Welcome to the forum experienced Sifu. Yes quite active forum many people viewing daily but those who contribute very few. Hope you can share a bit experience on your farm.

Update on my farm:

Junkyard 8 directional sound tweeter. Installed above my DK and tested. (Result:Good) Got video

This post has been edited by seeseng: Jul 17 2007, 02:52 PM


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So skynest which class your farm in? Consider successful? Multi directional sound commercial product already out for 3 years by Nest Tech. Sure many will make themselves 1. So far my whole state nobody using it yet. Originally made 4,6, 8 directional tweeters for CD sound test purpose. To be first to use maybe later other farms not happy lah. Then lately a new farm near my house added a 4 directional tweeter. So if I put up also not the 1st lah.
The pic was my 1st prototype of 8 direction. The one installed up there have all tweeters facing 45d upwards. Actually made upwards for rain water draining out. Then added silicon to all contact points to water proof/anti rust them. My neighbours won't complain 1 because they're a lot more noisy than mine how to complain Complain or not depend on level of volume. I had my volume set to quite low. Many people said my volume sort of low. But if can lure birds to come play enaugh lor.

I'm not sifu just to contribute what I know to discuss.
Open roof type:
pros:
1)fake partition can be installed to solve too bright problem.
2)Big entrance. Birds easily find the hole.
3) Convenient fly path in and out.

Con:
1)Owls, musang and other predators easier to get into farm. So birds may feel unsafe.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Jul 19 2007, 02:24 PM

Hmm... Am I missing something here?

A 5 storey farm. 5th floor haven't completed doing fist sound test. Estimated 300-400 birds came.


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Yes a lot of birds. The farm is pioneer farm in that area some more. This is the owner's 2nd 5 storey farm. The first farm open 1 and half year this one is the 2nd which is nearby the first. The place is at Pantai Rhu Sepuluh,Setiu of Terengganu.

The place is Penarik further down. It's friend punya friend's farm. Though he's my childhood friend but now no more contact 1 lah. It's a family owned farm. The son who in charge of the farm working off-shore 1. The first farm is the same as the one in the pic 5 storey. Doing not bad 1 and half years after operation able to harvest 1kg. Though for a huge farm like that 1kg seem quite little. But only 1 and half year. And pioneer farm mean the youngs got no other farm to go to. Birds population will keep multiply. The inside farm humidity quite high at 90%RH with many poultry used humidifiers.
Kg. Rhu Sepuluh is a fishing village like Penarik. Currently within Setiu near beach side a few huge farms under construction already. So Jef you got farms in KT?

AFAIK the owner stay in KT. New stand alone farm in KT. Fuyoh how many storey/size? Do you have current operating farms? No problem can find me any time I stay at Kg. Cina only.


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Ya lah no need to remind how small the farm is. My old posts already stated. A store room farm nia nia. Doing for interest and experimental use. Ya so far can only be seen at water front jeti. Duyung too far. Floating walk-way dunno take how many years to complete.
That one pic of your farm? 4 or 5 storey? Picture too small lah no idea where that is. Can tell where that location? Anyway all swiftlet farms sooner or later people sure know 1. Even silent farms near Pasar kedai Payang also people know.

I still doubt located there is good or bad not sure yet. Lots of birds but competition also very strong. The 700k farm build without town council approval or what until they want to roboh it? These problem sure can "settle" 1 lah. Last time inside town also got few new buildings outside the council put up steel boards said want to roboh them at certain date. Now those buildings doing business also lah.
I've heard one story the land owner submitted few sets of building drawings to council all keep kena rejected. Owner already given tea powder to a middleman who said can kautim but in the end the rejection was due to tea powder did not reach the destination it suppose to be. middleman himself make the tea for own drink.

Didn't know sharing bird sound upload to website can be interesting. I testing upload see see. Dunno can success or not. Test with best bird talking sound mp3.
http://www.rarhost.com/download-gvmk8w.html

This post has been edited by seeseng: Aug 2 2007, 12:50 PM

Can download. U need to click "download: 001.rar" at the bottom. Then type in the 4 digit/letter then press Download.

Biggest mating season started. From observation can see more birds chasing each others. Those lonely birds finding wife. Those married birds eat more for energy. The time schedule for swiftlet activities also can see difference from before mating season.

You mean the farm inside the kampung? Or the yellow building with green dog kennel? Mine is at river side. Can only be seen from the jetti at water front food court. It's the one in the picture I posted. 3 days ago I went to change CCTV camera. Found few drops of shit on the floor but doesn't look like stayed overnight shit. I'm suspecting miscalculation of dog kennel size made bird fly-path not smooth.

Yes you're right. My problem is small DK and roving area. Birds need longer time to familiar the place and pickup for population will be slow. From observation through CCTV the birds can't fly fast when going into entrance to roving area then nesting area. It need to "handbrake" then dive into roving area. Inside roving area quite narrow(around 5.5' widex15'long) to circle if it's not facing the inner entrance. In there birds need to fly slower need braking near the walls to navigate to nesting area.
I miscalculated when deciding DK size. We know AF need 4-5' to make a turn at fast speed. So I made it 4'x4' the minimum. Then the 4' is wall to wall. I didn't think of AF at high speed will turn when 2-3 feet to reach wall. So I presume the minimum for DK inner size should be at least 7'x7'. Otherwise a long shape runway. Bigger square or long size so birds no need to slow down and turn at narrow angle. So you suggest renovate to enlarge DK or wait and see?

This post has been edited by seeseng: Aug 6 2007, 02:24 PM

Hi kent, welcome another member from KT. Not only musang smell will scare the hell out of the birds. Other predators also. Commonly rats and bats. There's a small species of rat with big eyes can actually climb 90degree walls with rough surface! After 5-6 years how many birds stay in your farm? Your farm is at Tanjung there or you want to know the specific location is ideal or not? Good or no good a few sessions of bird call test will let you know the result. But at these few months mating season bird call test might not get accurate results. Most lonely males busy chasing females. More birds speding more time on feeding for more energy at night ehem~. Less birds playing around.
I presume that area is consider good since there're quite a few heavy duty farms doing well there. Example. Astaka.

Most consultants can't gurantee success yet they're overpriced. Especially the time when you started. My friend got a farm also in Kg Cina hired a consultant from outstation to do 5-6 years ago. Produce some nest but stopped growing since 3-4 years ago until now less than half kg/month. Can't even cover the old house installment. The farm uses total flat planks without any groove. The sound not attractive at all. 5-6 years ago the same consultant even comment on plaza perdana farm : "If there can have bird I'll chop off my bird! " ....... see how's plaza perdana now doing? One of the top in town.
God bless until now not a single case of bird flu worldwide is related to A.F. yet. Since you can have a nest without sound then it should do well with sound on and other stuffs.

When a farm got sufficient permanant residents we can actually turn off external sound or both. Provide the farm must have very good micro habitat to keep the young lonely birds from moving to other farms and existing residents power enaugh sound to attract birds from other farms. There're quite a few silence farms in town. 2 farms next to MPKT parking building pasar kedai payang, 2 floors above KT Sports etc.
For new farms opening recently no sound=sure die. Birds will not stay straight away after first visit. Some may take as long as 3 months to go in to stay overnight after the first visit. Some stayed for some time and left after 3 weeks also got.
Not using motorolla tweeter AFAIK it's quite expensive. Why not getting the type Dr. C using @RM3.50/pc if not mistaken. Mini coil magnetic tweeter with bird lepak spot.

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Added on August 13, 2007, 2:17 pmMust understand the birds' normal behavior. We need them to come and play to familiar with the surrounding of the farm. To familiar with in farm flight path etc. before they make decision to even testing stay your farm. Don't expect nest to be build so soon. Especially at area with lots of farms. They tend to test out many farms before deciding to stay permantly in one. Your 1 nest case probably the birds made decision to stay when they visited last time when got sound. Then they come to stay after you off the sound.

Poultry humidifier do sound like 747 aeroplane taking off. But the sound I don't think it's a problem. Animal has this instinct call animal adaptation. First time - scare, 2nd time... the more the birds apapt to the sound it become braver. Mine also small farm but got 2 poultry humidifier in farm. 1 unit not enaugh to generate over70%RH. From CCTV I can see birds playing around in the blowing upward mist from the humidifiers. They actually love the mist.

Niwawa babycenter there if not mistaken long time ago do farming liaw. Failed then gave up. Until recently got experienced sifu help to consult. Heard is Candy cakehouse help 1. That farm first 2-3 weeks no birds play. Even after changed hole from west faced to south faced. Yet no bird play. Mana boleh?!! LADIES & GENTLEMEN... 4 DIRECTIONAL TWEETER!!........ still no bird... first 2 days lah. Then later more and more birds playing liaw. How I know? This farm every morning chirp sound morning call me. I open window can see the bird got play or not liaw.
Thanks to the 4 directional tweeter. Now I got guts to put up my junk yard 8 directional tweeter. I'm not first mah. I follow people nia mah.
My farm. Not satisfy. 3 weeks. Shit here and there. No big pile shit. Now decided to renovate dog kennel and probably roving area. Waiting for tukang finish in hand job. Now mating season good time for renovation work. Birds rarely move to new farm at this period.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Aug 13 2007, 02:17 PM

I started collecting bird chirp CDs since few years back. Until recently I took over a failed/gave up mini farm of 18'x45' to renovate. Spent 3 months+ DIY then re-open on 21/7/2007. I treat this as a hobby only. Swiftlet farming is interesting and addictive. Always think of ideas to improve. Sometimes in dreams also about swiftlet farming Read lots of farming books. Bed time reading also farming books... Get as much info online join all the swiftlet forums I can find. Teh tarik discussions, exchange ideas, experiences and sound with kt newbie farmers like me. Also I like to do farm watching. Go up tall buildings to observe other people's farms.

Higher buildings definitely have advantage. But don't be supprise there are double storey old shop house doing better than 4-5 storeys building. There're a few tall farms near the temple. Longer operating history than the 2 storey but the 2 storey is really heavy duty. Monthly 20-30kg but the size is quite big 3 shoplots but only upstair for farming.
Those out of town farms are mostly stand-alone farms. They choose out of town for low profile. Cheaper land, build without permit also small chance bandaran can find out. More and more farms like these in Setiu district and Kuala Berang. These area not many farms some even pioneer farm. Birds that come visit don't have much choice to choose from so stay permanantly chance higher.

My 8 directional tweeter is already up there since 21/7. Want to see can go to water front jetty behind Seri Malaysia sit there can see a DK with the 8 directional tweeter on top. This morning I just went there big crowd of birds playing around the tweeters. Most of my tweeters are 95cents piezo tweeters. Some connect with condenser capacitors. Sound better but volume become lower. For internal I also use carbon magnetic tweeters sound more natural but volume also lower than piezo.

Nope. wrong guess. The heavy duty double storey doing good not because bird got no choice. This farm is newer than a few taller buildings farms beside temple. It's newer than top floor of old Sony building. Why birds choose the double storey rather than these 4-5 storey building farm? God knows
Population will sure increase IF you're the only farm in the area. Young birds won't fly to other farms and the farm is in A.F. "food canteen" area. With good sound population will multiply 3x-4x each year. But if there're other farms nearby. Young birds got other choices to choose. Couple birds which built nest before would likely to stay but hatching young birds will go test around for a place it like. There are many farms the number of birds stop growing for many years already when more competitors nearby.