Leave them in peace as much as poss and have them as lazy as poss?? If this means splitting sexs early, never handling, darkening or what ever the end goal is always the same??? A good moult??? Birds that struggle in the moult may have an underlying prob? the same underlying prob that forces them down when the racing gets tough?? In a killer world these birds would be eliminated before they finished the moult and you started breeding from them??? But the flip side is that the underlying prob keeps getting reintroduced by the fancier and the cycle starts again??? Was oot in the stock loft this morn wae the old boy and five poor buggers that didny have enuff decent offspring in the last 4 years met their maker and, sadly, the old van reet pied that failed too fill his eggs????Loads of club winners, fed winners and secta winners from him but time to go!!! Saved him the moult???