Using right Wood "nesting Plank" for your Farm

Have you ever thought of what wood (nesting planks) is installed in your farm? I guess most have no idea except assuming it is Meranti. There is a saying from Tan Sri Tan Chin Nam property magnate “Never assume”

Do you know how a Meranti wood looks like? Ha..ha..! I guess most wouldn't know. This is because most of the decisions of the type of planks were decided by the consultant entrusted by the owner.

As I have mentioned before, there so many type of Meranti woods. Meranti is only the general name for type of woods. It could be further divided into hundred of sub species. Let’s not go too deep into it as we are not going for a diploma in wood study & forestry.

Plank is one of the most important factors determining the growth of birds population and nest.

If the woods used in your farm are of kind that dislike by birds then it would prevent birds from making nests. So choosing the right wood is important.

As basic the wood for nesting planks should be dry, odorless, long lasting, etc. I have seen too many farms using cheap unsuitable wood as nesting plank and being charged for the price of Meranti.

Over the time these unsuitable woods rot and infested with mould and fungus. The worst is that it has to be removed in order to salvage the farm. Often than not this is very costly.

Some may try to salvage it by removing the mould and fungus. I wonder how many times they are going to do this. In no time it will come back again as the planks nature are good for mold and fungus grow. That is why in the mushroom industry certain special woods are chosen that are easily grow mould and fungus were selected to enhance the growth of mushroom.

If such woods are used as nesting planks then it would be disastrous. Not surprisingly I have encountered many farms that are using such woods. This is because the woods are easily available and to make more profit from the contract the person entrusted for the job resorted to using such wood.

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(these are not Meranti wood planks and the owner paid 3 times the price of common Meranti. After 9 months not a single bird stayed)

Pure and good Meranti woods are scare. It is controlled by the forestry dept, most were down streamed for making furniture for export as could fetch higher price.

Of course some may tell you that all woods are the same and all woods can be used as planks and you could not counter this statement because when it is newly installed in your farm for the first few months it looks good. Wait till the monster comes out from the closet when you notice changes of color on the planks.

So be wise, get someone who could identify and have good knowledge in wood to check the planks before installation. Once installed it is too late unless you are expecting the monster in the closet.

Good farming!

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Everyone wants a Swiftlet Farm

Yesterday was a tire and busy day for me. After rushing back from the North where I am building few farms for my readers. I have to meet up with one of my readers Dr.L from Cambodia.

He is a local but doing business there. In fact I do received many emails and calls from Indonesia,Thailand,Cambodia, and Vietnam.

The meeting was to discuss about new set up of farm in Cambodia. He was very keen about this business and wanted to build a farm there. He is sourcing for information that could help him to build a good farm the first time.

Most who are new in Swiftlet farming rarely do it right the first time if without guidance and clear understanding about this business.

Though it is not easy but it can be done. The basic is very important, I had met many farmers to my surprise majority of them know very little about the Macro and micro I mean the basic Macro and micro.

So it is very hard for them to achieve what they wanted if without knowing the above.

To start a Swiftlet farm is not hard. All you need is to have good capital but to have a successful one that could harvest few kgs of nests within a targeted period is not easy provided you know what you are doing.

It takes time to learn all these and there are no short cut. For sure one thing once you get involved there is no turning back.

But for those who know how to do it they really banging hard on it.

(all total 26 shop lots turned into Swiftlet farm "Banging hard on it". All owned by one single owner)

So how much would you dare to invest?

Good Luck!

Jawi - Small Town with Many Farms

I was at Jawi a small town in the North on the invitation of my reader. It was a beautiful small town with many shop lots. Most of these shop lots were converted into Swiftlet farm. For such a small town you would be surprised to see so many swiftlet farms and many more are coming up.

( Beautifully done bungalow. It is a swiftlet farm for those who couldn't notice)

It is a good location as Kuala Kurau and Bagan Serai are not too far from here. These two areas which is muddy mangrove provide good vegetation for birds. If your farm is located here the chances are that within few years having few kgs of nest is very possible. Provided you farm is swiftlet friendly.`

( all are farms "imagine yours is one of them")

Mr. Reader had contacted me a couple of times, finally I was free and decided to visit his farm and revive it. His farm is located in a good area his neighbor across the road is harvesting easily 10 kgs and above every month. Unfortunately for Mr. Reader after almost 2 years he has got only less than 20 nests.

There must be something wrong with his farm. Many wonder why farms nearby or across the road could produce so many nests and yet this one failed?

Most Readers who called me always say “my farm is ok and good, everything I checked is at acceptable level, but when I asked them how many nests? Their replies were after 3 years only 15 nests some no nests at all, most are located in prime area"

So with the numbers of nest it clearly indicated trouble. Mr. Reader was a nice person he explained to me about his experiences in farming. He said he should have started it 10 years ago but hesitated it. Every time when some of his friends tell him about how Swiftlet farming could generated huge income he laughed at them. He said at that time there were not many farms and it is much easier then.

It took him 10 years later to believe and realize that Swiftlet farming is a Multi-Million Rm business. Ha..ha..ha.. Nothing is too late!

Mr. Reader was a creative person, his farm was done solely by him of course the bricks works, etc was by the Indon workers but the whole concept was by him without engaging any consultant. His nesting planks are of the famous SWO-2 imported from Indon.

He had read many books from here he took the task by himself. It was sad too see that his farm failed. I told him to have a successful farm it takes more than just reading books or attending seminars.

When I entered his farm it was clearly observed that the farm's design failed. It is not Swiftlet friendly. This prevented birds to venture farther into other parts of the farm. Even with the Swo-2 planks it won't help.

As I went up to the 2 floor and look around the roving. The positioning of the entrance hole was wrong and it was located at position that is hard for birds to enter. All these prevent birds to fly into the farm. This is totally not swiftlet friendly.

(this is the golf resort I stay ,tranquility with nature)

I noticed many limitations in his farm and explained to him one by one the reason behind it. I told him that he needs to rectify them immediately if he wants to turn around his farm.

No point of waiting, another month, or years the un- revived farm will stay remain the same if nothing is to be done. If revived within a short period it would shows improvement.

Well he understood what I mean. The next day I was taken around the area. It was indeed a good place for farming. He was very happy that I have showed him the problem that he had been long for. If you don’t know the problem then how could you solve it?

Good luck!

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What is the Perfect Entrance Hole Size?

Entrance holes come in many sizes. Many readers had called me about this and asked "What is the perfect size?"

The Entrance holes could be rectangular, square and some even made it round. All depended the on how the design of the farm especially the roving.

(rectangular type)

The sizes obviously related to the size of the roving and farm. Too big the sunlight can easily enter the farm and this is disliked by birds. Too small it is hard for birds to fly in. So you must choose a size that could accommodate both. But for new farm a bigger entrance hole is much better than a small one.

(entrance from 2 sides)

There are no best or standardize entrance holes it all depended on the farm's design as whole.

Other consideration would be the entrance hole position, facing the East, West, etc. All these would affect or justify the appropriate entrance hole sizes.

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How many storeys should your farm be & Money can't justify successful farm.

If you're going to build a stand alone farm, how many storeys should it be? Well it could be said it depends on your budget but budget is not the main criteria.

If your budget is good for a single storey then I would advise that you should put your plan on hold wait till you have enough funds.

Since most stand alone are built on agriculture land with most surrounded by trees a double or a 3 storey would be ideal. Of course you could build one which is 4, 5 or even more storeys if you wish.

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(a very successful 3 storeys farm)

But having a 2 storeys of 20x80ft, total size is 1600sf x 2 = 3200sf. Presuming that on average (low average) of 1 sf would produce 1 nest (there are many farms that could produce more than 1 nest per sf) that would be 3200 nests per harvest. Lets assume that only 2 harvests per year. This scenario is based on a successful farm.

That would be 6400 nests per year. On average 110-130 nests depended on how you manage your internal environment. So it would be 58kg per year. If the market value on average is about Rm 3300.00 per kg (of course high quality nests could fetch up to rm 4-5k per kg).

Then 58kg x Rm 3300.00 would be Rm 191 400.00 income per year.

Isn't that wonderful? Well it looks good on paper! Then why many still want to go and build farm that are 45x120 of 4 to 6 storeys? Human nature! Greedy!

Back to the basic, even if you can afford to build a huge farm if the technical and skill aspect are not in line with what the birds want, no matter how big is your farm it is still useless.

Money can not justify success in swiflet farming. You may have the best building material, best location, best gadget,etc somehow if the magical touch of creative good farm is not there be it your building and investment cost be Rm millions you would ended up fail.

One of the simile would be like cooking. " The world's renown Chef may give you his ingredient and recipe.He may even allocate the spices, cut the vege and choose the best meat himself,etc. Everything being prepared and ready on the kitchen table. All you need to do is just put them into the wok and cook it" What would be the taste of the dishes? Would the dishes you cooked similar or taste better than if the Best Chef cooked himself? I bet you have got the answer".

Swiftlet farming skill is an Art. Be it how how many seminars you attended, who you learned from if you do have that extra thing in you it is hard to have a successful farm. Definitely this is one of the investment that with big capital would not guarantee success!

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To Prevent Thief with Alarm System

To prevent thief from our farms we could add some security gadgets in it. Some of the common ones are alarm system, cctv, etc.

There are two most use alarm system, one is the vibrate sensor type and the other one is the motion sensor type. The Vibrate type alarms will on if it sensed vibration. This happened when someone hacking the walls or the doors. If the thieves enter thru the Entrances hole without causing vibration then the alarm will not on or sound.

Where as for the motion type the alarm will only on if it sensed movement. Normally it uses the infra sensor beam. It could be placed anywhere in the farm especially at the entrance hole. A timer is set on certain hour for the alarm to function. Some good alarm only sense large object that moved so small birds' movement wouldn't trigger the alarm.

The other way is placing steel bars at the entrance hole. Many are doing it. Somehow if the holes between the bars are not big enough it will obstruct the birds when they fly in and out of the farm.

(thieves really not welcome here...ha..ha..look at the steel bars.)

For this purposes the owners need not to install alarm which he could save money and no worries about alarm is triggered on during lightning or false on which could disturb neighbours.

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Birds Fly into Uncompleted Farm

While I was busy hammering nail at the roving area of a new farm few Swiftlets flew into the half completed farm.

Two of my construction workers and I were surprised to see it. I use to bring along my camera with me but this time I didn't as I need to climb up and down the ladder and hold hammer.

It seemed that birds are not afraid of us. They came in thru the entrance hole turn few rounds and headed to the nesting. All of us were shocked to see it. After a couple of minute they flew out.

Few minutes later another 6 birds fly in again this time only 4 of them headed to the nesting.There was no sound, we had just completed the roving area only. I was happy to see how the birds reacted towards the uncompleted farm.

It was a good sign and I am sure they will come back when the farm is completed.

I guess once they liked the farm the will fly in even there are humans in it.

Weather Affecting Farms

Weather is one of the Macro factors that affect farms. These factors are wind, raining season, drought, etc.

As we live in the tropical country which there are seasons of hot days without rain and towards the end of the year rain and storm are common.

( heavy rain & strong wind are common towards the end of the year)

Observation on these helps you to understand how these affect your farms.

Wind is one of the most important factors that one needs to understand. Strong wind makes it hard for birds to fly. That is why in certain area when the monsoon started you would see that number of birds used to appear in hundred or thousand then suddenly reduced.

Understanding of the above helps in placement of entrance hole which is one of the most important criteria of a successful farm.

( look at the cloudy sky behind me, from the top of the roof, I could observe cleary)

If taken likely new farms would take a longer time for birds to stay and make nest.

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Inconsiderate Farmers

The lack of understanding and wrong perception of how a good a swiftlet farm should be had influenced farmers resorted to myth that created nuisance to others.

One of the good examples is sound, some farms are playing their volume too low while others too high. In areas that have many farms sound war is very common. This irritated their neighbors therefore making them complaining to the local council. So in this case who is the one should be blamed?

Besides that some are very inconsiderate in a sense that when they renovate their farms they can't be bordered about the eye sore that they created. Bricks are not plastered and painted, all Pvc pipes are exposed, etc. Can't they be considerate? Perhaps they want to show off or telling the whole town that they are doing Swiftlet farming.

(The whole roles of shops are Swiftlet farms. The ventilation pipes are covered with aluminum windows to camouflage. The aluminum windows are not cheap. The owners willing to spend to create a good looking exterior. How many would do that?)

Well in such cases If the council takes action I will be on the side of the council. Why must we create or make farms that attract attention? Wouldn't it be good if no one knows that there are farms at that area? When there are no complain the then council won't disturb you.

We attract the attention of birds not the council or our neighbors, don't mistaken it. If you can't even differentiate it then harvesting many kgs is going to be a continued dream that never came thru.

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Hidden Agenda in Mukah, Sarawak.

(once sugar added sure settle one)

What happened in Mukah, Sarawak has hidden agenda. Source says there are seemed to be less demand on cave nest lately.

This is due to more oversea buyers looking for house nests. This affected the KOPI money of the related department who are taking care of caves and forest. To retaliate they are now punishing the Bh owners for affecting their side income.

This is a very common revenge strategy of Malaysia Boleh spirit.

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