Darkness young birds

[andrecrock]

Could any body tell me the date of putting my youngsters on the system and do i need to put my early breds on the system aswell?

[Guest Paulo]

1st april mate. Have all your youngsters in the darkness loft by then. Don't add any later it saves you chew.

 

Take them off bourges weekend for the UNC normally longest day

[DUBLINFLYER]

put them on it from the time they leave the nest then take off when longest day of the year if you pair up before the 16th december they will be grand to race for around 6 races then the will moult heavy but the upside to this you wont have to put them "on" the darkness natural winter hours will be fine

[jimmy white]

Could any body tell me the date of putting my youngsters on the system and do i need to put my early breds on the system aswell?

 

if putting y,b,s on darkness , i would do right away[remenber the shortest day is 21 dec ], from then on a minute or so lighter] but i would much prefer ybs to be seperated middle of march , then use curtains or blinds , but remembering ventilation is very important , i would put these ybs  on the full daylight on the longest day , i have personally found yb,s bred at that time proove to be better birds [their trained ,then at an earlier  age] rather than the ones rung b4 or at the beginning  of the year , these birds are in fact the previous years late breds , which i have found to be 6 month old b4 training , ifind the younger they are trained the better

[pigeonscout]

Going by what Mike Ganus says in his young bird video you should take them off the dark 5 weeks before the first race you want to win as that is when they come into top form.

My young birds go on the dark from they leave the nest, Others put them on dark when they drop first flight and some are now putting them on dark for 9 weeks only and taking off the longest day. I do not know what is best as they all seem to have the same result. You have to remember that the darkness system only helps the birds to have all their main flights for the longer races at the end of the young bird season. There are other ways of making sure this happens i.e. light system or the power molt.