I have postponed this visit for a few times. MR.C reminded me again. I have to do it somehow.
"James, when are you going visit my farm?"
"Oh Mr. C...soon..very soon.. how about this week?"
"Ok ..James I will wait for you. Don't forget to call me."
A one and a half storey Swiftlet farm located not far from Klang Valley . A reasonably good place for Swiftlet farming as few of his neighbors are doing quite well.
This has transpired him to go into Swiftlet farming. That was more than 2 years ago. Being a technical person himself he actually DIY the farm from structural work to nesting plank installation with some guidance from some so called well known Sifus and friends
A Dog Kennel design, it looks good from the outside. What about inside? It is always two different stories. For more than 2 years now this Bh has got not even one nest.
What peculiar about this Bh is...... it has got not even a spot of birds dropping. How could that be?
In order to help him I need to have all information about this Bh.
"Mr.C , you have to be honest with me. Tell me all the things that you have done or put in this Bh. I have to know all these before I can help you."
One of the biggest problem was he used duck eggs and mixed them with bird shit and painted it on the wall.
I asked him, why did you do that for and where did you learn it from?
His reply was.....I got it from the Internet and friends. They said this will help to increase nests.
"James , there are so many aroma formulas on the Internet I just follow.. lah. They also said all Bh's internal must be painted black so I also follow..lah.
"So what is outcome Mr.C?"
"James , initially I saw few birds playing inside but after using duck eggs mixed with dropping I have never seen them anymore."
" Mr.C , all the things we do in our BHs are based on facts and understanding of bird behavior. If one doesn't possess this it is very hard for him to do a good successful Swiftlet farm. Next time don't simply follow what people say. Think and evaluate them first to see whether it makes sense or otherwise. Remember your farm is not other people's guinea pig."
( What is the point of having the best thief proof when it can't even attracts Birds to build nests)
Mr.C was being misled. No all Swiftlet farm's internal walls have to be painted black. A simple explanation would be " is the Internal is too bright with strong light intensity?" If yes then it has to be painted black only in the affected areas but, not the entire Swiftlet farm.
It is not new there are still many Sifus out there insisting that all newly built Bh internal must be painted black. It has been a norm or a standard operating procedure compulsory.
Why is Mr.C's Swiftlet farm so bright ? ( Initially this Swiftlet farm was very bright) It is because of its design. The Dg Entrance hole is directly opposite the second entrance hole in a straight line .Mr. C claimed a well known Sifu taught him this.
The light from the Entrance hole could shine directly through the second entrance making the nesting areas bright. In this case the design defeated the purpose of the roving area.
Roving area also works as a barrier to reduce light density and wind.I believe many never thought of this other than thinking the roving area is a place for birds to play which many Sifus still hold on to this principle.
Because of its poor design this Bh has to be painted black to reduce the glare. Once it is painted black this Swiftlet farm is in total darkness. The danger of total darkness is, birds couldn't find its way out especially young birds.
There are so many Ventilation holes. The main reason is to cool down the Swiftlet farm. It was wrongly misunderstood. The vent - hole is not for the purpose of cooling the Bh. Instead with too many Vent-hole they bring hot air into the farm.
As I was inside the Swiftlet farm more and more mistakes were discovered. No wonder there are no bird droppings. No birds would want to stay in this Bh. It is confusing. White PVC pipes are used as Vent - holes. When all doors are closed the glare from the White PVC pipes can be seen clearly . Young birds would charge to this glare and bang on them mistaken it as an exit ( Entrance hole).
I asked Mr.C, "why didn't you use the Gray PVC pipe instead which could reduce glare and they have thicker wall" . He replied , "my Sifus and friends strongly recommended the White PVC so I just followed".
Some of this Vent holes were not fixed with a 3 foot PVC pipe reason was to allow more air to flow in. Would you buy this excuse?
I asked him to switch off all lights and close the door .Stand there for a few minutes and observe. Assuming if he is in danger and can't find the way out where would he run to?
He replied the areas that have got light. So if the birds cannot find its way out they too would fly to the bright White PVC pipe and bang on it. To them that might be the entrance hole.
He was made to believe from his mentors that birds like it dark. Perhaps total darkness is the best. So he painted the planks black. I was shocked to see this. I didn't know about this until I see the planks.
We are talking about a certain percentage of darkness not total darkness. When the internal is painted black it creates no contrast. Young birds rely on light to navigate as they yet to develop echolocation. Therefore total darkness should be avoided at all cost.
Most of the areas were painted in black.
Even the ceiling is not spared. He even painted them black before installing the nesting planks.
The internal tweeters were installed in the middle of the planks. I have visited many failed Bhs and they shared some similarity, most of them having tweeters installed in the middle of the planks.
Note, birds don't build their first nests in the middle of the planks. They prefer to build it at the corners. I have said this a hundred times and had said enough. But people still continue to do so. That is why 90% Swiftlet farm failed.
Too few tweeters..... Reason was most old successful Swiftlet farms have very few tweeters claimed Mr.C. Some of them even switched off the internal sound.
Yes he got a point there. Those farms were built 10-20 years ago and they have thousand of nests inside. Newly built farms don't have thousand nests inside.
They need to imitate the environment of the old farms therefore many tweeters are installed inside to imitate such environment.
The equalizer is set wrongly. It was not tuned according to the Internals sound frequency. As a result Birds won't stay and build nests.
I was wondering whose trademark is this installing tweeters in the middle of the planks. Someone must have done it before and now many are following it.
There are no corner boards at the corner. He was told that the birds prefer 90 degree corners but they didn't explain to him why. Birds like the lines or joins that meet between two planks which is at the corner. If a corner board is installed it will have 2 join lines instead of one. Isn't 2 join lines better than 1?
This nesting platform is about 5 feet tall. To me this is unnecessary, what's the point of maximizing the nesting area when the Swiftlet farm can't even attract birds.
While I was inside I can't tolerate the Ammonia smell. My nose is very sensitive to this pungent smell. Mr.C had put a few bags of Ammonium inside . This idea also came from friends and Sifus.
A 1.5 foot entrance hole from the roving to the top floor using the staircase. Don't think that birds are stupid. There are not. They will never use this entrance hole to fly in. If you were the bird would you use this entrance which elevated just 4 feet from the ground.
There are so many things needed to be done. 80% of the partition have to be removed. Some of the walls have to be hacked down. It is like building a new farm. I told Mr.C do it or done. He has got only two choices, wait for nothing for next 10-20 years or revamp the whole farm and at least in six to eight months time he could harvest few nests to eat.
After the visit we went to a nearby coffee shop to wrap up our discussion and findings. I could see the frustration on Mr.C's face.
He asked, " James , how come those people known so little and yet pretended that they know lots?"
(He was referring to those who had guided him to build his farm.)
"James there are two farms just 3 lots away from my Swiftlet farm started after me now one has at least 40 nests".
" How do you know that Mr.C?"
"I met one of the owners last month. He was here to do harvesting. I tried to talk to him but he refused to talk much other than saying ..OK lah about 40 nests...and I saw a bag he was carrying easily 50 nests. How come mine doesn't even have 1 nests."
"Mr.C , there are lots of problems in your Swiftlet farm ...what do you expect? Now do as I have told you. Consider it as a lesson. Start all over from the beginning. It is better to start all over again knowing that you have done it correctly."
" Thank you James, what you have taught me today is invaluable. All the things you said really makes sense."
Well it is sad to see people being misled. What to do... they just love to believe the wrong person.
Good Swiftlet farming All.
