darkness system

hi everybody, terryp here could anybody give some advice on the darkness system cheers terryp...

hi terry go to this site look under our systems there are plenty out there main thing is get the loft and ventilation right

http://www.mclaughlinlofts.com/Dark_System_Explained.html

terryp wrote:

hi everybody, terryp here could anybody give some advice on the darkness system cheers terryp...

I`ve been wondering about this , i know a lot of fanciers use this system ...but can you still remain competative by not using a system for YBs and just racing natural.

maybe for the first few races but ide say 90% of y/b races are won with darkness pigeons

Yes my advice is unless you are planning on sending your ybs to every race, and push them as far as possible, I wouldn't bother keep them on natural.

Don`t mean to hijack terry`s post but i think that the darkness system is basically advancing the YBs in to maturity by making them go through the moult early , it will be my first YB season next year and will only have a small team and i mean small no more than 15 YBs , if i fly natural would it be better then to send five birds one week and then rest them and send another five then rest them ect ect like on an alternative shift if you like.
I have read a bit about the darkness system and still not sure about it , and if you messed it up could you render the YBs useless for the rest of the YB season .

cheers andy.

the darkness system will keep your birds in good feather for the longer races
you can still send natural birds each week but in time they will moult ie flights neck this is when the darkness birds take over ie head winds etc and there more mature some say its the cause of ybs but no one has proven it as naturals get it as well its aibourn
if your building a small team ide keep natural first year give them a few races then stop them there only young for an average 8 races but you can get 3 to four good years plus if you dont want to win all the races most make the mistake first year racing them all an d are back to square one

birdy2011 wrote:

the darkness system will keep your birds in good feather for the longer races
you can still send natural birds each week but in time they will moult ie flights neck this is when the darkness birds take over ie head winds etc and there more mature some say its the cause of ybs but no one has proven it as naturals get it as well its aibourn
if your building a small team ide keep natural first year give them a few races then stop them there only young for an average 8 races but you can get 3 to four good years plus if you dont want to win all the races most make the mistake first year racing them all an d are back to square one

Cheers birdy , yes mate first year is all about learning the basics so probably will just send to the odd race and then can carry on from there and hope to go forward , trying to get three or four pair of stock birds together for breeding YBs for next year , got my first pair coming on friday :-) i just want a small team will have a 12 X 8 ft loft to race from with the option to build a smaller loft 10 X 6 down the bottom of the garden if or when i need to.
I`de rather fly natural first year and just keep things simple and see what happens.

Cheers andy.

mufc rick only started this year all natural and he won prizes did realy well then he stopped um for next year

I first did the darkness a few years ago what a shock I had, m birds were tame and doing just what I wanted.
Once on darkness they changed over night became a bit wild and unruly, I soon mastered them again but they are a bit strange on it, Hardened darkness lovers been on it so long they would disagree as they are now used to them, but believe me the sudden maturing thing changes their minds.
I always have a few naturals as well and they fly better are easier to manage and fly just as well up to about 180 miles, once you go over that WHICH I DONT, then the darkness birds will fly faster longer than naturals.
The only plus I can see from it for me is they look stunning and are in perfect shape all the time, but for me in 2014 it back to naturals for them all, but I will be pairing up a full month earlier this year to compensate a bit as they will be older anyway and are sort of on a natural darkness.

i think many more are going to do that martin natural darkness seems better

we must remember we are going against nature so if things do go wrong then we

not the birds are to blame theres nothing to stop anyone doing 50% dark 50% natural

and see how both teams get on we must also look to find other ways to race birds

the top men never rest in there quest for better birds and systems

Yes birdy your right it is against nature, They used to say the darkness birds are poor the year after, and I thought people just said that because they didn't want you on it, but I think its true they are not so good as yearlings.
In Belgium and in Holland they been on it for years and no one uses as much antibiotics as them do and sickness is rife, since I been on darkness I feel the health of the YBS has been more difficult to manage for me..?

im beginning to thing anemia. is a cause of pigeons not being right due to all the hours locked away in the dark one thing i have noticed this year is wild birds have bred later or had an xtra round we got a lot of baby wood pigeons only just fled the nest last week or so

I was on the dark this year I am going to try some thing different, as I had young bird sickness I dont no if it was the dark, or the birds I bought in, but what I going to do is, at 4 PM I going to dark and at dark I am going open up to get as much air into the birds as possible,as I think 4 pm till 9 am is too long without fresh air in the loft, I will try it if it works or not I will let you all no        

my personal opinion on darknes is if you get balance ov feedin and airflow rite goin through the loft there fine feedin is the main part I feel but you must get airflow rite if not . well ur putting them under stress as it is don't fink ybs has nowt to do with darkness system cause its airbourne 1 ov the other problems is I fink people make it to dark so there blacked out and carnt even see a drinker in loft . all were tryin to do here is simulate winter months and lets face it. it never gets that dark were you carnt see ur hand infront ov you .ill be flyin it nxt yr and yrs in future was flyin this system many yrs ago wen a lot didn't even know wat I was on about but each to there own I wud put my dark pigeons infront ov any light or natural yb and ive tried both and theres no comparison I think many think they can put them in the dark and there they go think people need to do some serious       . but each to there own ??????????

northern monkey wrote:

terryp wrote:

hi everybody, terryp here could anybody give some advice on the darkness system cheers terryp...

I`ve been wondering about this , i know a lot of fanciers use this system ...but can you still remain competative by not using a system for YBs and just racing natural.

i flew nat y/bs this season and won 4 out of 7  i flew darkness last season  and i found out  that as yearlings they  dont fly that great  i was told this by many good fanciers who dispose of their darkies  at end of the season as they have two teams  darkies and nats
also  i hear many get y/b sickness  is this because the lofts are too dark  you should be able to read a paper once its darkened down   also never block up air vents   you need  a steady ventalation  sean

seanl wrote:

northern monkey wrote:

terryp wrote:

hi everybody, terryp here could anybody give some advice on the darkness system cheers terryp...

I`ve been wondering about this , i know a lot of fanciers use this system ...but can you still remain competative by not using a system for YBs and just racing natural.

i flew nat y/bs this season and won 4 out of 7  i flew darkness last season  and i found out  that as yearlings they  dont fly that great  i was told this by many good fanciers who dispose of their darkies  at end of the season as they have two teams  darkies and nats
also  i hear many get y/b sickness  is this because the lofts are too dark  you should be able to read a paper once its darkened down   also never block up air vents   you need  a steady ventalation  sean

I agree sean I did nat this year and no sickness but after first 4 races they started to moult but up until that they held their own ..how they perform as yearlings will be interesting

lack of air flow is the biggest down fall with darkness i also think many like sean says they have 2 teams one dark one natural or many dont put there cocks on the dark as most y/b national races have a high percentage of hens in the results and this is really the main aim with darkness to have them in good feather for the longer races
we have always coppied and been behind the belguim flyers a good ten years behind them its time to think of new ways not wait for them to show us it may take you a few years but if you find something new you will have the head start

anyone got any new ideas they want to try

birdy2011 wrote:

lack of air flow is the biggest down fall with darkness i also think many like sean says they have 2 teams one dark one natural or many dont put there cocks on the dark as most y/b national races have a high percentage of hens in the results and this is really the main aim with darkness to have them in good feather for the longer races
we have always coppied and been behind the belguim flyers a good ten years behind them its time to think of new ways not wait for them to show us it may take you a few years but if you find something new you will have the head start

anyone got any new ideas they want to try

i,m thinking of rearing some winter y/bs and fly them on widowhoood  and round about  sean

thats what im saying sean time people thought outside the box try something different from the norm

i wonder what a day on the dark and a day off would do

yeah...im gonna rear a round of ybs and not wean um over just let um stay in the loft with parents and race um from there ..probably been tried before many times but not by me ..im gonna do this with a few distance ybs and just fly all me distance birds to that loft young and old
...got nothing to lose

who knows daz but if no one trys other things then we will all be stuck with whats the norm these days

I left a yb in my stock section a few years ago Daz longer than normal when i moved it over it never had any problem getting lost etc and it didnt race as a yb, It had 5 as a yearling before a guy in liverpool took it to put in stock, the bloke tried to break him out after he had reared a round of babies.
He trained him but every time he went to a race he came back here, in the end I took him back and raced him over the channel for 3 years.
He never had a night out, I think the idea is great just people dont try it now.
A old guy down here that always won the scottish races only ever had 1 section raced everything from 1 shed.

EssexSteve wrote:

I left a yb in my stock section a few years ago Daz longer than normal when i moved it over it never had any problem getting lost etc and it didnt race as a yb, It had 5 as a yearling before a guy in liverpool took it to put in stock, the bloke tried to break him out after he had reared a round of babies.
He trained him but every time he went to a race he came back here, in the end I took him back and raced him over the channel for 3 years.
He never had a night out, I think the idea is great just people dont try it now.
A old guy down here that always won the scottish races only ever had 1 section raced everything from 1 shed.

yes that's it steve I think it might just create a bit of harmony for the longer races  

hi all .i think if you want to fly nat yb then try pairing up a little later say end of march they will hold there flights a little longer say may be 4 to 5 weeks longer . ive heard of flyers doing double darkness on there yb ready for the classic and national races but to me thats putting to much stress on them poor buggers .