y/b darkness

The darkness system has become very fashionable for youngbird racing. It has been widely practiced on the continent for some time, and now it is being used more frequently over here in the UK. The system works to retard the moult by limiting the hours of daylight. Youngbird lofts are given extended periods of darkness from early in the year, up to, at most, June 21st, to limit the amount of daylight entering the loft. Lofts are darkened, for example, up to 9:00 am and after 4:00pm, but the absolute times can vary, usually to suite the fancier.


Darkening the loft prevents the natural rays of the sun from stimulating the production of moulting hormone, and the feathers are held. Under normal circumstances, when the exposure to sunlight is not reduced, moulting hormone is released into the blood stream, and the feathers are shed. Darkness management involves the creation of an artificial loft environment. This can be achieved by using a dark curtain, or by housing the youngbirds in a totally enclosed youngbird loft with no windows. It is essential, that additional ventilation is provided, often by the use of electric fans, to prevent the build up of stale air and airborne pathogens. The logic of using the darkness system relies on its ability to produce youngbirds with a full wing. This is thought to be especially useful in the longer youngbird races at the end of the youngbird season. It has also been suggested that youngbirds kept under darkness mature faster, presumably because protein, designated for growing feathers, becomes available for other uses.

However, the darkness system is not the magical solution to winning youngbird races as it was first thought. In fact it can have detrimental effects, and when compared to youngbirds prepared properly on the natural light system, it can be disadvantageous in many ways. Sometimes variations on the darkness system are devised to suite individual fliers, but this can cause problems.

In their quest to stay ahead by using modern fashionable management techniques, they lose sight of what the darkness
system is actually trying to achieve. They think that as long as they go through the motions and put the loft into darkness, that this is all that is needed. This situation arises partly because some fanciers are simply not around to close and open the youngbird loft at the appropriate times. They have to leave for work early, and perhaps return late, so they close up the loft when they leave, and open it up again when they come home in the evening. The loft is left predominantly in darkness for most of the day. This can drastically affect the pigeons. The pigeons, and loft, get little or no sun at all. This creates a good environment for bacteria and fungi to thrive and the pigeon's feathers fail to hold any condition. Also the circadian cycles that regulate the pigeon's metabolism and normal behaviour, particularly its sleep/wake cycle, gets completely thrown out, and the pigeons simply do not know whether they are coming or going. It is essential that the daylight hours be centred around midday


The point of the darkness system is for the pigeons metabolism and hormonal cycles to be tricked into thinking that it is earlier in the year than it really is, and not just for them to get hopelessly disturbed. One problem with the darkness system, whether it's carried out properly or not, is that it prevents the replacement of feathers that are flawed or damaged. When the youngbird first makes it's way from the cramped nest, which it usually shares with a nest-mate and an attentive mother, it has to master the power of flight. As the youngbird learns to fly, it has to learn to take off and land in confined spaces, it has to learn not to collide with others from the same loft, and it has to negotiate obstacles like wires and trees. During this learning period the young pigeon will make mistakes and the feathers take a bit of a battering, especially those on the wings. In addition, basket training will also take its toll on feather integrity. Nature has allowed for this early battering. It is thought that these early nest feathers are more flexible and not quite as rigid as the ones that replace them. They are thought to be the pigeons equivalent of the milk teeth of a human baby compared to the stronger secondary teeth of the older juvenile. The purpose of the youngbird moult is to replace these damaged weakened feathers so that the birds can fly more efficiently over greater distances throughout the coming months, and in addition, be well insulated against the cold during the winter. Darkness birds do not achieve this state of feather quality in good time, they can carry flawed and damaged feathering right throughout the full racing program.


These feathers might not be fully replaced until next spring. Let's consider the natural or light system. During the systematic shedding of the feathers, you can imagine that the efficiency in flight is dramatically reduced. In nature, you would have thought that this loss of feathering would be detrimental to the survival of the youngbird, but this reduction in flying efficiency is compensated by an increase in metabolism, prompted by the release of hormones, that bring the youngbirds to a peak of fitness. (In old birds this phenomenon can be seen in a sudden increase in form, once for example, a widowhood cock drops his first flight). Darkness pigeons do not get this hormone-stimulated upregulation in metabolism.

Furthermore, youngbirds that are kept in a normal loft environment, lose feathers throughout the moult.
Now if they are flagged to fly regularly, trained hard, and are fed well, their muscles and cardiovascular system will compensate, and build up, to cope with the increased workload of the less efficient wings. It's a bit like an aeroplane with a hole in it's wing the engines have to work harder to maintain height and speed. The benefits from these bodybuilding exercises are reaped when the peak of the moult is over, or when regrowing feathers are up to, or over, three-quarters grown, just before the next flight is dropped. For suddenly you have a pigeon with muscles and heart built to cope with inadequately feathered wings, now working with an almost full wing. Race results can improve dramatically when this condition occurs, and can explain why youngsters can suddenly pull a spectacular


race result out of the bag. Another disadvantage with the darkness system is that it denies the pigeons access to a full days exposure to the sun's rays. Sunlight is a great sexual stimulator. So birds that are denied the full days exposure to the sun, can have a reduced sexual drive.



This will have a detrimental effect on the racing performance of some of the older youngbirds, in particular those youngbird cocks that are raced on a semi widowhood system, in which they are allowed to mix with the hens prior to sending.
Their sexual drive and homing motivation will not have fully reached it's peak. In addition to all this, when fliers change to the darkness system they frequently just darken their existing loft, with little or no modifications, except for a curtain or shutter. Little regard is paid to the sudden change in airflow, in and out of the loft. Lofts become stuffy, the oxygen levels inside can drop and exhaled carbon dioxide will increase. In addition, the humidity within the loft will go up, and stale air from the droppings will hang around. This damp still air is ideal for the growth of bacteria and fungi and as a consequence airborne pathogens will increase. This environment will compromise the health of the pigeons and they won't perform at their best. Another drawback to limiting the amount of natural sunlight in the loft, is that the it reduces the amount of ultraviolet rays and these are a great antibacterial. The ultraviolet quickly destroys any bacteria that are lying dormant in the loft or carried in the air. Furthermore, lofts that are kept darkened in the morning, miss the early sun, which usually warms and dries out the loft. Pathogens therefore have an ideal environment in which to breed. It is interesting to speculate that the rise in youngbird sickness appears to correlate with a rise in the use of the darkness system for youngbirds. Another function that the sun provides for youngbirds, is to stimulate the production of vitamins, and growth hormone. In a normal youngbird loft you will see youngbirds taking advantage of the suns rays.

They will often be seen sitting in the sun with a wing outstretched to catch the most sun they can. Lofts that are darkened during early morning, or during part of the day, miss a large proportion of this important stimulus. Another disadvantage of


darkness lofts is that they are often cooler than open lofts, or lofts with glass or clear perspex windows, that have full access to the sun's rays. They especially miss the warming effect of the sun, first thing in the morning.

A cool loft causes the youngbirds to have to burn more fuel to maintain a stable body temperature. Form and condition is harder to maintain, because fats and glucose are used up, to maintain body temperature, which depletes the energy reserves. This fuel is needed for those important training sessions, particularly when training distances are increased.

looks interesting reading steve, going to make my tea (at this time...lol) then ill have a more indepth read of it...........need to get started on how im going to darken the yb section as ive about 3 - 4 weeks to get it sorted....

yes it looks ok might help a bit

yes, need to get organised still, loft needs painting too...... your flying dark and natural arnt you steve ?

april bred just training this year natural

Thanks for that, I really love these little snipets we get, they often answer long standing questions. I know nothing of darkness so its most interesting. after reading it I wont be going on it either.

hi mark ive put the info on darkness in with the other info so you can look back on it when ever you want

thanks ian, good to have all the info you, steve and other members have posted all in one place, as you say we can refer back to it during the season if need be........good post steve.