How it all began
Avian Draw brought to you in Association with Mid Essex Budgerigar Society and Cage & Aviary Birds is an evolution of Budgie Raffle started by Mid Essex back in 2016
The Budgie Raffle like any other raffle was started to raise funds to enable Mid Essex to run it’s open show & club. Most raffles are very limiting due to the footfall at events and the value of prizes. Most visitors are willing to support a raffle but how many genuinely want to win the prizes on offer?
With quality prizes, a bigger audience and the offer of free delivery we were ready to launch. Our first raffle with just two quality Budgerigars available sold 1058 tickets which is great for a club raffle!
The feedback we received was fantastic and others were keen to donate prizes. The raffle grew each year with small tweeks here and there in an attempt to make it the best it can possibly be.
In 2020 Mid Essex decided it wanted to help others so we opened up our raffle to other budgerigar clubs. With 30 prizes benefitting 13 clubs we sold 11495 tickets which was remarkable!
In 2021 We wanted to build not only on the success of the raffle but on the ability to help others. We contacted our friends at Cage & Aviary who were very keen to work with us in launching Bird Raffle. Invites were published in C&AB and 36 prizes were donated, this time clubs from across the bird keeping hobby were involved and again we exceeded our previous ticket sales with a final figure of 11645 tickets sold.
Unfortunately various factors including Covid, Avian flu and the withdrawal of Walkers transport from the caged bird market meant that there was no raffle in 2022. We are back for 2023 with some new and improved features to the site and everyones experience.
The Beneficiary clubs helped so far are listed below
| Birmingham BS |
| Bristol BS |
| Bury St Edmunds BF Club |
| City of Lincoln B&FBA |
| Dartford Kent BS |
| Fife Fancy Federation |
| High Wycombe CBS |
| Kent ZFC |
| Mid Essex BS |
| Midlands Counties Norwich Plainhead Club |
| North Frill Club UK |
| North Staffs & S Cheshire FFCC |
| Southern Yorkshire CC |
| South Bucks Canary breeders Ass |
| UK Budgerigar Club |
| Walsall CBS/FFCC |
| Western Premier S&RV Budgerigar Show |