Santa Clara Valley Canary & Exotic Bird Club
Peterson Jr. High School
El Camino and Ham Streets, Sunnyvale
Next Meeting: BAR-B-QUE - STRICTLY FOR FUN DAY.
Sunday, July 8, 1984, 11 AM to 4-5 PM
Lakewood Park, Sunnyvale
A - M bring dessert
N - Z bring snacks
Coffee furnished. Please bring your own cold drinks, AND TABLE SERVICE
Please let Ron Mercer know if you plan to attend (we'd kinda like to know how many salads, beans and loaves of bread we need.) Drop him a note, please. Remember: 2 free steaks per family membership. FREE hot dogs for the kids. $5.00 each for guests.
DON'T FORGET THE BIG RAFFLE!!! ANYTHING OF INTEREST OR VALUE BIRD RELATED OR NOT is welcome. "THE BOARD" (principally Marg. Roche dern it, let's give credit where do!) has come up with some interesting twists for raffle time this year, including a BIG grand prize that should REALLY be welcome right now.
Let's see a big turn-out for the day. Seems like ages since I've had a chance to just sit and talk bird with most of you.
FINAL NOTICE DEADLINE FOR SHOW CATALOGUE ADS IS AUGUST 1. GOING TO PRESS EARLY THIS YEAR. RATES: full page $30.00; half page $15.00; quarter page $10.00. Send copy and check to Ralph Barnes.
Or, better yet, COME TO THE BBQ PREPARED TO HAND YOUR COPY AND PAYMENT TO RALPH. He'll take it, he'll take it - won't you, Ralph?
AD: Jack Kook may have to move out of state and will therefore sell off his canaries and finches, give him a call. Also, he has a 1400 sq. ft. Spanish style house in a nice quiet section of S.J., with finished aviaries and breeding rooms in back and box hedges all 'round. He'd prefer to sell to a breeder rather than have someone buy it and tear down all his careful construction work!
FOR SALE: Robert Blanco, 10 R.F, show cages; 2 Border show cages, 18 breeding cages. NOTE TO NOVICES: at Show time, there is always a scramble with new folks who have just decided, "Aw, what the heck, Maybe I'll put in a couple of bids just to see how I'm doing." ...and then can't find the show cages. BE PREPARED BUY 'EM NOW.
FOR SALE: Pat McMullan has decided she CAN'T breed R.F., Border, Gloster, Domestic and Opal canaries 'cause she hasn't the money to buy another house just for birds!!! Will sell my yellow ground breeders at reduced prices depending on the age of the individual bird.
OOPS! When I listed local shows a couple of months ago, I neglected Modesto 'cause I had no information on it. To repeat:
Capitol City Bird Society, Oct 19, 20 and 21
Fresno Canary & Finch Club, Oct 26, 27 and 28
Golden Gate Avian Soc., Nov 9, 10 and 11
Modesto, Nov 2, 3 and 4
SCVC&EBC, Nov 23, 24 and 25
So far, I know that Joe Gordon will judge Red factors and Mark Whiteaker will judge Type canaries at FRESNO and that Scotty McNiff will judge type and Leonard Quieto will judge Red Factors at Modesto. Will the publicity persons of those clubs PLEASE give me more info so I can pass it along?
And did I hear a hint that Exotic Hookbill Soc. is thinking about having a show this year? Tell me about it, Joan, that should be fun.
Which reminds me that Feathers should be sent to that Society in Fremont, or brought to me so I can pass 'em along. Come on, don't be lazy. Nikkie, didn't Paco drop some big feathers? How 'bout the rest of the big birds you work with? Carolyn, didn't your hookbill moult? How 'bout all you guys with cockatiels? Bertha, don't you have some large feathers?
Wantta hear some more stupidities from this season? (Ralph says I'm going to do serious damage to my reputation if I keep telling you all the dumb things but, for your bird's sake, I'll risk it.)
PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU DO IN THE COURSE OF A DAY:
While doing a final check of the cages before lights out one evening this spring, I spotted a hen sitting on her nest with her head covered with blood, reached in, snatched her off the nest, zoomed into the bathroom, grabbed a Q-tip and started scrubbing her head with warm water and peroxide all the while wondering what the heck could have happened to her, or words to that effect. Then, I realized that the stuff wasn't foaming ... and only THEN did I remember that I had thinned the row of beets in the veggie garden that day and given the greens to the birds! She just had beet juice plastered over her head. Boy, was that hen mad! I've owned and approved of canaries with enough spunk to try to bite me when molested before, but that's the first time I ever had one decide she would darn well chew my finger off! Fortunately, she went right on brooding and raised 5 healthy youngsters despite such stress.
PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR OWN RECORDS!
At least once a year, we arrange to have an experienced member demonstrate ways of keeping records on your breeding flock. I've participated in that project a time or two. And I do keep, and write in, records EVERY day during the breeding season. So, when a cinnamon opal hen hatched out 1 chick and had 3 eggs left for 3 days, I fostered the chick to another pair and opened the eggs to see why they hadn't hatched. And the last egg had a live chick, two days from being ready to hatch. THEN, I checked the records to find that she had been set on only 3 eggs, apparently skipped several days and laid the 4th. A nice dark chick (father was a bronze, opal carrier) gone forever because I didn't check the records BEFORE deciding on my course of action. You can't glue it back together again if you open it too soon! DUMB, DUMB, DUMB!
DON'T GET CARELESS JUST BECAUSE YOU'VE GOTTEN AWAY WITH SOMETHING FOR YEARS.
This one, I still don't believe! I've cleaned my cages with a vacuum cleaner ever since I started raising birds, even the breeding cages, 'cause they don't have moveable trays. Several years ago, I accidentally caught a four week old who flew right in front of the business end of the hose and got scooped up, that one broke its neck as it made the turn into the tank. Therefore I've made it a practice to use that long thin attachment (for getting into tight spots) while cleaning cages. Figured a bird might break a leg but at least it wouldn't get caught up entirely. Have had no further problems until last week. I was cleaning the top cage of a unit. That cage has a floor that is 6 feet off the floor of the room, so I have to stand on a ladder to clan it and, with the attachment in place, the hose isn't long enough to do the job. The 5 chicks were 4 weeks old and super active. I took the attachment off, held one finger over the hose and was struggling to get all the mess out of the cage when the biggest and most aggressive chick of that clutch jumped down too close and got a leg past my finger and headed down the hose. I let out an almighty yell as the ladder wobbled, my finger slipped, and the bird disappeared down the tube just as I stepped back off the ladder and directly onto the cut off switch of the vacuum cleaner. I removed the hose and shook it, no bird. I tore open the machine, ripped open the bag and started pawing through the mess, no chick. Shook the hose again, no chick. Well, it had to be somewhere, so I reversed the hose attachment, put my hand loosely over the end and hit the switch and received in my hand a petrified mess of every-which-way feathers, and the chick blinked! Don't know if I was more horrified as it went into the hose or as it was blown out and I realized it had lived through it! Since he'd been sucked in backwards, and then blown out with a large boot in the rear, there was no brain damage, but if you stay up to watch the absolutely-too-late show some night, you'll see that same expression on the face of Lou Costello! Come to think of it, I don't know if he looked that way because of the sudden "ride of the century" or the anguished vocalization of his owner. I stuck him back in the nest and he took the rest of the day to venture out again. His "knees 'n elbows" were kind of bruised but they've healed. I'll probably have to pull the tail and let him grow a new one but the rest of his feathers have calmed down, and he's a little less rambunctious than he used to be! When I recovered, Margaret and I had an interesting discussion trying to calculate the G forces on a 1 oz. bird as compared to the astronauts. Hmm, wonder if I'll have any trouble trying to sex that bird?
Will the person or persons who borrowed the Pacific Budgie breeders from Nikkie please return same, the ones with the bases painted black. And will the person who borrowed the canary breeder from me, please return it? I'm gonna quit loaning cages if this keeps up!
See you on the BBQ.
Pat