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Friday, January 18, 2008

Economically Speaking !!!



Have you ever thought of how to apply your economic skill in your birdhouse ranching?

You might think that building the cheapest birdhouse and reap the maximum returns is "economically speaking".

That is not what I have in mind.

The term "economically speaking" is actually how to maximize the installation of nesting planks per floor of your birdhouse.

Different people have different ways of installing these planks. Some just leave it to the contractor to do whatever they like to do. But there are others who a immaculate in every plank that was installed.

I met one guy who told me that he is very particular about buying every single wooden plank for his birdhouses. His attitude is something that I would like my blog reader to follow or learn. He always pay slightly more the what the seller sells to him but with the condition that he has the right to inspect every single piece of the wood himself.

It seem that nearly 20% of those so called Red Meranti are actually not 100% perfect. Some sellers are unscrupulous and they mixed them with other type of low quality woods. Given the conditions he will check every single panel and reject them on the spot, those that are poorly cut (especially without proper grooves), those will grains showing irregular shapes, those that are shorter then specified, those that shows that they have soft/hard spots and etc.

From early design stage, it is possible to calculate the actual nesting space per square inch of those nesting panels that you will be installing.

You should also investigate the options to place thicker nesting planks at the site where your panel is leaning onto a solid wall or the beam structures. Main reason being when the time comes you can easily install another layer of panel, thinner, just below it.

Thicker planks helps to prevent birdshit from direct falling into those nest below it.



What about those areas below the beam? I have seen pictures indicating a three tier wooden panel that allow you to increase the nesting areas by hundred of inches per beam times two (front and back).



What about those condo wooden panel configurations? I am sure it will contribute more nesting areas in your birdhouse. If you choose the five tiers U will get 5 times the nesting areas (in principal) and if you choose 7 tiers you will get seven. What ever you select it must be proper and make sure the weight can be supported by those nails or screws that you use to hang them onto the walls or ceilings.



A nesting plank that measures let say 10 feet length with two sides of nesting areas will give you a total of 10'X 12"x 2 sides = 240 inches. If one nest takes about 5 inches, you have about 240 / 5 = 48 pieces of nests.

This is closed to 48/120 = 0.4 kilo or in RM is 0.4 X 4,500/kilo = RM1,800.

This so call small calculation gives you some ideas of the economic issue in ensuring that your house designed are well prepared to make more rooms for bird nesting areas as the house gets more populated.

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