Birds Lost

In 1996 we had the back luck to lose a lot of birds and among them had to be nearly all the birds from our best Spangle line. Our losses included our beloved No. 102 who bred the best Spangle that we had at that time. The birds we had left bred us Light Green Normals but no Spangles. That’s it we thought a line of Spangles gone.

Luck in Scotland

We decided to ring a breeder in Scotland who had some of our line. He said he had a Spangle Green cock bred from our birds that we could have, so we went to Scotland and fetched him back to our aviary.

In January we paired the Spangle Grey Green cock to a Spangle hen and then waited. Her first clutch was all clear eggs. The second round was clear. After her third round we decided the cock did not like her very much and lo and behold, their fourth round was clear eggs.

Desperation

Looking in the flight in something approaching desperation we saw a Spangle Goldenface hen fly past. She was caught up and put with the Spangle Grey Green cock.

Joy of joys, five full eggs and they all hatched. As they began to feather up we saw all five were Spangles. The pair went on for two more rounds and produced Double Factor Spangles in both rounds.

When we checked the pedigree of the hen we found she had come from the brother of a bid Double Factor Spangle we had a few years ago so it was double joy for us. Two good families put together by pure chance.

Next Season

We looked forward to the next breeding season to pair these birds up to the Light Green offspring from our Spangles. It is nice to breed Spangles once again, which will be almost our own line back again.

Our advice is to never give up on a line, it may come back some day with a bit of patience.