Hours of Darkness ?

any members know what the hours of darkness and the hours of light should be for ybs on the dark system...?  ive been trying to decide which method to use, ie close loft at 5 pm, open at 9 am which will give 16 hrs of dark and 8 hours of day light OR close loft at 4 o clock then remove covers later that evening so the natural daybreak lightens the loft.....this would give 14 hours of dark and 10 hours of day light....

any thoughts, does it make any difference...?

As long as there's more dark hours than light (@10 hrs light was what mine got), and they think it's autumn they moult body.
David your second idea, remember the daylight will increase each day as the mornings lighten towards spring/summer, not sure how that will affect yb's. good luck anyway.

hi colin, yes that's a good point re the daylight as it gets lighter earlier......wonder what, if any difference it would make.......  

David I have heard so much talk about hours of darkness each way is different, some say more than others but nothing is set in stone.

I darkened mine from 5pm till 8am 15 hours of darkness, doesn't matter how you adjust it do it to suit your self, I missed the dark a few times about 4 times I think when they didn't get it at all because we were away for the odd day doing other things and I couldn't get anyone to do it for me, and that didn't make ant difference.

Don't be a slave to your pigeons fit the hours in which best suits your life as long as its 14 /15 hours darkness a day.

thanks for the info martyn, whats your thoughts on the closing at 4 and waiting till it gets dark and removing the covers.....then letting the natural daybreak enter the loft around 6 ish the next morning ?

David its as I said do what you want it will work fine, you will have to keep adjusting it doing it that way, because the day get lighter in the morning by about 5 minutes a day up until a point, then they go back the other way.

So it might be light sun up at 6.40 tomorrow, but by june it will be light at 5.00 that's 1 1/2 hours difference so you might have to alter it by 10 or 15 minutes each month to keep it the same darkness hours.

they would still get 12 hours a day 4 till dark in june`nesh it`s light till half ten to eleven as it comes daylight about 4 If you dont try you wont go no where.

Ginger wrote:

they would still get 12 hours a day 4 till dark in june`nesh it`s light till half ten to eleven as it comes daylight about 4 If you dont try you wont go no where.

true ginger, I suppose its all about trial and error eh, and finding which way works best us and the pigeons.........  

oldstrain wrote:

David wrote:

thanks for the info martyn, whats your thoughts on the closing at 4 and waiting till it gets dark and removing the covers.....then letting the natural daybreak enter the loft around 6 ish the next morning ?

thanks for the opinion Darren.........I don't suppose it will make much difference either way, but might make it a bit easier to manage, and possibly make the pigeons exercise better ???

David wrote:

oldstrain wrote:

David wrote:

thanks for the info martyn, whats your thoughts on the closing at 4 and waiting till it gets dark and removing the covers.....then letting the natural daybreak enter the loft around 6 ish the next morning ?

thanks for the opinion Darren.........I don't suppose it will make much difference either way, but might make it a bit easier to manage, and possibly make the pigeons exercise better  ???

I think by doing this and exercising the ybs early hours and feeding once per day you are putting the birds under the least stress given the circumstances of forcing them to mature early and have found young hens cope with the system better than cocks ...but then the hens are the cream of the crop anyway   ...good luck in your endeavours

yes, I think you could be right about that Darren, early exercise then the feed once a day....then they have all day to digest the food, I would think this would minimise the stress and not put too much strain on the digestive system maybe .....?