A
little background on Norman's birdkeeping history
Norman
who lives in Horncastle, has kept birds for around 9 years now
and he has successfully bred all the birds he has kept in that
time apart from the Star finch. At the moment has several species
of foreign finch and currently has got the following in his
collection: Java sparrows ~ Bengalese ~ Hecks Grassfinch ~ Parsons
finch ~ Masked Grassfinches ~ Star finches ~ African Silverbills
~ Zebra finches ~ Japanese Quail ~ Cut-throats and Diamond Doves.
After starting
with some Fife Canaries that he got from his brother he then
decided to branch out and soon got into foreign birds after
buying some Star finches from Steve Nesbitt back in 2002, he
has since moved onto what he has today and if you were to visit
Norman you could on most occasions see a few birds breeding
and babies of one species or another in the birdroom.
Norman is a long time member of and now also a committee member
of the Java
Sparrow Society UK.
Norman
and Grantham Bird Society
Norman has only recently become member of GBS, when
he joined after some persuasion from fellow Java sparrow fan
Steve Nesbitt to show some of his fine foreign birds at our
shows. Already he has had great success in the shows he has
attended at Grantham and beyond and we are sure he will again
be the one to beat in 2009 in the Foreign section of our future
shows.
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Left
you can see Norman's great looking and well constructed
26 foot x 11 foot birdroom.
The
flights are at the right hand end of the birdroom as
you look at the image with the breeding room being in
the area where you can see the smaller windows.
The
green entrance door hides a 6 foot x 11 foot area for
tools and garden stuff so Norman has got room to expand
more if he wishes!
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Norman's birdroom
is a well panned affair with around 30 cages and 3 roomy
flights as can be seen on the right.
Norman uses his versatile
setup of cages for breeding in and also as stock cages
for holding young birds and non breeding adults.
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Java
sparrows are a big favourite of Norman and he has currently
got several mutations such as Normals, Opal Isabels,
Whites and some of the Fawn and Silver colours he has
can be seen in the image on the left.
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On
the right another set of cages in Norman's great setup
as you can see these are being used as both breeding
cages and also holding cages.
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There
are not many times that you will not see young birds
in the Chapman birdroom and the photograph on the left,
a recent clutch of Fawn Java sparrow.
Norman
usually breeds well in excess of 100 foreign birds in
a season. He usually has a regular table at the annual
Newark sales days and it is not very often he brings
any birds home!
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Norman
can be seen on the right checking his birds in the two
8 foot x 8 foot flights. He also lets some of his birds
breed in these flights if they wish to do so. |
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of the species Norman keeps and breeds are left, Parsons
Finches and right, Cutthroat Finches
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If
you join our society you can have your own webpage too!
