( Entrance Hole opted for Open roof design)
( Pool at the Open roof area)
( Nests collected from this 1-1/2 storey Swiftlet farm. The nests size and quality improved after humidifiers were installed)
( Plan from Mr.G. Red arrows and green alphabets are added by me to illustrate and indicate birds flying path and areas where Mr.G proposed to make openings)
Mr.G has taken over this 1 an a half storey Swiftlet farm from a friend not long ago. He is very new in Swiftlet farming. He came to know me through my blog www.swiftletfarmer.blogspot.com. One day, last year he decided to call me as he knows if he wants to be successful in Swiftlet farming he needs someone who has experience and vast knowledge in Swiftlet farming to guide him.
He invested in Swiftlet farming because he wants something that could generate income when he retires, that is what he told me. Mr.G can't differentiate between internal and external sound. He didn't know what is internal and external tweeter. That is the level of knowledge he has for Swiftlet farming. Obviously now, after many months of communicating with me and many times and many hours of having Teh tarik with me and so on. He now could tell which Swiftlet sounds is good and what constitute a good quality nests. What a good improvement.
I had always told him..." the best to learn is to ask question". In fact I am a person whose is hungry for questions. I believe answering question would strengthen my knowledge and it is also a challenge to what I have yet to know.
Currently this Swiftlet farm has about 80 nests. A 1-1/2 storey Swiftlet farm adopted an Open Roof entrance. The 1/2 storey is where the Open roof is. It is a light industry building converted into a Swiftlet farm.
The Bird population has not increased before this, and after taking over Mr.G saw some improvement. On my advise he has changed the External and Internal sound, applied Hormone Aroma, add new tweeters, etc.
Now he wants more drastic changes. He wants to do a revamp. He wants to test his own knowledge and see how much he knows.
He sent me this revamp plan and asked for my opinion. Well.....I will share with you all as I believe the more one shares the more he gets.
As we can see from the plan, birds fly from the Open roof entrance enter the roving and dive down to the flight path area. From here, birds have 2 choices, to turn left or right. It all depends on birds flying behavior in this area. From the location of the nests in area "W" which has 40-50 nests, it indicates birds prefer flying to the left.
It also shown all nests are built behind partitions or walls which are protected areas, a sharp 90 degree turn.
Mr.G proposed to open an opening at "A". This area has 8 nests. I supposed he wants birds to have an easy access to this area. By having the opening at "A" light density would be too strong. From the locations of the nests it shows birds in this farm prefer a darker area. Having an opening at "A" in not advisable.
Closing up area "B" after "A" and "D" are opened, direct light would penetrate into area "A", the 8 nests and 18 nests in area"Y" would suffer.
Closing "C", area "X" which is 8.5' too small for maneuvering making this area difficult for birds to stay.That is why this area only has 2 nests so far. This area needs to be enlarged if it wants to lures more birds to build nests here.
Ideally, the internal of this farm needs to be darken but not by painting the walls with black paint. Some of the partitions needed to be removed and the size of second access (doors) to all the nesting areas need to be reduced.
A new opening should be made at area "X" and "Y".
"A" and "C" proposal should be shelved.
Well the rest you could solve by visualizing as you are a bird. You want to build a good Swiftlet farm? Think like a Swiftlet.
Good Swiftlet farming All!
