Looking from the outside this Swiftlet Farm looks good.
There is no hint what is the real condition inside. But those who have
experience and skill could foresee the real condition inside. The outside of
the Swiftlet farm does indicates something.
Have you not noticed anything? ..... This Swiftlet farm has
too many Vent-Holes, it will affect the internal micro. It will be difficult to
control the temperature, humidity, etc. I am very sure the owner Mr. R didn't
know about this. From the outside, I knew the internal micro is at threat.
Let's see what I had anticipated is correct or otherwise.
This Birds House was built by a local. It is a 20 x 40 ', 3
storey Standalone located in a beautiful area in Kelantan. It is not that hard
to build a successful Swiftlet farm in Kelantan if you know what you are doing.
That is the biggest challenge for all. Kelantan is a good area for Swiftlet
farming the success rate is high. But people still build failed Bird house here
Currently many people are building small Bird houses .. I don't
know why. Whether it is a 20x70 or a 20x40 The commitment is the same. Obviously
the cost of construction is different, but the longer Bird house has its
advantages in the long run (not too big). I wonder is it a trend they just
follow, or they actually wanted to build a successful Swiftlet farm? In
Swiftlet farming people tend to follow others without knowing and understanding
what is right and wrong.( Also what is necessary and what is not necessary).
Prior to this, the
owner had reduced the size of the entrance hole. There are 2 things he might
have thought of by doing this, 1) The Birds house is too bright 2) Swiftlet
like small entrance hole. Is his assumption correct? We shall see
Now inside the Bird
house. It tells tales....The dog Kennel roof is the problem. All things in a
Swiftlet farm are interrelated. There are gaps at the roof. The light easily
penetrates into the roving making the whole roving too bright. Subsequently the
brightness of the roving affect the darkness of every floor of the nesting
area. With its length of 40', the light could easily reach the back of the
nesting area. Now you see why I prefer longer farm at least 60'. At 60' or more
the glare reduced. No doubt some may argue in order to prevent this, partitions
could be erected. Bear in mind this is a 40' Bird house. The roving has already
taken 1/3 of its size. The partition will reduce the nesting area further. If
the partitioning is not done properly without anticipating the flying path of
Swiftlet it would kill the whole Bird farm
Due to this owner uses the orchard net to darken the
walls...it won't help. He also reduces the entrance hole size so that it could
reduce the brightness. With too many gaps, the movement of air in this Bird house
is so intense that it caused the whole micro upside down.Currently the humidity
of the Bird house is constantly low at all time.To solve this problem the owner
increases the running time of the humidifiers. Without knowing the adverse
effect, the owner actually has sabotaged its own Bird house. This caused a
great RH fluctuation and instability. There are times the RH is too high, and
there are times too low. How do we know this? Let's investigated
Look at the droppings and the nests. The dropping is like
being washed and dried up. It shows when the
owner increases the running time of the humidifier the floor are wet,
and it softens the dropping and breaking them down. When the humidifiers are
switched off the dropping dried up fast. This not good for the Bird House.
There are few nests in this Bird house mostly built on the
artificial nests. The elongated shape and the holes on it show poor micro
control. There are many things in Birds House that indicate the condition of
the micro, but it needs experience and skill to interpret them.
Why install internal tweeters at the middle of the Nesting
Planks? Who teaches this? Young Swiftlets build their nests at corners. In all
new Bird houses, most nests are built at the corners. Didn't we know this? I
had written about Tweeter installation in Swiftlet farm in many of my previous
articles...... But ...never mind.. Maybe they didn't read my blog.
Too few tweeters and some of the nesting planks have fungus.
There are turning gray and black. When one pushes up the Rh in a high
temperature Bird house the water droplets become hot mist. This is not what
birds wanted. They want cool mist. I had seen many Bird houses turning into the
sauna (spa).. ha..ha.
Again the fake nests are installed not close enough to the
corner. The corner areas are the most important area in a Bird house. Most of
the first nest in the new Swiftlet farm is built at the corner. Therefore, it
is important to have tweeters installed at the corners not at the middle. The
fake nests should be installed about 6-8" from the corners that have
tweeter.
The Inter-hole is too small even though it is an 8x10' the
stair has already taken 3-4' , what is left now is 4x10'. I don't really favor
small inter-hole with stairs.
By just observing, I told Mr. R, " It seemed that this
Bird house is built with a single layer brick wall".
He noted, yes it is he replied. I wonder how it would
withstand the heat during the hot season like now. There is no insulating
material at the wall. He has to do something otherwise this Bird house will
remain as it is.
It is sad to see a bad Bird house in a good area. It is a
learning curve and many pay hefty for not knowing what constitute a good and
successful Swiftlet farm.
Good Swiftlet farming!
