Very distressed Budgies

Question
My husband and I have recently gotten three parakeets....All three are males...the first two were dropped off at his work, and we took them in.  They have their adult feathers...but their age is unknown. We worked with them for a while, trying to get them comfortable with us.  We put them in the living room, and only put our hands in the cage to feed and water them.  When we were not in the room, we would leave the tv or a fan on in order to keep them from being afraid (I've read silence scares them). After several weeks, they still seemed to be afraid of us.  They fly to the top of the cage anytime we come near it.  About a week ago, I got a third Budgie.  His name is Keekers, and he is only about 6 months old.  I've also read that younger birds are more receptive to handling and that, in time, they will really enjoy human contact.  I thought that Keekers would take to us, and maybe it would encourage the other two to join in once they realized we weren't to be feared.  The woman I bought him from told me that it might work, but the only real way to get them used to me was to hold them and love them even if they resisted...and eventually they would learn to like it.

I brought Keekers home and put in the cage...the other two took to him alright, there was no fighting or anything.  That night, I caught both of the other two (Beau and Benny) and clipped their wings.  I'm not sure if that had ever been done before, but Beau was desperately trying to fly.  Anyway, that's the first time I handled either one of them and they hated it.  They bit the whole time.

Since then, I have let all three out to explore.  Beau and Benny usually huddle up on the floor and don't really move unless disturbed.  Keekers likes to run from one hiding place to the next....all three of them seem to totally hate me.  They run from me and try to fly when I try to catch them to put them away.  I understand they are afraid, but I don't know how to help that.  I've heard that they live for about 15 years, and I just can't live the next 15 years of my life with my little birds being afraid of me!

I've known other people with Budgies that really enjoyed people.  I would love to have and actual relationship with my birds!  I need help making it happen!

Answer
Hi Emily!

This is some advice I gave to another person in your situation:

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Budgies-3463/2008/8/Help-taming-1.htm

That should work well for you too. They'll eventually learn to love you. If that doesn't answer your question or you have a more detailed question, feel free to ask a follow-up!

Hope this helps!
Erika