Intrepid MBS Members Stu, Sally, Pauline, Sonny, Deen, Lois, Ariana,
Brenda, Mike, and Carol drove out to the countryside to visit Kitty
Newman's Aviary, in Berryville Va. Kitty is a champion breeder and has
fantastic birds. She has been breeding budgies for over 20 years. She
enjoys breeding normals and also specializes in breeding "harlequins",
aka recessive pieds. Kitty has some breathtakingly beautiful recessive
pieds. Breeding great recessive pieds takes persistence, lots of
experience and a good eye. Hopefully, you will seem some of Kitty’s
recessive pieds at the shows next year.
Kitty showed club
members her aviary set-up. We also got to see her Mandarin Ducks that
she keeps in an enclosure in her back yard complete with greenery and a
pool for them. On either side of this are her two outdoor aviaries. Her
two aviaries face ecah other. It is a very peaceful place there in the
hollow (Chilly Hollow). I'll bet 5 cars did not go by all day. She is
nestled right in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Two miles down
the road is the Shenandoah River. We enjoyed ham biscuits and deviled
eggs on the patio as we conducted our meeting and her horses grazed in
the background.
Kitty takes great care of her birds. She has two
purpose built outbuildings that are her aviaries. When we toured her
breeding room which is 8' by 12' she showed us her babies from this year
and talked about the kind of cages she uses for breeding and the various
vitamins she uses. She is using all wire 30" breeding cages that come
with slide out plastic trays. She finds these easy to use and keep
clean. She has them neatly wired together, and she even has designed a
way to have them on wheels. Having the stacks of cages on wheels makes
it much easier to clean. She hangs her nest boxes off the front of her
cages. She has come up with a great way to hang them so that they can
easily be lifted off for inspection. In her other aviary Kitty keeps
her adult budgies. She keeps hens and cocks together. This is an 8' by
8' room with a 16 foot flight cage attached open to the outdoors with a
roof. The birds have their choice of being outside or in. There are no
cages in this room. All free flight space. She also showed members her
record keeping methods, which are simple, but effective.
After our tour of
the birds, we had a meeting out on the patio where we discussed plans
for our show to be held next September. Stuart Sacks will be putting
together a “to do” list for the show and will assign these
responsibilities to those willing to help out. Pauline is going to
head-up our raffle table. Please keep in mind that we need raffle
prizes. Prizes can be bird related….or not. For example, quality gift
items that you can’t use might be great for the raffle. Keep these
items for Pauline. Our show will be next September in Berryville, VA.
Sally also gave a
talk about Trichomaniasis. (See the article on Trichomaniasis under "All
About Budgies" at this site for notes from the talk.
At Kitty’s, we
welcomed several new members. Please tell your friends to join us. We
are trying to build-up our membership and we are advertising our
meetings in the local media. Our next meeting will be in January in
McLean, VA. Please contact us for more information.
