>I had a replacement window salesman call on me yesterday.  It turned out
>that he breeds parrots in his spare time.  This is quite lucrative.  The
>species he specializes in sells for 200 pounds ($300) a bird.  Nutrition
>is very important for success and he has a food mixture he has developed
>himself.  The formula was quite disgusting, mainly consisting of various
>dried pulses and other seeds, chicken meat and honey!  Anyway, rather
>than him selling me windows, I sold him a number of bottles of honey.
>Since he chose my nicest (and most expensive) variety I was relieved to
>hear that he did intend to eat some of it himself.
 
Hi Malcolm,
 
As an ex Australian beekeeper I've spent many summer days working under
flowering gum trees (eucalypt sp.) absolutely full of parrots.  These birds thrive
on nectar,  pollen (pollen not essential), fruit (while still on the trees), grains
(while still on the plant) and are considered by some farmers (ie, fruit and grain
growers ) to be pests.  Over the years I have hand reared young birds that
have fallen their nests on honey etc before returning the to the wild.
 
We have a bird sanctuary on the Gold Coast in Queensland where you can go
and feed the parrots honey and bread.  The parrots are wild and flock to the
sanctuary once a day to be had fed and there are thousands of birds there.
 
During our honey extraction process we produced about 600kg of dark honey
each year that was unsaleable for human consumption and we sold all of it to
people to feed to the  wild parrots.  It's a most amazing site having 100's of wild
parrots flock to your yard and quite happily perch on you to be fed and then fly
off back into the trees.
 
I have also sold large quantities of honey for people to feed to their racing
greyhounds and horses, in fact I once had a wealthy racehorse owner who not
only fed his horses the best quality honey but dosed them with royal jelly as
well.
 
Again truth is stranger than fiction.
 
 
Robert Rice
Apicultural Service Manager
South Island, New Zealand.
 
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