(Beautiful Swiftlet farm , everyone wants to own one)
( Dark is not always the solution)
(In this case dark has became a problem)“James, you have to help me out, cried the owner of a 20x80, 3 storeys Standalone BH Mr.Y. Birds don’t stay in my farm. The sound started for almost 7 months now. Please when will you be coming to solve my BH’s problem?”
I had delayed my visit many times until I felt bad about it. Sad to know that the owner had invested so much in it and Swiftlets are not staying in it. There must be problems in this farm.
The farm is located in the South, surrounded by Dragon fruit trees. It was designed by a local Swiftlet consultant. It was beautifully built with all the necessary materials to prevent heat. It has double layer brick. The internal temperature was around 28-29C with variances less than 1C. The exterior of the building looks good but what is the point. We want a nests we don’t want beautiful building to impress others isn’t it?
The owner can’t figure it out. It was located in a prime area with many birds foray for food every evening around his farm but none of them stayed.
As I had said everything must come together, though the Temperate and the RH were good but the consultant failed to understand more than a good micro. He didn’t pay much attention to other things like the flying path, tweeters formation, and light density and so on (perhaps he might not even know what those stuffs were). As I enter the farm and observe there were many things not properly done except the micro condition( Temp & Rh)
Most of the birds only play and fly in the roving and none venture further. It seems they are afraid of nesting area. I had observed this in many farms that I had visited. It is the design's fault that restricts the birds from flying deeper into the farm.
When I look at the roving even with human instinct I wouldn’t feel good imagine Swiftlets which are very sensitive to this, with such environment I don’t think they want to stay in it?
I asked Mr.Y, why did you opt for such design internally? He explained this was what the consultant wanted. I told Mr. Y, I shall teach you whatever I know and so the next time you could solve the problems by yourself without relying on others.
I told Mr.Y, the entrance hole was located way too near the edge this forces the birds to fly from a sharp angle thus making the birds to turn erratically. Young birds hate this, therefore they don’t fly deeper.
Secondly the 2 second entrance holes to the nesting area were wrongly located both at the opposite left side. This making it worst, Swiftlet have to dive sharp to enter the nesting area. As the result all swiftlet play and fly at the Roving without even flying into the nesting.
Third, there were no contrasts of light density in the whole farm. Even as a human I didn’t know where the entrance and exit are when I was in the nesting area. What would happen to young birds then? They might not even find their ways out once they’ve got in therefore they decided not to go in at all.
I marked all places that needed to be hacked and ask Mr.Y to erect some partitions to accommodate the flying path of the birds. I showed him where it should be located and the reason why I want them to be erected there.
The tweeters formation was lousy and the number of tweeters was not enough for this farm. It was a totally make over revamp A-Z.
I am happy that Mr.Y understands what I had taught him during my visit to his farm. Otherwise if nothing is to be done I guess after couple of years of waiting there will be still no nests in it.
After that we went for a drink and later I rush off to P.D to see the construction works of another new Swiftlet farm which is under my supervision.