This article is something to do with a BH that was build by the owner with very little knowledge about swiftlet farming.
The final outcome is a BH that is orientated wrongly and the birds have to be forced to turn 180* to enter the nesting room.
Let us learn something about this mistake and to those who stumbled onto this article try to take some time to learn how not to make the error.
Remember how important is the flying path?
If you have decided to build a BH on a piece of land, you must take some initiative to learn those basic things that are very crucial to get those birds to quickly populate your BH.
First is to ensure that there are adequate number of birds that responded during your bird call test. Try to get as high as you can.
Second you need to make serious observation on where those birds are flying home in the evening. If there are more than one path chose the one with the highest number of birds taking that particular path. The chosen flight path will determine where the entrance hole should be precisely facing and its location.
Third important parameter will be the sunrise and the sundown. Knowing the sun's path can help to orientate your BH walls not to face the sun directly. This will help to reduce the internal temperature.
The fourth point to me will be the proximity with any water sources. The nearer the better. If there is a lake on your land try to locate your BH closed to it. Your tenant needs water every day to drink and to find food.
The fifth point shall be where is the Walet central. Walet central is just any BH areas where there are lots of birds are currently staying. Use those Google map and cross the locations of these so called BH with a lot of birds which are producing those baby birds which will be your feeder. Main purpose is to have some ideas what are the resources that will help you with your BH.
The sixth point shall be the road leading to the piece of land. It is suitable for those heavy vehicles to reach the location to supply those cement, bricks and sand. They weight a few metric tons and if the access road is not fit you will later have to fork out lot of money to upgrade the road.
The seventh point will be the power source. Where are you getting the electricity to run the BH. How many poles do you need to erect and each will not only cost about 400 - 600 a piece but also the cost of those cables and labour.
The eight point will be how far is the land from where you are staying. Try not to have is more than 2 hours drive from your home. You will get very tired visiting the BH every weekend if it is too far. Worse is when there is a power failure or problems related to the BH and you need to rush there to correct them.
For this particular BH which I am now being engaged to install the sound system, I discovered lots of things that the owner should have avoided.
All in all he was not swiftlet savvied. He did not have much knowledge thus his first have many mistakes.
He make the mistakes and I got myself in the middle to find a way out of these uncalled errors.
One good example is the orientation of the BH. The monkey house was not build at the front facing the flying path but at the opposite end.
The next issue was the entrance hole that was totally not facing those birds. The building orientation is so screwed it is difficult to make those birds take the proper flying path into the monkey house and into the nesting rooms.
Well there was some plus points. The birds flying path is precisely above his building.
I took some trouble to observe them one evening and counted the total number of birds that flew above or close proximity to the BH.
So you can learn from this article that it is better to gather enough information before going ahead with your dream BH.
Try to avoid costly errors by taking those short cuts.
He should have attended a few seminars and get the right informations before going ahead with the construction.
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