Ainley’s first met the Freakley’s in 1990 at Croydon Budgerigar Society open show, we were introduced to each other by Geoff Bowley a mutual source for an outcross, we had both been getting a few birds from Geoff around that time, we were both in the novice section at this time. I can’t recall who had the better show that day, Ian or Jackie and me, but it was the start of a friendship that has lasted the test of time. Why Ian and I hit it off I have no idea, we are like chalk and cheese. Ian is the quite one, I am the noisy one,or that is the public perception, but it works for us.
We swapped birds over a number of years and became good family friends. By now we had attained Champion status and were both very successful in our own right. Birds had moved between Lancashire and Leicestershire for some time, and we were both having a successful time on the show bench in our respective areas, we continued to bring in birds from Geoff and in time a bird or two from Dave Toplis although getting blood from a stone would have been much easier than getting a bird from Dave. Ian had introduced the Dominant pied variety from the very successful stud of Barry Wilde in Blackpool. And I well remember the Dominant Pied grey cock he won Best Any Age with at the Blackpool open show against very strong opposition.
Over a period of time better birds were being swapped until we got to a stage where we would say to each other, just take what you want, but we never did, always feeling it not right to take each other’s best bird, although it would have been fine by both parties. Eventually Ian asked me to go into partnership with him; initially I declined as I did not want to risk the possibility of the birds coming between a good friendships. A few months later, he decided to move home, and asked if I would house his birds while he set up a new bird room, I had been thinking about the partnership and suggested if he still wanted me as a partner this would be a good time and I would be happy to do so.
The birds were shipped down from Rochdale until Ian's new bird room was completed. The next breeding season we had all the birds to our disposal, allowing us to make the best pairs for the coming breeding season, birds would regularly travel the M1/M62 on a regular basis. We both like the same type of bird, and see them very similarly. Our first show season as partners could not have been better, in fact we took the best in show award at all the shows entered that year, culminating with all four Major awards at Hull BS open show, and we were most pleased.
Specials at the BS club show and more best in shows followed, that is until we had a problem with a nasal discharge in a few of our birds, this has been well documented, and an article was published in the BS magazine, so I will not go into it here, suffice to say it set us back for a time, we lost a number of our best birds, it was a stressful time in the hobby for us. If that was not bad enough the Rio virus hit the hobby and a full show season was lost for all.
We have always like a bird with plenty of feather, by that I mean intermediate to buff feathering, and have no worries about pairing buff to buff, but our preferred pairing is buff to intermediate, this type of pairing has worked for us over a long period and we see no reason to change.
We are a small stud in as much as I have 24 breeding cages and Ian has 21, rarely do we fill all of these with breeding pairs, we have to see a reason to put a pair of birds together.
We have created over time two lines which have pretty much now merged into one, the Cinnamon/Pied line and the Normal/Spangle line, but as you will note, our cinnamon yellow face spangle hen from the club show will indicate that these lines have now merged. We have bred some wonderful birds over time, we feel it is because we are so hard on what we keep; only the better birds in the stud survive our strict culling process, at times we have culled to an extent where we ideally do not have enough birds, but we work hard with what we have.
Our ambition has always been to win the BS club show, an ambition we always felt we would achieve, but easier said than done. As you know, we did achieve that ambition in 2007 when our Sky blue cock was awarded the Supreme award. Happy, you could say that, we were overwhelmed.
Freakley & Ainley with Geoff Capes
We were asked during interviews etc on the day of the show, where do you go from here? What ambition do you have left; we all had the same goal, to win it again. The fact it happened so quickly, 2008 was unbelievable, and with a different bird was for us the icing on the cake, we learned later in the day we were the first exhibitors ever to win the Supreme award with the Dominant Pied variety.
Nothing has changed in the management of the FA1 stud, and our aims remain the same. If we could give advice to anyone, it would be to be your own worst critic, be hard on the birds you keep, and try to raise the bar every year, only use the type of bird you like, it is no good looking at birds that do not appeal to you. Be patient, it takes time to create a stud, work in families if you want to create consistency in your birds, introducing out crosses only if you feel they will add to what you already have.
Be patient, this seems to be an asset missing in exhibitors today, beginners seem to want to win from the off, and not just in their section. I understand that there is more money available today, but it may interest you to know that we did not win our first challenge certificate until we were in the intermediate section, so good was the competition. Build a stud to last the test of time, this way you will reap the rewards over a long period, instead of being a one hit wonder. There are no real secrets to success in this game, a little common sense along with a lot of patience, and I see no reason why anyone cannot be successful. I hope you are all drinking our wine at the BS Gala dinner in September, because if you are, it will mean we have just done the hat trick, realistically, we will hope to get a few good birds to the show, and enjoy the wonderful banter and leg pulling that this show brings.
Good luck with your own ambitions in the budgie breeding World, Freakley & Ainley wish you all well.
