Last update for 2008

Well, 2008 has come to an end finally. Work at site has progressed steadily but slowly.

Form work of the base structure over the pond.














Mother nature has etched the pond bed with mosiac patterns.














Sight of neighboring farm in view - with entrance hole points to that direction naturally!














Form work of ground floor in progress.














Fortunate steel prices has dropped substantially recently. Delays in construction turned out a blessing in disguise!














I like to visit site in evening hours to catch a glimpse of sun set too.

Workers has settled in so well they now have own vegetables patch.

Another patch for pumpkins too.

And they are happy to show me the results!

These are some of the people I owed special thanks to.

My Concept Swiftlet Farm

Building a new farm is challenging and exciting endeavor. I didn't engage any consultant. I've visited many farms in various countries.. Malaysia, Indonesia & Thailand; read all I can find about farm designs. I feel competent to undertake the design myself.

I am also fortunate to know a few who built their farms, tossed ideas with them - by now there are more than ten design revisions! Along the way, a few more ideas crept into my wish-list.. so it's time to pull all the loose thoughts together.

So what are the key ideas?

1. I am building the farm at a latitude with 3 cold months in a year. Temperature drops to lower 20's deg. C; even as low as 18 deg C in extremity where chicks died from cold! This is a major consideration.

The design I adopt is double walls with air space in between. It is like a cocoon to shelter from the elements of nature. This is DIY job #1.

2. Tapping sun's energy is also a pet idea and water is such a wonderful storage medium of thermal energy. So I intend to made full use of the roof as a solar collector, warm up the water and collect them on a roof pool. It then feeds down the space between the walls by gravity feed to create humidity and regulate the temperature. My DIY job #2.

Of course there are many technical considerations involving thermodynamics and controls; when I get it right, no humidifiers needed - that's the goal.

The farm house is to emulate a natural cave environment - my object is to do it with minimal energy required.

3. There are lots of insects in the area, especially at night. I'll experiment with ideas to attract insects into a chamber (a trap) at night and let them out at the roving yard in the day. That will be complimented with my own insect cultivation. That should be an interesting DIY job #3!











4. I have been putting my own sound system together. I will wired the bird house with 4 circuits, each driven by an amplifier. Failure of an amplifier would only result in loss of 1/4 of tweeters, (1/3 to the affected floors). I need a robust design so I can be away for extended period without concerns of sound system failure. Of course, the sound system will have back up power in case of power interruption. This is my DIY job #4.

5. Video surveillance system - I'll do away with consoles and CCTV monitors. I'll have wireless connection so I can make observations without entering the bird house altogether. My goal is to have internet for remote monitoring eventually. My DIY job #5.

6. With internet connection, remote monitoring of various sub-systems (humidity & temperature controls, sound) can be implemented together with video surveillance - DIY job #6

7. Long range callers? I'll experiment with horn arrays & dish to extend the bird calling range. This may end up as my own trade secret! That's DIY job #7

8. How about a wind turbine to generate my own electricity? It may not be economical but another interesting DIY job #8. A low priority project but I have provision for it in my design considerations.

9. Last but not least.. I always wanted to get an understanding of bird's behavior & its sound. So my farm also doubles as a living laboratory for such studies.

10. Yet another nice to have gadget.. bird counter. Won't you like to monitor birds leaving/return daily? Over time it tells of your population growth! DIY #10.

My object is to advance the best practices of swiftlet farming with next level of scientific knowledge.

Day the piles hit the ground

Last week the weather was kind enough not to rain and dried up the section of unsealed road for the delivery of piles to site.















Off loading the last delivery.



















The moment I like to be present.. piling machine driving the first pile into ground.
























A second section being welded over the first.



















Chang Ou posing with piling machine in background.



















Piling in progress..



















It reached hard ground sooner than expected & resisted going down further!



















Managed only 5 for the afternoon, tower of the piling machine lowered before calling it a day.















Piling work completed a week later. Excess pile lengths were cut to ground - to reuse for fencing posts (overkill perhaps).










Some bonus caught at the deep pond - 2 species (1.5Kg each I reckon); full length of my foam box!



















I am into identifying fish species next.

A Ground Breaking Occassion

The several months of waiting was finally over.. first allowing the shrimp farmer tenant to finish off the last harvest. It then overlapped into the raining season and the waiting continued.

As I am building the bird house over the pond, water has to be pumped out and allowed the pond bed to dry for a couple of weeks before the tractor can get in for earth works. That phase was completed too.

My supportive friends came on the day to witness the marking of the foundation piles! They are all bird nest & shrimp farmers. P'Moo & P'Jiap examined my plan for positioning the foundation piles.














Chang Ou, the builder, marked the location of the first pile.














A little more landfill to be performed at one end of a deep pond. P'Moo came up with an ingenious idea to use large 8M long bamboo poles, driven in to form a grid.



















About 50 "bamboo piles" were used.














Then clay mixed with shrubs were used to fill the space in between.














Task completed, this is to withstand the pressure of the piling machine coming to this area.














Moving earth to form a ramp 'drive way' to allow piling machine down & facilitate construction.














Workers set up living quarters on site & fish for diner too!














I am short of words to thank them all for the help rendered. And this is just the beginning!

My Swiftlet farm site & model

Early this year I found a suitable location in Petchaburi Province. It is an area of rice fields and shrimp farms, about 5km from the sea. What I like in particular is a small river along the road as frontage. Also a nearby farm house is just 300m away, already established with a bird population.















A useful and simple tool used to develop my concept farm in 3D is Google SketchUp. I have gone through many versions and iterations. The final design is a 3 storey farm house with roof pools to collect solar energy using it to create humidity within.

The open roof shows the roving room and inter-floor entry hole. Left of picture shows the internal columns & staircase - simple isn't it?












I'll build it over water - that takes care of many pest problems + added security.












Another perspective - a farm shed & garage by the side where I intend to house a standby generator in event of power failure.












I did all these in actual dimensions and placed on site (taken from Google Earth) - before committing a single dollar! It certainly helps a lot in planning process and avoid costly mistakes. Such is the power of IT - and all for free!

Thanks Google!