More than 20 years ago, Pak
Negroho had said “One Bh Design Cannot Be used For All Areas and all
swiftlet farms”.
Which means all Bhs should be different in
terms of design and should adapt to the environment where the Bh is to be built.
In East Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak), there
are huge existence of Seriti when the Bh entrance hole is too large, light
could easily penetrate into the swiftlet farm and the nesting areas would be
too bright. This would attract Seriti to stay and build nests in it. Whereas in
Peninsular Malaysia, Seriti is rare species, therefore a big opening entrance
hole won’t attract Seriti but it would attract predators such as Owls. So
deciding on the size of the entrances, one needs a clear understanding of the
pro and cons.
So what is the best size for the entrance
hole? 1x1, 1x2, 2x2, 3x4, 4x4, 4x7, 7x7, etc. You will not get the answer until
you could visualize it, which is not an easy thing to do.
The Entrance hole is an in and an out
route, often at times many prefer it to be big cited, easy for Birds to fly in
and out. To a certain extend it is true but a big entrance also has its
disadvantage such as thieves, predators, light density control and etc.
Before deciding on the size of the
entrance, it is important look at the how you want the internal (partitioning)
to be. Both the internal partitioning and the external hole size are
interrelated. This applies to all Bhs. Big entrance hole require more
partitioning to reduce light. Small entrance hole requires fewer partitions,
but it is harder for birds to maneuver. In order to decide on this we must
weigh the importance of each decided size. That would subject to your creative
ability and strong basic knowledge in swiftlet farming.
When I say basic knowledge, that does not
mean things that you had learned from attending seminars which are mushrooming
everywhere. We are not talking about how swiftlet farming started in Malaysia,
its history or about the size of the Bh, or about how to put fake nest, or even
about creating special rooms for birds.
We are talking about creating a good and
big Runway, a good boarding area, a good transit sections’ and so on. By doing
so, all those planes be it 737, 757, A300, F-16, Sukoi, or Hornet could land
without any obstacles or difficulties.
To be a successful swiflet farmer, you need
to know all these. Imagine what if you have spent millions of dollar on a new
Airport and later, to discover that it is too small or the facilities are not
sufficient enough to support all the planes that are coming in? (Malaysia
Boleh).
Then all flights (planes) will choose to land
in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and so on instead of the Airport that you had built. If your swiftlet
farm is similar to that of the “Malaysia Boleh Airport”, then your
neighbor Bhs are more than happy to accepts all the swiftlets that are flying
in those areas.
Do not copy the same design from other Bh.
It may work in a particular area but not other areas. What if you had copied
the “Malaysia Boleh Airport design”...ha.ha…? This is not a joke. I have seen
many swiftlet farms sharing a similar design over and over again, most are
likely to fail.
So next time, when you are planning to
build a swiftlet farm, kindly make sure you understand the concept of “Not all
Bhs are the same.”
Good Swiftlet Farming All!
