By Gill Cooper
Rex Stephens is gearing up to select and groom 50 of his best budgies with a spray bottle, toothbrush and tweezers for entry into the Royal Geelong Show on 18-21 October.
The 60-year-old is among enthusiastic members of Geelong and District Budgerigar Society participating in this year’s agricultural show.
A plumber by trade, Rex also shares his softer side caring for baby budgies bred at the “Budgie Hilton Hotel” he created at his Queenscliff home.
“I joined the club in 1994 when I was in my late 30s,” he said. “I’d always had them as a kid – dad would bring them home and I’d train them up.”
“My wife Sonia suggested I get into the birds after I finished playing footy instead of spending so much time at the pub,” he laughed.He now has a colourful array of adult and juvenile budgies in 48 breeding cages, three holding cages and three aviaries in his backyard.Rex said he spends about an hour daily sorting their seed and water and three hours cleaning the aviaries each weekend.
“My favourites are the violets – I like the colour of violet budgies,” he said.
Rex will have a selection of in-condition non-breeding adults and babies on display from the Saturday of the show.
The Geelong Budgerigar Society has been running for 84 years and meets at its showgrounds clubrooms in Breakwater at 7.30pm every third Tuesday of the month.
For more information on joining the Society, contact Greg Gosbell on 0419 577 872.
