will remember the training when they get to the show bench.
The morning of a show, I check all cages to make sure they have clean perches, and add a cup of fresh seed. I don’t touch the bird if possible, but I do reach inside the cage to clean it. I feel the cage is a big percentage of the presentation before the judge, and if the cage is clean the bird will not have as much of a chance to get dirty. I give the birds a final light misting once we reach the show hall, providing the room is warm enough.
Winning or placing on top bench at a show is exciting. Just to see your own bird up there, being moved forward or backward can take your breath away and your heart feel as though it might stop altogether as the adrenaline runs through your body. However, I find the best part of exhibiting to be the camaraderie among the exhibitors. That is the part I look forward to most. It is not only rewarding to have another exhibitor congratulate you, but to be just as happy for the other exhibitor when their birds do well, and to tell them so.
You have been instrumental in getting a significant number of new exhibitors involved in ALBS. Why is it important for exhibitors to take novices under their wing? What are some of the things other exhibitors can also do to encourage people? What are some of the things ALBS can do to promote Novices?
I think all exhibitors that have had any experience should share their knowledge with novices, particularly at the shows. Just introducing yourself and offering to help or answer questions is an encouragement. Let the newcomer in on the excitement. I know we are supposed to be quiet to an extent during the judging, but I still think it is good to include someone new to the hobby in what is going on. Most all of the judges do explain what is going on, and that is always a big help, but they can’t possibly entertain all the questions that are going on in a novice’s head.
The one way that I have found to help encourage novices is to sell them or give them some of my older pairs that have produced good stock. The best place to get show quality love birds is from someone that already has good quality birds. Once these birds or their offspring have placed on top bench, the novice can get a feel for the excitement.
Perhaps ALBS could help promote Novices by giving them an annual recognition. This could be a plaque at the annual meeting for the Novice that showed the most birds or at the most shows, irregardless of whether they placed on top bench or not. Along with that, awarding a new show cage might be an incentive. It might be nice for the previous year’s top exhibitor to donate this show cage.
With the progression of the Internet and communication between people across the world at the touch of a keystroke, what are some of the obstacles to communication between our love bird brethren around the world?
The Internet and worldwide communications are great educational tools. It is so great to be able to share information with so many knowledgeable breeders and exhibitors of Agapornis as well as other parrot species. The biggest obstacle is the nomenclature. Each country and organization has established their own names for mutations. There is a newly suggested nomenclature from Belgium in combination of Mutavi and the BVA society that has been suggested as an International Nomenclature. The names are based on scientific facts and studies of all exotic birds, and in particular the hook bills. It has been difficult for many of the European’s to accept name changes, as it has been in other parts of the world, such as Asia and Australia, but many countries are following this suggested nomenclature in order to be able to communicate more easily around the world.
I am in favor of this new International Nomenclature in order to bring a better communication among all bird breeders. I have presented this concept at the ALBS annual meeting a couple of times now, and am currently working on a study to see how many other countries and organizations have actually accepted these currently proposed names. It is not all cut and dry, and it is not something that is going to happen overnight in a hobby that has been around for so many generations. People do not like change, but the only thing certain in life is change. It is called progress. I know that many ALBS members are against the change, and many are in favor of it. We don’t want to be the last to accept this change, but we need to have a good understanding of what and why the changes are being brought up. Again, I will continue my study, and make a report at the annual ALBS meeting at the National Cage Bird Show in Chicago in November 2006, as requested by our current Chairperson, Barbara Theeke.
What direction would you like to see the African Love Bird Society head towards in the future?
I truly believe that ALBS has always been a leader of promoting a membership of people interested in Agapornis. It has been a strong organization, and has had great leadership. I hope to see it continue to grow and keep the respect of love bird owners around the world, regardless of whether they are breeders, exhibitors, or an owner of a special pet.
In the years of raising and exhibiting love birds, I have had only one regret. That is that I did not know about these beautiful and exciting creatures when I was younger. I think that anything that we as members of ALBS can do to encourage young people to discover what an interesting hobby it can be, we should make a major effort to do so.