Everybody knows the reports of breeder-visits with
the history of the breeder, a description of his breeding-installation,
how he started his line...
That's why I wanted to make an alternative report
of our visit; I'm not going to give al the facts that
everybody already knows but just the things that happen
and the things you see during such a visit.
Hereby our story:
Every budgie-lover who surfs through the many budgie-sites,
surely has already visited
the site of Daniel Lütolf. On his site right
now are 2 really big headed budgies that really catch
the eye, there are a greygreen cock and a cinnamon
lightgreen hen. When you look a little further you
will see that those are no exceptions, there are many
more.
Certainly many breeders have been talking to their
fellow-breeders about this site...
That's what my father and me were thinking : "what
if we would visit this guy to look for ourselves if
his budgies are as good in real life as on the photo's".
Summer 2004 we went to see this famous breeder. Just
to get to know him and nothing more ... but we bought
a few young birds and the first youngsters of this
ones are already flying in our flights. Soon our friends
knew we visited Mr Lütolf and their curiosity
was big to see and judge our new birds. The first
contact with this breeder was very apart, but his
passion for budgies was one with a very big enthusiasm,
this made us keep contact with him. Already at our
first visit it was sure that his stud was one of the
best we had ever seen; and believe me we have seen
a lot of them. A more extensive visit would be worthwhile.
We told our plans to 2 of our best budgie-friends
and asked if they would be interested to join us.
They sure were. They also had seen the birds on the
site and they didn't believe the birds looked like
that in real life. After a lot of mails we found a
few possible weekends for the visit. We just had to
find one that was ok for everyone. That did not work
out and someone had to drop out. He was very sorry!
Now that we found a date we had to arrange transportation,
accommodation and all the logistic stuff that comes
with such a visit. We proposed to drive with our car
and Mr Lütolf booked us a hotel. A time-schedule
was made and it seemed we would have a little spare
time on Sunday morning. We made 2 mails and 2 phone-calls
and by this a visit was arranged to Marcel Bühler
at Hagendorn. Spare time, if we only knew....
The day of the visit. Instructions were given to the
budgie-babysit for the weekend. We left at 2 am for
a 670km drive. Seven hours later we arrived at Würenlos,
exactly on the scheduled time. Our host opened the
door with a face that looked like if he drove the
670km himself. Everybody was introduced and a first
conversation was started. First question: what do
you want to do? Go see the birds or have breakfast?
We already brought our sandwiches but who was thinking
about food? We came for the birds, that was what it
was all about or not? We got a short moment to look
at his breeding-unit and to admire the youngsters
in the flight. Meanwhile Daniel cleaned a bit and
fed the birds. About 2 hours later it was our turn.
After a very good breakfast we could start the second
half (we did not know then we would have to play some
extra times). Between 12u00 and 17u00 every breeding-couple
was showed and discussed. Daniel did not spare his
efforts. There was no secrecy, everything was shown,
the food was prepared in front of us. We really learned
a lot. Then we got the chance to study the birds that
we noticed in the morning and wanted to have a good
look at. You don't have to believe me but I do not
find the words to describe the quality we saw. This
was heaven for every real budgie-lover. No matter
if you are a beginner (like us) or a champion-breeder
(our companions), you will surely be impressed. Every
couple had it's own history. Man or hen or both were
placed in a cage and was talked about history, parents.
This was done so extensively that we sometimes asked
Daniel if he did not had to put the parents back with
their youngsters. You can imagine... At 17u00 there
was a pause because our host had to play football.
We went to our hotel and had a cop of coffee, then
we visited some shops. We saw him again in a restaurant
and after a very good meal with Daniel and his girlfriend
our host asked if we wanted to talk some more in his
birdroom. It was already 23u30. We used this opportunity
to ask Daniel whatbirds were for sale to see if we
could improve our own stud. This was much easier for
us beginners than for our companions. After an extensive
study everybody found some birds that fulfilled their
severe criteria (lol). Every selected bird was discussed
again, and Daniel showed us all all the relatives
to that specific bird, father, mother, sister, brothers
... This was to give us an idea of the pedigree for
that bird. After a while everybody found what they
were looking for and then it was surely time for us
to go to bed (2u00am). But Daniel was not tired yet
and another aspect was discussed and again other birds
were shown to illustrate this or that. Finally at
2u30 we decided to end the visit because 6 hours later
we had to get up for our visit to Marcel Bühler.
Next morning at the breakfast table everybody was
tired and we talked about all that happened the day
before. At Marcel Bühlers place we got a warm
welcome, it was all a bit more formal but he too showed
us his complete set-up. What struck us were his big
birds with excellent feathering. Just the bi-directional
feathering above the cere was a bit missing. He told
us he was working on that. He really has a beautiful
installation. Everything was well thought about and
worked out into detail. Maybe a bit small in total
but certainly an example of how a birdroom should
look like. Meanwhile it was 12u30 and it was time
to pick up the birds at Daniels place. It started
snowing and we lost our way, it took us a long time
to get back to Würenlos. The birds were resting
in the early afternoon, this is one of Daniels typical
ideas of how to treat birds. We had to wait a little
bit but finally we could start our journey home. After
about 7u30 we arrived home. A quick check on the youngsters
if the babysitters did their job well, and then of
to bed because next day as a working day.
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