but you have to take in consideration, people also bred alot later, hence the reason they went the whole programme. I think the pigeons were also alot different, as the pigeons these days are far more mature, in the year of their birth then what they was 15 years ago. The maturity of the pigeons is in my opinion is the case of the losses in most cases, as many wait for 6 months of age before many train a bird, but in the time line you were quoting we was training them when they was 8-10 weeks of age to get them into the first race, many times training only started 2 weeks before the first race. However i do feel the darkness is the reason for young bird sickness, as its going totally against nature.