It was huge inside, with such size the capacity of nests would be massive if in few years time when this farm is inhibited by swiftlets.
( farm inside)All inside walls are perfectly plastered for smoothness even my house walls are rougher. The owner is very detail about the finishing of the farm. It uses good grade of red clay bricks. It is the best grade amongst red clay bricks. Definitely No to sand bricks.
The walls are multiple layered. You can’t imagine. I respect the effort and the amount of $ spent on this farm.
(concrete reinforced ground floor)The cost of labor is high as all finishing is of perfection. The target of completion of this farm is 6 months. He won’t want to miss this year swiftlet breeding season.
For many years I had thought of using good alternate material for nesting plank instead of the commonly Meranti wood. The Meranti wood won’t last long especially in condition of high Rh. It also invites termites and mould.
Some of the plank materials that I had thought of which are good like Marble but the cost are extremely exorbitant. Due to this therefore all my farms are opted for Meranti.
But somehow for those who can afford it then they would choose the best. This farm is choosing the best. It is using good grade of Marble as nesting planks. All Marble planks are specially grooved for easy perching of birds (hang). It was specially order- made.
( marble nesting planks with groove)
To accommodate the weight of the Marble the building was built with reinforced material to support the weight of the Marble planks. This pushed up the construction cost of the building.
( Crates of Marble 2 tons each , here are less than 10% of the amount needed)Furthermore being built on a soft soil at the river bank, imagine how many piling poles it needed.
The Marble planks are so expensive that the cost itself for this farm could easily equivalent to the cost of construction of a common 2 storey farm.
(grooved ceiling for installation of Marble planks)The installation of the Marble planks is another huge task. It needs many skilled workers to do the job this is due to its weight and the progress is slow. A 6 ft Marble plank weights about 20kgs. Imagine how many planks are needed in a 50x100ft, 6 sty farm. So this is what I call “How Malaysians Invest in Swiftlet Farming”
The cost of the planks and the labor itself are killing so not many would build it in such way.
The reason being that many had resorted to build farm with expensive material is to achieve a good internal environment liked by birds so that birds would stay and make nests.
The owner is a true investor as he see the opportunity and the potentiality of this area he really banging hard on it “good entrepreneurship”. For such huge farm we are talking about 20 years investment or more how many of us really look beyond it.
Swiftlets farming is a long term investment .For those who want to get quick bucks out of it I guess they had invested in the wrong place.