It rains everywhere almost every day. Getting heavier as you could see in the papers some areas in the North are flooded.
Yes, we are moving into the yearend monsoon it happens every year but I anticipated it to be worse this year. Look at what happened to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
So… have you prepared and take this opportunity to capture and lure as many Swiftlets as possible when they migrate during this monsoon season? I guess you have not. Probably you may not know what to do or have not thought of it.
There are few things that you could do during this period. To some Bhs this is the time of disaster because many of their birds never returned, to others this is the opportunity to increase birds’ population and nests. So how do you do that..?
During the monsoon Padi fields, open low land, secondary jungle, etc are covered with water, sometime for weeks, it affects the Eco system thus insects (Flying black ants, termite, etc) that relied on this Eco system unable to breed. So it will be less food for the Swiftlets in these affected areas and they have to fly far for food.
Strong wind and continuous heavy rain are not good for young swiftlets that had just learned to fly. They are not skillful enough to handle the rough weather therefore most would stay inside the farm. They can’t find food, Starvation is common during this period. It’s common to see dead young birds in Bhs. The Natural instinct of surviving would encourage Birds to migrate to other safe areas so that their offspring would survive. This happens to all birds’ species not only Swiftlets, when life is at threat they would migrate.
By understanding this… would you still sit back and relax and wait for the Monsoon to end? By the time everything has cleared your Bh’s bird population may have been affected.
In Malaysia, East coast states are badly affected by Monsoon from Oct- Jan. While the West coast states are much safer.
During this period often many farmers would complain about less birds population, birds are not coming back,etc. Most birds would migrate to inland some even to West coast which is not impossible.
There are few things you could do, but depend on where your Bhs are located.
1) Monsoon and flooded area
For Monsoon affected areas, extra food should be provided for birds that couldn’t venture far for food due to bad weather. There are plenty of Insect Providing Powder in the market you could use them. This is the most important time to use them. By having extra food in Bh it would reduce the percentage of bird migrating from your Bh.
Secondly during this period the External sound have to be played longer to the night up to 9 pm. Knowing the experience adult birds would venture far for food sometimes coming back late beyond 7.45pm home coming time. The external sound that extended till 9pm would guide them to your Bhs. During this hour there is no light, swiftlet are guided to Bh only by sound and instinct. If the hypnotization is strong they would find their ways back and go into the right entrance hole. So make sure your Bhs are using strong hypnotic Internal sound.
Spray extra Love potion in Bh during this monsoon period so that birds would feel safe and reduce the chance of migration.
Check humidity ( Rh) level, making sure it is not too high. Too high of Rh would wet the Nesting Planks and making it hard for them to make nests. If they are unable to make nests in your Bh then they would fly to other Bh to make nests. ( During this time you may switch off the Humidifiers)
2) None Monsoon area
For non affected areas during this period make sure that your Bhs are using good quality External and Internal sound. It would attract those young migrating birds to flying in and to stay. Once they are hypnotized by the internal sound they would make this new farm their permanent home.
This is also the time where you could take the opportunity to change the sound if you have not changed sound for a while. It is encourage to change the sound together with the use of Love potion it would help significantly. It increases the percentage of birds stay and fast nest building.
Check old tweeters and replace if necessary, add more tweeters at the Entrance hold and Interhole to guide the migrating birds to fly deeper into your Bhs.
Having Hexagonal Tweeter is important as the External sound could reach several kilometer far especially reaching birds that are migrating. With Hexagonal tweeter it would increase the chances of capturing migrating birds.
Hope the above would help all.
Obviously there are more ways to capture and lure Birds into Bh to stay and make nests during the Monsoon period but you must get all the above right first before I reveal more…..
Good Swiftlet farming All!