03/22/2007
The Chicago Pet Expo Show has finally come and gone! We had an awesome 77 birds with 8 exhibitors and 5 novices. I'm so happy that we had so many new people come! Congratulations to all the exhibitors that came and thanks to everyone that helped steward and tie ribbons and help setup(thank you Judy and Connie). I also wanted to say Congratulations to Carolyn and Anthony Cross for winning Best Novice and also placing a Medium blue on the bench for the first time at their first show!! Also, congratulations to Vincent Chuc for taking Best Unflighted at his very first show with an Orangefaced Green. I know all the exhibitors had a great time and will be coming back for more!
02/22/2007
Things are busy here! Currently handfeeding 17 babies! I just pulled 2 black-cheeked babies this week, and they are adorable! Indigo, my Violet Masked finally has babies!! He's got 4 of them in the nestbox. I'll be writing an article soon about his babies. I'm so exciting about this writing contract. I have so many things I want to share write now, but part of me can't help but feel a little worried that in a couple of months I'll run out of the things to talk about. I'm sure it'll be ok. So less than a month before the Chicago Pet Expo. It'll be the first show of the year. I"m not quite excited about it yet, but I"m sure 2 weeks before the show, I'll be eagerly awaiting for it.
02/09/2007
It's been a while since I've written. Lots of stuff going on, mainly recovering from last year's show season. I'm currently handfeeding 14 babies and keeping myself busy with work of course. I've been asked by Bird Talk Magazine Online to write a weekly blog/article entitled "Diary of a Show Bird" for the next 5 months. I'm definately very excited about it. You can check it out at www.birdchannel.com.
Here's a direct link to the 1st article entited Exhibiting Lovebirds: My Passion.
I just found out Katy Secor and Gary Morgan each wrote an article!
You can see links to all 3 of our articles here.
Also, something else!! I've finally produced by first Whitefaced Violet American Cinnamon Opaline!! I"m so excited! I'm going to update my Mystery Babies Page now.
12/06/2006
Nationals is finally over!! My black-cheeked took 1st place in the Rares and Eyering Section. My Whitefaced Violet Fallow took 3rd in the Peachfaced Section. It's time to let me and my birds rest as the 2006 show season is over, and time to breed some more birds. I currently have 11 nestboxes setup!
10/23/2006
Just got back from a long weekend of exhibiting in Michigan. I'm happy with the way I did, and I wanted to say Congratulations to Judy of Hiddenpath Aviary for her Best Novice Award, and her 3rd place win! That was a beautiful bird!
My Medium Dilute Blue Masked is going to be a champion now in 2007! She fulfilled her last requirement and got a 1st place win this weekend!! Woo hoo!!
10/05/2006
Hi Everyone. It's the night before we leave for the Mid-America show in Iowa. I took today and Friday off to have time to recuperate from a hectic week at work last week and to give me time to get all my birds ready. I have 30 birds I'll be bringing which is breaking a new record for myself. It'll actually be 31 since I'll be showing 1 Cinnamon Lutino Pearl Cockatiel as well, if there's room in the car. I've had a long week, looking at my birds, for every sign of perfection and imperfection and misting and spraying down my birds for the past month and multiple times per day this week. At the end of the day, I think I have a good group of about 20 adult birds and 10 young birds that most likely won't place at the show but will be there for training. Those 10 birds will hopefully be able to place next year as they mature and their adult coloring comes in. I know that I'll face some of the stiffest competition I've had all year long. It will be fun though!!!
One thing about exhibiting is that it takes about a good 9 months for a bird to reach its mature coloration. Most young birds will qualify for the Best Unflighted award if they have this year's band, but many will not place until their adult colors come in as their colors must meet the show standard for that mutation. The exceptions to this are the Pied section where since their colors are in some sense random, a nice sized young pied bird could very well place on the bench. Also some of the rares and eyerings have very nice coloring from the getgo such as the fischer's and black-cheeked. What this basically means is that in 2006, I need to breed, plan, and keep those birds that I want to show and work with for 2007. This year, I've bred 6 Orangefaced birds, ranging from Dark OF Australian Cinnamons to Medium OF Greens. These 6 I'm hoping will help me get a foot into the Australian Cinnamon section as well in the Greens section. It seems like a lot of judges like OF birds, and I haven't worked with this mutation in the past. I've kept all 6 OF babies, instead of selling any of them, so next year I'll be able to see how those birds do at shows. The mother bird, an OF Medium Australian Cinnamon comes from 1 breeder's OF champion line, and the father an OF Medium Green/Aus Cinn comes from another breeder's champion line. You gotta buy from the best if you want good stock. Also this year, I've been very successfull in my breeding of green pieds. I've bred quite a few 80-90% heavily pied birds that have all white symmetrical flights. I'll be keeping these birds and hopefully they'll be larger and more mature by show season next year. The Green pied section has always been lacking in the number of birds, so this was a section that I saw a deficiency and had an interest in as well. Next year, my goal will be to breed these Green Pied Violet/WF/Opaline birds back to Whitefaced Medium Double Violets, to produce larger, more beautiful Whitefaced Violet Pieds. Lots and lots of fun! We'll see how that goes. Just gotta keep on working at it. Have a long weekend ahead of me! Wish me good luck!
9/27/2006
Nothing too exciting has been going on this week. I've been really busy with work, however I am very much looking forward to the Mid-America Caged Bird Show in Des Moines, IA next week. I had 4 show cages I started rehabilitating and repainting tonight. I think that would put my total number of show cages that I've acquired over the past 4 years at 34. The more show cages I have, the less decisions I need to make in picking which birds to bring and which birds to stay home. I wish I could bring all of them!. I will be getting 20 babies surgically sexed next week, so should be exciting to see what my Whitefaced Violet Opaline turns out to be.
9/16/2006
I got my babies back from my handfeeder last night who handfeeds them for 2 weeks while I do the last 3 weeks. I'm handfeeding 26 babies now!! It's going to be crazy. I'm really excited, because I have at least 3 Green Pied Opalines!! They're gorgeous. I also got my WF Blue Opaline or WF Violet Opaline back. That baby is just so unique looking. It's a pastel blue color. I have no other birds that look like that in my aviary. None that even come close. You can see look at my Mystery Babies page to see a picture.
It's been a busy and tiring week. My wife and I woke up at 3:30AM early Friday morning. We had to be at that airport at 5AM to ship 2 birds to California. I think the new owner will be very happy with them. One is actually a Whitefaced Medium Double Violet male that I had originally planned to keep for myself for future breeding, but this person in California was able to convince me to sell it to her. <laughter>
It's really funny. My friend, Jessica Miller, of Love 'N Let Aviary told me this past week that some of the new people who look at my website don't know that I"m male!! I thought that was the funniest thing!! She said that since their are more women love bird breeders than men and that 'Blake' is a unisex name, which is why some people thought I was female. I thought this was the funniest thing. I never new that 'Blake' was a unisex name. I've never known any female Blakes. So just for the record if there ever was any doubt, I am 100% male.
9/06/2006
I'm excited to start the first entry in my blog. This will be some place I can share my current thoughts about my birds with everyone. Right now, I have about 95 birds or so. The number seems to change almost every other day as new babies hatch and as I sell more babies. I currently have 27 babies, and the dillema I have is what birds should I keep and which ones should I sell as pets and breeders. (Sigh). All of the babies I have now come from very good stock after working on improving the size of my birds, so many of them will be good potential show birds. I can't keep all of them even though I want to.
Another exciting thing is that I think I produced my first Whitefaced Violet Opaline!! How awesome is that? It's definately a Whitefaced Blue Opaline, and I think I"m starting to see Violet on its flights. I only know about 3 or 4 people who have produced this combination so far, and it's definately very stunning.
So which shows will I be attending during the fall? My next show will be at Mid-America in Iowa which is only a month away. 2 weeks after that in October will be GLAS in Michigan. Then 1st week of November, I'll be driving down with my crazy bird buddy, Shar, to Denver Colorado for GABS(Great American Bird Show). Then the week before Thanksgiving, I will be attending Nationals which will be right here in Schaumburg, IL, only about 5 minutes from my house, so that will be a nice treat especially after all the driving that I've done this year.
Check back often for updates!
Blake