the more i read about the darkness system the more i am unsure what to expect. as some of you may know this will be our first season trying the system. I am totally in the dark (excuse the pun) as what to expect from he YB's in the way of behaviour while on the dark and when the shutters are taken off.

the main point that i think may be affected are things like. Activity how do the birds fly while on the darkness. is there willingness to fly affected by darkening.

Also there sexual activity.alsi it is said that darkness YBs sexually mature at a very young age. But is this apparent while still darkened.

a concern for me is the commencement of the wing moult. how quickly after darkening has finished dose the wing moult begin. and at what rate dose it continue. Is it similar to a yearling late bred throwing two flights at a time


i know there's allot there to answer but hopefully we can have a good discussion. and we can all take some thing from it.


p.s the man that invented spell check needs a Medal

hi cawdy, as far as i know having ybs on the dark system effects their hormones.......therfor probably maturing them quicker as well as moulting them quicker.

personally ive found when my birds are actually on the dark, they are reluctant to exercise around the loft, im not too bothered about this because all the time they are walking around the garden and fluttering around the loft they are getting their bearings on where they live, keeping losses when they do eventually exercise to a minimum.

once i take them off the dark, within a week they are doing an hour exercise.....and within a couple of weeks are easily doing 2 hours around the loft and ranging around the area.

this is just my experrience and im happy with it, and do not intend to alter it in any way, others will have theor own ideas and opinions..........

thanks David

do you mind if i ask are your sexes separated and of so when do you separate them also what are your experiences with the commencement and speed of the wing moult

i definitely agree that everyone has there own ideas and theories. i don't think i have found two systems that are exactly the same.

so im trying to read as much as i can about the system and take from it what makes sense to me.

just to expand on the reason i asked about the separation of the sexes and timing of it was that this could also be a factor that is affecting there willing ness to fly

Now separation of the sexes for motivation. my thoughts are that as they are said to be sexually mature i would hope to motivate them in a similar way to my yearling.

i found the ybs want to pair up around the end of the darkening period and start to get lazy as they have other things on their mind lol this was one of my reasons for pairing mid january instead of mid december, as i found they started to pair up in the early races and not before. i never split my ybs at all i left them together all through the season and had a good season aswell ,but this suits me as i have a small set up

i agree with what darren says about them pairing up, when i paired in december the ybs wouldnt exercise because they were only interested in pairing up.....this is why i now prefer to pair end january/begining of feb as they only start to take an interest in pairing once racing has started, which suits me.


one season i seperated the ybs, cocks and hens........the hens would exercise for an hour and a half while the cocks would rarely do above 30 mins, that season my birds did nothing racing..........last year i left cocks and hens together and they exercised easily for 2 hours plus and after starting with only 11 ybs i ended up with 8 which flew well and took cards.

no i have not found that darkening effects ybs willingness to fly my ybs exercise for 1 1/2 hours usualy but i only exercise once per day during darkness hours anyway.come the end of june when the ybs are coming off the darkness they would be 4 months old thereabouts and 5 months old when they start racing.i also gradualy increase the daylight hours over 1 week when they come off the darkness and only start to train the ybs after this so that they know the positioning of the sun at any given time of day.