Mr.H, a keen Swiftlet farmer from Johor that own a few Swiftlet farms. The 1st Swiftlet farm he built few years ago, was good. Now, he is harvesting a few kilograms per month. This had transpired him to build more Swiftlet farms.
Unfortunately, the following farms was not as successful as the ones he built before. What has gone wrong? He don't have a clue.
He then emailed me asking for some advise. With that he explained the situation he is facing without elaborating too much about his Bhs.
I told him that I can’t tell him much through a few emails. I need to have a look at the Swiftlet farm's internals and externals before giving any advice. I suggested that he should email me some photos of his Swiftlet farm so that I could have a clear picture of the problem before advising him.
After a week, these are the photos I received. Please see below.
( Trees near Bh is not good)
(If I am not mistaken that is a 2 x 4ft Open roof. I wonder who Mr.H learns it from.)
( Wrong plank & tweeter formation. Low quality planks. )
( Hole to the nesting area horizontally too narrow. Vertically too big.)
( He had tried to wet the floor and installed few mist makers but that don't solve the micro problem. The evidence is in the picture)
Let's be realistic here, look at these pictures. If you were a bird, would you want to stay in this Swiftlet farm? I don’t know about you guys but birds will definitely not want to stay at a place like that.
What has this Swiftlet farm got to offer? Look at the internal, it lacks the appeal to attract birds. It lacks something; the X-factor. From the pictures shown above, the room is boringly plain with supported nesting planks and a small hole. Should I call it an entrance hole or a chimney? Anybody can construct and design such Swiftlet farm, even the ones with no experience. What is the advantage of this Swiftlet farm? None!
Even with my human instincts, I would strongly discourage myself to choose this Bh, what's more for the birds. You don’t have to be an expert in Swiftlet farming to know this. Just look at the pictures above and compare them with the pictures on my other articles, you would have gotten the answer.
Repeatedly, Swiftlet farm owners would say this when I ask them about the condition of their farms.
“My Bh seemed Ok and good”.
“I don’t see any problem”
“I don’t know why birds are not interested to stay and build nests”.
When the owners responded to this (the few sentences stated above), I often assume the worst and my assumptions are often correct.
Unless the Bh owners themselves sensed something wrong conserning their Bh. “James, my Bh is not good and the design might be wrong, there may be something wrong here and so on”… then there might be some hope.
1) The entrance hole by any standard is way too small for the Swiftlets to maneuver. It restricts their flying paths.
2) The Zinc plate at the Dog Kennel causes reflection. This is not a good thing. Whose idea is this?
3) Dangling tweeter wires.
4) Wrong tweeters formation.
5) The second entrance hole is too narrow and too close to the wall. (At least 1.5 ft from wall unless the entrance is more than 4ft).
6) Reflection from the Zinc plate causes a bright internal. Therefore, the owner has painted the room black. (So the owner himself creates a problem for his own swiftlet farm). Simple: no Zinc plate, no black paint.
7) The trees are too close at the front and back of the Swiftlet Farm.
8) There are no Vent holes around except the 2 exhausts fan. This causes the air move constantly. Bad…very bad.
9) Observation from No. 8: The Micro is out of control (I assume). (No Smoke, No Fire theory).
10)…..list goes on.
I have not visit this Swiftlet farm yet, but by looking at those photos Mr.H sent me, I have already discovered many complications with this Swiftlet farm. If I were to go and visit the farm, there will be loads of problem to be detected.
In my many years of involvement in Swiftlet farming have taught me to easily detect problems in badly built Swiftlet farms that many could not. I guess this is what passion and love for swiftlet farming is. If you share the same passion and love for swiftlet farming, I am sure you too could acquire the same skills like I did. You too can solve all problems in your swiftlet farms.
Now You Know Why 80% Swiftlet Farm Fail.
Good Swiftlet Farming All!