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I like to have lots of sound around the rollers so that I can control
what other rollers they hear. Hearing a bad roller can result in bad
sounds beginning copied and it only takes a few hours for that to happen.
Red factors and type birds are housed in cages next to roller cages.
When I was a novice, some well-meaning people suggested that I breed father
to daughter and mother to son and then cross them back to each other. At that
time, my birds were scoring about 46 points and that included some points in
water glucke. The next year, the commented, 'these birds lack tone". I noticed
the hollow roll, hollow bell, and flute scores were going down. I also had a
new problem known as hard-water. My heart was broken. I thought I was doing
the right thing by breeding closely related pairs, but the results were
diminished quality. My birds sounded harsh, metallic, and unpleasant. If you
breed birds without regard for hollow roll and song direction, song will
deteriorate. To find the best breeding birds, do not be blinded by the total
score. Instead, look for those with the highest scores in hollow roll and bass.
Don't be tempted to start your strain with high scoring multi-toured birds
unless they meet the criteria of scoring 16 or higher in hollow roll or bass.
Rather always breed for quality major tours in hollow roll, bass, hollow bell,
and flute.
I am thinking of moving all the Roller chicks into a flight cage alone.
Do you think this is a good idea? Is this just in my line or do they
all behave in an aggressive manner?
I don't see bloody wings or feather picking. I believe this is due to
separating males and females immediately after weaning, feeding egg food
through the molt, feeding pure canola rape seed to young roller males,
and subdued lighting.
Young roller males are darker than females. In each nest, I compare the
color depth and separate the dark rich yellows from the lighter ones
after weaning.
Eating a high percentage of canola rape will encourage molt and calm the
birds down. I feed the young competition roller males pure canola rape
and no other seed until after the molt.
Some foods will make birds aggressive. They include hemp, niger, wheat
germ oil, vitamin E. These same food must not be feed to any show birds
because it will make them jump nervously in the show cage.
After my birds are clearly molting, usually about the 3rd week in June, I
turn off all artificial lighting. The room is less stimulating because
the lighting is dim.
Many people believe that breeding father/daughter or mother/son will
produce the same song but in most cases these pairing can take the song
to far in one direction. Song is controlled by a number of genes, some
produce the characteristic and others regulate these genes.
One of my teams for the show went soft. It was more of an experiment
than any real expectation that the team would do well that I decided to
take it. I was feeding it egg food daily along with the combination of
rape, canary, niger, sunflower chips, petamine and bee pollen. I even
fed them egg food at the show before it was judged. Apparently, the
judge liked it and saw more in the team than I did. But everyone seems to
be tuned to gluck these days, and my teams wouldn't have dreamed of
appearing before the judge and not singing gluck. They also have a nice
watergluck which I really prefer. I think the judge also
likes that tour. But back to the eggfood, any other team would have been
forcing tours from the egg food, but this team needed it.
You absolutely right that any other team would not have benefited like
the soft team from the egg food! When I learned to observe and adjust my
methods to the situation, I was amazed at how much better my birds did!
Just like breeding you got to respond to their needs and be patient!
The young didn't start singing until I caged them up. I think it was
about 1 1/2 weeks before the show last year. Most of that time was on the
table this year. Other breeders were telling my how great their birds
sounded and even one had his ruined before mine started. The dim lighting
keeps them quiet.
It is scary and that is why I am always telling everyone how I have
screwed up each year and then they completely go from no song to perfect
in about 4 or 6 days. The training to sing to light is very easy only
three or so times and if they do not sing in 5 minutes back in the box
and they have got it. Also the change in lighting is dramatic for my
birds who have never been in bright light before!! Remember I turn off
all artificial light in June and it is not turned on again to after
Christmas and shows. General Effect is usually 4.
On the table they hear the tutor. The room is dim. The tutor is in a show
cage so he is much lighter than the young and my table is setting under a
sky light which gives him more light. The young are in show cages with
cover on the top cage and close together to prevent singing.
Is this a superior method? It is for me! I have won all the shows and at
least 4 tour specials in every show since I started it. This year my
tutors were not as frequently singing as usually but it worked anyway.
Listening is critically to turning on the beautiful song. I think the
stress is pretty high to me. But then so is seeing a good team turn to
junk before your eyes.
The room (aviary) has one cage of old males in the far corner and in
between other loud open mouth singers which I sure do not want them to
copy but I do not need to worry about them. Like taking the team to
grandmas room was the optimal because they had about six hours of just
each other.
All my cock birds last year hatched in late May through late June. The
optimal time for the tutoring is from 6 to 9 months of age in the books.
I think 6 months is better because that is another reason they are not
singing yet. This year I am going to breed early and see if it works.
I bring the birds in the house to pick the teams. To sing I also bring
them in the house. They set on the dishwasher and tutor in the middle of
the stack until the last time or two they sing before show. The best team
last year included the tutor and I let them sing out in grandmas room
because she wanted me too. By the way she will be 94 Feb 6.
What makes this hard to describe is because I vary with the birds. Even
what each bird eats. You have to observe each bird and respond to its
needs.
Question:
Can I raise the rollers and the choppers in the same bird room?
Answer:
I have yet to have my strain bred rollers sing the chop chop of other
birds. Actually, they pay no attention when other kinds of birds sing.
On occasion, a roller is bred which opens its beak a very very little
crack. No more open than the fine depth of a sheet of computer paper.
Actually, without light behind him you can't even see it. When this
happens the bird sounds nasal and its vowels are a hard a sound rather
than the deep u or oo but not a chop. Even though the sounds are soft,
they are in the low sound range and can be heard when other birds are
singing as they are singing in a higher sound range. (Human hearing loss
begins in the high range, not in the low sound range.)
I cage young males in cages with wire only on the front side. The solid
cage sides encourages the bird to sing those beautiful low sounds. They
are housed in genetically related groups of 3 or 4 roller males. I play
classical music on the radio. With this method, faults can be contained
to only those birds in the same cage.
When I first started showing rollers, the expert judges were sure they
would hear the sounds of my type and color birds at least as extra stuff
in my rollers song. I always remember, when as a novice, my birds went in
to the competition and four additional judges went in to hear them. They
came out shaking their heads. These birds song is clean (no extra notes).
These were the same people who believed that if you wanted to raise
competition quality rollers, you first had to sell off all of your other
birds. I have proven that is not true. My rollers won all four of the
quality tour specials (hollow roll, bass, hollow bell and flute) at the
Lou Abbott Show in Dayton, Ohio at the last show in November 1996. And
yes, they were raised in the company of type and color bred canaries!!
Question:
I am unsure how to breed my rollers? Can you offer some guidelines?
Answer:
Breeding quality rollers is a challenging task, but some general principles
apply. To get reproducible results, it is best to breed within a strain of
related birds. Be very selective. Only breed strong healthy birds who have
outstanding basic tours. Within the strain, some birds will excel in hollow
roll, others in bass. When choosing the breeding pair, choose a male who
excels in hollow roll for a hen whose father excels in bass or vice versa.
Birds scoring less than 16 in hollow roll or bass are not good breeding birds
because they lack the genes to improve the song in either the direction of
hollow roll or bass.
A good bird results when a large number of interacting genes are balanced. You
cannot expect to produce better birds unless you have a clear picture of what
your birds have and what needs to be strengthened to improve them. If your
birds need tone, put in more hollow roll. If you get too much hollow roll, you
will lose tours. If this happens, add more bass. I recently had a call from a
novice who noted that I had done well in flute at the roller show and he wanted
a bird from my flute line. I don't have a flute line. Outstanding flutes occur
in strain related birds when good bass is balanced with good hollow roll.
My plan is to breed only two or three males too many hens. This creates a lot
of related birds who are half brother and sister. My favorite pairing is to
breed a half brother to his sister. I have studied my lines and I now where I
can go to get the good hollow roll and where to go to get good bass. When I see
myself going too far in one direction, I can breed a half brother and sister to
strengthen the other side. If you started with a good trio from a reputable
breeder, in the second year breed the best males (select one with the best
hollow roll and one with the best bass) to their half sisters. From these
offspring the balancing the song cycle begins.
Question:
I am having a problem with my Rollers and I know that you know Rollers
like no one else does. Each year about this time I start getting a
bloody wing or tail. It seems to me the Rollers are the aggressive
chicks. My chicks are in mixed flights until they are sexed. This AM
when I went in I found a dead silver Ino chick. He had bled to death.
The Rollers never seem to have any pecks or blood on them. Have you
found them to be aggressive over the food and the bath water? I don't
show the song canaries, just the color-breds and the types. I keep the
Rollers because I love their song.
Answer:
Do you think the dead silver ino chick was a female?
Young males are more aggressive than females. If you do not separate
young male and females you will lose a few females from starvation (going
light). Females are just too timid to compete for food. Older males also
have the advantage over the younger males.
Question:
How do you breed for song?
Answer:
The most effective way I have found to breed for song is to select
complimentary song patterns. The cock and the hens father song need to
compliment each other. One of the two cocks in the pedigree needs to be
strong in hollow roll and the other in bass. Then using that pattern, I
work to weave this into both sides of the pedigree using half
brother/sister combinations.
Question:
There are many things I want to discuss with you, things that I was
uncertain about during the training for show period. What causes birds
song to go soft? Is it incorrect handling of light, incorrect nutrition,
or a combination of both? Or something else?
Answer:
Each team, each bird of each team is different but some general things to
consider when they go soft are:
Question:
I have some quesions about your table trick before taking the birds to a
show. Why do you use that method rather than having a tutor for the
young when they are in flights? It seems to me that with the young males
having no tutor, that the breeder would run a large risk of the birds not
picking up the song in a short time. How much time do they have with the
table trick? Do you see the table trick as a superior way of training
the birtds for the show. I certainly see this advantage: that the birds
will not be cabinet weary when they arrive at the show. Another concern
would be that they would not have a conditioned response to sing when
brought before the judge. Or does the psychology of the bird relation
furnish all the prompting to sing that they need? How do your birds
score for General Effect? Are your young males in a room where they can
hear older rollers singing? If not, then they are bringing out what song
is in their background. With the table trick, do you have time to set
them out as a team to sing or is the show their first performance as a
team away the other birds.
Answer:
The point of the table trick and of having a tutor in the flight is the
same. To let the young cocks develop their song with a teacher rather
than on their own! In my new bird room, I did not put in flights. I have
considered making some with wood on three sides like my cages as I think
the wood around the cage is important.
Comments? Please e-mail to: canarytales@juno.com
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