Is a yearling really a 2 year old...

[Wiley]

What about the top old hen national flyers breeding babies now with old rings on? What we calling them?

Omg does that really happen - I am soooo naive!
That begs 2 further questions....
1. Would you expect a y.bird to compete against an 'experienced' yearling or 2yo ?
2. Would the said y.bird be affected by the moult at the time it would need to be ready to race?

No Dave the ybs are on natural Dark now, then forced darkness untill 3 weeks before their chosen race. Then the lights will be on for around 18 hours a day.

These ybs now will be racing from the first old bird races in April.

[king]

What about the top old hen national flyers breeding babies now with old rings on? What we calling them?

They will still be YBs but with old rings on. But who really cares? There's always somebody trying to gain an advantage. If fanciers breed birds with old rings on for one race then good luck to them.
The NFC used to 'ban' yearlings from going to the longest race Pau (500 miles+) so fanciers used to double ring their YBs with a YB ring and a older ring, they would race the bird as a YB with the YB ring and then send the bird as a yearling to the longest race as a yearling using the older ring. The NFC then made a rule that birds could not be rung with 2 rings of different years. That they hoped would stop yearlings being sent. But the rule was dropped when it was pointed out that the longer flyers could send yearlings 500 miles in other races and the longest flyers could in fact send YBs to near 500 miles. They then saw sense and allowed yearling to compete in ALL the NFC races, which has seen birds flying Pau now at over 700 miles, in fact the record for a yearling sent is 803 miles.