Darkness moult....?

most of my dark ybs are moulting now around ther head, tail and wings, will they go through the body moult again as well..........?

I think so david, as I said before I have an Irish stray thats darkness and its begining to moult its head and body, as well as its first flight. Wil still me moulting in december.

hi martyn, mine are moulting head and tail......some are on maybe their2nd flight, but ive noticed that the exchange bird from ian hasnt dropped any wing flights yet...a;tho he is moulting round his face and tail............wonder if is because ian puts them straight onto dark from weaning compared to mine which went on when the clocks altered

Hello, this nothing to do with Darkness YB's but a general moulting observation/question (I hope you don't mind). Anyway, the 2 squeekers David kindly gifted to me 2 weeks ago which are still squeeking (they're only about 6-7 weeks old) have, I noticed today, both started to moult, albeit from the body. I was really surprised, the youger one still has some tufts of down on its head.

Are they likely to complete a full moult - they seem hardly grown and yet all this energy that would normally be going into growing and developing seems as though it could be compromised by an immature moult?

I have to say though they're both tearing up the sky and are reaaly spectacular when they start tumbling - great to watch

yes this is normal as far as i know steve, they are latebreds and as this is the normal moulting time coming up to winter they will be starting to moult........yes they will do a full body moult now they have started, altho im not too sure but i think ive read they might not moult the end flight.....but i could be wrong. maybe someone more experienced than me can tell you.

glad to hear the ybs are coming on well steve................ they sound very happy in their new home.

Steve with late breds you will find they will go through a body moult and will proably get to 3 flights to go still moulting there flights till febuary, I will tell you one thing I have noticed the one you have with tufts of down on it will be your best bird but take a tip do not try to race it next year just give it very light training and sit on it till the year after, you cant race late breds for two years that is why a lot of fanciers dont keep them they are good to bred from starting about march april

Thanks for the advice Ginger. I won't be racing next year anyway as I've only just started to keep birds again and am just learning how to look after them. It's been a long time since I last had pigeons and don't think I had LB's before and in any case did't take too much notice of moults (I was only a lad at the time).

I aim to race again in 2011 and hope to breed from Davids birds as they're certainly well bred. So your advice about the breeding and training fits well into my longer term plans

No probs Steve glad I could help

so its right then, they hold the end flights till later.........thought id read something about this good info from ginger for you steve, im sure you will do them proud......