early moult

[pigeonscott]

for the past few seasons my old birds have gone into a full body moult in early june effectively ending there season,i fly widowhood and the birds are paired early january and rear one round of babies they do not sit a second round before being seperated.birds are flown at home twice a day and trained a couple of 20 miles twice a week.i use naturvit multi vits and vitamin b12 and amino acids weekly,they are fed natural concord and natural depurative,fresh grit and minerals are always avalible.I extend the daylight for a couple of hours during the winter with artifical lights but have been doing this for 15 years and never suffered a problem untill the last two years.any ideas as to why these birds are starting there moult early!!!!!

[Guest Silverwings]

my pigeons have started the body moult earlier this year, as they did last year ? think climate change and warmer winters ,may be confusing their body clocks ? as for widowers pairing january and splitting them until 3 weeks before their first race should retard the moult ,providing they dont see the second eggs ...ray

[Guest TAMMY_1]

well maybe the weather does have something to do with it but how could u tell this or not for sure

[The White Rapido Man]

my bods havig ben dropping to bits for weeks...........

 

I always find pure galic oil in the water egts them through it a bit quicker

[Guest]

my bods havig ben dropping to bits for weeks...........

 

I always find pure galic oil in the water egts them through it a bit quicker

 

shouldnt need to push birds througha moult they moult naturally forcing them through the moult will cause them to stress

[phillips]

i was checking on my widow cocks today and noticed that the cock have 8 to throw still

[Guest]

Think it may be down to a body-clock problem - an 'annual' moult which began in June in 2006, I would expect to trigger again in June in 2007.

 

Body clock is affected by hours of daylight and darkness. Light & Dark Systems do affect it, and fanciers see the evidence of that in their birds' altered moult. The bit we can't see is the altered levels of hormones coursing thro the birds bodies and the effects this may be having on them.

 

There is also a condition called clock-shifting which interferes with bird's direction-finding and in extreme cases makes it head off in the opposite direction from home, when it obviously thinks it is heading for home.  

 

I suggest you stop the additional hours of light for 2008 and see if the birds moult differently.

 

 

[jimmy white]

i think it maybe taken in to account that the bath can induce the moult ,,but the weather this year has certainly got things mixed up a bit , you only need to look in the garden ,certain flowers that should have been blooming have in fact been late ,so the weather has just not been ideal or rather abnormal to the usual seasons ,, i think we may see more of this in the future  :-/

[Guest]

Mine have started to cast feathers the last few days,a good 3 weeks earlier than last year,gonna give me big problems for my show on Thursday

[DOVEScot]

Think it may be down to a body-clock problem - an 'annual' moult which began in June in 2006, I would expect to trigger again in June in 2007.

 

Body clock is affected by hours of daylight and darkness. Light & Dark Systems do affect it, and fanciers see the evidence of that in their birds' altered moult. The bit we can't see is the altered levels of hormones coursing thro the birds bodies and the effects this may be having on them.

 

There is also a condition called clock-shifting which interferes with bird's direction-finding and in extreme cases makes it head off in the opposite direction from home, when it obviously thinks it is heading for home.  

 

Even our doves in the dove cote are moulting heavy this year???

 

I suggest you stop the additional hours of light for 2008 and see if the birds moult differently.

 

 

 

[Guest]

Think it may be down to a body-clock problem - an 'annual' moult which began in June in 2006, I would expect to trigger again in June in 2007.

 

Body clock is affected by hours of daylight and darkness. Light & Dark Systems do affect it, and fanciers see the evidence of that in their birds' altered moult. The bit we can't see is the altered levels of hormones coursing thro the birds bodies and the effects this may be having on them.

 

There is also a condition called clock-shifting which interferes with bird's direction-finding and in extreme cases makes it head off in the opposite direction from home, when it obviously thinks it is heading for home.  

 

I suggest you stop the additional hours of light for 2008 and see if the birds moult differently.

 

 

fascinating stuff

[DOMINIQUE]

Mine have started to cast feathers the last few days,a good 3 weeks earlier than last year,gonna give me big problems for my show on Thursday

 

Well that is exactly the same problem we are having with ours for today Chrissy, some of the birds we had paid our entries for are no longer in a good enough condition to be taken now,a bit mangey round the head and neck, it was a pity our last show was cancelled because they were fine for that one, and after today it is a bit of a wait till the next one, Albert should have arranged something else for us.

[DOVEScot]

 

Well that is exactly the same problem we are having with ours for today Chrissy, some of the birds we had paid our entries for are no longer in a good enough condition to be taken now,a bit mangey round the head and neck, it was a pity our last show was cancelled because they were fine for that one, and after today it is a bit of a wait till the next one, Albert should have arranged something else for us.

 

Ours are exactly the same, both in the dove cotes and the loft so it seems to be a nationwide problem, all the body clocks must be out for some reason???