sunrise system

I watched secrets of champions 5 the other day and they talk about darkning the loft at 4pm then opening up again before going to bed when its dark. This way the birds get a natural sunrise. If this is the case they would get more then the 10hrs max daylight that is recomended on the dark system. Can anyone shed any light on this please!

hi cowandchicken, welcome to the site....yes ive read/heard about this method of darkening ybs and in my opinion i would simply darken later than 4pm to get the hours needed for darkness, its coming daybreak around 6 am at the moment anyway, so if darkened at 6 pm you would get your 8 hours......

maybe a member with more experience can advise better.....

Thanks for your reply David but if i was to darken at 6pm and it gets light at 6am the birds get 12hrs dark and 12hrs light. I was led to believe that they should have no more than 10hrs light to stop them moulting there flights. I could be very wrong on this though as iam new to the sport.

hi cowandchicken, well as we both say, its daybreak at 6 am, so 8 hours daylight will be 2 pm, and 10 hours daylight will take yo to 4pm.........so that will give you your hours of daylight, i dont think the hours of dark make any difference as after all we are simulating the hours of winter to make them moult, and winter has more darkness hours......

hope this helps c & ch

if you darken your loft at 4pm then lift the covers before you go to bed
and it gets light at 6am you have had them in the dark for 14 hours do not be fooled that they must have 16 hours of dark they dont so long its darker longer than light

birdy2011 wrote:

if you darken your loft at 4pm then lift the covers before you go to bed
and it gets light at 6am you have had them in the dark for 14 hours do not be fooled that they must have 16 hours of dark they dont so long its darker longer than light

spot on g i only darken for 14 hours and know a national flyer who darkens for 13

oldstrain wrote:

birdy2011 wrote:

if you darken your loft at 4pm then lift the covers before you go to bed
and it gets light at 6am you have had them in the dark for 14 hours do not be fooled that they must have 16 hours of dark they dont so long its darker longer than light

spot on g i only darken for 14 hours and know a national flyer who darkens for 13

I will second that

ive heard people talking about on dark one day and miss a day wouldnt of thought that would of worked ......

me neither phil.......

phil411 wrote:

ive heard people talking about on dark one day and miss a day wouldnt of thought that would of worked ......

i was thinking about that the other day phill or take the shutters down for say 1 hour then put them back ya know what they say dont sit on ya arse waiting for others to try things do it first get ahead
many sections les pigeons try new things ya may just crack a new system

would that affect the seed they drop there flights when the come off darkness ??

i think this is the reason why ybs need to be on the dark foe a certain length of time, so they dont moult wing flights.........altho i have read on forums some do take ybs off the dark before they are due to be and they supposedly are ok for it.

birdy2011 wrote:

phil411 wrote:

ive heard people talking about on dark one day and miss a day wouldnt of thought that would of worked ......

i was thinking about that the other day phill or take the shutters down for say 1 hour then put them back ya know what they say dont sit on ya arse waiting for others to try things do it first get ahead
many sections les pigeons try new things ya may just crack a new system

spot on there g, your onto something lol

no good waiting for xmas alex it only comes once a year ill try it and let you know