(poorly installed planks. Infested with mould)
(at 1:39pm the RH & Temp are at good level but so what. We can't rely solely on these 2 factors)
(small entrance-hole . the red paint marked for hacking)
( how could one install tweeters in the middle of the planks? I doubt his skill)Mr.W had called me many times and asks when I can visit his farm. I had postponed it many times till I felt embarrassed each time he calls me.
I have postponed it weeks after weeks because of my ongoing works which I had planned before Mr. W invitation.
Mr. W must be very desperate he explained to me thru phone that his 3 years old farm in a Prime area Raub has less than 10 nests. I was shocked to hear that. If fact it was built by a quite well known person claimed Mr.W.
Initially I explained to him that I cannot visit his Swiftlet farm until at least 2-3 month from now because of my busy schedule. I explained to him about the criteria of a successful farm and the common mistakes made by most farmers and from here he started to realize that his farm is in big trouble.
From knowing a little more about Swiftlet farming micro from me, he cannot hesitate to buck me again and this time making sure I visit and revamp his farm. My mistake was telling him that if you Do nothing now you may need to wait many years for nothing. I guess I was just sincere with him..
Because of Mr.W sincerity and his consistency in calling me, I gave in finally putting aside my other appointments and decided to visit his farm in Raub the next following week to help him out.
His mistake was he has chosen the wrong person to build his farm. He has no idea what is needed and what is necessary and so on in a Swiftlet farm. If the consultant is not sincere and lack of skill then the farm is destined to be failed. In Mr. W case his farm was done by an insincere consultant with little skill this leads Mr.W’s farm to failure.
The moment I walked into his farm I could sense lots of things. All the basic requirements needed in a Swiftlet farm were not there except the Temp & Rh.
I was proud that he could control the Temp & RH very well but then again Temp & Rh are only 2 factors. We need more than these 2 factors in order for birds to stay and to make nests. In Mr. W case Temp& Rh are good then so what? The birds are not impressed. Other than these all other factors were upside down.
The tweeters installation was all wrong, fixing in the wrong position causing rebound sound. It would cause confusion the moment the birds entering the farm.
Planking formation is another failure. Secondly most of the planks were infested with mould. I shake my head as I discover more and more problems.
I explained to Mr.W , a good swiftlet farm in not built like this. This is a work of an apprentice.
This is not all the entrance hole was too small, I wonder how the birds could enter freely. We cannot follow the Indonesian style in Malaysia it is a dead end. I had mentioned before, it needs to be localized.
We need adaptation when one trying to go again adaptation disaster will arise. One of the localization effects is Example: Both origin of the Chinese people of Malaysia and Indonesia are from China. They are the same, but the Chinese in Indonesia could only speak Indonesia language and most of them cannot speak Chinese unlike the Malaysia Chinese that could speak many Chinese dialects. Go to the street of Indonesia and speak Chinese to the Chinese there they think you are crazy.
This also applied to Swiftlets farming, small entrance-hole in Indonesia is a standard norm of procedure. A 9x12cm entrance hole is common and the birds have been living there for many generations and they had adapted to it and going in and out is not a problem.
In Malaysia if you follow the above size you can’t even find a spider inside. So do you understand what adaptation is? I think that is enough. Let’s get back to Mr.W’ farm.
Worse of all the whole farm is with rooms. When the walls were erected the consultant did not observe the flying path of the birds. This had caused the birds not flying deeper into the farm.
The quality of the External & Internal sound was so poor that I couldn’t hear the dominance sound. The sound failed. There are so many things that had gone wrong from the beginning from design to equipment setting up.
I patiently explained to Mr.W what he should do if he wants to turn around his farm. I taught him many techniques and ways to overcome the current problem. I gave him 1 latest Ext sound & 1 Internal sound and ask him to use it after the revamp. It was a long story…
Later we went for a quick lunch and after that I left for K.Lipis.
Good Swiftlets Farming All!
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