One important knowledge that every swiftlet rancher must be aware of is how mold will effect their swiftlet houses.
The moment your nesting planks are wet and occupied by wood mold, your swiftlet will shy away from the plank. Just imagine if all your birdhouse planks are occupied by these mold? You practically shoo away your birds without knowing the true fact ....
This is because these wild birds are smarter then you thought. Building a nest on a moldy piece of wood will endanger their nests and of course their babies.
What is the actual cause of mold to grow on the wooden planks? Water !!!
Yes, once too much water starts to form or seep onto the plank, either from your humidifiers, water sprays or leak floors, the wood will automatically become moldy.
You must quickly learn on this matter and try to avoid any of your nesting planks being infected by mold.
The best and simplest way to prevent mold growth is to control the humidity and the room Temperature.
I am pretty sure all swiftlet hotel owners are pretty aware of the required temperature range and humidity. But I think they are not awared that these two, if are not properly monitored will make your room with too much water vapor thus condensed on the wooden planks.
How do you avoid this mold crisis ?
The best is to carry out a full investigation for about a week just after the house is completed and ready for operation.
You know that the ideal operating temperature should be within 27*C to 29*C range. You also know that the ideal humidity should be around 75% to 90%.
If these ideal temperature and humidity ranges are correct then you are pretty safe. You then do not need to make any modification to the house.
If the room temperature is too low, you have to increase the it appropriately.
If the temperature is too high, you then need to supress it to the required range.
You are aware that temperature and humidity are interrelated. Humidity can be used to supress or heighten the room temperature.
One of the most delicate situation is what happenned if the temperature is okay but the humidity is not. Which surpass the other? Is it the humidity or the temperature?
The answer is the Temperature. The ideal mean temperature is at 28*C. If your room temperature is 28*C but your humidity is say 60%, usually occur in low lying areas (colder areas), then you should no longer force your humidifier to wet the room to push the humidity to let say 85%. If you do that your action will forced the water droplets to be formed on the planks thus will wet them and thus invite those molds to flourish.
Similarly in a high temperature areas. If the temperature is already 28% but you still force the humidity to be higher, you will eventually make those water droplets formed on the planks.
You must know how to get these temperature and humidity relationship right. They are important for the comfort of your tenants but they can also be a nuisance if they causes water droplets to form on the wooden planks.
My advise is to make every effort to understand how they are correlated and how to avoid unnecessary costly repairs to your house from day one ....
If you continue growing those mold, I think it is a high time for you to switch from swiftlet farming to mushroom (kulat) farming. No offence but I think you should change your profession... He he he he
2 comments:
Hi, Harry,
I dont quite understand what u meant by the paragragh of "In a high temperature area. if temperature is 28C,............" Can u elaborate a bit? TQ
Yong,
This have something to do with your humidifier setting. Assumming that you use a hygrostat to activate your humidifiers in your house. Say you set it at 85% but the temperature is already 28*C. You are actually filling the room with too much water droplets in the air. Excessive water droplets will eventually form water on the wooden planks.
U need to see use the temperature as the more important among the two. If the temperature is 28*C, there is no need to push the humidity to as high as 85%. Around 70 to 75% is already okay.
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