Every great story needs a beginning:

How everything began:

I can still remember how there were always birds chirping and twittering in my parent's apartment. I was really fascinated a small boy by the canaries and chinese nightingales singing to see who could sing the best. My grandfather owned all kinds of birds, starting with small birds, pigeons, geese, and even turkeys. My father also owned a small aviary with forest birds. You could say that I was introduced to birds in my cradle.

I gained my first experience of birds with a goldfinch cock (carduelis carduelis) that I got from my friend Uwe Heger from Untergrombach. At that time Uwe bred red canaries with his father very successfully. I added a canary hen to the mix and kept both in a cage with branches. I was very excited when the hen built a nest, laid eggs and after some time the chicks were born and were cared for successfully by their parents. The young birds grew fast and we were very pleased with their very nice songs. However, size restriction in the apartment meant that the birds were resettled in my grandfather's aviary. Unfortunately, the goldfinch cock escaped and flew away and I acquired a new canary cock. I can't remember the exact colour any more. When it was warm, I kept the birds in a cage on the balcony. When it got colder, the birds had their place close to the kitchen door. I was very pleased when the female built a nest, but also very disappointed when she threw the eggs out of her nest. At this time I found out, that our balcony was the best location for the birds. I had a very special experience, when I was in the 5th grade. I was at school when a strong storm came and immediately I thought of my birds. I ran from the classroom without saying anything to anyone "to save" my birds. When I got home, I put the cage in our room, so that nothing would happen to the birds. Actually, the cage was well protected on the balcony, but in my excitement I did not think of this. Anyway I got written up for the incident and got into trouble with my parents. Later on, the hen disappeared, but there were young birds in the nest. The cock at that time was such a good parent, that he feed the squeakers until they were big enough that they could feed themselves. I sold the young birds to an Italian who lived in the neighbourhood for 20.00 DM. That was a lot of money for me. The birds singing always reminded him of his native country. Sometimes you also have to be lucky and a little bit later I saw the hen that had flown away was sitting on the railing on the balcony. I was able catch her without any problems.

My friend Uwe offered to sell me some Eurasian siskin [Carduelis spinus]. They were expensive and I could not afford them and so my father lent me the money. The Eurasien siskin were very nice birds, indeed tomboys, little devils and could not be kept in the cage that I had at the time. Why I didn't bring them to my grandfather, I don't know any more. I had to get rid of them and Uwe didn't want to take them back so we let the birds fly. After that my interest in birds decreased and I devoted myself to other things. I was not aware that my fascination with birds was not over yet.

Some years later..............

After our marriage our "bird breeding hobby" resumed with 2 black-red canaries that I bought, without any real intentions, in 1994 as a birthday present from the feed trader Roth in Wiesental.

The birds were kept in a normal cage, first in our living room, and then later because of the children, on our balcony. The first birds were hatched on the balcony. The first cage was built quickly from old shelf parts, so that the birds would have enough space. When we moved into Elke's parent's home, we had the possibility to build a small aviary in the courtyard of the house (1 m x 1 m x 2 m). This was where we accommodated the birds.

In the meantime we also owned yellow birds. But, because the birds could do what ever they wanted in the "bushes" in the cage, we "bred" our first wood- and meadow canaries. We thought that they were very nice coloured birds (among other things: yellow with black head) and we sold them at the bird market in Ettlingen. Then, with the proceeds Alex bought his first "pedigree birds" by a famous breeder in Graben-Neudorf. He started consciously to breed these birds in a converted pigsty. In our first year (1988) we were the proud owners of 12 young birds.

Egged on by Uwe and his father, we entered the club championship in Untergrombach for the first time. We managed to score 365 points and registered our first success (2nd place in the association mastery of the canary breeder). Excited by this success, we entered, very ambitiously, our first state championship. Unfortunately, we did not have any success at the competition. But we knew then that we wanted to compete. Friends and colleagues from the breeder's association persuaded us to enter the German championship that was being held in Saarbrucken. We entered a collection of intensely yellow coloured canaries. On the Friday evening Uwe called us to say that we had gotten a 2nd place with the birds. We could not believe it. We got into the car and drove from home in Unteröwisheim to his house in  Untergrombach and one look in the catalogue was enough. We travelled twice by car that weekend to Saarbrucken to marvel at this "miracle".

Up until 1995, we bred yellow coloured canaries. The tips that we got from fellow breeders were not always the best ones, and the quality of the birds decreased and we stopped breeding these birds. We started breeding Phaeokanarien after this and our mentor for this project was our friend and breeder's association colleague Rainer Bindschädel.

Association memberships

It is always good to join a breeder's association especially as we did not know enough initially about the correct way to keep, feed and breed the birds. The active exchange of views with other breeders was for us the most important reason to have a membership in an association. Keeping an ear open and listening to the advice of older and more experienced members gave us tips and tricks to resolve our problems and they helped the inexperienced bird breeders with words and deeds.

Alex joined the Protection of Birds and Breeding Association, Untergrombach in 1988 and for the first years he was an active member, but for the last several years he has only been a passive member.

Since we live in Unteröwisheim, we became active members in 1989 of the Association of the Bird's Friends in Unteröwisheim e.V. After only two years Alex was chosen by the club to be an assessor and some years later to be the Secretary and since 1999 he has held the office of Chairman.

From the beginning of his membership, he was involved with the organisation of the open Kraichtaler town masteries which took place in  2009 for the 21st time. 

Besides this, Alex is a member by the Baden Canary Breeder Association (BKV) with the member's number 01-7928 and member with the Union for the Protection of Endangered Species, bird's position and bird's breeding inc (AZ) with the member's number 31211.

After a "test phase" with different colours, we have become specialized in the following birds:

Yellow  Phaeos

and  Brown birds

with topaz as well as agate.