I just replied a friendly email from a newbie from Singapore.
She was actually very impressed with the vast informations on swiftlet farming available on my blog.
What she has in mind was to build a BH about 10 meters by 20 meters 3 stories hight.
Her main problem is where to locate the entrance hole and which direction.
I think this is a very interesting questions and if you are not careful your BH will be empty for a very long months.
My simple answers to her were as follows:
As for your question of the location of the entrance hole there are a plenty of things to take into considerations.
Some of them are:
1) The flight path. This flight path is the direction where those birds are flying home in the evening. They will normally start flying from at about 4:30 pm till darkness. You need to stay on your piece of agricultural land and do some observation. The entrance hole is recommended to be facing this flight direction.
2) The next important consideration is the direction of the morning sun. Those birds uses the morning light to guide them out of their house. So which direction will allow those birds to go out and hunt for food the earliest? The east since the sun rise from the east and go down in the west. What if you face the entrance hole to the west? Those birds will normally around the roving areas and not the other floors. They cannot effort wake up late to go and hunt for food.
3) What if there is a source of water nearby? Water is a vital in the life of those birds. Everyday the birds will normally take a sip of water prior to going home. Water also will genarate flying insects from 4:30pm till the night. The sun energy, after 4:30 pm will help the marine insects to tranform into flying insects for their breeding puproses. This will be where those birds will come for their evening meals. So you might want to think about facing your BH entrance hole towards the water source?
So if you happened to read this article please be careful where to choose the right location of direction of your BH entrance hole.
The best is to get all the three right !!! Yes the entrance hole is towards the flying path, it is also towards the morning sun and it happened that the river is just infront of the house.
A superb combination and I am sure your chances to be a successful BH owner is great.
I wrote sometime back about my observation about all those towns that are with slow moving rivers passing them.
Most of these towns seem to have plenty of swiftlet and those BHs facing the river will stand a better chances to be populated if their house are properly done.
Just look at towns like Parit Buntar, Muar, Sibu. Kuching, Kota Baru, Kuala Trengganu, Kuantan, Pekan, Kemaman, Kota Tinggi, Teluk Intan and so forth. All of them have lots of birds and lots of successful BHs.
So before you purchase a piece of land for your new BH try to get them closed to those slow moving rivers or lakes or ponds.
Minimise your risk and take note of the importance of water to these swiftlet.
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