German Roller Training School by Almin

Almin is a dedicated and extremely talent German Roller Canary breeder. I am excited and confident that the future of the fancy is in good hands with Almin!


I had barely arrived late Sunday after the show and been seated before the training school cabinet when Almin's mother brought me a wonderful sandwich with a traditional Bosnia ćevap sandwich and a cup of hot tea! Then Almin began showing his operation.


Spectacular training school is a completely controlled environment with its own lighting, temperature control, and a heater to warm the cabinet as needed. Wonderful hollow toned birds sang beautifully!!


Wireless thermostats and sensors check the temperature between 16 and 18 degrees C at all times. If the temperature is too cool, the heater in the cabinet is activated by Portable/Prewired Thermostat.




Almin pointed out that the best singers have white striations on the top of the head and red lid around the eye. Click on picture for a closer look. Once I was back in Wichita, I checked it out and sure enough my best also have the white striations on the top of there head too! Thanks for sharing Almin, how had I missed seeing that?

Beautifully crafted cabinet and cages!


Wow, look at that show cage door!


Intricate cabinet handle for easy carrying.


Cabinet sides fit right in to the top of the cabinet.


The workmanship on his cabinets and cages and attention to details is a work of real craftsmanship and a work of art!!


Almin learned the roller song in Bosnia before coming to the US fourteen years ago to work as a telecommunications vendor at Microsoft. Since coming here, he has been raising rollers for five years and showing for two years. Both years he won the awards: Novice and Amateur Classes, Grand Champion Team and Champion Young Team at last show!


Flight cages in outside aviary.


Closer view of flight cage in the outside aviary. Note the petitioned perches, canary ferris wheel, and multiple hole swing.


Lower flight of hens showing a rose colored cuttlebone which has extra minerals. On the cage bottom he uses cat pine pellets!


Almin has installed a security camera in his outside aviary.

During our discussion, Almin freely shared information he had gleaned from his experiences with the birds, his wife's translation of the German roller handbook and from his mentor Frank Wördemann in Germany. Basically the German birds are of three lines: Herr Buchhorn, Herr Trier and Herr Gehling. Most of the what I and others here in the US have are from the Buchhorn line.

The best cocks started training school in October. The day length is 10 hours from 8:30 am to 6:30 pm. They are fed and watered at 5:30 pm each day. The diet is unlimited rape seed and finger drawers of a mix with 50% canary, 35% niger, 5% flax, 5% oat groat, and 5% hemp about 1 tsp per day. Extras of apple, broccoli, and 1/4 inches of sliced banana are feed weekly along with sprouted rape seed, CeDe egg food, dry bread crumbs, and sunflower pieces.

Two days before a show and weekly during training his birds are fed grated carrot with honey. To one grated carrot he adds one tablespoon of honey. Feeding this of an alternative of niger, rape, bee pollen and honey two days before a show assures that his birds will sing when it is most important, in front of the judge! He also uses pure mineral water in show cages 10 days before the show for best tone.

Almin gets his bee pollen from bulkfoods.com/bee_pollen.htm. He also uses Energize for show stress to calm his birds during the show time from allbirdproducts. He uses petroleum jelly on the birds feet to clean their feet, keep them warm and avoid illness caused by mites.

Thanks so much Almin for a perfect finish before going back to Wichita!! I look forward to continued dialogue with you sharing our passion for the hobby. Take a look at his informative web site at canaviary.com!!