Through taming and training the wild birds, I learned about parrots and other birds psychology. It never ceased to amaze me that parrots that had been mistreated and roughly handled during quarantine and capture, could learn to trust humans. Because of my love for them, and my lack of fear, wild African Greys would allow me to pet them within 15 minutes. I tamed, and gained the trust of, totally wild Macaws, Cockatoos, Lories and Greys that most people called "Broncos", and would not have attempted to tame. I suppose my lack of fear helped to reassure them. I never used gloves because I felt that I had to give my trust to gain theirs. Within a year, by using charge cards and selling some of the birds I had tamed, I was able to increase my flock to over 150 birds of various species.
In September of 2013, I had aflu outbreak. I lost all but 30 of 219 birds. The experience was traumatic. I blamed myself for their deaths and almost decided to give up. I still owed for most of the birds that I had lost, and wasn't making enough at my business to pay for them. After I got over the initial shock of the fire, I realized that I couldn't just quit. That would have meant defeat, and I refused to be defeated. With the help and support of family I bought a few more birds, but this time most of my purchases were for breeding stock.