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| "Your website along (with your MOST AMAZING, DROP DEAD COCKATIELS I HAVE EVER SEEN) is awesome! I cannot believe there are actually cockatiels out there that look like this." - Joey, Ontario Canada "I am just in awe with the wonderfully colored birds you have... Just wanted you to know how fantastic your birds are." - Debbie, Indiana "You have one of the best web site and THE most beautiful Cockatiels I have seen. " - Adriana, Dallas Texas "Don, The birds are just absolutely great! The one pearl pied and the normal felt like Turkeys when you hold them! THey are very full in the chest and solid birds!!" -Linda, Laguna Hills CA |
Although these linebred giants have yet to see an end, Greesons had an interesting
beginning very different from lines established today.
In 1980, Florida quarantine stations saw some 2,000 Cockatiels pass through their
cages each week. It was in these stations that Linda Greeson began selecting
individual birds that would someday be referred to as her “Foundation Stock”. “I
visited these quarantine stations every single week. Some days I’d return home with
4 or 5 Cockatiels and other days – nothing. I only wanted the biggest, the best and
the most interesting birds they had.”
Back then, most of the Tiels were shipped into the United States from South Africa,
where they were bred to supply the world with pets, but Greeson was after the
diamonds in the mix. Linda’s Fallows and Silvers were discovered here, and to this
day – her Recessive Silver Cockatiels are decidedly different in their appearance
from the other lines available. “It’s because they’re not part of the initial lines that
well-known breeders worked with” Greeson added, “my lines came from South Africa”.
While attending a meeting for Gold Coast Exotic Bird Club in Ft. Lauderdale, she met
Wayne Thoman, a long time NCS judge. “Wayne was interested in my Fallows, so I
invited him out to my farm and showed him the birds.” Thoman was impressed with the
quality of Linda’s birds and convinced her that she should begin exhibiting them at
NCS shows. “That was the first time I heard about the exhibition aspect of breeding
Cockatiels. He got me involved in showing my birds and also sold me two beautiful
Cinnamon Pieds - Gorgeous saddlebacks - I had them here for years… They gave
me lots of beautiful babies.”
The first show Linda attended didn’t end the way she had hoped. “I was embarrassed
and ready to sell everything. The other birds at the show were much larger and
better than what I brought and none of mine placed at all. But, instead of having a
sale – I ended up buying some of the more impressive birds I saw to breed into my
flock.”
For size, Greeson chose birds from Ken and Maureen O’Steen. “Their birds were
HUGE! They didn’t sit on the perch very well, but they had tremendous length, size
and width and I knew I wanted to work with them.” For great toplines, she chose
Carter Atwood. “I never really bought that bird from Carter, though. Roger Heroux
(who was the president of ACS at the time) had this magnificent bird from Atwood
that he donated to an ACS auction and I just kept raising my hand until I won the high
bid and took the bird home.”
That bird was destined for greatness in the Greeson flocks. “I bred him to a big
gorgeous hen from Maureen O’Steen and got wonderful babies. That breeding
started everything for me.” A cockbird from this pairing was subsequently bred back
to another O’Steen hen and the famous “Hogan” was born. “I knew the moment that I
reached into the nestbox that Hogan was going to be special. I couldn’t even see him
yet, I just wrapped my hand around a REALLY big baby and I knew.”
Hogan, a Normal cockbird, wasn’t something that many breeders would have kept
back to breed. “Back then, the mutations were all the rage. Many breeders just sent
the normals off to petshops, but Ken O’Steen had given me some invaluable advice
so he stayed here with me. That was a smart move.”
O’Steen’s advice was simple. Spray paint the birds black in your mind and don’t pay
attention to the mutations. Concentrate, instead, on the bird’s head, eyes, crest,
body, etc… Notice the width and the length and choose based on these criteria.
“Once I adopted this technique, my birds began to change.” Despite O’Steen’s
advice, Greeson still has a favorite mutation. “Cinnamon Pearls are the sweetest
birds! Pearls are usually pretty easy to get along with and Cinnamons are friendly,
too – So, when you have both mutations in the same bird, they’re going to be sweet
and affectionate.” If this seems to be a generalization without merit – think again,
folks. Greeson has had a passion for genetics for as long as she can remember and
when she makes a statement like this, she has the documentation to back it up. “I
keep great records … Not just the lineage of my birds, but their visual attributes and
personalities, too. It’s only through these breeding notes that I can notice patterns
that may ultimately change the way I breed my birds.”
This isn’t the only “Greesonism”, either. Keeping great records of her achievements
in breeding throughout the years has led Linda to realize some interesting
observations. Such is the difference between hard-feathered and soft-feathered
birds. “Anyone can tell the differences between these two.” Says Greeson, “Just
choose birds from your aviary and spend time examining and touching them. There’s
a BIG difference in the structure of each mutation’s feathers. Lutinos & Normals have
tight rigid consistencies to their feathers, while Pearls & Cinnamons have softer more
relaxed qualities.” Greeson suggests breeding hard-feathered birds to soft-feathered
birds for great feather texture and size.
These breedings are evident in her pedigrees as many generations of Greeson birds
have been the result of her favorite Cinnamon Pearls being paired to Normal
partners. “I rarely breed Pearl to Pearl because the feather structure can become
poofy and make the bird appear as if he’s in a perpetual moult. HF to HF can cause
the birds to appear to streamlined and thin.” She added.
These unique breeding ideas have won her birds places in almost every exhibition
aviary in the United States, but it’s also interesting to note that Linda hasn’t rested on
her laurels. In 1993, she bought her first American Quarter Horse and in a short
amount of time, she bred three Congress winners. In 1997, she added English
Mastiffs to her interest and now, ten years later, has more trophies than she can
count for her efforts. “Great breeding formulas are consistent no matter what we
breed. I can apply many of my processes to almost any animal and achieve the same
results.”
Some of Greeson’s techniques:
1.No matter what you have on paper, you have to breed visually superior birds to
visually superior birds.
2.Linebreed for uniform characteristics.
3.Develop more than one line at a time, so that when outcrosses are necessary – the
other line’s birds can be used.
4.Select only the best of the best from these pairings to continue the linebreeding
program.
5.Linebreed, Linebreed again, think about it and possibly linebreed a third time –
then outcross.
6.Return the F1 birds to their original line and begin the linebreeding again.
Greeson has become famous in the world of Cockatiels for two distinct lines. One
called “pair 54” and the other “pair16”. “My 54s were linebred for size and the16s
were linebred for correctness, toplines and crest. When I outcrossed, I would breed a
16 to a 54 then study the chicks. The chicks that resembled 54 would go into the 16
lines and vice versa.” When Linda reached what she believed to be the pinnacle of
her linebreeding with both lines, she simply combined them into “pair 129”. “I took my
best 16 birds and paired them to my best 54 birds. I Set up a total of 10 pairs and out
of these, only 2 pairs produced consistently OUTSTANDING babies.”
If this seems like a small number of birds to end with, Greeson begs to differ. “I began
my breeding programs with birds that averaged only 125 grams and I ended with big
gorgeous birds that are consistently over 225 grams. That’s a lot to accomplish in 20
years.” Linda ads, “My true joy in life is starting someone out with incredible breeding
stock. I have bought a lot of birds in my life and it seems that for every good one - I
bought 20 that I never used – even birds costing as much as $500 ended up being a
waste of money! I wasn’t knowledgeable enough at the time, but I did learn and new
breeders will, too. Quality begets quality.” Linda Greeson’s website is:
www.bluequaker.com
beginning very different from lines established today.
In 1980, Florida quarantine stations saw some 2,000 Cockatiels pass through their
cages each week. It was in these stations that Linda Greeson began selecting
individual birds that would someday be referred to as her “Foundation Stock”. “I
visited these quarantine stations every single week. Some days I’d return home with
4 or 5 Cockatiels and other days – nothing. I only wanted the biggest, the best and
the most interesting birds they had.”
Back then, most of the Tiels were shipped into the United States from South Africa,
where they were bred to supply the world with pets, but Greeson was after the
diamonds in the mix. Linda’s Fallows and Silvers were discovered here, and to this
day – her Recessive Silver Cockatiels are decidedly different in their appearance
from the other lines available. “It’s because they’re not part of the initial lines that
well-known breeders worked with” Greeson added, “my lines came from South Africa”.
While attending a meeting for Gold Coast Exotic Bird Club in Ft. Lauderdale, she met
Wayne Thoman, a long time NCS judge. “Wayne was interested in my Fallows, so I
invited him out to my farm and showed him the birds.” Thoman was impressed with the
quality of Linda’s birds and convinced her that she should begin exhibiting them at
NCS shows. “That was the first time I heard about the exhibition aspect of breeding
Cockatiels. He got me involved in showing my birds and also sold me two beautiful
Cinnamon Pieds - Gorgeous saddlebacks - I had them here for years… They gave
me lots of beautiful babies.”
The first show Linda attended didn’t end the way she had hoped. “I was embarrassed
and ready to sell everything. The other birds at the show were much larger and
better than what I brought and none of mine placed at all. But, instead of having a
sale – I ended up buying some of the more impressive birds I saw to breed into my
flock.”
For size, Greeson chose birds from Ken and Maureen O’Steen. “Their birds were
HUGE! They didn’t sit on the perch very well, but they had tremendous length, size
and width and I knew I wanted to work with them.” For great toplines, she chose
Carter Atwood. “I never really bought that bird from Carter, though. Roger Heroux
(who was the president of ACS at the time) had this magnificent bird from Atwood
that he donated to an ACS auction and I just kept raising my hand until I won the high
bid and took the bird home.”
That bird was destined for greatness in the Greeson flocks. “I bred him to a big
gorgeous hen from Maureen O’Steen and got wonderful babies. That breeding
started everything for me.” A cockbird from this pairing was subsequently bred back
to another O’Steen hen and the famous “Hogan” was born. “I knew the moment that I
reached into the nestbox that Hogan was going to be special. I couldn’t even see him
yet, I just wrapped my hand around a REALLY big baby and I knew.”
Hogan, a Normal cockbird, wasn’t something that many breeders would have kept
back to breed. “Back then, the mutations were all the rage. Many breeders just sent
the normals off to petshops, but Ken O’Steen had given me some invaluable advice
so he stayed here with me. That was a smart move.”
O’Steen’s advice was simple. Spray paint the birds black in your mind and don’t pay
attention to the mutations. Concentrate, instead, on the bird’s head, eyes, crest,
body, etc… Notice the width and the length and choose based on these criteria.
“Once I adopted this technique, my birds began to change.” Despite O’Steen’s
advice, Greeson still has a favorite mutation. “Cinnamon Pearls are the sweetest
birds! Pearls are usually pretty easy to get along with and Cinnamons are friendly,
too – So, when you have both mutations in the same bird, they’re going to be sweet
and affectionate.” If this seems to be a generalization without merit – think again,
folks. Greeson has had a passion for genetics for as long as she can remember and
when she makes a statement like this, she has the documentation to back it up. “I
keep great records … Not just the lineage of my birds, but their visual attributes and
personalities, too. It’s only through these breeding notes that I can notice patterns
that may ultimately change the way I breed my birds.”
This isn’t the only “Greesonism”, either. Keeping great records of her achievements
in breeding throughout the years has led Linda to realize some interesting
observations. Such is the difference between hard-feathered and soft-feathered
birds. “Anyone can tell the differences between these two.” Says Greeson, “Just
choose birds from your aviary and spend time examining and touching them. There’s
a BIG difference in the structure of each mutation’s feathers. Lutinos & Normals have
tight rigid consistencies to their feathers, while Pearls & Cinnamons have softer more
relaxed qualities.” Greeson suggests breeding hard-feathered birds to soft-feathered
birds for great feather texture and size.
These breedings are evident in her pedigrees as many generations of Greeson birds
have been the result of her favorite Cinnamon Pearls being paired to Normal
partners. “I rarely breed Pearl to Pearl because the feather structure can become
poofy and make the bird appear as if he’s in a perpetual moult. HF to HF can cause
the birds to appear to streamlined and thin.” She added.
These unique breeding ideas have won her birds places in almost every exhibition
aviary in the United States, but it’s also interesting to note that Linda hasn’t rested on
her laurels. In 1993, she bought her first American Quarter Horse and in a short
amount of time, she bred three Congress winners. In 1997, she added English
Mastiffs to her interest and now, ten years later, has more trophies than she can
count for her efforts. “Great breeding formulas are consistent no matter what we
breed. I can apply many of my processes to almost any animal and achieve the same
results.”
Some of Greeson’s techniques:
1.No matter what you have on paper, you have to breed visually superior birds to
visually superior birds.
2.Linebreed for uniform characteristics.
3.Develop more than one line at a time, so that when outcrosses are necessary – the
other line’s birds can be used.
4.Select only the best of the best from these pairings to continue the linebreeding
program.
5.Linebreed, Linebreed again, think about it and possibly linebreed a third time –
then outcross.
6.Return the F1 birds to their original line and begin the linebreeding again.
Greeson has become famous in the world of Cockatiels for two distinct lines. One
called “pair 54” and the other “pair16”. “My 54s were linebred for size and the16s
were linebred for correctness, toplines and crest. When I outcrossed, I would breed a
16 to a 54 then study the chicks. The chicks that resembled 54 would go into the 16
lines and vice versa.” When Linda reached what she believed to be the pinnacle of
her linebreeding with both lines, she simply combined them into “pair 129”. “I took my
best 16 birds and paired them to my best 54 birds. I Set up a total of 10 pairs and out
of these, only 2 pairs produced consistently OUTSTANDING babies.”
If this seems like a small number of birds to end with, Greeson begs to differ. “I began
my breeding programs with birds that averaged only 125 grams and I ended with big
gorgeous birds that are consistently over 225 grams. That’s a lot to accomplish in 20
years.” Linda ads, “My true joy in life is starting someone out with incredible breeding
stock. I have bought a lot of birds in my life and it seems that for every good one - I
bought 20 that I never used – even birds costing as much as $500 ended up being a
waste of money! I wasn’t knowledgeable enough at the time, but I did learn and new
breeders will, too. Quality begets quality.” Linda Greeson’s website is:
www.bluequaker.com
| Linda Greeson (Continued) |