Have you ever heard of quality humidity in swiftlet farming? What is quality humidity? Quality humidity is the moist/vapor in the air that is clean.
Swiftlet farms that have quality humidity (clean moist) often produces whiter nests, nests with less feathers, bigger nests, round shaped nests, …etc.
How do we do that? The solution is through the natural vaporization. Natural vaporization can be observed in caves where lime stones are constantly wet. Small streams found below the cave helps to push up the humidity naturally. The air in the cave contain clean vapor.
( All parts can be found in Hardware shop)
Through this observation, swiftlet farmers have imitated and reproduced this technique by putting buckets of water, making water ponds, and similar ways in their Swiftlet farms. The whole idea is to increase the humidity but they do not understand the quality of humidity entirely.
Natural vaporization in Swiftlet farm does not generate mist. Dissimilarly with humidifiers, water sprinklers, etc from the mass market. Natural evaporation increases the humidity without moving the dust and foreign particles that had been accumulated on the floors and the walls of Swiftlet farm. Common humidifiers will churn up dust from the floor of the farm. Thus, the travelling mist from the humidifiers sticks onto the dust and settles them on planks and nests.
( Water dripping down the wall creating a cave environment)
The mist in the air carries dust and foreign particles to the nest. If the mist is dirty, then chances are the nests will be dirty too.
As a result, many experts discourage air movement in the Swiftlet farm for which they unable to provide any explanations.
Why humidifier is to be switched off during night? Common reason being was that it would be much cooler at night. There are more explanations to it than that. Perhaps they did not know, other than the reason being the night is much cooler. Swiftlets build nests at night. Try switching the humidifiers on at night, and gamble at the risk of having the nests quality changed
( Large lcd screen with setting indication. 2 AA sized battery operated )
One of the best ways to have natural vaporization is to wet the walls of the Swiftlet farm. I have practiced a simple way to wet the walls of my farms and it does improve the quality of my nests. I have been doing thisfor quite a while now, and the results are looking good.
In order to do this, you must have the right gadget to manage the flow of the water and the time of which the water should flow.
I use a simple Water Timer which does all these. It has an automatic valve control that comes with an in-built timer for settings.
( Simple connection with garden hose)
The opening of the valve can be set to seconds, minutes or hours. You can set the watering period to daily, weekly or monthly. It operates with 2 AA sized batteries and can last for 5 months (very low maintenance). No pressure pump needed. Just connect the Water Timer directly to the water pipe (water source) that all.
In order for the water to flow to the wall, a PVC pipe is needed. Drill small holes sized approximately 1- 0.5 mm in a straight line onto the PVC pipe with a distance of 15cm (drill between holes).
Then install the PVC pipe about 5 ft from the ground. The holes should be 225 dg facing the wall so that the water can be sprayed directly onto the wall.
I set the watering time once daily about 30 seconds – 1 minute depending on how well your farm is constructed in terms of insulation and ventilation hole control. If it is a hot weather you can increase the watering time.
I am sure you will be surprised to see quality nests after installing this watering system. It also helps to increase bird population and nests.
The Water Timer cost Rm230.00 (postage not included). Limited quantity available!
(The Water Timer is Reliable, good quality and Made in Taiwan).
Good Swiftlet farming All!