# another newby question ....



## Hambone (Feb 19, 2008)

Do you leave your loft / aviaries pitch dark at night , or do you leave on a night light ? I was thinking about installing one of those cheapie 8 dollar automatic on/off solar driveway lights that you get at Home Depot or Harbor Freight at the corner of my aviary . Would 4 pigeons feel more secure or would it annoy them to have a very low intensity light on at night ?

Hambone


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## Matt D. (May 12, 2007)

Pigeons don't really sleep, they go into a 'trance' like state- but only when it is dark. If you would keep it light all the time you could very easily kill your birds.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Let's think about this...Pigeons that roost on phone lines or in the city do have some light from the city itself. It will be interesting to find out what other members say.
When rats got into my loft, I left the light on all night for days until I was able to trap and relocated them. My pigeons didn't die although they acted tired. They were saved from having their heads removed by the rats.


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## Hambone (Feb 19, 2008)

Thanks Matt and Charis ,

Thats what I'm thinking Charis . I have my birds inside right now , but I just finished up a small outside loft /aviary setup today and going to transplant my 4 birds into it tomorrow . They are in a large dogcarrier off the kitchen at the moment and I have a small 2 watt maybe ? night light going and they seem to do just fine . They are roosting right now . I'm kind of a nightowl myself with TV going etc and they dont seem to mind at all . 

They would be in a small open on one side loft with attached hardware cloth aviary 5'x3'x3' . I could put the light so it is behind the loft and the birds would actually be in the dark but aviary woud be dimly lit . That way if I heard a commotion outside I could see if a cat , dog etc was pestering them at night. The top of the loft is about 65" and the bottom about 30 " off the ground .

Anyway just curious ..... it would sure help me see if problems were about to happen at night .

Hambone Bob


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## learning (May 19, 2006)

Matt D. said:


> Pigeons don't really sleep, they go into a 'trance' like state- but only when it is dark. If you would keep it light all the time you could very easily kill your birds.


My birds are on 24 hours of light and have been since November. Everyone is doing just fine.

Dan


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

Matt D. said:


> Pigeons don't really sleep, they go into a 'trance' like state- but only when it is dark. If you would keep it light all the time you could very easily kill your birds.


Matt??????? come on now. Lights on will easily kill your birds??  
I keep lights on my birds while breeding but once that's over, they are in total darkness when ever the sun goes down. Don't think either way is right or wrong. They will get used to whatever you do.


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## Matt D. (May 12, 2007)

I do have my breeders on 20 hours of light. I've never had them on 24 hour light; I've always been told that if a bird doesn't get sleep it will die. Guess I'll be talking to them about that.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Hambone said:


> Thanks Matt and Charis ,
> 
> Thats what I'm thinking Charis . I have my birds inside right now , but I just finished up a small outside loft /aviary setup today and going to transplant my 4 birds into it tomorrow . They are in a large dogcarrier off the kitchen at the moment and I have a small 2 watt maybe ? night light going and they seem to do just fine . They are roosting right now . I'm kind of a nightowl myself with TV going etc and they dont seem to mind at all .
> 
> ...


I think that would be just fine.


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## maryjane (Jul 15, 2006)

What you're thinking should be just fine for them. I have a heat lamp at night in my aviary for cold nights, and it emits a strong red glow. They don't seem to notice the difference much.


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## k-will (Dec 15, 2007)

a small glow will not in any way harm the birds,and yes people use lights 20 hours + in some cases to get their breeders going.however,if you are racing pigeons,you might not want to be lighting up a whole loft for months on end...reason?for 1 if the lights reach your old bird team depending on your set-up,you might throw your old bird flyers into a early moult destroying most of your chance at success in your old bird season.make sure the breeders get the light,not your flyers.(i saw this happen to a guy who tryed the lighting system for his ybs and didnt realize he was also lighting his old bird team in the next room. )there are many other reasons why you dont want to light up the loft at night for too long,but my hand hurts,so im stopping with that.email me anyone that wants,and i can tell you some others.


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## warriec (Feb 2, 2007)

this is a question for matt. 
1) are there any breeders in your loft. if so does one bird sit for 20hrs and another for 4 hrs. it sounds unfair and 1 will suffer. 

This system is good if your loft is well managed and if you have babies all at once.


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## Matt D. (May 12, 2007)

warriec said:


> this is a question for matt.
> 1) are there any breeders in your loft. if so does one bird sit for 20hrs and another for 4 hrs. it sounds unfair and 1 will suffer.
> 
> This system is good if your loft is well managed and if you have babies all at once.


No I do put my breeders on 20 hours of light when I pair them up, after they mate I put them back on natural light.


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## zimmzimm3 (Aug 17, 2007)

Lovebirds said:


> Matt??????? come on now. Lights on will easily kill your birds??
> I keep lights on my birds while breeding but once that's over, they are in total darkness when ever the sun goes down. Don't think either way is right or wrong. They will get used to whatever you do.


How many hours of light do you give yours?


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## warriec (Feb 2, 2007)

matt,you need to clear when you advise a new person. your last reply sounds right and managed.

Hambone, everybody has there own secrets. equipmentt you will need will be based on the external factors such a how many hours of day light etc...

nature had set a 12 hr dark & a 12 hr light and we should not try to change it unless some other temporary factor is effecting it.


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## A_Smith (Aug 8, 2006)

Here is my 2 cents.  I have been told that if the lights in the flying loft late (past dark) all the time, the birds will adjust to that time for there bedtime.  Meaning that on a race night they think they got more time to get home. BUT in many cases run out of daylight and can't see to land and roost for the night. This may mean a very bad landing. I have my lights set 5-9 am and 5-9pm. During the short days. This gives me time to feed in am and feed clean whatever at night after work. The weather controls the day light. Nine pm is the night (off) time I pick due to the fact that during race season at 9 it is still light. ( read as programing there internal sleep clock) When it is naturaly light later. I do not have a timer set. BUT I do turn on the light when getting dark so if a daybird is close to home s/he my see the loft entrence. When I go inside the loft light goes off. This is what works for me and my birds.


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## learning (May 19, 2006)

Matt D. said:


> I do have my breeders on 20 hours of light. I've never had them on 24 hour light; I've always been told that if a bird doesn't get sleep it will die. Guess I'll be talking to them about that.


Hey Matt,

There is a lot I don't know about pigeons but I can tell you this for a fact because I have witnessed it with my own birds. On 24 hours of light the birds, breeders and young, do sleep. They seem well rested, active during the day and very quiet and calm during the night time hours even though the lights are on in the loft. The cocks seem to put in their fair share of sitting the eggs and young. The babies are fat and healthy. 

I don't know about anyone elses experiences but these are mine.

Just FYI,

Dan


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## k-will (Dec 15, 2007)

once again i want to mention this...do not..i repeat...do not leave the lights on in your old bird flyers rooms.if you light your breeders for the purpose of getting them going,thats fine.if you are lighting ybs to get them thru a moult faster to fly with full wings,thats great.if you are using dim night lights and it makes you feel better doing it...no harm done.but,dont let your old bird flyers have this amount of light at night.like ybs being on the lighting system they will go into a early moult if you do.they then will be past their 3rd flight feather or worse when you need them to race and you will have shot yourself in the foot.after the third flight is dropped,old birds "form" starts to digress.this is why many in belgium use curtains on widowers to make them "rest".it also slows down their natural urge to begin moulting allowing birds to stay in that "super form" longer.just my .02 .wouldnt want to see someone mess up their whole season over lights that dont really need to be on in the first place.if for some reason you are lighting your loft later for scraping,feeding,etc-use a dimmer that slowly goes out after you are done with task and leave loft.dont leave the lights on.the dimmer will allow birds to roost without incident,and they can return to night-night.


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## learning (May 19, 2006)

k-will said:


> once again i want to mention this...do not..i repeat...do not leave the lights on in your old bird flyers rooms.if you light your breeders for the purpose of getting them going,thats fine.if you are lighting ybs to get them thru a moult faster to fly with full wings,thats great.if you are using dim night lights and it makes you feel better doing it...no harm done.but,dont let your old bird flyers have this amount of light at night.like ybs being on the lighting system they will go into a early moult if you do.they then will be past their 3rd flight feather or worse when you need them to race and you will have shot yourself in the foot.after the third flight is dropped,old birds "form" starts to digress.this is why many in belgium use curtains on widowers to make them "rest".it also slows down their natural urge to begin moulting allowing birds to stay in that "super form" longer.just my .02 .wouldnt want to see someone mess up their whole season over lights that dont really need to be on in the first place.if for some reason you are lighting your loft later for scraping,feeding,etc-use a dimmer that slowly goes out after you are done with task and leave loft.dont leave the lights on.the dimmer will allow birds to roost without incident,and they can return to night-night.


Very good point k-will. I did not mention that my lights were on just for the breeders and youngsters. I would never consider doing this with my old bird team. Thanks for pointing out the oversight.

Dan


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