BuildingABirdhouse: Points to Consider .....

Birdhouse is usually terms as a "Five Star Hotel" made specifically to attract wild swiftlets to stay and build their nests.

The house must have all the basics that are build to make the swiftlets feel welcome, no disturbances and environmentally friendly equal or better then their previous place of stay in the wild. In this case the CAVE.

Beside the house, the surrounding, if possible should be seriously look into creating additional factors that will helps in providing shade, food and perhaps the forest smell.

The cost to create these relevant admosphere, both inside and outside, might be expensive but this one time cost is nothing compaired to the continuous returns that the owner will harvest month after month.

The points that this Five Star Hotel should have are said to be as follows:

a) Five Star Location.

The locality where U build the house must be peacefull with little disturbances from human made noise, pollution, smoke or enemies like bird of prey. The house is preferably located on a piece of agriland, away from human residence, fenced with proper security features.

The best is still an agricultural land located at the fringe of a town hidden between those trees or perhaps in an old orchard plantation that have proper supply of water and electricity. It will be perfect if not far away from the birdhouse there are rice fields and slightly from it are thick virgin forests or palm oil plantations.

b) Pollution from Smokes and Factories.

Beside having a peacefull surrounding, swiftlet are said to be seceptable to pollution especially smokes from chimenese or open burning. It was also observed that smoking of cigerrete is also not suitable in the house.

As such the birdhouse must be located away from factory areas that emit thick smoke in operating their plant. Avoid open burning around the house and instruct all workers who conduct birdnest harvesting to stay away from smoking in the house.

c) Right Temperature and Humidity.

Swiftlet have their own set of mind of what temperature and what humidity that suit them. Remember they are used to dwell in their normal habitat, in caves and as such similar temperatures and humidity must be created arficially.

The house must have a temperature range of 26 to 28 deg Centigrade and humidity range of 85% to 90%. Proper design in the house airflow will provide the temperature required while the humidity can be created artificially using suitable humidifier and mist sprayers that can be activated by humidity sensors or timers.

In helping to maintain the right temperature and humidity it is recommended that the surrounding should be planted with trees that will provide shade plus water ponds.

d) The Use Of Artificial Aroma.

One of the most important point in creating the right environment that depict a natural cave is the smell.

It is therefore observed that the use of aroma either naturally or artificially in the house will make the swiftlet feel at home as if they are in a cave. These aroma should be applied on the house floor, the wall (internal) and some even on the nesting wood panels.

Naturally the smell of bird shit mixed with water then apllied to the floor and wall (from floor to half the height is recommended). The uper portion of the wall until the wood panel should be applied with aroma made of birdnest processing water. The water can be applied onto the wood panel but make sure that they do not breed spores (fungi) that might effect swiftlets nesting.

Artificially there are many aromas sold at those walet shops that U can consider to apply in the house.

e) Provison of Food Around the House.

Swiftlets in the wild basicly live to eat and breed. Once they are awake in the morning, as early as 6.00am - 6.30 am (West Malaysia Time), they want to fly out and find food. Their basic needs are flying insects small enought to be swallowed.

The moment they are out of the house, they will search food around the house before proceeding to other locations further from the house. In the everning when they reach home, they will again scout around for food around the house before entering their nest chamber.

So a successfull birdhouse operator will normally provide suitable arrays of things that will create these insects. The best is to plant trees that produce fruits where insects likes to breed (Fig trees recommended Read:http://swiftletfarming.blogspot.com/2007/12/fig-trees-why-is-it-so-special-to.html ) or install suitable den (similar to chicken den) to place fruits like papaya, pinnaples, bananas or any other fruits that attract fruit flies to breed. Once these flies flew out of the den, it will be a food to your swiftlets.

My next Topic will be on "Swiftlet Behaviour: While building their nest".