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for all of the guys flying darkness, do you think you have lost more yb on this system,or did you lose more flying natural, this is not a knock at any system, its a thirst for info, as i am trying darkness and racing for the first time ,already lost 6 off the top, the last time i bred any yb it was natural [no racing, it was the year after my daughter died] the most i have ever lost was 4 and 2 of them came back]they are opened at 09.00 but not let out until 15.30 they have a good view [4ft perspex spunik]out of the 6 3 stayed local then bugged out never to be seen again

Chriss if i had the choice i wouldnt do darkness as i dont really believe it benifits them in the future but in truth you cant compete in the last 3 weeks of the season if they dont have a good wing.

As a compremise i put the young hens on Darkness and the cocks on Natural.

Stuart

i fly my young birds natural and only send a few to the last races as i believe it is only educatation

I keep trying to get into darkness but find with work it is difficult to get time managment right.

I have done darkness but have not experienced different losses to being on natural

Breed early enough and you dont need to darken.

Quoted from Delboy

Breed early enough and you dont need to darken.

out of the 10 that i had, 6 were bred early and thats the 6 that went awol, iv'e had a look at what i have been doing, and have realized that i forgot the first rule of pigeon fancying sxxt happens

have raced two lots b4 one darkness and one natural at the same time ,darkness ones hammered the naturals   ,,,,was doubtfull at first , but as yearlings and older birds , made no difference , but darkness ones need special treatment, after racing  ,i.e rest   baths , and a few seeds [buttermilk helps] they must have a perfect   second moult, completed. i have found , putting them on natural light on the longest day , suffices them for the yb nat. and a full moult

Quoted from jimmy white

have raced two lots b4 one darkness and one natural at the same time ,darkness ones hammered the naturals   ,,,,was doubtfull at first , but as yearlings and older birds , made no difference , but darkness ones need special treatment, after racing  ,i.e rest   baths , and a few seeds [buttermilk helps] they must have a perfect   second moult, completed. i have found , putting them on natural light on the longest day , suffices them for the yb nat. and a full moult

Think darkness is probably the best system for ybs if you really want win but i seen few naturals holding their own against them to begin with never found it made any difference to them as yearlings  One thing i really disliked about darkness was not being able to have my birds out on a nice summers evening amd playing about with them

Quoted from jimmy white

have raced two lots b4 one darkness and one natural at the same time ,darkness ones hammered the naturals   ,,,,was doubtfull at first , but as yearlings and older birds , made no difference , but darkness ones need special treatment, after racing  ,i.e rest   baths , and a few seeds [buttermilk helps] they must have a perfect   second moult, completed. i have found , putting them on natural light on the longest day , suffices them for the yb nat. and a full moult

Absolutely spot on but, I have found as soon as I put my birds onto the darkness system, they get stressed and the yb sickness appears. All things taken into account has led me to believe, LESS STRESS MORE SUCCESS

If you wish to be competitive in all young bird races Darkness youngsters are a must especially in the more later races,which in all probability are the most prestigous in many instances,probably the best of both sytems is as described by swilcox above,with young hens maturing physically faster,body moult absent,good wing,and capable of being well motivated,this is definitely the rmethods that I would choose,with  slower maturing cocks mentally/physically kept at home for these events

Well I'm slowly moving with the times, this will be my third YB season down here, the fist two with non darkness, flew well the first few races then way behind darkness yb thereafter. I actually started darkening the loft two weeks ago, oldest YB about 6 weeks old then. I've never had YB sickness, would seem I can now expect it?
Some advise please, what's the best natural way  (if there is one) of dealing with YB sickness?

Contentment, plenty of pigeons around to roof top with. Then against popularly theory's and what the scientifically supposedly with will induce - like E coli etc., I believe that a little garden lime left over night in the water to settle is a boon.
Birds out all day from say 8  and then in by 4 to a darken loft will be enough to hold the moult.

i have flown on the darkness system for the last .. 2 years,if you want to win this is the only system to use,i won 6 young bird races last year on the darkness.  i darken my loft down from 5.30 until 8.30 in the morning. feed them high protein food until the moult finishes and then the same as the widowhood cocks.no problem with them as yearlings at all.on the later races you will hammer the natural birds.took the first 6 positions in one of them.if youve got the time go for it.