During our conversation he asked me about the criteria of a good farms and I explained to him. I asked him how many farms he has? He replied 2 & a half, and the half one is a stand alone and its under construction.
I probed him about inter-hole, the entrance, the specification of the farms,etc. He was totally lost. I explained to him the important of the above, he was surprised that he didn't know that there are so many things one has to look in to before starting the construction works of a farm.
He immediately asked my permission to stop our conversation. Then I asked him why? He cried I have to call my contractor to stop work now or it will be too costly if they had poured the concrete. My god! I replied you better do that.
So after a while he called me again, he said luckily he had spoken with me or else there will be mistake and it will be costly.
So he invited me to visit his Stand Alone farm. To my surprise as I had mentioned non experience farmers are more daring. The farm was built with the 1st floor height of 24 ft. The reason was to prevent theft. I asked what if there is no nests in your farm after 3-5 years would the theft thing still relevant to you? He laughed.
( can you see the height of the 1st floor?)So why worrying about thieves when one can't even create a good farms that have plenty of nests. It is logically that no nests there will automatically be no thieves. So no worries for now.
So which is more important? I guess those who think like a swiftlet would have the answer.
It was a 40 ft x 80ft , 3 storey farm. I was wondering do we really need such a big farm? No point having big farms if it can't attract birds to make nest.
With the 40ft structure it has to have pillars in the middle. I personally do not favor pillars in farm as Swiftlet could bang on it. I would prefer to do a 25 ft one and stretched it longer instead.
In this case you don't need pillars in farms.
(the owner & I standing at the construction site of his 3 storey farm)But the farm he was building already erected with pillars and column so nothing much he could do now other than to correct the position of the inter-hole, entrance, roving,etc.
I explained to him the criteria of a good & successful farms and how he should build his farm, most important swiftlet friendly. I drafted out a plan and explain to him. He agreed and was happy about it.
Later I was taken to visit his other farm which was built by a someone he entrusted with. Well he wasn't happy about the performance.....he asked for my opinion ,well I observed many things that are contradict to the basic requirement of a successful farm but I can't say much here .......anyway he had already paid him.
(done by a trusted person, the side facing the Sun, West..)I asked him to observe and think logically " if you were a bird would you stay in such farm"? He noted and smiled......I guess he has got the answer.
After that we left as it is getting dark. I told him in Swiftlet Farming you need time & experiences, the most dangerous thing is that too often we thought that we know everything. That is the biggest mistake.
Try to think back 3 months ago, then 6 months ago, then 1 year ago, then 2 years ago & so on. Compare your knowledge within all these time , I can bet with you the longer the time past the more knowledgeable you are.
So it is clearly showed experience is a must. So don't be too rush when going into Swiftlet farming provide you could find someone to guide you.
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