(hot sunny day at Nibong Tebal)
( I won't put a spot light like this. It attracts Bats and they will stay in the farm)
( the interhole is too big)Last week I was invited to view a Standalone farm located in Nibong Tebal a 30x60ft, 3 storey farm.
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The owner had contacted me earlier for this appointment. We suppose to meet after lunch. Fortunately I managed to finish my farm visit in Taiping before noon and I called him so that we could meet earlier.
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We decided to meet at Sg. Bakap toll exit. It takes me about 1/2 hour drive from Taiping and the weather was hot. After waited for a couple of minutes at the Toll exit Mr.N turn up. Since it was noon it would be great that we go for lunch suggested Mr. N.
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He took me to a restaurant at the Sg. Udang which is famous for its curry fish and prawn. The name says it all Sg .Udang. The dishes were good.
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During lunch I ask Mr.N to brief me about the history of his farm.
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Mr.N had designed the farm by himself with the help of a partner. The knowledge he gains was from books, forums, etc.
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The farm has started its sound for almost 3 months now. Surprisingly not a single spot of bird shit can be found in the farm.
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To Mr.N as far as he is concerned he had planned the farm well it has mist spray installed on all the walls. The design has taken consideration of how the birds fly so the interhole and all the sections linked have been made extra big to accommodate this and yet why the birds don’t stay asked Mr.N.
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To me if it is a good and well designed farm then how come after 3 months of operation there is not even a single spot of bird shit? Definitely there is something wrong. Furthermore the farm is located at a prime zone area surrounded with oil palm plantation.
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Let me do some inspections and I shall let you know where it has gone wrong I told Mr.N.
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There are so many Vent-holes in this farm reason being to cool and reduce the temperature cited Mr.N. He didn’t know that he’s got it wrong. I guess he got this from books. I explained to him too many Vent-holes would make the temperature outside the farm similar to inside. So if the external temp is at 35C on a hot day then the inside would follows.
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Theoretically he got it all correct and applied them to his farm but on practical it doesn’t work this way. The Vent- hole is one of the good examples. I had always said if after reading all books and attended seminars would guarantee that you have a successful farm then the 90% fail rate won’t prevail.
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I advised Mr.N to close some of the Vent-holes leaving those necessary ones open. I want to achieve an internal temp of around 27-29C even though the external is at 35C.
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His farm interhole is too big in ratio to the size of his farm. Many claimed the bigger the interhole the better it is this is theory but in practical it is different. When we decide on the interhole size we have to take the total size of the farm and its design as a base for calculation so that in ratio it would fit in.
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Besides that the sound especially the volume was not set and tuned properly. The internal sound quality was not good at all. I could hardly hear any baby, female and population sounds. So how is this farm going to attract birds to stay? I tuned the equalizer on the Amp and making sure the baby sound and female sound are heard.
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Within minutes there were few birds circling and entering his farm at noon. In fact this is the first time they see birds circling and entering the farm on a hot sunny day.
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Besides the above there are so many things that are not done correctly but Mr. N presumed he had built a perfect farm and everything is at perfection.
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The darkness of the farm is all out. I advised him to erect few partitions at areas that needed to be blocked to create a cozy environment.
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The mist spray time setting was wrong, with the current setting in no time all the planks would be infested with mould. What Mr.N understood was the more mist the cooler the farm and the birds would love it. It was wrong perception. Not necessary more mist is better.
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There are many more errors that he himself couldn’t identify. I pin pointed each and everyone and explained to him the effect of the errors. There are many more things which I can’t finish writing here.
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It takes more than theory to build a successful farm.
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I hope he understand it well.
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Good farming all!
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