My Avian Services

23/06/2024

Business for sale, includes all equipment you will need for s*xing birds. Includes 2 days training and after sale support. Please inbox for details

04/06/2024

Hi All, just to update you all. Service will be returning back to normal within the next month. Thank you all for your patience and continued custom.

14/05/2024

We are temporarily closed and will not be accepting samples for the coming weeks.
Thank you for your patience

ROWCROFT
MELISSA JAYNE
'MEL'

Who died suddenly but peacefully at home on Sunday 5th May, aged 31 years.

Dearly loved Fiancé of Dave, loving mum of Scott, much loved daughter of Deborah and Kevin, step-daughter to Chris and Joanne and grandaughter of Joan.

The funeral service will take place at Preston Crematorium on Friday 17th May at 2.15pm. A splash of colour in your clothing would be much appreciated.

Family flowers only please, donations can be made to the SHWA -UK ( The Siberian Husky Welfare Association) via https://melissarowcroft.muchloved.com/

All enquiries to William Houghton Funeral Directors, Chapel Hill, Longridge. Tel 01772 782291

05/05/2024

Due to a family emergency we will not be accepting any more samples for the near future.

20/03/2024

Sexing little owlets today from their teeny egg shells 🦉 🥚 🥰

We start by dissecting a small amount of the inner egg membrane (containing all the tiny blood vessels) and then extract whole genomic DNA sequence from just that.

This makes s*xing them completely stress and pain free, and gives us quick, reliable results so that their rings can be placed on the appropriate foot - and of course they can be paired with appropriate mates in the future! 🧬 🤓

12/03/2024

New gadget alert ‼️

We have just invested a pretty penny into this wizardry! If any of you have had to wait whilst we’ve adjusted the concentration of your samples to gain a nice clear result, this should now be a thing of the past!

This cool little gadget will tell us, before testing, how much DNA is actually in our sample before testing!

Mind blowing 😆 (if you are Mel)!!

16/02/2024

We have just received delivery of our very first buccal swab kits.

These kits will allow you to take a sample of cells containing DNA from your bird, with just a quick spin and wipe inside the cheek!

They are completely pain free and an ideal alternative for those of you wishing to know s*x, but not wanting to pull any feathers! They will also lessen the time needed for sampling birds from the breeders among you! No more clipping and cauterising, just a quick swab and it’s done! They will also allow the early s*xing of chicks, stress free!

They will be slightly more expensive, owing to their supply price, but the DNA TEST will be exactly the same low price of £5.00.

As an introductory offer we can supply these kits for £2.00 a bird!

(Note, most of the work and cost comes from extracting the cheek cells, so when your delivery arrives and you are looking at the world’s most expensive swab, it’s not just that!)

Message or comment for more information!

We have 50 of these to trial and I don’t think they will stick around long!

12/01/2024

Our resident peahen has something to say… 🔻🔻

Our BRAND NEW price list is now live, and our new guarantee: WE WILL MATCH ANY UK LAB PRICE FOR DNA SEXING.

That’s right, you won’t get UK s*xing any cheaper than here. As of now, all our DNA s*xing is £5.00 per test, no matter how many you’d like.

Our test kits are £2.00 P&P for as many as you’d like!

Check it out at: www.myavianservices.co.uk

🧬 🧪 🤩

01/12/2023

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about processing these - I might even keep a couple as a souvenir!

As a wee Friday cheer me up, given it’s the 1st December, we’re going to do a little competition!

GUESS THE SPECIES!
All correct guesses of the species pictured will go into a random prize entry and the winner will receive 5 standard DNA tests completely free of charge! Worth £40! We’ll even post you the collection kits free! (UK only).

So come on guys, to win, just comment on THIS post what the species is that we’re DNA s*xing here today!

All correct guesses will go into a random number picker based on your entry position! Gain 1 EXTRA entry number for tagging 2 of your avian-keeping friends!

Good luck! Prize drawn tonight Friday 1st Dec at 8pm!

🎅 🎄 🦜 🧬

19/11/2023

Our new ‘Black edition’ cards are almost ready!

These black coated, steel cards are etched by laser as a lovely keepsake!

They are £7.50 each and for each card, we will personalise it by etching a photo of your choice onto the front along with your name, the bird’s ring number/name and s*x. 🦜

They are very hard to photograph well, they look very cool in the flesh! 🧬

Please note: we can only offer these on birds s*xed by ourselves, they will not have the unique certificate number on, as such should not be taken as a guarantee for a bird’s s*x - they are meant as a wee keepsake or a nice token to give to your chick’s new home along with their s*xing certificate (supplied free, digitally, with each test).

13/11/2023

Starting the week off as we mean to go on… 💪🏼

40 blood samples prepped and currently extracting DNA! 🧬

Note:

ALL feather samples with us will be processed tomorrow - we are transitioning between extraction protocols at the moment - so bloods only today.

You should all be getting feather results back tomorrow! 🤩

Kindest wishes,

Mel x

06/11/2023

A sneak peek behind the scenes here at My Avian Services!

Here’s where the last 12 months has led us; our office laboratory! 👩🏼‍🔬🧬🧪

04/11/2023

Happy 1st year of trading to us! We formed 4/11/22 and it has been a whirlwind of a year!

Thank you to all of our lovely clients who have made our business venture possible. We look forward to seeing you again in our second year of trading! 🎉

09/10/2023

As most of you know, I am now studying a Master’s degree in DNA Profiling.

It’s something I’m very grateful for, however it is taking up a considerable amount of my time each week. That, coupled with our rural post service is making same day testing a little difficult.

As such, our same day service is changing slightly -

**It will now become a 24 hour service from the time we sign for your samples.**
Meaning that, if your samples are delivered at 2-3pm, we aim to get results back to you by that time the following day. The charges for a 24 hour service remain the same, £8 per order - up to 20 samples.

This will hopefully ease pressure a little bit on ourselves, and help manage your expectations of us at the same time. As we live in a fairly rural town, our postal service isn’t fabulous.

We ALWAYS recommend sending your samples signed for, or tracked if you need them testing promptly.

I hope to still see, and work, with you all despite the changes. Whether you are a breeder or small keeper I hope that this change doesn’t affect you too much!

Kindest wishes as always,
Mel

01/10/2023

We have had a fantastic day at Staffordshire Bird Show today!
Thank you so much to everyone who came to speak to us, collect kits and arrange testing - we have loved seeing you!

25/09/2023

We have had some interesting species in today! We have enough feathers to fill a duvet!

A client of ours wanted 7 ‘pairs’ of various subspecies of swans s*xing!
I say ‘pairs’ because that’s for me to determine apparently 😆🤔

🪿🦆🐦‍⬛🦉🦢🦩🦜🦚

We don’t just s*x parrots! If it’s an avian…we can do it!

The only exception being ratites! We’re still working on that one…

23/09/2023

IMPORTANT

We are having quite a few problems with post here at the moment guys! We have had nothing for a few days now! (Fully expecting to be working all hours when it does arrive…🤪)

If you require same-day testing PLEASE use Special Delivery by 1PM. If you want the cheap and cheerful option then use 1st Class Signed for and they are normally with us next day.

Also worth noting - Royal Mail are no longer accepting non-coded stamps.
We have also had to pay for a few samples this week in order for them to be released from the sorting office, although we are still awaiting them being delivered…🙄 🐌

You can download a form on Royal Mail’s website for exchanging your old stamps!

Kindest Wishes
Mel

17/09/2023

Check out our second blog! Mel has been writing about the differences (or rather, similarities) between blood and feather testing!

For my second blog I thought I would try and tackle a few misconceptions amongst keepers when it comes to submitting either blood or feather, for s*x analysis. It has long been thought that blood is more accurate than feather when submitting a sample for analysis. This is partly true, however not fo...

22/08/2023

Woohoo!

After some super runs this weekend and today I am now pleased to say we are accepting feather samples again! 🪶

Please remember to send a generous amount incase we cannot extract enough DNA from just 1-2! We recommend 5-6 to ensure we can get you a result first time!

Thank you so much to everyone who has sent blood instead of feathers during this period, you are all amazing! ☺️

Kindest Wishes
Mel x

19/08/2023

Whilst we are still not accepting feathers, we are still able to process blood samples, we are almost there with feathers - just a few more days and a few more successful tries! 🪶

Mel has made use of the down time to completely redesign the company certificates and cards.
We now also have our new test cards, made from FSC recycled paper instead of the
non-environmentally friendly plastic bags. 🌳✅

Take a look at our new ID cards and certificates, available from £1.49! 🥇

“I just want to thank everyone who has continued to send in samples especially with the added effort of obtaining a blood sample. I understand fully, that catching birds for sampling is not always easy in terms of convenience and stress on the bird. I am doing all I can to get us back up and running on feathers again.

Kindest Wishes,
Mel”

08/08/2023

🩸🪶 IMPORTANT NOTICE 🪶🩸

Due to what we are told is a faulty batch of extraction material, we are temporarily only accepting BLOOD samples for avian s*xing and PBFD testing.

We hope to be accepting feathers again within a couple of weeks, and rest assured if you have samples with us they will be tested as soon as possible, I believe I’ve contacted everyone with samples in at the moment.

Huge…massive apologies for the inconvenience. The company we purchase the solution off are looking into this as quickly as possible with their technical support team. The extraction process varies between blood and feather which is why we are still able to process blood.

If you have sent us feathers in the meantime, please do not worry, we will prepare and freeze samples as they come in, for immediate testing once this has been resolved.

Kindest Wishes,
Mel

25/07/2023

DID YOU KNOW?

The extraction methods and products we use are still used at both NASA’s microbial testing centre and NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO).

They use exactly the same extraction technique and products for bacteria, that we use for avian DNA. 🧬

This is critical for them, and keeping their staff safe before missions! The products used have allowed for samples to be processed in space, instead of having to send them all the way back down to Earth 🌍

…Only the best for my clients 😝🤓

16/07/2023

Check out our new blog❗️

Mel’s done the first post, explaining the basics of DNA testing❗️

We will be writing a monthly blog - feel free to ask any questions you might have and we can answer them in future posts!

A quick blog about dna s*xing parrots telling the s*x of a bird or avian s*xing

28/06/2023

We’re back!!! 💥 🧬

Thank you so much to everyone who has sent samples and waited until our return!

I came across this feather today amongst a large order for testing and thought it a perfect opportunity to explain the concept of feather vs blood testing.

When testing feathers, we are STILL testing blood. As you can see below, there is a fantastic example of the DNA-rich blood clot at the base of the feather. 🩸

When you send your feathers to us, we actually extract the DNA from the bird from this section. 🪶

If you are ever concerned you haven’t plucked enough feathers you can hold them against a white background to make sure the blood clot is present.

If you’ve ever wondered why moulted feathers don’t work, this blood clot is the reason. As feathers mature and grow, the blood at the calamus (base) naturally depletes. This means we cannot extract anything from the feather…

The argument regarding blood being more accurate than feather is simply because of the amount of blood submitted. As you can imagine, in tiny birds the blood clot is incredibly small, whereas medium-large birds like the one below can contain a lot of blood!

Smaller amounts of blood can make PCR a little harder to detect the sample, albeit very sensitive! So that’s where the argument comes from about accuracy 🤓🤓

So now you know! And another thank you to everyone for keeping me incredibly busy on my return!

Kindest Regards,
Mel x 🧬 🧪 💥

01/06/2023

In three days we will have been trading for 6 months! 🎉

Time has flown… and during this time I’ve met some amazing people.

I didn’t pick the easiest of business to go into, but on a whole, we’re getting there one problem at a time!
On that note, I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has stood by me (and not shouted at me) whilst facing technical issues!
Unfortunately for me, I’m only a ‘one man band’. I’ve had to learn s*xing avians from scratch and haven’t had a mentor to bounce ideas off! 👩🏼‍🔬

So seriously, thank you to everyone who has recommended my small business to their friends and fellow breeders!

From 10th June - 28th June 2023 I will be on annual leave. Any samples sent during this window will unfortunately not be tested until I get back.
If you are thinking of getting birds s*xed I will need the samples in the next couple of days to get them extracted and tested in time for my jollies! 🌴

Kindest Wishes
Mel

23/02/2023

We’re all set up at Wigan once again, with our little mascot today!

Remember Stafford is coming and we can still guarantee a same-day turnaround all the way up to next Friday! 🦜

13/02/2023

A client was desperate for same-day results today. Little did he know we’ve just invested another chunk into 150 minute PCRs…❗️

That’s right, your bird s*xed in just over 3 HOURS! 💥

No more waiting 4-5 days, as long as we can s*x your species with the reagents we have (over 3000 available), we can do it in just under 3 hours from receiving your sample. I can happily say we are the only company in the UK offering this service! 😬🦜

Drop offs are welcome, as are next-day tracked services. Fire away - but just make sure we’ve agreed to it prior to the samples coming in - we need to ensure we have the right stock for your bird! 🦢🐧🦆🦜🥚 🐔🦅🦉

Best Wishes,
Mel and Dave! X

24/01/2023

We are now pleased to offer DNA cards after a successful first run 🥳 as an introductory offer these will be available for £1.50 extra on top of any full paying DNA test (£8.00) for the whole of February 😍

Photos will be available of your bird too if you’d like personalisation! Or you can stick with our resident conure! 🦜

24/01/2023

Howdy!

For anyone planning to use our website, it is unfortunately completely down. When migrating to the new shop site it appears there were some gremlins in the system!

Please bear with us whilst we try to get it restored, I know a few people have phoned saying they can't find it - so anything you need just give us a call and I can email you submission forms etc until we're back up and running!