The fact that a Crested bird paired to a non Crested
mate is able to produce Crested off-springs at a theoretical 50% Crested and
50% non Crested, should encourage any- one wanting to take up the challenge
of breeding Crests the perfect way forward, even with a small stud of
Bengalese the gene pool is large.Any-one wanting to breed crest can start with just
one crested bird of any colour, this can then be paired to any coloured Non
Crested mate.
If your crested bird is variegated the best advice
would be to pair it to a variegated bird, pairing it to a self coloured bird
will probably not produce variegated birds any-where near, the required
colour standards.
If you are just interested in breeding a few crests
to start with, the colour of the mate does not really matter, however,
anyone wanting to breed Self coloured birds, would be advised to only pair
Self, to Self, introducing variegated birds into a stud of Self’s, can, and
most probably will, produce young with White feathers in the dark colour
Self’s or dark feathers in the White varieties, and can be difficult to
eradicate later in your breeding programme.
There are still a few serious and dedicated Bengalese
breeders who have for years kept the Crested mutation going, it would be
nice to think their efforts have not been in vain.One of the main reasons in my opinion that the
Crested Bengalese are not as popular, or progressed, as much as they should
have over the years, is perhaps due to the fact that when fanciers get round
to selecting their breeding pairs, they pair their best birds first, and the
Crests are in most cases paired to what’s left, invariably the lesser
quality birds.
It is only when crests are paired to the better
birds, we will see improvements in the General Standard and appearance of
Crested pairs.This should then lead to them getting placed in the
Specials, and who knows being “best in show” much more frequently than we
see now.Because we now know that the crested birds only have
a single gene for crest, and it is probable that the mythical Crest bred
does not exist in Bengalese, there is no reason why introducing a Crested
bird to your stud should have any detrimental effect, infact some Crested
birds can improve the head quality on birds from the same brood not showing
Crests. Plus for those of you who like to exhibit your birds they would give
you an extra interest.
Some years ago it was suggested by some, that using
Crest-to-Crest pairings would improve the quality of the Crest, they also
implied that due to a double Crest gene Some of the young would have a lethal gene and would
not survive, some even suggested that there would be birds bred with split
heads, but as previously stated the fact that we now know there is only a
single gene responsible for Crests, there is no likely-hood of that
happening.What breeding Crest-to-Crest is likely to do, is
cause the Crest that are bred from this pairing to have more than one
centre, double or even triple crest that go from the top of the head right
down the back of the neck, whilst other could have a crest that does not
have a single point in the middle of the head but have a parting where the
so- called crest is split down the middle, others have very small crest
where the odd feather sticks up from the head or back of the neck.
There appears to be a number
of different genes producing different types of Crests on Bengalese, only
those birds producing Bengalese with the required type of crest should be
used in your breeding programme, using double, triple, or birds with
multiple centres will only produce you birds with the same undesired show
faults.
The Gloster Canary Crest is often quoted as a good
model to aim for, it is probable that we could not achieve exactly the same
type of crest they have, because unlike the Gloster Canary the feathers at
the front of Bengalese Finch Crest are shorter than those at the sides or
back, but in general the Gloster Crest is a good example of the required
standard.The Standard for Crested Bengalese calls for the
Crest to be as “large and well defined as possible” radiating from “one
single Central point” on the top of the head.
All Bengalese classes should be judged on Type,
Condition, and Matching and Markings, with Type being paramount.But when judging Crest Classes, The General Show
Standards, Size, shape, and quality of the crest, must be paramount.Birds that have Crests with more than one single
centre point should be penalised.Awarding birds with multiple Crests “specials,”does
not help the cause.Seeing birds with more than one crest winning
specials could lead to exhibitors, and newcomers’, thinking it is OK to
breed and exhibit these sub standard crested birds.
Matching for colour and pattern is also important
particularly head colours, if for example the crested bird has a white head
try to match the non crested bird in the pair,Birds that match for colour and pattern also improves
the over-all look of your pair in the show cage.
It may not help you win a first place, but it might help sway the Judge when he has two pairs that are very similar in type and condition.The same applies to Self coloured birds, even siblings from the same nest can have completely different lace markings and colours on the lower breast and belly, a few minutes taken to match them can be the difference between first and nowhere.
It would be nice to see a few
more Fanciers take up breeding Crested Bengalese; they are no more difficult
to breed than the other Bengalese mutations and will offer a new challenge
to fanciers old and new.Crested Bengalese comes in
all the NBFA standard colours, Variegated and Self’s.And should be shown in pairs of the same colour, one
crested, and one non-crested.
