John Hunter Profile

Profile of John Hunter, Carlisle 2006 by Donald Bruton

I visited John in August of 2006 as there are so few crested exhibitors in Scotland to write about and I thought it would be nice to go on a border raid!

Carlisle is in the North of England for those who don’t know, not too far from the Scottish border. A nice town situated around a well preserved castle, the city centre has excellent shopping and eating facilities which makes it ideal for the family while you pay John a visit to see his birds!

John took early retirement a few years ago and this allows him to spend a lot of time in his birdroom, this is evident from the steadiness of his birds while breeding, and of his show team.

Approximately 150 birds are kept, 90 per cent of which are visual crests; almost all the other 10 per cent are crest breds, with only one or two pure normals amongst them. These he has brought in as outcrosses to improve the size and exhibition qualities of his crests. His birds are all of all mainstream colours and varieties but with crests on. There is little evidence of flecking in the stud but he has managed to improve spot size and depth of mask over the past two years.

HOUSING

John’s budgerigars are housed at the back of a neat garden, behind a fish pond, in a 12 x 8 foot shed; electricity is supplied; the shed is fully alarmed and has security cameras. It is fitted with an air extractor fan and also a dust removing extractor. He has, at his disposal, 26 breeding cases of mixed sizes but generally about 18 x 12 inches, each of which is supplied with either a wooden or plastic nest box fitted to the outside of the cage. John prefers the plastic nest box for hygiene reasons. At the time of my visit some of the cages had their dividers withdrawn and were converted into stock cages; in each stock cage he hangs rope toys, more normally associated with parrots, for the budgerigars to play with. Attached to the shed is an outside flight 8 x 6 foot which is connected to a 3 x 8 foot flight inside. Electric tubular heating is supplied in the winter months to keep the bird room at approximately 68 degrees F. Natural light comes from a double glazed window.

THE BUDGERIGARS

John started in budgerigars about 12 years ago and still shows as a beginner. That said his crested budgerigars are of good quality and size with many sporting perfect examples of full circular crests and these can certainly hold their own against exhibitors in the higher levels. He was originally introduced to crested budgerigars by Grant Findlay, from whom he obtained his original stock of crests. Grant also obtained for him a pair of crests from Maurice Woodley in Doncaster. No other crests have been brought in; improvements being achieved by the use of outcross normals. John pairs the outcross normal to a good crest and uses the best of the crest bred young into his crests.

He breeds all year round and therefore has a steady supply of visuals for the retail market, as well as keeping his breeding and show team young and healthy. He estimates that about 75% of his visual crests are full circulars, the budgerigars with the poorer crests are usually sold on. He hopes to breed about 150 youngsters each year and realizes that “you cant keep them all”. I saw some excellent youngsters in his young bird stock cages, quite a few showing a lot promise for after their first moult. In particular, one sky full circular youngster he showed me was as large as some of his adults; it was only 5 weeks old and still in the nest box. His nest mate, needless to say, was not as large.

FEEDING

Versa laga champion seed is fed all year round together with a tonic mix from Johnston and Jeff (who sponsor the Scottish BS Open Championship show). No additives are added to the dry seed but he does add to the water a product imported from Belgium called “Vitaza Jumpy”. EMP, with nothing added, is the soft food he uses for his breeding birds. The usual cuttlefish and grit were in evidence and freely available for his budgerigars. I noticed also sweet corn on the cob being fed.

EXHIBITING

What attracted me to John’s budgerigars when I first saw them was their immaculate presentation in clean show cages. Show cage training consists of attaching an old show cage to the end of a row of stock cages to allow the birds to get used to it. They also spend a couple of hours at a time in a treble training cage he has. If a budgerigar is reluctant to perch, crumpled up tissue paper is put on the floor of the show cage and this usually persuades it to perch! John noticed that the steadiness of his show birds improves the more they are shown and become used to the cages.

His most memorable wins were taking a first and second prize with his crests at the BS show last year and winning the John Round Trophy at the Blackpool BS Open Show in 2004. He has already won 2 Challenge certificates this season and tries to support about 10 shows each year.

CBC

Due to the distance John does not get to meetings of the CBC unless he is at Doncaster, but he would like to talk more to crested budgie people. Perhaps any new membership list could include members’ telephone numbers if they were happy to do that. He would also like to see more young people joining the hobby and taking up crests.

SUMMARY

I felt the 200 mile round trip was well worth while. I saw a great number of excellent examples of crested budgerigars all under one roof and met someone who clearly cares about his birds. I would recommend a visit to anyone who is the Carlisle area or is prepared to travel. For those who may consider obtaining stock from him, John has an arrangement with a courier who has delivered his birds safely as far South as Cornwall. I hope that the photographs I took that day do his birds justice and give members a good idea of their quality. If you do decide on a visit make sure you get clear instructions on how to find his home, the estate itself is easily found and is not far from the M6 motorway, junction 43.