Have we ever though of how to induce those young birds generated internally to return and colonise where they were born?
More often then not we are ignorant and assume that those young birds will automatically return and stay back home where they were being born.
This is not true all the time.
I have visited a number of BHs with a stagnant population syndrome. There was a few with 200 to 400 nests inside however the nest population never increase for almost 2 to 3 years.
The BH owner's concerned was that with 400 nests there will be at least 400X3X2 = 2400 young birds being generated each year but how come the nest number remains 400?
What can be the possible reasons why all of the 2400 never bothered to return home and stay with their parent?
In Batu Pahat, Johor a BH I inspected the owner face the same problem and according to his record it was traced to the moment he started to remove those young birds bird shits on the floor.
"Pak Harry, the nest population stop growing about two years ago. Before that I do get around 100 to 200 nests growth every 12 months. Two year ago it suddenly stopped multiplying. The only drastic thing that I did, two years ago, was to start removing those bird shits on the floor."
In Ayer Tawar, Perak I was given a task to detect why a three stories stand alone BH nests population stop growing after 3 years. The owner indicated that the nest population grew steadily up to about 300 nests. After about three years, zip, it stop increasing.
After my short visit I realized that the house problem was more towards the floors and walls dryness.
It was something like a dried banana. The humidifiers were no longer functioning and all the ventilation hole were left opened.
The house was also contaminated with those cockroaches and ants. The owner have never apply any insecticide to remove these creatures from day one.
After following my recommendations for about 2 months the owner called and said thank you for curing his sick BH.
"Pak Harry those birds are back after I did what you recommended. Thank you very much."
What other things that can discourage those young birds from flying out and never coming back?
I read a new book in Malay language about how these young birds can easily feel stressed.
Once they do not feel comfortable during their growing period (about 45 to 50 days after hatching) the author indicated that they will not come back home.
What can be the reasons why they do not feel comfortable?
The highest on the list will be frequent visit by human being. Every time the BH owner enter the house those young birds, especially are about to fly withing a couple more days, will start to jump out and start to find the light.
Those with properly formed wings and able to fly out will say good bye and will no longer returns home.
Those with wings that are still not strong enough will be drop on the floor and it will be a strong chances that they will die on the floor or on the wall. They will not be able to find their nest and their parent will not be able to feed them and guaranteed after 3 days they will die due to starvation.
So try to minimize your visit to your BH and if you need to try to take all the necessary steps not to disturb those young birds.
One method that can make those birds feel less stressed is to hear those young birds crying for food.
How can you create an condusive environment in your BH where there will be baby birds all the time in house?
The process is called " Conducive Regeneration".
First you need to choose the right month to conduct a force harvest. The author propose the month of September. You need to harvest all the nest inside your BH in one go. Remember all of them with and without their content (eggs and babies).
Within two months, October and November, your tenants will complete building their nests and started laying their two eggs in November.
Once they lay their eggs allow them to incubate them for at least one week.
On the following week you need to steal and remove those one week's old eggs on a random basis. Example if on a row of a nesting plank you have 9 nests all with eggs, you remove the eggs inside the 1,3,5,7 and 9. The rest you let them be hatched.
Within about 10 days these emptied nests will have a new batch of eggs in them.
So you have a lapse of about 17 days different between those new eggs and incubated.
By early January those untouched eggs will be hatched and will be able to fly within 45 days after hatching.
Those new eggs with 17 days lapsed will be with young babies that are still crying for food all the time.
During this period those about to fly young birds will hear lots of those baby sound and will feel very much at home. Automatically they will feel less stress and there will be a very strong chances that they will come back to nest inside the same house.
Once they flew away you can quickly harvest those emptied nests.
If you continue the above mentioned method on a continuous basis you will see lots of different in getting your nest population growth.
Remember this is just a idea for you to try out.
I am sure there will be a good success rate but not 100 %.
If you should have a chance to follow this technique and it works please try to inform me so that we can share with others.
Have a good day please !!!
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