FMC Scotland 2025

FMC is a tri-person partnership formed late in 2017 and is already winning best in shows….but the partners have actually been around for some time. FMC comprises Davy Fisher (joined the BS in 1993), Tom McCrindle (re-joined in 2002) and Martyn Campbell (joined in 2009). When the FishShep-5-person-partnership dissolved due to Gary Shepherd’s ill health and after winning 5 challenge certificates at the 2017 BS club show, Davy invited two of the former partners (who stayed nearby and had previously helped him get birds to shows) to join him in forming FMC. Even more reason for asking Tom and Martyn to join him was the fact that each had 100% FishShep bloodlines in their respective birdrooms. As an aside, Tom and Davy both feel that they were right to bring Martyn up from novice to champion when he joined the partnership.

In 2018, they exhibited at only five shows and called short their show season due to the heatwave affecting the condition of the partnership’s birds. However, two of these shows gave them a Best in Show award – Edinburgh BS (which had the highest benched entry of birds in Scotland in 2018) and Kingdom of Fife BS; also, three Best Young Bird in show; plus a total of 29 Challenge Certificates. No doubt they would have been strong contenders at the Scottish BS too but for the fact that Tom was judging it.

Goals Not Set
Davy tells me that the new partnership has not set any particular goals; he himself at the age of 72 having won most of the major awards possible in his 42 years in the hobby. For example, in 1999, as an intermediate, and in partnership with Gerry Dragoonis, he won four best in shows, eight best young bird in show and 30 challenge certificates. He is proud of his record of winning the Scottish BS show four times and as he puts it, “hit the crossbar” three times at the BS World Show. He has come second best in the BS CC list, and runner up Best BS Breeder of the Year. Davy also holds the record for winning with a young bird which won best young bird in show and went on to win best in show ten times, at shows in Scotland.

Each of the partners have a few rares e.g. Dilutes, Texas Clearbodies, Recessive Pieds and Inos, but they move birds around their birdrooms to create good splits to improve them. They also have a say in each other’s pairings at breeding time. None of the partners has ever used a French moulter in their breeding team. As regards the use of flecked birds in the breeding cage, Davy only retains 35 birds for breeding but will tolerate the odd ticked hen but ticked cocks not at all.

They haven’t brought in any out crosses recently but do exchange birds between themselves to create some new blood in their respective birdrooms.

Davy Fisher
I managed to visit Davy’s aviary for a short visit (30 minutes) for the purposes of writing this profile on the new partnership. For me it was like going back in time…. in the nicest possible way. Davy has not gone back to basics as he has never gone away from them! His system works as can be judged from the quality of his adults and youngsters shown in the photographs. Cage fronts are plastic with a large access door with only a single perch and the desktop nest box and stand inside the cage.

The seed mix is a standard one of mixed millet and canary and is given in “jam jar” feeders, with the addition of tonic seed (including rolled oats) in the flight. Millet sprays are the Chinese version. No cuttlefish or iodine blocks are given; Davy preferring a mixture which he and Gary Shepherd put together in place of this which is offered in finger drawers. Davy stopped feeding grit 25 years ago, instead silica sand is offered in “drinkers” attached to the cage fronts. Davy tells me this is soluble and can be ground down to a fine texture by the birds if they want. The partners have their own preventative regime by adding probiotics to the water on a planned basis. In addition, three days a month, instead of water, the birds are given a mixture of cider vinegar and pineapple juice in their drinkers. This is given to prevent any crop problems occurring.

The Fisher aviary is approximately 4 metres by 3 meters with 18 breeding cages, a half indoor flight, two air filters and an extractor fan – industrial model. In the flight a show cage is attached to the rear wall to allow his youngsters to become accustomed to it. The only natural daylight comes through the wire security door, if the outer wooden door is left ajar. His nest boxes are of the “Moffat” desktop style which he made some 40 years ago! Slightly unusual in design in that each has a nest pan and step in the box and sits on a raised platform. At the end of the breeding season the platform sits inside the nest box – useful for disinfecting and for storage.

Quality Over Quantity
Davy retains only 35 birds for the breeding season; his aim is not to breed numbers but to breed quality. He prefers one of the pair to be less long feathered than the other; in the case of the hen he prefers it to be “wiry”. This year however he has paired up a pair of long feathered birds as an experiment! During my visit I viewed some excellent cinnamons, spangles, yellow faces and dilutes, together with a few normals.

Davy, without boasting, informed me of some of the budgerigar names both past and present that have had stock from him. He recalled in particular the late James Hunt turning up in his red Ferrari one morning. That must have turned quite a few heads in East Kilbride!

His early learning in the fancy came from a long-term apprenticeship and association with the late Jim Moffat. When he first met him at his home, Davy did not realise that the unassuming person digging away in old clothes in the garden was the man himself. That meeting led to a long friendship and eventual exchange of birds between the two of them. Davy still refers to his nest boxes at the “Moffat” nest box.

It was a real pleasure to visit the “senior” partner in FMC, it was one birdroom that caused me to reflect seriously on my own methods, but I do not think my good lady would tolerate me making yet another major change to my birdroom.

Tom McCrindle
Tom is not only one of FMC’s partners but is also a BS Judge. He has judged all over Scotland and in England including the BS Club Show at Doncaster. His wooden birdroom is approximately 5 metres by 4 metres and has 18 breeding cages with a full size flight at one end. Being a plumber by trade it naturally has a sink and running water in it! He utilises a mix of both inside and outside nest boxes and has adopted the same management regime as his other partners. Tom is well known for the Inos, Texas Clearbodies and Dilutes that he breeds and shows.

Martyn Campbell
Martyn is the “junior” of the new partnership, having bred budgerigars for the past 13 years. His father kept racing pigeons so the keeping of breeding records and their use in assisting in pairing together of related birds was already part of his background. Starting with budgerigars from a local champion he became disillusioned with the prices he was paying for these birds, so after about 4 years he sold up completely. His newly built birdroom stood empty and while considering what to do with this empty space, Davy contacted him and sold him a decent batch of 17 birds to allow Martyn to restart. This was followed by a further lot of some 27 birds. When Davy saw how he had paired these birds together, and the resulting offspring, he was impressed by what the beginner had done. This was the start of the friendship between the two of them and later, through Davy, Martyn became friendly with Gary Shepherdson. One of the challenges he faced when he joined the partnership was going from Novice to Champion but this was overcome when his birds were winning top awards at shows.

Martyn’s 5.5 by 4 metre birdroom is made from prefabricated concrete panels with a flat roof and houses a block of 12 breeding cages and a further two single wire breeding cages. He has an air filter/cleaner and an external air extraction system running most of the time. The birdroom is also fitted with a sink and running water.

The Moon-boot
When I visited him in late November he was off work, having had his ankle fused but it had failed, and he was currently awaiting a further operation. As a result he was wearing a “moon-boot” and his walking and standing was limited. Because of his restricted mobility, the other partners had taken away most of his spare birds and first round youngsters. He was left with only a few spare birds and the 28 adults paired up in his breeding cages.

Like Davy he uses desktop nest boxes, albeit slightly larger than the ones Davy uses. He too uses only a single perch (square) in his cages, which are 600mm deep with wire fronts (450mm by 450mm). However, if the hen won’t take to an internal nest box, he fixes an outside nest box to the cage and doubles the number of perches.

The dividers between each cage are made of a heavy gauge wire. Martyn, like his other partners, pairs up towards the end of August / beginning of September. He does not offer softfood to his breeding pairs as he says they don’t touch it! However, he uses the same seed mix, silica sand and additives as his partners and follows the same feeding and probiotic regime as they do. Chinese millet sprays are given to his birds after first being soaked in Vanodine. He too uses jam jar feeders and his top tip is not to push the jar into the hopper too far, this prevents building up of dust/clogged seed in the bottom of the hopper.

A Mix Of Varieties
Martyn keeps a mix of normals, spangles, opaline cinnamon and cinnamon hens, dilutes and also one melanistic spangle cock which he has yet to pair up. One or two of his adults are also split recessive pied as he is interested in breeding this variety. There were no opaline cocks present but he did say he did not have any problem using one provided it was clean headed.

Both the cock and the hen have their vent areas heavily plucked before breeding but one of Martyn’s challenges is also remembering to do this between rounds. An insight into the type of bird that the partnership aims to breed was given when Martyn plucked a grey green cock. They are aiming for a bird with tight feather in the body and long feather in the mask area, together with a “good blow” and good back skull. It is also very desirable for the bird to have a lot of soft under-down feathering, which was revealed as he plucked away the main vent feathers of the cock. He feels such feather type helps a bird to stay in show condition. The partnership is not looking to breed overly large birds and have a good idea of what they consider to be too large for their purposes. In over nine years of breeding exhibition type budgerigars he has not experienced French moult in his birdroom once.