First published in July 1977 Variegated Post. reprinted during 1990's - You May find it Interesting.
My first memories of Pieds date back to the "Bradford Open Show", which was then held at Belle Vue Barracks. This was a long time ago.
As Show Manager, it was my pleasure to help an exhibitor from afar (Solihull) to empty his cases and stage his birds. One case containing 3 Dominant Pieds made an impact on me I shall always remember. They were beautiful, one green, one blue and one tri-coloured-yellow faced blue.
This was the beginning of an era for Mr. W.K. Cox and his dominant Pieds. He had in fact discovered the genetical make up of Dominant Pieds i.e. 50% expectancy when paired to a normal. He used good normals and this showed immediately in the quality of his Pieds. He went from strength to strength and with these Dominant Pieds was literally unbeatable, the National and B.S. Club shows were amongst his triumphs.
Mr. Cox must always be remembered as the fancier who burst onto the show bench with good Dominant Pieds and created a hitherto unknown interest amongst the whole budgie fraternity. This interest grew and grew until really good full classes were staged at major shows. I had a class of 44 Dominant Pieds at Preston and believe me, they really needed judging.
Alas, we left the narrow path and a new image emerged, the "Banded Pied". What a pity this bird appeared. Potential pied fanciers, quite wrongly in my opinion, chased this elusive bird and I have seen these birds in classes when in fact the "Band" was their only asset, whilst good birds were passed by because they had no band.
Some judges, and most fanciers, had the wrong idea, and breeders gave up after a couple of years when no banded youngsters arrived. This caused the decline and loss of interest, which to this day has not fully recovered.
I advocated several times in Cage Birds that the B.S. should clear the standard up. Ultimately they did, but fanciers are still confused as to what constitutes a correctly marked exhibition Dominant Pied.
Although the numbers of Pieds bred and exhibited have fallen radically, it is only fair to say that odd specimens have been seen on show benches this past few years, which should have given encouragement to anyone interested in the breed. One such bird ( a breeder) won Best in Show under myself and fellow judges and went on to win 1st at Harrogate Convention 2 years ago as an adult. In my humble opinion, the best Dominant Pied ever exhibited.
It is high time Dominant Pieds flourished again, so come on you fanciers and get cracking. As I've so often said before, this is the only breed with no holds barred. You have every colour to choose from, including cinnamon. As long as the bird has B.S. confirmation and is clean and gaily coloured, you can win. It is not too late to start.
Editor - I hope you find this article interesting when you think about the numbers of quality dominant pied which are exhibited at the major shows nowadays