Contacts

[chris]

Hi All,

i'm thinking of packing in with the whole forum thing. despite various efforts from mods on here to kick start the site nothing has changed. to anyone who hasn't already noticed i've just left ff3 as i'm sick of being told what i can and can't do so that one's outta the window too. plus i dont have a fat lot to say lately as it is being at uni. this being stuck inside all day with naff all to do and not even a guitar isn't doing me any good and it's only a matter of time before i blow my top at someone so best leave now as friends rather than risk making an enemy of everyone.

i'll keep in touch. to anyone who doesn't know my e-mail is chrisdunn666@gmail.com , my MSN is theoneandonlygingerboy@hotmail.com and my mobile is 07768 187848, although that might be switched off during the day when i'm in lectures, practicals, exams etc etc.

i wont be going to stafford in march now either as i really can't be bothered with the hassle of tickets, train tickets, and hoping i can make it there and back hear intime, with going home inbetween to drop everything off...

i hope i haven't upset anyone with this, if i have e-mail me as i really dont mean any harm

my only advice is keep what you want, breed what you want, and do it how you want to. no one cared about your future when they had the chance to make a difference with establishing various species... so just do what you want. i doubt anyone cares about us so why the hell should we fuss over them bird wise. the damage is done so all that can be done now is to make the most of what we have. enjoy it while it lasts as i doubt the hobby has much of a future in the uk, too much disorganisation and infighting, and not enough who cared to make any differnce.. so sod them!

keep in touch, and if the site's still here i might pop back when i've emmigrated and am back in full swing with the birds

best of luck to everyone here, get about 5 unrelated pairs of your chosen species and you have no need to rely on others. a real shame with the weavers though

later, Chris:smile: ;)

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Chris,

So I guess it really is a case of the end is nigh.:(

If someone like yourself is willing to throw in the towel then it wont be long before many follow.

I'm gutted to hear this from you mate because there are two young guys in particular that I have long regarded as being the future of the hobby and you are definitely one of them!:wink:

There has always been a small group of people here who have kicked my arse and dragged me back into believing in our hobby when I have felt like giving up.
To the point that although I haven't posted a great deal recently but believe me I have been working hard in building what I hope to be good relations regarding our friends just across the water.

Chris while it seems that the whole world is against us, there is a great deal of hope regarding working alongside some of our Continental friends!

Also I'm not aware of how exactly you have parted company with FF3, but if it isn't too pretty then I'm sure this can be rectified.:D

I just hope you check in tomorrow mate and take notice of the comments from other members that ask you to think again before walking away?

Our hobby isn't finished yet mate, but if we lose somone as important as yourself, then maybe it is time to give up completely?

Hang on for a while longer matey because all is not lost yet!!

Paul.:wink:

[Waxbillman]

hello Chris

i'm sorry to hear of your decision, don't let them get you down, as Paul siad it would be such a shame to lose you now because of them, as you know i said i was fed up with the forums, but i stayed on because for every ounce of bad there is at least 2 ounce of good at some point.
regarding the comments on ff3 i'm sure some of them certainly dint mean to sound so harsh, one of them who commented is the biggest hypercrit of all time its thanks to him being a bent B*stard that the medias and seeminly the whole of the public turned against bird keeping, if anything its thanks to him with a little help from the anti's that imports for now have bit the dust

Matthew

[kenny]

hi chris
i hope that you have decided to look back in to check your mail,the last thing i expected to find when logging in on my birthday was you saying that you were going and giving up..many times myself i have decided to do this myself this year already and last year especially due to all the losses that i had but i have stuck with it!just because some know it all has been slagging you off is not a good enough reason you need to rise above all those idiots who just quote from books and other peoples stuff as you have staed only you know what is best for your own birds mate....stick with it

ken

[chris]

Hi Kenny, Paul & Matt,

i am keeping tabs of this thread before i log off. it's not the petty insults, it's the hobby as a whole.. the attitude of the majority who can't be arsed to fight for their hobby and are sitting back with their heads in the sand while the place goes to ****. there's probably about 10% who care about what's happening at all, and about 5% of that who can be bothered to do anything about it.

everyone here has done their bit to help, well the mods & admin at least. but 99.9% of others dont seem to to give a crap about what happens and the rest of us and future generations have to suffer because of it.

the more i hang around and see how incompetent, idle, stupid, ignorant and backward the rest of the fancy is the more i hate it/them. if that isn't a recipie for turning someone to the dark side then i dont know what is!

the worst bit of all is not being able to keep & breed the one species i once had and loved the most. the EU and UK government have raised the middle finger big time, then to top it off the rest of the fancy turn around and do the same. in how many decades of imports it's a damn disgrace the mess were in now.

the next idiot to raise the proverbial middle finger is going to get it big time.. although anything more now is just the icing on the cake, the real damage is already done and thanks to the attitudes of the many i can't be arsed to fight. they wont do it for us, they wont do it for themselves, and so i'll be damned if i do it for them

i'll hang around until this thread is over, then i'll be taking a long break

Chris

[kenny]

hi chris
as you know i have been breeding all kinds of birds since i was your age!and dont you think that the same stuff has happened to me through the years and even more so since i have been on the net...i have been to shows when i was in my early 20s and had a few show cages of c f w finches on the show bench that have took decent cards and you are stood there admiring your handiwork all the weeks of special food and spraying and training the birds to be steady....and someone stood next to starts telling his mate how crap your birds are despite the fact you have rossetes on the cages and he hasnt bothered to even put any in the show....it takes a lot to take crap like that from morons but i have done it you will find that no matter what you write some idiot will disagree because he has read somewhere or someone has told him something different it goes with the territory! it doesnt matter how much you rage against the dying of the light as far as the import ban goes it will not change anyone or anything it will still go ahead....the thing is we are all frustrated about this ban some more than most e, g, chris dunn but it will not stop it what i am saying is some of have been through it all before and it does not affect us as bad because of that its a reall shame mate but nothing will change it now!

ken

[laurab]

Hi Chris

I don't really know what to say - but I can assure you I have not taken offence to your comments.

I hope you won't leave the forums for good as you have so much to give. Take a break from it all, then when you feel ready, come back - hopefully most of us will still be here :neutral:

Whatever you do Chris - take care, it has been a pleasure having you here. ;-)

Paul - I look forward to hearing more about the contacts you have made on the continent. ;-)

[chris]

Hi Kenny,

that wasn't quite what i was getting at, however it is part of the problem. the main point i was trying to make is about how no one has been bothered to establish species in the past how many decades that we will now loose.. it could all have been avoided and to say we didn't see it coming is a poor excuse, it's been expected for many years. the other big problem is how the vast majority actively sit back and do nothing while the fancy falls to pieces. the petty insults dont help, on their own i can live with it, combined with this lot i'd rather have nowt to do with it.

Laura,

i think it may just be a case of taking a break. hopefully things will have picked up when i come back, i will be back though as this forum isn't up it's own arse like the rest of them. much like the symbol for continuing life.. the snake eating it's own tail. except somewhere along the line uk aviculture has got it seriously wrong.. someone with their head up their own backside about sums it up! :shock: :lol:

Paul,

your right in what you say about the continentals. they seem to have got the symbol the right way around at least:lol: although i expect australian aviculture to be far superior to any, hopefully i arent far off discovering that myself then i can let everyone here in on it.

Chris;)

[Waxbillman]

hindsight is a wonderful thing chris, unfortunitly we don't have it.

don't write off British aviculture because your buggering off to oz

the reason australians are fair better is simply because in most areas they have the correct weather for breeding birds and every bugger seems loaded, never to work and have massive immense gardens and massive immense garden, the vast majority of us over here have the complete reverse, thats why breeding results are poor not necessarily because australins are godly creatures, they are not, they just have the right conditions, and termites.
even breeders who have the space of big aviaries, we don't have the weather, birds are bred but the weather soon kills a few off.
australians had no warning about a ban so they HAD to breed there and now.
yes there has been allot of birds wasted with the wrong people, and the wrong diets and the wrong conditions, to many species in too smaller areas....
but there is some very good breeders out there, which if you get connected properly with the hobby then you will get to know that they are about

hopefully i dint offend you by that but thats how it is

Matthew

[laurab]

Chris, you (and many others)have gone a long way to make this site what it is; so make damn sure it is a temporary leave of absence :lol:

[chris]

Hi Matthew,

you've said yourself how people have been warned for years about an import ban. hindsight had nothing to do with it, the warning was there just who chose to listen to it. unfortunately for myself i only got into the hobby a wonderfull few months before the ban, not that i didn't expect one from what i'd heard just i didn't have time to get what i wanted... otherwise i'd be sitting here quite happy with a nice colony of vitelline masked weavers.

now if i could see what was coming within a few months of starting up.. what excuse does everyone else have? one more year in my favour and i wouldnt be half as anrgy as i am now.

the climate is irrelavent in anycase, we have the technology to manipulate the climate and create a microclimate in our bird rooms. infact we're probably luckier in that we dont have to worry half as much about the heat during the summer over here as in say australia. you've seen my garden, so space can't be that much of an issue either. diet fair enough, but in how many years of foreign bird keeping why oh why has it taken till now for someone to look into formulating a diet specifically for certain birds? and even then that's come from belgium or holland!

granted the australians never had a warning, but then they never had the technology either, and wasn't it not long after WW2 so surely that presents yet another problem. they were in a far more dire situation than we are now. the only difference comes down to competence.. they aren't a bunch of lazy doll dossers like the bulk of the uk

you've put me back into rant mode now:lol:

[Waxbillman]

a healthy debate Chris and if it means you use the forum still

"you've said yourself how people have been warned for years about an import ban." that is correct some people have specialised, and certainly now more people are doing so, and breeding more as far as finch like is concerned, still doesn't mean they are all safe though, as with australia they lost some species, we will lose more.

"the climate is irrelavent in anycase, we have the technology to manipulate the climate and create a microclimate in our bird rooms." past keepers, up until fairly recently would not of been able to afford mods cons like that, and some don't have massive birds rooms

"you've seen my garden, so space can't be that much of an issue either"
yes that right i have, you can have a massive bloody aviary, but the weather is all wrong, a friend of mine has a big aviary and over the years has bred alsorts sadly there are / were many casulties due to our weather, and big aviary is far cheaper than a big shed with all the mod cons


"oh why has it taken till now for someone to look into formulating a diet specifically for certain birds?"

thats true many many wives tales about whats the right diet

i'll end it again, the successful breeders in australia have far far far more room to dedicate onto their birds then 95% of british bird keepers, as their country is far less densly populated and cramped than us.

they also have the right weather in many places,

i have no idea on this one, however i am willing to bet that were establish thanks only to the big breeders, not small time breeders like most of us, yes they will have developed an excellent diet, but thats only one part of how to successfully breed, we have very few big breeders.

now go on Chris reply i dare, you, keep you on this forum at least


"now if i could see what was coming within a few months of starting up.. what excuse does everyone else have? one more year in my favour and i wouldnt be half as anrgy as i am now."

for your species in question wouldn't matter how much time you would of had, this was never a species that was ever likely to ever get established, very few weavers are due to various facts, so don't be angry at past keepers for certain species because they dint stand a chance.

[Waxbillman]

please read the edited version, may make more sense

[chris]

as they country is far less densly populated and crap than us

too right... why do you thnk i want in!:lol:

as far as weavers go, the aussies managed a few species so there's no reason why we shouldnt have been able to do the same. the main problem comes down to mislabelling, and people who only keep them for their colour and nests with no intention of breeding. i still reckon if mine were all the same i'd have bred them, unfortunately i'm not 100% sure i had more than 5 species after seeing the colony of vitelline masked weavers on "the life of birds" dvd, the hens on there were somewhat different to mine, noticably the eye bands but also the body colour.

if i'd had another year before the ban then the lot i would have had imported would nearly all be the same species as they'd have been caught from the same spot. now i have to toy with the idea of going to africa to breed the buggers there, to ring the young as captive bred... and then to get them into Aus. as per the original plan. i can't see all that happening as it means a lot of moving around but there's still the bird farm option....

you know you want to follow me.. just think of those green avadavats:lol:

[Waxbillman]

lol, they have bigger aviaries , better planting an all that, better weather for weavers, most of the time, than what we have

again i have no idea, but obviously when they had imports they got the correct species in the batches, unlike us in modern aviculture, its well know the Britain could the sweepings up as far as imports go

Matthew

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Chris,

If your promise of staying on with this website and forum until this thread ends then I will will make damn sure this thread goes on until all Cows are purple and all Sheep are green mate!:roll:

So on that note you could be around for some time yet chappie!:lol:

Chris, the hobby of birdkeeping/breeding in Australia is very much far from perfect as it is in every other Country, I agree that certain species are established in Australian aviculture that aren't represented in other Countries.
But that doesn't mean that Australia is THE Country that has all of the answers regarding our hobby mate.

Australia is still lacking many bird species that aren't available in other Countries such as the UK, consider the fact that some commonly bred Waxbills in the UK such as Red Eared and Orange Cheekesd valued at only £30 - £40 a pair are worth $1000 - $2000 a pair in Australia, will you be willing to pay this price tag if and when you move over there to live?

It doesn't always go in your favour matey, the price tag attached to the birds you have a particular interest in would cost you far more in Australia than buying them in the UK, a price difference that could in fact be times five or even ten and then some?

Please think again before you believe that life in Australia is far more rosy than it is here in the UK.

Paul.;)

[chris]

Hi Paul,

the price tag isn't that much of an issue, since it was, and still is, my intention to take with me what i can. new blood for their genepool and also setting myself up at a fraction of the cost (although i dont expect quarantine to be cheap either). this may never happen, but David seems to think it's quite possible and if i'm a qualified vet beforehand apparently that will make the chances of sucess far greater

Chris;)

[laurab]

Do you think some of this thread should be moved to open forum for debate?

[kenny]

hi laura
i do as some of the content is too precious to waste on just us ..i think more people may be interested in it!and may get other people in from the outside to debate this thread

ken

[Waxbillman]

that seems a good idea, providing the relevent things are deleted.

an interesting debate indeed

Matthew

[laurab]

Well knowing my track record on moving/deleting threads, would anyone like to do the honours.....Matt/Chris (if you are still here ;-) ) Paul, not you mate, you are as bad as me! :lol: :lol:

[chris]

Hi Laura,

where'd you want it?

Chris

[laurab]

Good question :confused: How about Bird News?

See you can't leave, I am hopeless!!

[chris]

hi laura,

if you go to the tool bar near the top of the page, under thread tools, click move thread. then scroll down the menu and select the part of the forum you want it moving to. i'll do it for this one anyway

Chris

[laurab]

Ssshhhh.....don't let everyone know I don't know how to administer my own forum!!! :-D :-D :shock:

[kenny]

shame on you boss!

[laurab]

Chris, although I sent letters to MP's and I know that there were others that did so much more than me, I must admit I thought the whole exercise was futile :( This government just doesn't listen to its people. They are far more worried about Diversity and Anti-Social Behaviour!