When I was a twelve year old school boy, I visited the aviaries of the late Jack Fisher along with my father and a local champion. The local champion. Frank Peit, came along for the ride and gave his advise on the quality birds available. That Sunday morning visit of Jack Fisher’s normals even to-day still gives me a feeling I will never forget of the depth of quality in his stud. From that day my aim was to build up a stud to his standards, with one exception; to concentrate on Light Greens.
From that visit we bought a Grey Green cock for £20 (a lot of money those days) and bred an exceptional Grey Green hen which was Best Novice Breeder and Best Novice Exhibit in 1969. Well you could imagine how a 14 year old felt about his favourite bird. To say I was happy was an understatement. Then on the Sunday morning of the Show Jack Fisher approached my father and myself and offered £75 for the bird (£75 in 1969 was a fortune to us, especially a 14 year old). That Sunday mornig we made the best decision of our budgerigar life - we agreed to exchange this Grey Green hen for Jack Fisher´s Light Green cock, which was 4th in the Intermediate Class. This light Green cock became the foundation bird of our Light Green stud of to-day.
To maintain a stud of quality Light Greens can be extremely dissicult. I elieve the only way is to be ruthless when you are selecting the birds either to be kept or sold. If I have two birds of equal quality, one is a Light Green and the other is, say, a Blue of course I sell the Blue. Although some may say l am a Light Green specialist quite a few fanciers often purchase birds from me in Non Green - they say you can get a better quality bird that way!
Anybody wishing to specialise in Light Green of course must originally purchase Light Greens, even then you cannot guarantee to breed Light Greens. The Light Green are often split for Blue and Blues can be produced. I have often been told that if you produce a pure stud of Light Greens then you lose the size. After twenty five years in specialising in Light Greens I found that my pure Ligtht Greens are often of the better quality Greens I have. In years to come I intend to have a stud, of 100% Light Greens.
I would try to avoid the use of Cinnamon and Opaline cocks in maintaining the numbers of Light Green normals to be produced.
I have seen normal Greens and normal studs change over to a Cinnamon and Opaline stud in a matter of a few years. Although I do use Cinnamon and Opaline hens with great success.