Line Breeding with Dominant Pieds

Hector Segui and Norman Schofield

The SAS1 partnership started in Dominant Pieds with a pied line in which some of the cocks produced had spots missing, but with hens that were nearly always fully spotted

There are some Pieds on which the only visual sign of their variety is the patch on the back of the head. These birds when paired, can still produce a well-marked pied so do not necessarily discard them

When one is building a stud, line breeding is important. We always try to follow one of the following options:

Year 1: Pair best Dominant Pied cock to the best suitable normal hen in the stud.
Year 2: Pair best hen from above pairing back to the sire.
Year 3: Pair third generation hens back to original sire.

By doing this the youngsters produced will have an increasing dose of the original sire.

Year 1: Pair best Dominant Pied cock to two good quality normal hens.
Year 2: Pair half-brothers and sisters from the two pairings together.
Year 3: Pair third generation hens back to original sire.

This again produces youngsters with an increasing dose of the original sire. We have experienced some very good results using this method We also try to breed each of our best cocks with two hens in each season. This again produces half brothers and sisters, doubling up on the original bloodline.

We cannot say that outcrossing does not produce good birds, this does happen now and again, but further pairings with outcrosses have not improved on this form of pairing and can prevent improvement in your stud.

During the years we have been specialising in breeding Dominant Pieds we have experienced highs and lows and from these experiences we have reached the following conclusions.

Lack of Spots

To avoid this fault, we are very selective in our pairings, and although it is tempting to breed from a fair sized pied, if such a bird comes out of a line with an inherent fault of permanent spots missing or no spots at all, it is not advisable to use such a bird in establishing a Dominant Pied line, as the fault will manifest itself throughout your Pied stud.

Being of a dominant inheritance, it is quite easy to breed the Dominant Pieds by simply pairing one to a non-pied mate. It is always best to pair Dominant Pieds to first class normals so as to improve the general quality of the birds and maintain the colouring (if opalines are used markings sometimes suffer). When two Dominant Pieds are paired together there is always a strong tendency for the birds produced to have only very small dark areas which is not desirable and we have experienced instances where these matings in later generations produce Dominant Pieds that showed the Recessive Pied colour pattern, i.e., broken cheek patches and incomplete sets of spots together with colour failings. It is therefore, essential in producing good-coloured Dominant Pieds to use Normal × Dominant Pied matings.

By keeping records of our pairings and the breeding results, we have also come to the conclusion that when pairing a non-pied hen which has been bred from a pied nest to a pied cock, we produce 75% of Pieds instead of the 50% expectation.

If you persist in your efforts to breed a good-sized, well-spotted and well-marked Pied as per the Budgerigar Society Colour Standards, 1994 you will find that your hard work is much appreciated by other fanciers.

Below is given the BS Standard for the Dominant Pied Light Green.

Mask: Buttercup yellow, ornamented by up to six evenly spaced large round black throat spots, the two outer spots to be partially covered by the cheek patches. The buttercup yellow of the mask extending over the frontal and crown, to merge with the black undulations at the back of the head. The frontal and crown should be clear and free from all markings.
Cheek Patches: Violet
General Body Colour: Rump, breast, flanks and underparts; bright grass green of a solid and and even shade throughout but broken with no more than a maximum of 50% of total body colour area by irregular patches of buttercup yellow or with a clear buttercup yellow band around its middle, just above the thighs.
Markings on cheeks, back of head, neck and wings: Black with a well-defined yellow edge but having irregular patches of clear buttercup yellow or with part of the leading edge of the wing up to the shoulder clear buttercup yellow on an otherwise normally marked wing. Wing markings may be grizzled in appearance, all markings should be free from any intrusion of body colour.
Primary Wing Flights: Buttercup yellow but odd dark feathers are not faults.
Primary Tail Feathers: Clear buttercup yellow, dark blue or a mixture of both.
Cere: Blue, fleshy-pink or a mixture of both in cocks, brown in hens.
Feet and Legs: Blue/grey mottled, fleshy-pink or a mixture of both.
Eyes: Black with a white iris.

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