Top floor roof slab in the work

Concrete is being unloaded for the roof slab on Nov 24

Do swiftlet farming help save our planet? Part II

When swiftlets are aplenty, there must be sustainable food supply in the area for them to feed, survive and reproduce for the long term. But what we face today is plantations and rainforests are transformed into concrete jungle in the vicinity. Swiftlets are forced to fly far to search for food and return late to feed their chicks. If climate change rapidly, they are probably caught off guard and not able to return to their habitats to feed their own chicks. As as result, growth of swiftlets will not be sustainable in the long run in the area. To resolve this dilemma as swiftlets keepers, we have to make insects readily available to keep the swiftlets alive and well by building insect habitats as a last resort. But for insects, the good or the bad, if God willing, all needed in this planet to keep ecosystem in balance, then we definitely don't want to add more bad insects to the planet by breeding them such as mosquitoes, as the ecological effect of eliminating harmful mosquitoes is simply more lives will be saved. Humans haven't found anything benefitial from them except for them to get lost. In order for swiftlets to grow indefinitely, we advocate only the good insects which provide pollination to crops on which humans depend should be bred.

Do swiftlet farming help save our planet?

With the number of man-made swiftlet habitats growing rapidly these days in tropical rainforest regions, what is it we the swifltlet sanctuary providers, either hobby or business inclined, have done to help save the environment? According to studies, each swiftlet consumes 5g of insect or about 150 flying termites per day with average density of 30 termites per gram and the increasing number of swiftlets indeed help get rid off many thousands of flying insects everyday. Sure, they help protect animals from harmful insects; help protect our home from termite and subsequent cost incurred for replacing it. The problem is when the insects are not readily available to swiftlets, we end up breeding insects in our farms and if insects are not hunted by the swiftlets and let fly freely to harm the animals and ruin the crops, we are probably creating problem to the environment when we should be solving it for our own good. Another problem is when many trees are cut off from rainforest for swiftlet planks, we are not going green and saving the planet either unless for every tree we cut down, there will be a new one regenerated and it should be a rapidly renewable resource like the toilet paper we use everyday. Until more environment friendly, effective and economical subsitute is found, face it, more trees are to be cut down and planks are here to stay!

Feng Shui and lots of it...

River and low lying area flooded after heavy downpour this afternoon within a short time span. Compare it to the weather in early afternoon, I can expect this area to register the highest temperature and in-house temperature must be well insulated from this drastic change in weather.

Am I the bird whisperer? Part II

The most critical part in all man-made swiftlet's habitat is the top most floor because the temperature on the top most floor is the highest as we all know, so to insulate heat from the usual 4" roof slab, I think the most cost effective way would be using 2" or 3" styrofoam interlocked one another laying flat on the roof slab but prior to this, waterproof agent should be applied to the roof slab in case water seeps thru crack on roof slab unless higher graded ready-mix concrete is being used. After that, styrofoam on roof slab to be tied up with wire mesh to slab perimeters all-round before reinforced concrete is placed on top of it. To play safe, another layer of waterproof agent should be applied to the reinforced concrete. Or better still, cover slab with Ardex or metal roof to get better protection for roof slab not forgetting drainage and ventilation all around the area too.

Slab and column structures in the work on second floor

Slab and column structures erected on Nov 4.

Am I the bird whisperer?

It's really not easy to build an ideal sanctuary for swiftlets in the farmland and I pondered over for weeks just how I can build a better sanctuary if not the best as it can be before the construction job ever started. I've come out the prototype of my swiftlets sanctuary and put it to work just recently. It's basically, a 4-storey building , 20' wide, 65.5' long, 40' high and top off with Ardex roof. Walls wise, they are double layered red bricks with air gaps in between from the second floor up to keep the house temperature under control in normal weather conditions. For this, I will open 4" PVC ventilation holes with 4' apart on all external walls below beams to let the hot air out from the air gap with heat derived from the sun. And 4" PVC ventilations holes with 4' apart on all internal walls at 1' up from the floors to let cooler air flow into the air gap from the house within. On top of that, I will make 4" PVC ventilations hole through the double walls with 4' apart on all walls at half wall height to let the air flow naturally inside out and vice versa and if there is still not enough air circulation in the entire building, I will consider making ventilation holes through the floor slabs to let the hot air out from the lowest floor to the top most floor in a more natural way. The control room with sound systems would be 20'x7' on the ground floor leaving other areas for future expansion but I really wish to have a control room next to the birds' entry hole on the top most floor because up close, I will see continued increase in the population of birds diving for hole utterly unyielding in attitude at night fall. Not only a pleasure to watch, I will also go home with a sense of satisfaction by providing good sanctuary for this great species.