Down with Flu again. I guess too much of works and no time to rest. I had always told myself I want a good rest but that never seemed to come. I will do that perhaps next week, no answer of call and no farm visiting.
But I can’t rest neither. The moment I lied down my mind started to think “what happened to my contractors? Are they working towards to the dateline? What happened to the Swiftlet farms in the North? What happened to the one in the East….and so on..Must learn not to think. .
It is much better not to know so much about Swiftlet farming. Just leave it to someone to handle it. So don’t have to think about it.
While having flu last week I visited a Farm which I had built for my reader. It is located less than 20Km from K.L. It is not a Bird Prime Area but it is reasonable Ok. I had told the owner about what to be expected from this area before he decided to engage me to build this farm for him. I guess we have to be sincere. I told him he has to wait as this is not a Prime Bird area.
My body is aching and I am not well. Since the owner has been calling me often I guess it is my obligation to check out the farm. I normally would do this every 1-1/2 month once to see the progress and rectify whatever shortcomings.
This Swiftlet farm started its sound in mid of Nov 2010. After 2 weeks we went in again somewhere in Dec as one of the internal sound was not working. The result is good with plenty of small patches of birds dropping.
The construction of this farm has taken into consideration of the external and internal factors. As for the External factors we have studied the Swiftlet farms around this area and its population and Secondly the area where the birds foray for food and play. Therefore the opening of the EH is located (size, position, height, etc) at the back potion of this Shop. It was put there not out of convenient it was preplanned.
As for internal all ceilings and walls are insulated with heat resistant materials. This is to create a good internal environment of 26-30C immaterial hot or raining season.
This time when we went inside the farm there were about 50 patches of bird’s shits and most of them are in full patches with feathers around it. This shows birds had stayed I was surprised to see such result. It had just operated for about 3 months now. There were few nests markings. What surprised me was this is not a prime area and it was an urbanized town. I would happy to see such result in 8-12 months but it outperformed what I had expected. By judging from the Droppings there would be more nests in a short period of time.
This farm has a very unique Tweeter arrangement. Not all tweeters are facing the EH which commonly practiced by many. As we know the chirping sounds of a populated successful swiftlet farms (internal) don’t come from one direction. So having all tweeters facing one direction is not wise. I have done many experiments and discovered this method really makes the young birds stay.
Furthermore this farm is using GS-9 External and Hypnotic Internal sound. I was surprised to see almost all areas below the internal tweeters have birds’ droppings
Birds’ droppings indicate and show us what to be expected from the farm in 6-12 months time. It tells tales. It tells us whether the internal environment is at the acceptable level. The areas and spots where the birds droppings are found show the light density level (high or low) and the effectiveness of the tweeters arrangement.
The owner was very happy and he claimed that he is Lucky. Well Luck doesn’t come all the times.
He claims “James with your expertise and my little Luck it is equal to success”
This is his first Swiftlet farm and now he is confident to start few more.
I showed him how to apply the Love Potion effective. Since his farm is new he needs to apply more Love potion. We didn’t put any Birds Shit or Ammonia in this farm as I don’t favor them. It only uses Love Potion and the result was fantastic. We use Love Potion to repel the cement and other construction smell and it works fantastically furthermore birds like them.
After spending 30 minutes inside the farm I told him we have to go. I advised him not to spend longer than 30 minutes in new farm that has new nests in it. (Unless there is something to rectify which needs longer hour) I knew many farmers spend hours in new farm some visit every 2 to 3days. This is not good for the farm. There are certain rules we need to follow if we want to be a successful swiftlet farmer. Some may not agree with me but this is what I practice.
Thought the result of this farm is far below compared to those Swiftlet farms in prime area like Kelantan, Perak, Kedah, Trengganu, etc which in certain cases 3 months time have dozen of nests. But given the geographical area and it urbanized town activities of this farm location such result is consider good.
Good Swiftlet farming All. The Best is To Teach and Share.
1) GS-9 & Hypnotic sound (2 sound arrangements)
2) Love Potion
3) New Tweeters Arrangement system
4) 2x5 piezo tweeters (Rm1.40 each) without diode.
5) First grade Dark Meranti