( too many obstructions )
( wrong tweeters formation & too few tweeters)
( wire dangling every where it will frighten the birds)
( do you think the birds would stay at 38C? Yes theirs eggs may become half boiled eggs)
( the dangling wire works as trap to deter birds from staying)
( all wires are dangling from the planks. Whats happens all the wire clips? Why need to fix tweeters at the middle.It doesn't make sense at all!)I was down with flu for couple of days. Yet I have to do farm visiting as I had promised one of my readers Mr.T from the South. He has been pestering me to visit his Swiftlets farm since few weeks back. There were 2 farms I need to visit. Both had operated for 2 years now and have less than 20 nests.
As the location concerned it is a Birds Prime area. I have few farms around here too which is doing quite well. In fact some of his neighbors’ farms are doing pretty good but his farms barely reach the average nests standard.
Before visiting his farm I told myself there must be things which are not right. But Mr.T couldn’t figure it out, he told me that as far as he is concerns everything is ok and fine. Well let’s see…..
We had planned this meeting few weeks back. Unfortunately at this time I was down with flu. I was feeling very uneasy but since I had promised Mr.T I have to make it and drove all the way there.
The weather was hot and it makes my running nose worse. It was a sunny day after few days of rain. I reached the Petrol station and not long came Mr.T .
“Hello James, how are you? (Obviously I am not good)”
“Hi Mr.T, so how far is your farm from here? I will follow you from behind”
That was the 1st of the 2 farms I need to visit.
It was located at a good area, few rolls of double storey shop lots most converted into Swiftlet farms. Mr.T’s farm is an end lot unit.
Mr.T was very eager to show me his farm. As I enter the farm my senses tell me “big problem”. As I walk further and check around I ask Mr.T. “Who built this farm? He replied “I built it myself with the help of a consultant.”
I told him there are many flaws and problems in your farm, didn’t you notice it? Mr.T mutes for a while and replied “I had done some revamp”.
That is not good and the problems not solved that is what I told him. He had done many revamps and without having the skill and the knowledge about what should be done therefore he couldn’t solve the problems.
This farm didn’t reach the normal required standard (basic). The Temp, RH, Darkness, Flying path, Sound system,etc..All are out. It hardly passes the standard basic score sheet.
The temperature was 38.2C reading from my sensor gun at 3pm. The Rh was way below 60% …..If he can’t even gets the basic right how is he going to solve problems that are more difficult in future?
I told Mr.T, look at the shits on the ground all are dried like flake and powder the Rh is too low even with the Humidifiers switched on all time it will not help, this shows that there is strong movement of air flow.
There’s a small room closes to the staircase this room is not so hot because it’s farther from the wall and most of the nests are built here. I told Mr.T go into the room for few minutes and feel the differences.
Obviously the room is not as hot as other parts of the farm therefore all nests are built there. “Mr.T, Could sense the differences?”
Since his shop is an end unit the wall is constantly exposes to sunlight and heat penetrate thru and making the internal of the farm hot. He didn’t know about wall insulation when I asked him about double layer brick. Practically they didn’t think about heat (temperature) when building this farm.
I asked Mr.T, Didn’t you know the importance of all these basic stuffs? His reply was “I did read lots of books…I learn from consultants.
The Sound System was wrongly set, it juggled up between Internal Sound and External Sound and due to this the effectiveness of sound is not properly utilized.
There were many problems in his farm .I advise Mr.T , if you don’t do anything your investment is gone and your farm is as good as dead. For the next the 2-5 years it would be still less than 20 nests perhaps more 30 nests or 40 nests that would not justify at all “30-40 nests for a 5 years period”.
I have to draw up a plan for revamp and asked Mr.T to undertake the construction himself by getting few construction workers. It will do as long they follow my plan. Current I am very busy and unable to undertake the construction works as all my workers are occupied with jobs. (Building new farms)
After visited the 1st farm we drove to the 2nd farm which located few kilometers away. The weather was hot and my flu is getting worst. Don’t really feel well.
I told Mr. Tan, “I think we should stop here, my concentration is not good now. My flu is making me dizzy. It is not fair to visit your farm now without good concentration .I might miss a few things.”
I promised Mr.T. that I would be back next week to see the 2nd farm and he agreed.
Can’t blame Mr.T for this, if you look around not too far….even junior bloggers ( if you search the web) who are close associates of a Sifu from Neighboring country which they worship as an idol failed to build good farms. They had revamped their farms several times but yet to achieve what they wanted. You could see it from the pictures they posted and easily indentify their mistakes but they themselves didn’t notice anything.
So what more for people like Mr.T? I told Mr.T, "I would teach you as much as you want to learn. Most important is the basic. Everybody starts somewhere most important is, "are we following or going the right direction?"
"So there is nothing wrong if you owned a failed farm. Most important is that you want to turn it around."
Well this is nature and the best part of it is “whenever there are good farms the will always be failed farms. This makes the world perfect”
Good Swiftlet Farming All!
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