lightness youngbirds

[Guest marvin]

are there flyers out there who have flown the lightness system.i flew the system some time ago with fair sucsess would be good to here from other people who have flown it maybe share a few ideas.i have moved to a new position where it is said it is impossible to do any good ,would be nice to prove a few wrong so i am now doing my home work ie,birds,systemsand feeding would love to here whats doing it for you in your club,fed.i,ve been unable to race for four years so i am keen to come back with a bang.  

[Guest]

There is an excellent video by John sampson of Sampson Brothers of Boston USA, you can buy the Video in UK format by credit card from his web page sampsonbrothers.com

[Guest marvin]

thankyou very much hyacinth very helpfull merry xmas

[Chatrace]

if your gonna do lights,you should have them on eggs very soon. if you start racing in Aug you have till the end of Jan to have your Ybs. That is if you want a full wing without pulling flights.Let them have 16 to 18 hrs of light and make sure they see natural sunrise and then the lights come on about 30 min after sunrise. you can turn the lights off at the end of june and nature will take over from there and it lets them get used to less light so they are ready for racing. The Tape that was mentioned above was very good,but I changed a few things here to my own liking. Thats what we all do,what ever works best for you. Good luck

[Guest marvin]

thankyou for that chatrace just one question why do you think its important fot the birds to see a natural sunrise. having raced on the lightness for a while i always had the lights on before sunrise and i found that as yearlings the moult was always alittle bit unpredictable do you think this could be the reason.

[Guest]

Quite interested in the thread, (not that I am interested in adopting this or the darkness system.)  

 

I'm very interested in the fanciers (those who practice it) experience of effects on the pigeons. Been reading a lot lately on what the bird uses to get itself home and from what I can pick up you are interfering with (1) the bird's normal day/night biorythms

and more especially (2) the bird's biological clock, in effect clock-shifting the pigeon.

 

Experiments have shown clock-shifted pigeons have navigation problems.

 

 

 

[Chatrace]

I'm not a scientist, but have the feeling the birds need to relate to natural things as much as they can, to inhanse there homing instinct. Even if it is just a small bit of sun coming in they learn the direction, I also start there training early in the mornings so they relate to fly to the East when released,Only because we fly from the west to the east :-),but the at least head in somewhat the right direction although it may be a bit south or north of dead east. as I stated They then only have natural light starting in June. There is over 14 hr. of light then anyway and they get the natural clock set again before race season starts.

[Guest marvin]

when flying the lightness i did do very well but as i said with some of the birds it did muck up the moult a bit having said that birds that started their life on the lightness have gone on to win at 450 miles and that was with a moulting wing so not all bad news. i understand that in the states you have been flying the lightness for quite some time over here it still is mostly an untride thing so its a little harder to get ideas off people.when i do use the lightness i fly with an additional system ie feeding,training and treatments.one thing i would love to find out is if any body who has flown the system and had the same problems with the moult as me and has anyone found a sulotion.also i have had young birds that acually started moulting thier body before they leave the nest.could this be a certain trait with particular strains

[Chatrace]

feeding,training and treatments.one thing i would love to find out is if any body who has flown the system and had the same problems with the moult as me and has anyone found a sulotion.also i have had young birds that acually started moulting thier body before they leave the nest.could this be a certain trait with particular strains

 

After mine hatch I leave a smaller light on in the loft 24x7 like a 40 watt near the water .I want the parents to be able to feed and water anytime they feel the Ybs need it. When I move the YBs to there own loft they get 18 hrs of light. If I can have them hatched out and ringed the 1st week in Jan and on 18 hrs of light till the end of june,most will have moulted out the full wing and body. Extra protien feeds are used during this time also,plus some training but mostly loft flying and some short tosses only till the 7th flight is finished. If birds are late Jan early feb ,I have found you need to cut the 9th and 10 th flight and pull them one at a time after the 9th is 75% in you can pull the 10th and that should still have you a full wing for the racing season. even if its later the 10 th will be in before the 300s. at least 1 if not 2 baths a week help the moult go faster also.

[Guest marvin]

thanksfor the info chatrace its really interesting to hear how other fanciers do things i liked your idea about the small light by the drinker will give that a go this year i think