Darkness or not

This is my second year racing pigeons, last year I had a disaster, I paid some good money for some birds and during training they were good but on race days they were coming 2 hours behined everyone in my club, that's if they came home at all, halfway through the season I had 1 bird left and even that decided to go and live in the guy accross the roads loft, so ended up with no birds at all !!!

Have bought a few stock to breed from this year, which have just hatched.

With work it's going to be hard to do the darkness , so will have to fly natural, will this limit the amount of racing I can do with them,

Basicly what I'm asking is will it be a big disadvantage by not putting them on the darkness.

Thanks in advance

iam afraid so daryl if your not on the dark then you wont compete can you not ask somebody to put shutters on and off doesnt have to be eight hours could be 10 hrs it will still work

the longer races for old birds would suit you,on natural that is

The only reason people use the darkness system is to keep the youngbirds in good feather for the more important races as the birds are in very good condition and have a full wing compared to pigeons on the natural system,
also the youngbirds are a lot older as they are early bred

If work is the main problem with time for me i would bred latter or pair up mid feburaury so that your pigeons are younger compared to the early bred pigeons and you have a better chance of the birds keeping there flyts,

But would only race a few races but give them loads of training or schooling so you have birds to fly with the following season

Hi Daryl,

With non-darkness you can "compete" for the first 3 or 4 races (till approx mid-August) and then they fade fast as nature takes over and they loosen up and trust me the darkness babies make them look like amatures

It depends what you want, you need to build a team for the future then stop them after mid-august (leave them for next year)

i did this last year and won the first 4 races then stopped all cocks and majority of hens (did keep a few hens going and these couldnt get within 10mins of the darkness birds after mid-august)....maybe if i had paired some up and got them on eggs (like Louis Cooreman does) then they could hold body moult and flights and compete longer..i will try this this year with the first round which are non-darkies but i will have the NFC team which are hatching and in nest now on the dark

Hope that helps mate

so mark do you think it makes any difference to them as yearlings after being on the dark , i dont think it does

no mate not in the slightest, its only since been down here that i havnt raced darkness as trying to build a team and stop them after so many races

When racing with me Dad we always on the dark (Dad still does 100%) and our yearlings always flew well (we had a yearling cock being awarded bird of the year in federation after winning 2 x 1st & 1 x 2nd federation) so it doesnt effect them at all............this is just the anti-progress brigade scare mongering as usual

Thing with the darkness its just gives the birds the chance to complete the whole yb program in superb feather, i think its criminal expecting a yb to fly 150 or 200mile with moulting around head. ears etc, People wouldnt do that with old birds but expect youngsters to do it

plenty of scare mongers about

ian wrote:

plenty of scare mongers about

i know mate, they just aint got a clue

if theres one thing i cant stand is that somebody who talks rubbish

Do you mean me

people in general don who talk rubbish but you know what they say if the cap fits only kidding

O.K shall go and put it on

Don Webb wrote:

O.K shall go and put it on

is this 1 ok Don

Bang on Steve, shall look like odd job of james bond

there is a guy near me that just puts black liners up at the window and has done for last 5 year ... im going to try it for me first time ... this year and im going to try some on natural too ... i put me boards up today ....

whats black liners phill

if you pair your oldens early around 10th december, their youngens will automatically go through the moult without having to be put on the darkness, as the hours of darkness at that time of year are the same as artifical darkness. I have used this system before with good effect and it saves putting shutters up.

Yes thats quite right if the youngsters are early enough then you dont require darkness.

yes darren but you will have to put them all over at the same time,that would take some doing if you want a few rounds off certain pairs.so howwould you get round this

rings are being sent out by rpra 29th december from this year, so early breeding will be better then for darkness

black bin bags ray

Darren that's right when you see it the way you posted the comment