Visited two BHs In One Day !!!!

During the weekend visited a couple of places.

Among all two places were very interesting. Both BHs were stand alone on agriculture land.

The first unit in Pokok Sena, Alor Star, Kedah.

The owner, a Hj and his siblings were with me to select the best range of sound for the new BH.







The owner indicated that the house was recently completed and needed some good sounds to get those birds into the house.

When I received Hj's call I told him that I can arrange to meet him and test all the best sounds in my collection.

We did the test in the morning. Tested about 9 good sounds and four works well with the species found in the area.

One thing for sure was that before a good sound is played there were no birds. Once we put the sound on they came from no where. The owner was observing my activities and did the counting before recording on a piece of paper.

We select those sounds that pulls at least 15 birds when they were played.

I told him that I will prepare a Medley for his sound library.

The other BH was in Penang. A very very rare chance to visit a stand alone BH on Penang island. I managed to visit one and strange enough it was in a Durian orchard.



The unit was about 500 feet above sea level and there were many birds that came during the bird call test.

More response at noon but once it gets to about 5:30 pm the number started to reduce.

Those AF must have gone down to the flat land or those water ponds or rivers close by.

After having a good look at the inside, work out the recommendations that will help the owner to improve his nest population.


Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

A New BH In Tamparuli, Sabah !!!

While on the way back from Kundangsan to KK, Mr Tan took a detour to view a newly built BH on the sloop of Tamparuli.

Tamparuli is a small township surrounded by valleys and hills. I classify it as the foothill of Mount Kinabalu.

Most of these hills are covered with forest plus some turning into durian orchards.

This particular BH was off the main tar road and you need to drive above 5 minutes on dirt road before reaching the house.

A three stories but strangely it has two entrance holes.

One facing the sea and the other facing the opposite.

I wonder what will happened when those high wind blows during the monsoon season. I am very sure those high wind will enter one hole and exit through the other.

Heavy breeze in a BH is not suitable for those young birds.

I was focusing my attention on the hexagonal tower tweeter. It was mounted about 4 feet above the roof and was not directly above the entrance hole.

I was on the opinion that the hexagonal should be located just above the entrance hole and if possible not more then 3 feet high above the roof surface.

Hmm.... this owner must have some good reasons for choosing the current positioning.

Well one more strange thing that I was very sure of was that the BH was not completed however the sound were heard from 1 kilometer away.

It is advisable to play those external sound when your BH have not fully completed?

My opinion is that it is not proper.

Imagine you are the bird and wanted to find a home. Once you hear the sound you will immediately track the sound. Once located you will zoom to the entrance hole and of course will enter the house.

Hey the moment you enter there were a few workers finishing up the house and loud sounds that scares you.

What do you think the impression that the young couple embedded in their brain? This house is with predators, noisy, dusty and so on. Once that bad impression is made, you will black list the house.

It is better not to operate those sound until the house is totally completed, treated and everything were in placed.

There is no need to hurry for if you do so you will reduce your chances of being CTOS or black listed !!!!!


Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

The Flowers And Faunas At Kinabalu Pine Resort, Kundangsan, Sabah !!!

Kundansang, a marvellous place to be while you are in Sabah.

I was very fascinated with the flowers and faunas found in this resort high up on a mountain with 5,00 feet above sea level.

The Chairman of the Kinabalu Pine Resort took me for a day to rest after the swiftlet talk session in Kota Kinabalu.

He seem to be very proud of this 64 rooms chalet. It was him who came out with the design of the complex. By the way he is an architect with lots of building in KK under his wing.

I felt so honoured to be given the opportunity to be with him at the resort and a few favorite places that he showed to me.

The best was those Pine trees. They were planted by him and there were at least 10 different types. When they were planted, they were not more then 10 inches tall, according the Chairman.

Now these pines are 30 feet to 50 feet high. All looks fresh and big in size.

Beside those Pine trees I was given a tour to look at the many verieties of colorful flowers plus a wild Orchids garden.

Some of those orchids need special permission to have them planted in your yard.

He was also very proud to have provided jobs to the local surrounding his resort. Most of these young kids, after college, will be automatically recruited and trained to be a Resort Trainees. Beside the Resort they will also be given the opportunities to be stationed at a number of five stars hotels in KK.

The idea was to provide adequate training and once they are experienced enough the company will released them to fill those vacancies in the state or other countries. Not less then 200 trainees were enrolled and released since the formation.

What a Noble way of helping the locals.

Have a look at all these photos that I manage to catch.....

If you wish to book a room let me call me at 017 755 1318. Who know the Chairman might be able to accompany you !!!!























































































Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Soft Opening of A New Birdnests Outlet In Penang!!!

I was recently invited to by the owner of a newly opened bird nest shop located on Penang Island.

The owner was a good friend from Butterworth and owned a number of BH in Teluk Intan and Penang.



Wanted me to there by hooks or crooks. I do not for what special reason but inside me I just wanted to his good friend.

He has been talking about this new venture for sometime and in the beginning I thought he was not serious.

After buying such an expensive shop house and signed as a franchise, the shop looks very well done and good.



I hope he will do well and prosper with this new business. His main target will be those visitors from China.

Those of you who are keen to own a similar type of outlet let me know.

I am sure the same thing can be negotiated with Ecolite.

Call my number if you wish to have a similar operation.
























Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Swiftlet Talk In Penang On December 12th, 2009

There is a very strong chances that on December 12th, 2009, I will be conducting my monthly talk in Penang.

Today I was in Penang attending a soft launch of a new shop owned by one of my blog reader hailed from Butterworth.

I met him about 6 -8 months ago while I was constructing a BH in Bukit Mertajam.

I was on the impression that he was not very keen in swiftlet farming. To my surprise he owned more then 10 BHs and after meeting build two more.

Recently he was engaged to convert a new BH in Kulim, Kedah. He dragged me to Kulim to meet the owner.

Now he opened a shop selling swiftlet nests products in the heart of Georgetown, Penang.

In view of his commitment I have decided to arrange for my swiftlet talk in Penang.

So beside Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu I now have another place Penang.

I hope to have a similar arrangement in Kuching or Sibu, Sarawak.

My main aim is to help as many newbies in getting enough knowledge so that they can be successful.

Let us reduce the unsuccessful numbers and increase the successful rate.

Tentative date will be December 12th, 2009 from 1:30pm till 6:00pm.

The location will be at Times Square, Penang.

Due to the limited space available, only 12 participants will get their seat on first come first served basis.

The fee will be only RM300 to cover materials, a birdcall sound (birdcall test sound & internal sound or an external sound), birdnest soup, drinks and snacks.

Those from Penang or its vicinity should grab this opportunity. Just call or sms to this number for confirmation of seat(s): 017 755 1318.

Remember the seat number is limited to 12.

Come and meet your new friends who owned BHs in Penang, Kedah, Perlis and Perak

Recent Malaysia Budget: Agriculture Sector !!!

This is a part of our PM budget speeches dated October 23 2009:

THE 2010 BUDGET SPEECH
By YAB DATO’ SRI MOHD. NAJIB TUN ABDUL RAZAK
PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER OF FINANCE
INTRODUCING THE SUPPLY BILL (2010)
IN THE DEWAN RAKYAT
23 OCTOBER 2009

ADVANCING AGRICULTURE SECTOR

43. The agriculture sector has contributed significantly to the income of the
people in rural areas and to economic growth. The Government is confident that the
sector has the potential to be upgraded and play a significant role in generating
income for the rakyat. The transformation of the sector needs to be intensified from
cultivation to marketing the products. This process involves programmes aimed at
attracting more young entrepreneurs, encourage best agricultural practices and
upgrade agriculture infrastructure. For this purpose, the Government will allocate
RM6 billion for the agriculture sector, among others:

First: Upgrade and improve drainage and irrigation infrastructure in paddy
fields involving 180,000 farmers with an allocation of RM137 million;

Second: Implement the Paya Peda Dam Project in Terengganu, which will
increase water supply capacity to Skim Pengairan Padi in Besut. For
the year 2010, a sum of RM70 million will be provided;

Third: Modernise the aquaculture industry and implement entrepreneurship
training scheme for aquaculture breeders with focus on production of
fish fry and ornamental fish. The scheme will benefit 1,150
participants, involving an allocation of RM82 million;

Fourth: Develop food farming industry such as fruits, vegetables, organic
farming, herbs, seaweeds and swiftlet nests with an allocation of
RM149 million;

Fifth: Develop basic infrastructure of livestock farms and establish supply
chains for production of beef and mutton with an allocation of RM58
million; and

Sixth: Implement the incubator programme to train and guide youths and
graduates to be successful agro-entrepreneurs. This programme will
be jointly undertaken by the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based
Industry, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Universiti Putra Malaysia,
AgroBank and Regional Economic Corridors.

44. Efforts are being undertaken to establish Federal Land Development
Authority (FELDA) settlements for large-scale food production and as a national
food storehouse. Vacant land in FELDA settlements will be used to plant chillies,
brinjals, bunga kantan and bananas. FAMA will facilitate the marketing of these
products. On 23 August, I proposed that FELDA, Federal Land Consolidation and
Rehabilitation Authority (FELCRA) and Rubber Industry Smallholders Development
Authority (RISDA) cooperate in establishing a consortium to implement various highimpact
projects in downstream and upstream industries.

45. The consortium will be established by the end of 2009, with a paid-up capital
of RM300 million and, with each agency contributing RM100 million. This consortium
involves technology sharing, plantation management, business partnerships,
including supply and processing of agriculture products.

46. To ensure agriculture products are marketed abroad effectively and
expeditiously, efforts to upgrade cargo facilities will be intensified. For this,
MASKargo will upgrade air cargo facilities for export of perishable agriculture
products. This measure will assist entrepreneurs to export more agriculture produce.

47. The Government is concerned with the plight of farmers and fishermen. To
safeguard their interest, the Government will provide subsidies, incentives and
assistance amounting to almost RM2 billion.

48. Among subsidies and incentives to be provided in 2010 include paddy price
subsidy of more than RM400 million and paddy fertiliser subsidy of almost RM300
million. Meanwhile, incentives to increase paddy yield, production and rice subsidy
account for almost RM220 million. In addition, a sum of RM170 million is allocated to provide cost of living allowance and incentives to fishermen.

Full speech can be located at: http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/20091023183743/Article/



Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Agrobased Minister Looking At 5 billion Ringgit a Year by 2020 !!!

Malaysia in big push on swiftlet nest output
Published: 2009/11/25

Found at: http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/20091125131958/Article/index_html



Malaysia is expected to have 100,000 swiftlet nest farms by 2020 and capable of producing 500 tonnes of bird nests worth RM5 billion a year for the world market.

Agriculture and Agrobased Industry Minister Datuk Noh Omar said last year, 250 tonnes of bird nests worth RM1 billion were produced from 50,000 swiftlet farms in the country.

"Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak wants the swiftlet nest farming to be a big industry in the country and the ministry will work to achieve it," he said when opening a seminar on "Iskandar Malaysia-China Bird Nest Business
Opportunity 2009 in Johore Baru last night.

Noh said one of the Key Performance Index (KPI) of the ministry was to make bird's nest farming one of the important industry in Malaysia.

He said that on April 1 this year, the Cabinet agreed that the Veterinary Service Department be the lead agency in the development of the country's swiftlet nest industry. -- Bernama



Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Latest On High Impact Agriculture Industries !!!

Remember that simple letter that I wrote to our PM Dato Najib?

Click on this URL and read it before you read the rest:

http://swiftletfarming.blogspot.com/2009/10/you-know-what-i-wrote-short-note-to.html

It seem that he must have read my letter deeply.

Just wait and see what the newspaper will write about what was termed as : High Impact Industries.

I also received the followings:

Hi Harry,

It's been quite a while since we communicated. I was told by my friend you were in Sabah last week.

I would like to congratulate you for your letter to the PM. Just now I heard from the news that the PM has instructed Minister of Agriculture to look into this special industry and categorised this into high impact industry. Only 3 industry fall into this category. The other two are decoration fish and sea weed.

Thank you again

Leo

While having a coffee at Starbucks, my blog reader told me that he just received a SMS informing about there was a late news on similar matter.

How wonderful if those Agriculture Minister himself giving more attention to this "Illegal Industry".

My advise to him is make the Industry legal and provide as much help as he can to ensure that many new comers will be successful.

We need a department to focus on how to help any one who wanted to be a successful farmer.

The ways to construct the BH, the element of sound, research on Aroma, how to turn brown to white, how about from white to red, the food supplements for those birds, the technique of cleaning those nests and so on.

I think this Industry will do well and we are very closed towards the main entry into a huge cave....


Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

When To Start Those External Sound !!!

"Pak Harry, when is the best time to start the external sound for my BH located far away from any residential areas?"

A typical question that many of you out there do not know exactly the correct timing.

My answer to this type of question is to ask the person to do some homework.

I will firstly ask him, what time do he think those birds will start to leave their house to search for food.

If he cannot answer then I will ask him to wake up early in the morning and go to the nearest BH and observe what time do they start to fly out and if possible also what time do they fly in.

Once that is known you can start to design the time to play those external sound based on both the timing.

You have the whole day from the moment the birds flew out in the early morning and the time that they flew in by the evening.

Let say the time they flew out in November till January at around 6:45am until 7:30am and they will come back home from say 7:11pm till 7:30pm.

The total number of hours that you need to play your sound therefor shall be from 6:40am (at least 5 mins earlier) until 8:00pm ( add 30 more minutes to let the sun really set and with total darkness).

This will be about 13 hrs and 20 minutes in total.

Your most crucial will be the last one hour ie from 7:00pm till 8:00pm. This very moment you need to play the most effective sound at a higher volume to pull those birds who are rushing home to your BH. Remember higher volume, the best and the most effective sound in your collection.

So now after deducting 1 hour from the 13hours and 20 mins you are left with 12 hours and 20 minutes.

So what sound should you play during this stretch of time?

My very opinion is to run a kind of medley of the second best, the third best and the fourth best sounds plus a few intermission using your mating sounds.

A medley of 2 hours will do a good job. After 2 hours let the amplifier rest for about 5-10 minutes and continue to play the sound until 6:55pm. At 7.00pm let your last 1 hour amplifier with the best sound played at a higher volume takes over.

This is why I always recommend to all BH owners to have at least 3 to 5 good external sounds and at least two internal sounds.

The way to prepare a medley is nothing more like planning what sound to play from what time to what time. Each of the sound will be overlapped with the mating sound to make known to those birds that the mating sound in found inside.

Well if you are good in getting the right sound editing software the above tasks is simple however if you are not the computer literate type just get Pak Harry to help you out.

Start the external sound 5 minutes earlier then the time that those birds start leaving their house.

That is my sincere answer.

My reason being, usually those young birds that have reaches 43 days old, they might accompanied their parent out of the house. They might follow them for a short distant but due to their wings not very strong will need to fly back to their nest to rest.

During this period of flying out to accompany their parent and at the same time flight test, you need to lure them over.

If they like your sound they might enter your BH and if the place is very attractive they might decide to change their preferred house.

Think carefully and make the most logical and right decision......


Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

How A Public School Owned A BH To Supplement Their Yearly Income !!!!

A new landmark on how swiftlet farming can help Non Profit Organisations (NGOs) to draw income for their activities.

A school that has very little or no source of income except donations from individual or companies have recently decided to own a BH.

The idea was to convert an old classrooms building, most of the time flooded by about 1 to 2 feet of water, into a BH.

The one story building was recently converted and after not more then 6 months there were already 30 nests plus 15 more new markings.

This one story building used to be student classrooms however due to constant flooding it was about to be taken down by the management.

While searching for a source of income for the sake of those students the School Board have decided to convert the old building into a BH.

Strategically located and far away from new classrooms buildings, this BH will be a new landmark in Sabah.

The interesting feature was it was only a single stories and but still as effective as a high building.

From the way the BH is being populated, it might be full within less then 5 years.

Hopefully once the BH is full the school will no longer need to beg for monies to help in their school operation.

At the moment they still need all the helps they can get. Those who have extra cash to donate to the school please contact 017 755 1318. Remember they still need your help until their BH produced enough nests to supplement their yearly activities.











Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Chinese Dailies In Sabah Dated November 22nd, 2009

Two Chinese Newspapers reported about SWIFIN seminar conducted at Sutera Habour, Kota Kinabalu.

Since I am not very polished in Mandarin, I would like to have any blog readers to interpret the articles and perhaps email to my address: harryswiftlet@yahoo.com.

SWIFIN strategies was to work not only with those Swiftlet Farmers and Government Department but also with newspapers reporters.

These reporters must be a part of the TEAM to promote this new Industry that will eventually benefits all parties in Sabah.

I gave my opinions to a few of them and I hope those details will be eventually used constructively.





Note: Double click on any of these pictures for clearer reading.


Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

A New Word "Translocation" Is Now Added To Swiftlet Industries Dictionary!!!

The new word that I recently learned during November 21st, 2009 Sabah Swiftlet House & Bird's Nest Industry Association (SWIFIN) Seminar was "Translocation".

(Note: I am still learning new things every day)

A very interesting word and it was indeed a very new way of populating your new BH.

To those who missed the opportunity to attend the Seminar let me give you the real stories on this "TRANSLOCATION".

In Sabah there are many caves with lots of AF.

The word Translocation was meant for the process of uprooting those young birds from their cave habitats to BH habitats.

The method of operation, which was tested and very successful, was to capture those young birds at about 43 days old and migrate them into your BH.

Remember once hatched from their eggs they will need around 45 days to be able to fly and find food for themselves.

They will stop eating when they reached the age of 43 days. They need to reduce their weight and start testing their wings for their maiden flight.

If you can relocate them from those cave to your BH, these young birds will get used to the new environment and there is a strong chances that they will come back to stay in your BH.

The process is called Translocation and proven to be pretty successful, according to Dr. Larentiuos Ambu of Sabah Wildlife Department.

If you do not have those natural caves nearby then you need to figure out how to simulate the same way of this Translocation.

The best is to start incubating those eggs using incubators and feed the young chicks by hand. The moment they reached 43 days move them to your BH.

Another crazy idea of mine is to use those young chicks from your successful BH. If you owned more then one then you might want to use the most successful to become the feedstock to your new BH.

For those in Sabah, I was given the impression that these Translocation service will be made available (subject to final confirmation) to SWIFIN members. If I am a Sabahan I will firstly be SWIFIN member and make full use of this special offer.

A very interesting new concept and we should never used the word "That will not work" or "Crazy Ideas" or "Mana boleh?".

Open your mind set and try every possible ways to populate your BH. That is how my mind is and I want you to do the same.

Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Sabah Swiftlet Industries Is Going Towards The Right Direction !!!

SWIFIN President, Mr George Ng

I have been talking to a few important people involving in swiftlet farming industries in Sabah.

My conclusion is that the state is heading towards a healthy growth.

Both swiftlet farming farmers and the Government officials are looking at this newfound industry seriously. Both wanted to do what is right for the sake of the state and the industry.

I can see the important of coming out with a proper Guidelines to suit the state and if properly implemented they will see a tremendous growth in the industry.

Their surrounding, the flat land, the mountains and those rivers are very conducive and provided lots of fooding areas that can easily support at least 50,000 BHs in the next 10 to 15 years.

The number of BHs now is still very low (estimated below 500) and not many people are knowledgeable enough about it.

The recent Seminar organised by the Sabah Swiftlet House & Bird's nest Industry Association (SWIFIN)was on the headlines on many of the local Dailies.

My pictures was also on them. (Hmmm twice in KK and twice got myself on their dailies. Not bad at all)


The commitment made by the Ketua Pengarah of Perhilitan and Perhutanan is something that will steer the Industry to the right direction.

Sabah Ketua Pengarah of Perhilitan Dr. Larentious Ambu.

I was invited to deliver a paper during the Seminar.

I told the SWIFIN that I will be very happy to be involved in their activities in ensuring that swiftlet industries in Sabah will be much better then the other states.

All the need to do is to strengthen their activities and get all swiftlet farmers in the state to be their member.

In the meantime the board members must focus on their primary objectives and get working for the sake of the Industry.

There are so many that can be done for the state and they cannot allow the Industry to become uncontrollable like those in Peninsula Malaysia.

They also cannot allow the State Department to be so stringent like those being carried out in Sarawak.

What they need to do is to come out with a win-win formula so that both the farmers and the State benefited together in championing the industry.

The Association can be very usefull in working as a Team.

While their basic function is to ensure that Members will have the BH to be populated in the shortest possible time they Association will also be responsible is getting the State Athourities to implement a fair Guidelines.

For record purposes: I was officialy appointed as one of SWIFIN Advisor & Consultant. I feel very honored and will help SWIFIN in every areas that need my help.

Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Lots Of Birds Entering But Only Two Nests !!!

How do you know that your BH have lots of AF visitors?

How come they are not staying?

"Pak Harry my dad has one of our shop house converted and after more then one year there are only two nests. Recently we bought your Black Cloud and there were so many birds entering but again they refuse to stay. Can you have a good look and recommend what need to be done?"

I make my way to Tanjung Malim to visit the sick BH and hoping to figure out what when wrong with a 1.5 years old BH.

There were not much surprises.

The moment I entered the BH I was very surprised with the construction of the nesting planks and the orientation.

I took a deep breath and told the owner that he has employed a hit and run consultant. The way the nesting planks were laid (wrong direction) and those gaps with the ceiling were atrocious, unprofessional and making money with no regards to the investor.

The room brightness was glaring. Ronaldo can easily kick and target the entrance hole with ease, I told him.

When we inspected the roving areas, I was stunned. There were so many shit markings on the walls. All the four walls were with thousands of shit markings.

These marking tells you that they came but they refuse to stay.

The tweeters arrangement were all not proper and the type of tweeters used were the same for both internal and external sound. Hmm ....hmmm....

I do not fancy those amplifiers used. They seem to have so many knobs on them and I wonder if the owner knows which knob is for what purpose. I tend to get confused too.

The amplifier setting was not proper and the internal sound was not those mating sound.

Hmmm...... again I was dead right and got the proper ideas on what to do with the BH.

After about one hour inspection I got a list of things that need to be carried out.

Stop those sound and clean up the floor. Remove those chicken coop humidifiers and dry up the floor.

Recommend the ceiling to be reinstalled within the box size to give the optimum nests per square foot.

He need to replace all those tweeters with a new type of tweeters and arrange as per my best recommendations.

The entrance hole will be something special. I recommended the "BuBu" trap entrance hole.

The bubu is similar to those fish trap design where once those birds enter the house they will stay until the next morning. The bubu will trap them for the day.

The amplifiers will be upgraded and more tweeters will be installed accordingly.

Two weeks and he will see the change, I told him.

Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

What Really Happen When Those Birds Build Their Nests !!!

Have you ever thought or ask yourself what do you think happened when the building process of the nest takes place?

Let me tell you about the behaviour pattern of these wild birds (AF only).

Usually when any nests are being constructed only one of the couple will carry out the work while the other will stay nearby.

I believed the starter will be the male bird.

He will locate the most appropriate location to build his nest that he feel very safe to start a family.

Due to his urge to copulate or make love to his mate he need to choose a right location that can expedite the construction works.

The faster the construction the faster he will get his investment returns ie sexual copulation.

In AF world once copulation takes place the female will lay her 1st eggs within 8 days. The second egg will be laid on the 9 or 10th day. To build a nest, just be ready ready for those eggs not to fall down, will take at least 3 weeks.

So the male need to quickly get the construction work as fast as he can and if he can find a ready made house, example fake nest, he will surely cut short his works. (I recommend the installation of those fake nests during Phase 1 of your BH).

They also prefer those 90* corners since the shape of the corner will make their construction works much easier and faster. (So do not cover those corners until you have 300 nests in your BH).

The male need to ensure that his nest is strong and wide enough for the eggs not to fall down. Once the shape is in place, partially completed, he will allow the female to carry out her inspection.

If she approved and accept the nest, under construction, she will make those sexy sound calling her hard working mate to make love to her. Remember once copulated or her virgin is broken she got 8 days to lay he eggs.

Normally the eight days will be the best period for the male. He will have the best part of his life with lots of sex. The male will loose not a single minutes of his life. The love making continue every hour 24/7.

Just imagine making love in the air, in the BH, while searching for food, coming home time, drinking time, finishing up the nest and etc!!!

Sometime the male bird will pull out some of the feathers of the female. In this way she will have a slight disadvantage in her flying speed. You will see a few of these feathers on the floor just below the new nest. With a small defect he can easily catch up with her in the air to mate. These feathers will grow once the mating period is over.

Well once she accepted the nest under construction she will help in the nest construction too. They will take turns to finish up the nest.

During this period of construction what do you think the other party does while one is doing the construction works?

Hmm ..... this is the interesting part. Make a guess ????????

For sure the other bird have nothing to do but to stay close to the partner.

The strange thing that usually happened in that the other party will be singing with those beautiful melodious songs that he or she can make out.

The song will serenade the other party to continue his or her works to finish the nest.

If you make a night call to your BH try to put your ear at those key hole on your steel door. If you hear those melodious singing session of those birds then you know that they are building their nests. If there is no sound then there are no nests building.

I think they attend those music lesson in choosing the right sound to sing. He he he.

Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

A Very Strange Thing That Happen In A 350K BH !!!

This weired story have to do with territorial behaviour of Swiftlet King or a Leader.

Remember my article about swiftlet colony members who tend to be aggressive when their colony numbers grow big enough.

They tend to chase the other smaller colony size members away and overtake their territories (if you do not build a colony divider).

Those smaller colonies will eventually move away to another suitable location or maybe find another safer BH nearby.

The lesson here is that there is a kind of territorial protection behaviour pattern that are being practise by these wild birds.

Beside becoming aggressive, these birds also mark their territories by using their shit. Good example are those markings on the walls of the roving areas. If you look at the pattern of those shits on the wall, they were all intentionally made and not by chance.

The birds need to bomb the wall while flying. They need to fly as such they shit must hit the walls. Can you visualise how difficult it was but they do that for a purpose. Territorial marking !!!

Another interesting method is by the use of sound. The dominant leader of the colonies will give a loud shriek or call to announce his dominance.

This special sound made do make the rest very scared, run away, keep quite or not willing to be close by or even stay in the same BH.

This was what possibly happened in a 350K BH with only one nest.

This BH owner has his BH put into operation for almost 1 year plus. After so much money invested he was hoping to get his BH filled with swiftlet nests.

Months after months the birds was staying away from his BH except one couple.

It seem that this couple has a very dominant character so much so no other birds dares to build their nest inside the 350K BH. Even their own babies will stay away once they have taken their flight. (I assumed so since after more then a year there were no sign of any nest in the BH)

The owner was very disappointed with the only one nest so he decided to do the extreme.

He closed the entrance hole and one night he use those net to catch the couple.

He literally kill both of them.( I am not too sure how they did them).

Once that was done, after a few short weeks, the house begin to be populated by those new young birds.

It was very strange but it can be due to the dominance of the previous tenant.

Too bad they were no longer alive to explain to us what they actually did to scare the rest from entering the 350K BH.

This real event was told by one of my blog reader during my occasional meeting with some.


Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

The First Few Days Of Swiftlet's Life !!!

The baby birds after hatching from their eggs need adequate food to grow.

If they are not provided with food for two days, they will die.

If they are already grown and there are no food being supplied by their parent, due to severe flooding or drought, they will in fact kill themselves by crawling out of the nest. They actually kill themselves by falling onto the BH floor.

By doing so they vacate the nest and at the same time their parent will be able to survive to start a cycle once the food supply is back to normal.

Those that are properly fed will be able to take their first flight on the 45th day after hatching.

On the 43rd day they will no longer take any food. This is their way of preparing themselves to cut down their weight.

They will no longer be sitting in the nest but clinging at the side of the nest.

They will test their wings vigorously during this period.

Once ready, on the 45th day, they will release their claws from the nest and drop towards the BH floor.

In general these young birds will follow those light out of the house at around 6am till 10am. They actually follow the matured birds out of the house.

They will not follow them to the hunting ground but will fly above the rooftop as if testing their wings and learn how to navigate from outside the house into their nest. They do try to catch those insects in the air but their main focus is to strengthen their wings and body before going for hunting on the 48th day.

They will repeat this flight tests movement many times until late afternoon. If they feel tired they return home and will cling onto the nest where there were born.

After resting for about 2-3 hours they will start the flight test again from 3pm onwards.

This test and navigation check flight will last the most 2-3 days.

Once they are ready and strong enough they will follow their parent to hunt for food on the 47-48 days of birth. Usually they will return home following their parent.

During this period that can be easily diverted to enter any new BH or perhaps old BHs that are located along their flight path towards home.

That can be a very good reason why it is important to ensure that your new BH must be completed just before the ending of the breeding season.

Hope this article gave you some idea on how these young birds start that maiden flight and how they get themselves strengthen before going for hunting.



Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Do Swiftlets Attack Other Colony Members !!!

Many of us do not realised that swiftlet lives in colonies.

Each colony can be as little as 4-10 or as big as a few hundreds.

Each colony will have a leader and the leader will determine the colony's breeding behaviour and hunting areas.

If you observe the way the nests are being made in your BH there is a kind of grouping. Each colony member will prefer to build their nests closed to each other.

The nest grouping will be divided by some empty nesting areas.

You will be surprised to know that when those birds return home they do enter the entrance hole colony by colony.

These colonies will grow in numbers and eventually when they are big in numbers they do tend to be aggressive to the other fellows who are not from the same colony. If by then the nesting areas encroached into the smaller colonies group, the larger group will eventually takes over the territories.

This will normally happen if the width of the nesting planks are the same.

The only way to prevent those larger colonies not to attack the other group is to build a kind of colony dividers.

Colony divider is nothing more then a wider nesting plank, example your current plank width is 6 inches, a colony divider can consist of two planks that are made into one ie 12 inches.

Remember if you do nothing to prevent the harassment of the smaller colonies, they will either move away from the larger groups but there is a possibilities that they might move out of your BH and occupy your neighbor's BH.

When do you think you need to build these colony dividers?

Many house owners already have them installed.

Some, due to those cement beams, the dividers comes automatically.

Those who are in need to look into installing these colony dividers will be those whose BH are large and the ceiling areas are with not many ceiling beams.

You first count the numbers of colonies on the nesting planks. Normally the group will flocked closed to each other. The next colony will be on their own with empty nesting areas dividing them.

Once the colony reaches 25 nests each, the time is right to look into constructing those colony dividers.

Note: The two sketches are just examples. They are not necessary if your BH is new or with no signs of any colonies.



Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

The Kepong Revamped BH Is Three Weeks Old With 5 New Markings !!!

In less then a month the Kepong BH, after revamp works, is progressing very well.

Within 3 weeks there were five new markings. The owner was full of praised on what I did but I told him that it could have been better if those sound amplifiers behaves.

It seem that two of the three amplifiers were not playing those sound in accordance to the timing set.

If they runs as per my setting I might have bring in more then 10 new marking within the same period.

The BH was officially put back into operation on October 23rd 2009.

Revamp works started on Oct 15th 2009 with special focus in reducing the internal temperature, the flying path correction, the BH nesting room darkness, placement of external sound tweeters, additional nesting planks, installation of those soundless humidifiers and additional internal sound tweeters.

Immediately after the revamp I use those medley sounds that I invented.

Every two days I took the time to observe the BH from the outside focusing mainly on the movements of those wild birds on the rooftop, entering and coming out.

The first few days the number of birds jumping in were more then 150 birds. After stabilizing their number now was around 50 birds.

That is like a 100% increase from only 12 nests initially.

Yesterday I started the aroma therapy but prior to that I did some old nests harvesting and insert those metal corner covers to about 6 nests.

My aim is to divert those birds to build the metal cover, perhaps 50% on the nesting plank and 50% metal cover.

During nest harvesting I make sure that there were adequate nest left overs on the affected corners.

The aroma therapy will be my main job now. I will be visiting the BH once a week, I choose Friday, to apply the aroma and monitor the number of nests multiplied.

I used those white stickers to highlight those old nests plus markings and red stickers for any new markings.

Will continue reporting on the BH progress........


Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Cricket And Vitamin D Ostelin Pill !!!

What will be the best and easiest food for a young birds hatched from your incubator?

I was making some research on what will be the best food for baby swiftlets.

While reading a book written by Dr Nugroho and gang I discovered something that is interesting to take note.

The selected chapter describe about how to increase the probability of swiftlet eggs from hatching

This person took the challenge to ensure that all eggs in his BH, either incubate by AF or Serinti, must be 100% hatched.

He will buy those eggs and select the high quality eggs that are free of cracks or spoilt.

He then incubate them until they are about to be ready to hatch. When that happen he will swab the egg with those eggs being incubated by his AF or Serinti.

Due to inconsistencies of those AF and Serinti to begin laying eggs in their nests, he tend to have those artificially incubated hatched faster then the foster parent laying eggs.

He got very little choice but to breed those young chicks.

Breeding young chicks are not as easy as once can imagine.

He tried feeding the chicks with many types of food but not a single food can make those young chicks leave for 10 days. He tried with Tauhu, Milk, ants eggs, boiled eggs, meal worms and etc.

One day he tried feeding those hungry chicks with young crickets and Vitamin D pill Ostelin.



The combination makes the young chick survived until they can be released to nature.

To ensure that these birds will return, the author did a very smart moved.

When these birds reached 43 days, they were actually latched close to those real young birds in the BH. Put them by hand but must be careful not to scares the other baby birds.

Remember they will no longer take any food to get ready to fly.

The integration works must be carried out at around noon (1pm) but not later then 4pm.

The next day these incubated chicks will take their maiden flight and mix around with the rest of the birds in the BH.

They will practise their flying ability for the rest of the day. They will try to fly outside but later come inside to rest.

Once they are hungry and ready, they will join the other young birds to find food with the foster parents.

By this method there is a very strong chance that they will survive and perhaps return to build their nest where they were allowed to start flying.



Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Compact and Suitable For A Good BH Sound System Nikkodo NK-5201!!!

I was recently introduced to a new batch of good sound amplifiers from Nikkodo.

There were two but I was more attracted to this Black Angel.

The shop assistant told me that it can supply enought power to opearate not more then 400 tweeters.

The price was below 700 rm and it has all the basics that you need to operate your birdsounds in your data room.



It comes with two players for your USB Thumb Drive and Memory Card.

If you want to attach to an external player there is a proper connector at the back.



The volume knobs, this is very important, have two with one to control the left sounds and right the second sound. Many amplifiers comes with those balance button that restrict your selection of the volume control of both left and right sounds volume.



The three buttons for control of Bass, Mid and Treble were also provided. I will normally recommend the setting of these three with Bass at 6pm, Mid at 12 noon and the Treble at 3 pm.



You have a set of 9 band equalizers. One set for the left sound and the other for the right sound.





If you cannot locate this amplifier yourself, please call this number 017 755 1318.


Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Kuantan New Stand Alone BH !!!

Three days and two nights I was on another field trip to Kuantan than to Kemaman, Trengganu and back to Kuantan Pahang.

I was invited by Tuan Hj Z to give some opinions on his plan to turn his office into a BH.

Before reaching Kemaman I made a short stop to view a new BH located in Kuantan.





This stand alone unit belongs to Mr.L who during the weekend attended my monthly talk.

A very impressive BH with more then 50 birdshit spots within less then 3 months.

I was asked to provide my comments and recommendations after the short visit.

What impressed me were the way the tweeters were arranged. The sound contractor uses a twin tweeter arrangements.

He will start with two tweeters from the end of the wall and placed two at every joints in the middle.







The final result was fantastic. The birdshit on the floors show exactly how the tweeters were installed. Twin birdshits spots on the floor below the twin tweeters.






I fully recommend this kind of installation. If both the tweeters are working you will get two set of birds side by side. In the event one of the tweeter failed to the work the other will be in operation. It is more like a back up plan.

The only sad thing was that the number installed were not enought. I commented about it.

The entrance hole was fairly simple but it works. Just an ordinary roof opening with a little pond. Immediately after that the entrance into the nesting room. A small pertition were constructed to block the light from entering.

After a 15 minutes inspection I recommended the following:

1) There was no external sound tweeters in the nesting rooms. The sound contractor only installed a few external sound tweeters along the staircase. I told the owner to perhaps place a few at the back.

2) He should introduce a VIP room at the back of the nesting room floors. Having some pertitionings at the far back can create a kind of preferred nesting areas. The partitions can be moved once the rooms are densely occupied.

3) I was not very happy with the coner covers installed. All were those wood types and they will create to many 130* shaped nests. They should look at using a thin metal plates type to minimise those angled nests.

4) Since the BH is a stand alone in a remote area, I push the idea of using Hexagonal Tower tweeters. I told the owner that currently the sound is pretty loud at the back but at the front part there was little sound. With Hex tower the sound can be blasted at 360*.



5) The amplifier used was generic. I remembered trying one before and due to its design features the sound need to be properly mixed. One with the internal and the other must be the external. If you purchase any new sound, with two same sound on the left and right side, it will be not suitable to use any longer. This unique shape amplifier cannot read any other storage format except memory card. Should consider to upgrade to a conventional amplifier.

6) There were some fake nests on the nesting plank but too little. I told the owner to increase the number to at least 200 pieces if he can find the time.

7) The owner wanted to build one more unit about 20 meters away from the 1st BH. I told him not to. It is better to locate his second unit about 10-20 kilometers away. Try not to put all eggs in one basket, I told him.

While in Kemaman, took sometime to advise Hj Z in his office conversion.

Hj Z is a Bonzai collector. He told me that when he wanted to engage a sifu for Bonzai he go for the best. For swiftlet farming he keep saying that Pak Harry was the best. I refuse to accept his suggession.

On the way back to KL yesterday, I was invited to put a night in Kuantan, Pahang.

Met a fairly new BH enthusiast. Have dinner with some friends and we discussed about issues in swiftlet farming.

I was asked to wake up early to inspect a BH for sale.

The moment we opened the door there were more then 20 birds in the BH.

I told the buyer to close his eyes and buy it.

My decision was very simple. Nothing can go wrong if the 1st time you open the door there were more then 20 birds in the BH. Before I took the staircase I was amazed with the number of birds flying above a successful BH a few meters away.

After the inspection works went to another BH to test my best bird sounds. Tested the Tongkat Ali, the Shooting Stars, the Godsend and the Medley.

All did very well except the Godsend.

I need to mix the sound to fit this specific BH.

Even with all by body aching, I did a marvellous job to be with Mr L & Father, Hj Z & Son, Mr W & wife & friends. What I tried to do was to provide then the best advise so that they can minimise making mistakes.






Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

If You Cannot Get Pak Harry To Come Why Don't You Bring your BH to Him???

Today I got a surprise from someone who is a bit more crazy then me.

He has been toying around a BH model that he wanted to construct in Ipoh, Perak for a couple of weeks.

It was something very innovative to build a nice model of the BH using those card box thrown away by Tesco or Giant Supermarkets.

His main purpose was to see for himself how his BH is going to look like.

He tried all the options that he think is good for his BH.

He also use those torchlight to be the sun and when he moved basing on the sun's movement he can evaluate how much light entered his BH.

He can also determined which of those four walls are the worst receiving those solar energy.

Today he brought his model for me to give my opinions.

The moment he took out from his car boot I was terribly impressed.

A very very innovative person who really wanted perfection.

It is better to know all the possible mistakes before embarking on the actual building.

If I cannot get Pak Harry to come over then I will bring my BH to Pak Harry. Yes a miniature BH which he himself build. That was his motto....

I took a good look at it and I think he is right.

There were a couple of things that I told him to correct. One was the size of the VIP room, the location of the LAL, the data room location and the utilization of additional space on the rooftop.

After more then one and half hours he feels very good and contended.

I am very glad to share a few photos that I took for all my blog readers to follow.















Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Be Alert Of A New Way Of Scammers !!!

I received this special alert from a good friend and please be careful when this happen to U or your family:

Its all started when I received a call from someone claimed that he was Maxis asking me to shutdown phone for 2 hours for 3g update to take place. As I was rushing for a meeting, I did not question any shutdown my cell phone.

After 45 minutes I feel very suspicious since the caller did not even introduce his name. I quickly turned on back my cell phone back and I received several numbers of call; few numbers from my family members and the other numbers was from the number that call me before; 3954380.

I called my parents and I was shocked that they sounded very worry asking me whether I am safe. My parents told me that they received a call from someone claimed that they have me with them and asking for money to let me free. The call was so real and my parents even heard my voice crying out loud asking for help. My parent was at the bank waiting for next call to proceed for money transfer. I told my parents that I am safe and asking them to lodge a police report.

Right after that I received again call from the guy asking me to shutdown my cell phone for another 1 hour which this time I refused to do so and hung up. They keep calling my cell phone until the battery run down. I myself lodge a police report and was informed by the officer that this
kind of scam always reported.

MOST of the cases reported that the victim already transferred the money! And it is impossible to get back the money. Bank can only returned back the money if the owners of the account agree to do so or there is a court order.
Guys, be careful that this kind of scam might happened to any of us!!!

Those guys are so professional and very convincing during calls. If you asked to shutdown your cell phone for updates by the service provider, ASK AROUND! Your friend should receive the same call.

Any Customer Service should introduce their NAME AT THE BEGINNING of the call. Ignore them if you don't get a name at the beginning of the call. If you received instructions from unrecognized number/person that you are not sure, make your own judgment. The BEST is DO NOT RESPONSE

If you cannot pickup your loved one's call, DO GIVE A CALLBACK immediately! Update your loved one with ALTERNATE CONTACT wherever you are

If you think you are SMART that you cannot be cheated, You are wrong!
Be Safe and Stay Alert!


Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

My Second Paper On November 7th, 2009 !!!

My second paper for November 7th 2009 monthly talk have to do with this interesting idea about looking after a BH.

I came out with this interesting idea of having two phases (Phase 1 and 2)in looking after your new BH.

All of us are well aware that when you begin a new BH you will be totally dependent on those wild birds that are flying around and most of them are either from your nearby neighbors or from some caves within reached.

At this stage, phase number 1, you are greatly dependent on those young birds flying around and being generated from someone's BHs or those caves.

These young birds normally are vary familiar with where they came from and not your BH.

Good example, if their home is the top entry style they will have difficulties to enter other BH with side entry. Likewise if the home is the side entry they will have difficulties in entering a top entry style. So why can't we provide them with dual entries?

One important thing that we should always remember these young birds might have come from a very successful BHs or caves around. Normally their home will be full of birds and rotting smell of their bird shits will be very strong.

To them those pungent smell is interpreted as "aman" or peaceful or safe. So what do you think will happen if your new BH is not provided with any fresh bird shits on the floor and those cement smell were very strong?

Many of us tend to design the BH as if they are for human. People tend to forget that the BH should be for those birds. We need to go deeper in understanding their strengths and their weakness.

If they feel safe to stay in dark areas then we provide them with the proper darkness.

If they love to build their nests at those 90* corners then let them have it. Why should we put those corner covers?

If they prefer to build their nest on those tweeters, then let them have as many as we can give.

If they like to make their nest inside or above those fake nests, we should put at many as we can.

If they are easily lured into the new BH with good sounds, then get yourself as many good sound as possible.

If they likes to build their nest close to walls and partitioning, then build those partitioning.

If they likes to rove in a larger roving areas, we give them a sizable roving areas.

If they like to be in a cool and humid environment, we create them.

If they like those wood that are laced with old nests, you get them installed.

If they like those corner covers with traces of nest build from another BH, get them into your new BH.

If they cannot stand those gaps between your nesting planks and the ceiling, you close them tightly.

If they have difficulties in flying in from the entrance hole to the bottom of your BH, you correct the holes (inclusive of your LAL) and make sure it is easy for them to fly in.

If they like the top entry, you build one for them.

If they also like the dog kennel, you do the same. Build one too.

If they cannot see the light in the early morning to get out, you open one or two at the prefered floors.

If they are scared of those owl, then you put in those traps to scares the owl away.

If they like to play in the mist sprayed on the rooftop, you erect one for them.

If they like your rooftop to be colored pink, you paint your rooftop with pink.

Your main objective is to encourage them to enter your new BH and stays. Just give whatever they want during this early stage.

We cannot think about making high profits in the beginning.

You need to focus on one onjective. You objective during phase 1 is to populate your BH to 300 nests.

Yes those 90* corner nests created due to uncovered 90* corners are cheap and little profit but that can be resolved once your moved to Phase number 2.

When you reached phase number 2, when your nests is more then 300, you can now change your main objective. Now your new objective is to make the maximun income from those 300 nests.

In phase 2 you now have your own internally generated young birds plus those from your neighbors. All you need to do is to be smart........

Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Nearly A Full House And They Wanted More !!!

My second monthly talks was a full house with 39 attendees. One could not come due to road closure in Kelantan. He called to apologise. I did joke with him " Why don't you swim across?".

It was like I just put my new BH in operation and so many birds entered and stays !!!!

Again I never thought that the respond was this many. Remember I did not advertise on any newpapers or magazines but only my via my swiftletfarming dot blogspot dot com. Very suprised and encouranging.

For my next monthly talks,December 5th2009, I have decided to rent a proper meeting room, spacious enought that will allows my disciples to sit in a more comfortable manner. This round I planned to use the overhead projector. The only set back is that there will be no high tea session.

This time around the presentation will be more like a one day seminar, will start from 9am-5pm, with special effects, those soothing mating sounds on the background, the colorful printouts and so forth. (If you have any objection please let me know)

Perhaps there will be some goodies like a T shirt, materials from last talks, CDs with Duress sound and a mini torchlight.

Out of the 39 there were three ladies. One from Tangkak (Indian), Johore and two (Malays) from Bachok, Kelantan. They suprised me especially when swiftlet farming are normally carried out by men.

A few came from as far as Hong Kong, Sabah, Kelatan, Singapore, Penang, Pahang, Trengganu, Melaka, N9, Johore,Perak, Kedah and Selangor.

I started the day with a short welcoming talk. I really thank them for participating in my talks. I told them that this November 2009 my blog was two years old. It is like a birdthday. I started blogging in November 2007 as a hobby and now managed to organise monthly talk just to share all the things that I have learned and wanted tp share with everybody.

To celebrate the occasion I gave everybody a 30% discount on all the sounds that were in my collection.

The number of hits on my blog has surpassed 290,000 hits. My blog is obviously interesting and being read by many. Nowadays daily hits can hit as high as 800 to 1000. Sometime I don't really understand why people from USA, Europe, Africa and Latin America read my blog. It puzzled me but maybe they are curious about swiftlet farming.

My idea to start the monthly talk was nothing more then giving a chance for all swiftlet enthusiasts to meet each other, exchange views and perhaps listen to my findings that will stimulate new ideas as to how to manage their BH(s).

I started with the 1st topic of the day: "How To Choose The Best Sounds For Your BH".

This topic was very interesting. I started with how to identify AF using a bird call gadget using a famous sound called "DURESS".

This sound according to my source was the baby bird cry for help due to some kind of stress or pain inflicted by something. Someone indicated that the baby birds leg were twisted by the recording guy so that the noise can be captured to pull those AF to come to the source.

Due to its nature, SOS call, I reminded the participants never to use the sound as their BH external sound.

Then we talked about those Mating sound. How these sound were recorded and who actually make the call. It is the male or the female? What the sound was for? When do this call can be played and so forth.

The third sound was the colony sound. Again I described when the sound were made, how they were recorded, the right time to play and told them in detail how to effectively use the colony sound in combination of the mating sound during the 4 months breeding cycle.

It was so interesting that no one even close their eyes when I was explaining in details about all these strange things that never before being expose so details. Not a single person find time to go to the Toilet. They were glued to their chairs.

One participant told me that I did the translation of what those birds were talking. That makes the talk very interesting.

The last sound was the external sound.

How to select the best sound for your BH. The best way to ensure that you purchase the right sound is to test all the sounds by the guy who have the collection one by one. The test must be conducted using the same amplifier and the same tweeters at your BH.

Pay the guy to come over and ask him to bring his best collection. You do the observation with him. You do the counting on the number of birds responding and entering the entrance hole. Each sound must be played not more then 15 minutes. Once the sound is tested you stop for a few minutes to test the next sound.

Record the sound number and how many birds actually surface from the air and jump into the hole.

A good sound will bring those birds to the entrance hole and make them jump into the hole.

It is better to bring 10 birds and all of them jump in then bringing 1000 birds but not a single dares to enter the entrance hole.

So once you have seen with your own eyes and saw how they reacted then you decide how many and which sound to purchase.

In this way you cannot be wrong. Remember you have already spend thousands of ringgit and you cannot be getting cheap sound that are unproven and sometime might chase those birds away.

This fool prove method will save you allot of heart ache and your sleepless nights.

All that you need is someone whom you can rely upon and trustworthy. Get him over to conduct the test at your BH and pick up those good one from him.

If you cannot find that "GUY" then call this number "017 755 1318". I am very sure he will be there for you and your BH.

I also gave them some ideas how to prolong the effectiveness of those selected sounds using sound combination and maximise the use of those amplifiers.

The first method was to change the sound every 3 months. Remember you must first get three sound that you have tested and proven to be effective.

The second method was to play two sounds in one day. One during the day time and the other during the rush hours.

The third method was to play a medley of those beautiful sound that you know proven to work for your selected BH and interject the mating sound in between them.

The fourth method I suggested to play different sound medley on odd and even days. This can be easily done by using two amplifiers but run on those digital timers that allows you to program them to your programme.

After the talk I was swarmed by many who have their list of questions and I was happy that many came to say thank you personally and wanted me to allocate a seat for the next talk.

For this December I have these four topics to talk about:

A) Phase number two of your BH.

b) How to use soundless humidifiers effectively.

c) Details on how to effectively implement Phase 1 on your new BH.

d) Insect generating techniques.



I have the PowerPoint Presentation Materials about this topic to those who miss the talk.

I also managed to tape the session with my Panasonic video camera. If the picture taken is good then this will be cleaned and cut into CD. The cost will be around RM80 for the Yayasan Account.

You can have the PowerPoint Prensation Materials at a cost of only RM50 to be used as a donation to the Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia. Remit the money into this account and let me know your email address.

So far six attendees sent a thank you notes:

1)Hi Uncle Harry,
I'm very happy that I have attended your talked today. It's very nice and give me a lots of ideas for my BH. Please put my name KOK CHOON and YIT FARN for the next talk.
Regards,KOK CHOON

2)HI PAK HARRY....I AM MALWINDER FROM SUNGAI PETANI...I ATTENDED YOUR TALK TODAY AND IT WAS REALLY INFORMATIVE.......JUST WANTED TO INFORM YOU IF U COME ACROSS ANY REASONABLE AGRICULTURAL LAND FOR SALE NEAR BY SUNGAI PETANI DO LET ME KNOW....I AM KEEN ON GETTING ONE TO BUILD MY STAND ALONE BH.....THANKS

3) Pak Harry, sorry I'd to leave your Seminar slightly earlier since my flight back to Penag was at 8pm. I am interested on your external sounds the BC and Tongkat Ali. Can U please let me know the price and the discount so that I can order from U. I found that your talk is very interesting except the room a bit stuffy. I wanted to inform you also that I am interested to book a seat for the next talk. TQ. Mr.Kho

4) Thank you very much. I feel my knowledge has improved. I would like to attend the next talk unless heavy rain in KB. Dr.Nik

5) AWESOME!!! You simply the best! UNO numero. Keep a good work and pls to confirm I will book grand stand seat on the next monthly talk. Best wishes. Haji Zul.

6)Dear Sifu Harry,
Thank you for the wonderful talk that day. Can I book a seat for your December talk.
I hve talked to my consultant yesterday, I will email you soon his plan and maybe you can give a few comments later.
Anyway, I am so sorry that I have to rush back to KL when you are in BM next weekend because I have something to settle ( hospital on call!!)
Actually, I am working as a goverment doctor in KL but my hometown is in Penang, Simpang Empat. I hope to kick start by BH soon, hope you can help
me!! Please sifu!! ( Doc, I am not a Sifu. Just someone who is willing to share all the knowledge that I gathered.)

7) Hi Pak Harry
THanks I got the gadget, will try it out soon. Firstly I wanted to say that I enjoyed your talk. Initially I was skeptical if I could grasp as much information or the talk may be too technical for someone new like me but it turned out otherwise. I really felt as ease, information was easy to digest and well arranged. Although I only slept a couple of hours the night before and drove non stop to PJ, I did not felt sleepy throughout the talk. I tahnk you for your generousity in sharing your vast knowledge with us.

I like to book a place for Dec talk, please?

Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Inside A Birdhouse In Tanjung Malim !!!

A new BH I recently visited somewhere in Tanjung Malim.

This BH is a stand alone unit located on an agricultural land along the old road from Tanjung Malim to Kuala Lumpur.

Initially the owner uses the land as their construction equipment storage areas. Due to economic recession they uses their idle workers to build BHs on it.

A sizable BH three stories and each floor occupied about 40'X100'. The floor height was about 14 feet each.

I was invited to view and gives my comments on any shortcomings before being put into operation mode about three months ago.

These were my observations and concerns:

1) Very well done unit. The owner seem to learn a lot from their experiences while building their first unit which currently housed about 400 nests nearby.

2) The nesting planks seem to be well installed with nesting planks installation boxes of about 2 feet by 3 feet. This design will provide an optimum number of nests of about 7 nests per square foot (estimated).

3) All corners were with corner covers. I don't actually prefer this however this covering was their requirements. Since it was new, the corners should be exposed as an attraction to those wild birds. Cover them later after the house have 300 nests in them, I recommended.

4) All junctions formed by the four corners were properly covered with metal plates to prevent breeding of cockroaches. A very well done workman ship.

5) The house uses a monkey house about 8 feet by 10 feet long on the top most and with the entrance hole facing Tanjung Malim. I was concerned over the owl protection. I recommended to use of those sharp nails and fishing string strips.

6) I was not happy over the lack of Hexagonal tower to blast those bird sounds. I brought one unit and they did the installation immediately after I left. With the installation the bird call sound can be 360* distributed. Remember if they depend only from the sound at the entrance hole, they only have a 180* sound direction.

7) The roof top were flat and without any rooftop cover. I was very pleased that they decided not to put any water pond on it. Just imagine if the water pond leaks into the BH? What I am now concerned was the heat generated by the hot sun on the roof. They should place a rooftop cover from the beginning.

8) The entrance from the monkey house to the lowest floor was via LAL that uses the staircase air well. Something common among stand alone unit.

9) There were at least four partitioning per floor. These partitioning were installed in a ziz zaz manner and painted black. I was very concerned over one of the wall that was blocking the flight path of those birds coming into the floor. I advise the owner to do a suitable openings to allow those birds to fly in. They did what I asked the next day. They did not install any external sound tweeters on the door leading to the nesting room. I asked them to put some.

10) The house temperature seem to be alright. I was told that the owner uses a double layered bricks with a 1 inch air gap between the two layers.

11) Since the house have no water spray system, the owner opt for using those soundless humidifiers. I supplied about 20 units to be installed in the two BHs in operation.

12) One strange idea that the owner decided was to install many ventilation holes all over the walls. The most weired was the size of the PVC pipe used. Normally we see the use of about 4 inches however this house uses the 6 inch diameter pipes. Huge and lots of air coming in. I advise them to think carefully when opening all these holes. My reminder to owner was to remember that most of the daytime the air outside are too hot and too dry.

13) The data room was very small. It was located along the external wall of the BH and very small. Just enough for one person to stand and do any adjustment. I normally recommend that the data room must be spacious enought to man the BH. It should be cosy with table, chairs, fan or even airconditioned. The room should be treated as the operation center of the BH and not a store room.

14) It was very strange to see how those amplifiers were set. They were lucky to have me around. I quickly reset those knobs to ensure that the amplifiers gives the optimum output during their operation. There must be some spares in the room. In case of any breakdown those spare will come handy.

15) When discussed on the number of good sounds, the owner indicated that they have very little and would like by suggestions. What I recommended was to invite a suitable person who owned a list of good Bird call sounds and try one by one for about 10-15 minutes. The owner shall observe the effectiveness. Choose about 5 good sounds that when tested brings those wild birds and many will enter the entrance hole.

16) The owner opt for those cluster type of internal sound tweeters. I was against the selection because it minimises the benefits of being used as a place to build nests. I prefer the rectangular 2"X5" with their mouth facing the bird's entrance door. Each floor should hold at least 150 tweeters (40'X100' floor size).

17) As usual the owner put very little attention on the installation of external sound tweeters inside the nesting rooms. I identified those specific locations and I was told they were immediately installed.

18) I did asked the owner to split the wiring properly. Try to have two separate lines for external sound tweeters at the entrance hole and the LAL while the rest on another line.

I was happy to note that after putting the BH into operation they are being occupied in less then three weeks.

If you wanted to get more details about this BH please let me know. Call this number 017 755 1318














Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Monthly Talk In Kota Kinabalu, Sabah !!!

I am very honored to be invited by Sabah Swiftlet House & Bird's Nest Association to extend my monthly talk to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah this November 21st, 2009.

It seem that the President of the Association has also invited The Director of Wildlife and Pehilitan to join in giving a one hour talks during the event.

The event will be held at Sutra Habour Golf Club on November 21st, 2009.

There will be two speakers:

1) Dr. Laurentius Ambu PhD, FCAM
Director of Wildlife Department,
2)Pak Harry – The Swiftlet enthusiast and popular Swiftlet
Blog writer (see http://swiftletfarming.blogspot.com/)

After lunch participants will visit a BH in operation in KK belonging to one of the Association member.

The fee to be paid to the Association will be RM 350 for non members and 200 for members.

Please call 088-269553 or e-mail to georgenah@gmail.com for any enquiries about the event.

This special even was recently discussed during my last visit to KK.

My idea was to get the Association be active and help all her members in improving their swiftlet knowledge.

There is no use to have an Association without any training programs that can enhance their knowledge on this special business.

Deep inside me I wanted the Association to have as many members as possible.

The only way to do this is to organise as many activities as possible.

I told the President that the Association should strengthen her financial status. This can be easily achieved by organising more talks, special events (like golf tournament), seminars, exhibition and so forth.

Once that can be achieved, I believed a proper Association HQ should be activated.

Within the HQ compound, a special showroom depicting an operating BH, latest scientific product, seminar room, nests processing lab, products displays and etc can be housed.

In this way all members, new or old, can get to view latest products that can help in populating their BHs.

I told him that I will always be available if my service is required.

Tongkat Ali: The Best Sound According To Mr.O....

During my last weekend trip back to Sungai Patani, Kedah I was pretty occupied with more then five BH Visits.

One was in Permatang Pauh, Seberang Prai. Three others were in a Padi Field somewhere at the back of Perda Town, Sungai Patani, and Juru.

I was also given the tasks to look at a piece of agricultural land (Durian Orchard) located somewhere in Junjong Kedah.

One new project undertaken by one of my disciple was in Kulim.

The owner of the Permatang Pauh BH has a very exciting moments trying out the Black Cloud and the Awesome.

Both sounds brings back those birds on to the BH rooftop. Many entered the house.

I completed the inspection and provided the owner with some list of things to be done.

I hope he will do the needful and I will be very happy to provide regular follow up on the internal renovations that need to done.

In Sungai Patani, I met Mr.L, who ordered some new books and insect generating powder.

I thought he just wanted to collect those items and off he goes however he invited me to view his BH in Bakar Arang Industrial area.

I was very surprised with what I saw. It seem that his family owned a wood processing factory in Bakar Arang. Since the factory has some idle building, they turned it into a BH (three into one). Yes three separate units, two stories high but interconnected with a door.

After operating for almost one year the birds seem to have abandoned the house.

A very weired happenings and the only possible cause was the smell of those Boric acid used to treat the wood.

I need to figure out the actual cause with a few more visits when I travel home to SP.

One of the best story while in Prai was while meeting Mr.O and Dr.K.

DR.K was asking for my best and latest sound in my collection. Before I could open my mouth Mr.O make his call.

"Dr. among all the sounds that I acquired from Pah Harry, I am very impress with Tongkat Ali. It works well in the northern region and I recently have change all the external sounds of my 10 BHs with Tongkat Ali."

I was very impressed with his validation but he might be right.

Since I have yet to let him try my Fabulous Medley, the Awesome, T'Tsunami and the Beautiful Medley, I kept mum about these new sounds.

It is nice to hear someone talking good about your sound.

Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Get The Extra Height And Expand The Nesting Area Later !!!

Today, almost the whole day, I was attending to a visitor hailed from Hong Kong but staying in East Kalimantan.

An Accountant by profession but currently very crazy about swiftlet farming. His mind was made up and what he really wanted is to own a successful BH in East Kalimantan.

He spend almost six months to do research about swiftlet farming by reading all those books he can get hold of, attending various seminars, read a few selected blogs and now took a one day Swiftlet Tour with me.

He confessed for spending about one month to read all my articles at swiftletfarming.blogspot.com.

He enjoyed reading it and keep saying that my blog is the most comprehensive with lots of logical explainations.

I took him to Rawang Country Home, Batang Berjuntai, Sungai Rambai Swiftlet City and lastly to Sekinchan. On the way back we stop at Kepong Industrial area.

While on the way back we stop at this high rise BH about 6 kilometers from Bantang Berjuntai.



I realised something interesting about this BH. The owner placed no effort to convert the ground floor which was about 14 feet high.

His attention was on the first and top floor. He seems to get the advantage of the height but focus only on the 1st and 2nd floors. I believed once the two floors are occupied he can start expanding his BH to the lower floor. Since it was 14 feet tall he can actually build 2 layers of additional nesting floors (minimum 7 feet high).

A marvelous idea for all newbies to consider.

He cut down the cost to convert the lowest floor in the beginning but will get the extra nesting rooms once the two floors above are full. I am sure this design concept will do good to all those who plan to have a stand alone BH.

This video clip was taken at Bantang Benjuntai shop houses with lots of birds.



Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Be Careful When Using Any Humidity Control Equipment !!!

We know by now that if you have problems with your BH humidity you can use many methods in raising them to the required level.

Normally you will require to shut as many ventilation holes as possible and install those water spraying equipments that suits your budget.

There are a few types that I have covered in my blog.

You have the mist spray system controlled by specialise timers or Hygrostats.

You might want to use those noisy chicken coop humidifiers that shot those water particles towards your ceiling.

You can have a kind of water dripping onto those walls and drain them out using gutters.

You can place water containers all over the room (Already banned in Perak due to possibility of breeding mosquitos).

The latest is to using soundless mist generating humidifiers.

All that I mentioned above are available and each of them do have their pros and cons.

One of the biggest issue will be the tendency of flooding the BH floor.

If you connect those water hoses wrongly or loosely there will be a big chances that the clip will get loose and the hose will be disconnected especially when the water pressure from the water source is way to high.

The best is to ensure that these clips are properly secured and the water pressure such that it will not burst the connection.

Those who uses the chicken coop and also the soundless humidifiers will face this type of problem.

To those who uses those water spray system there is also a strong chances that the timer you set are too much and with that your BH floor will be too wet.

This type of problem can be resolved if you make every effort to reset the timing lower then the initial setting.

I was at a BH in Gaya Industrial Park the other day. The moment we reached the staircase there were water flowing down. We know something is not right up there. The owner quickly reset the timer to reduce the time of spraying.

Using controller system (Hygrostat or HygroTemp), if you are not careful, can cause the same thing.

These tools are generally dependent on the air around their sensor. As long as these sensors sense that the air is not within the set ranges it will continue to allow electrical current to flow.

Just imagine if you do not shut those ventilation holes on the walls and your evening sun facing walls are generating high temperature all evening?

This will causes flooding if you are not careful.

Please take note on the above reminder and it they happen please do not blame those soulless equipment.

They are as good as how good you understand how to use them.

Special note: This article was written after receiving comment from Mr KK of Yong Peng. Thank you for your generous comment recently.

(Hi Harry,
Thanks to your infor sharing...

I do felt that the soundless humidifiers has its hidden risk to the BH. I myself has experience on it.

1. the inlet piping valve can easily loose-off if water pressure is high-3 bar or more.( using water source direct from tangki somehow the water just cant automaticaly refilling)

2.If water pressure is low, the refilling process is slow and sometime cause the overflow valve malfunction... so water leakage cause flooding in BH.

3. the original power supply wire is not very long thus most of us would extend it to suit our BH nearest power point. pls make sure the reconection point is place above floor lever b'coz it is very dangerous when ur BH is flooding and current is yet to supply due to timmer still in off position.

Above is my experience while trying the soundless humidifier pls consider it as Things to check especially its concern to our safety.

rgds

KK ( BP/ Yong peng))



Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Maybe You Can Provide Additional Food By Breeding Bees On Your RoofTop ?????

Are there any ways of providing additional food to those swiftlets staying in your BH?

Yes and there are many many ways of creating those insects as additonal food for your birds.

The best so far is by activating those insect generating powder that are preprepared with a kind of food source and fruit flies eggs.

The moment you mix them with water those eggs will begin to activate thus forming into maggots. These maggots will start to eat and eat and eat until they are fat enought to transform into fruit flies. The moment they reach this stage these maggots will climb to the top part of your containers and begin to pupate into a brown coloured sacs and within hours a young fruit flies will break the shell.

Once that occured these young flies will quickly mate and those inpregnanted lady flies will start laying eggs inside those slurries.

To maximise these laying eggs activities I suggest the use of ripe pinneaples to generate more of these insects.

Get about five to ten ripe pinneaple fruit and cut then into a one inch thick slab. Spred these slabs onto a tray forming a small hill. Get some yeast, bakery yeast, and spread the powder onto these cut pinneaples. You need to place some structure like a cut PVC pipe about 1 foot long at the center of the tray to act as the pupate center. Remember when those fruit flies maggots are full and wanted to pupate they need to climb a structure to begin the pupating activities.

Once that is done let the two works hand in hand. The insect generating powder will creat the young flock of fruit flies and these young flies will mate and lay their eggs on the fermented pinneaples.

Please replace the pinneaples once every three to four weeks.

The insect generating slurry can last for at least 4 to 5 months. After they turn color (into black) you need to activate a new batch.


Read these old links that I wrote sometime back:

http://swiftletfarming.blogspot.com/2008/05/you-can-generate-insects-by-using.html

http://swiftletfarming.blogspot.com/2008/04/insect-powder-usage-progress.html

One other interesting method that you might consider is to breed honey bees on your BH rooftop.



They are not very difficult to breed but you need to take a good number of hours a week to look after them.

The best is to order the bee house together with the queen bees and usually the queen will attract other bees to join her colony.

If you do have a big garden then you can firstly multiply the colony. Once the colony is sizable enough you might want to move them up onto your BH rooftop.

Nowadays you can easily buy the bee breeding sets online.

I was on AirAsia the other day and came across an article on how your can order these bee breeding sets direct from UK.



One set is only 495 plus 20 (freight) pound sterling.

Go to http://www.omlet.co.uk

I have yet to consider this but why not !!!!

If you have difficulties in bring the gadget in then you might want to meet the king of bee breeder that I recently met in Sabah.

He brings in crates of these wild bees into Sabah every year.

He might be your last resort......




Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Heat Insulation Using Bubble Sheet HeatShield Photos !!!!

Many failed BHs that I have visited has more or less the same types of problems mainly associated with their micro habitats (Temperature, Humidity, Darkness and Flying path).

Among all I would say that the internal temperature can be the most hazardous.

You can easily pinpoint the heat source by using those laser thermometers or simply place your palm on those walls facing the evening sun.

Beside those walls, the roof areas can be another cause of the high temperatures.

During my recent rehabilitation works of a BH in Kepong, I decided to using those aluminum bubble sheet shield to cover all areas that I suspected to be the heat sources.

First I pinpointed the areas of concerned. I then install the necessary wooden frames on the affected areas providing about one inch of air gap.

Once these frames were in place the bubble sheet were stapled forming a heat barrier.

To prevent any damage on the sheet, a layer of cement board were introduced.

Well it looks good after placing them. Now the hot surfaces were eliminated.

Those hot air trapped in between the wall and the shield are flushed using a few ventilation holes.

Main advantage in this technique is that the work can be completed within two short days (shop house floor of 70' x 35').

No cement smell at all since no cement were used.

If you face similar temperature problems just consider this simple option.

It is fast and cost effective.

The only cost incurred were the wood frame, the bubble shield and the cement board. Of course labor, some staple bullets and those screws.

The shield is locally produced and cost me about 1.35 per square foot.

If you need some please call me at 017 755 1318

















Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

When Will Those Birdcall Sounds Be Most Effective ???

Most birdhouse owners give very little attention on how important a good bird call sound is.

They could not even differentiate between baby sound, mating sound sound, leader in a colony sound and perhaps colony sound.

To me if your internal and external sounds sucks you will have very little chance of populating your new BH.

Since I am deeply involved with searching for good sounds and perhaps distribute them to all my blog readers, I am doing some extra works to observe what really happen when these sounds are played.

I have been spending countless hours watching those birds behaviours when different sounds were being played.

Each sound makes these birds behaves differently.

The speed of their flight towards the entrance hole varies from sound to sound.

The number of circles they make before they entered the BH entrance hole varies from sound to sound too.

One of the sound makes them fly straight into the entrance hole opening without making any circular flight around.

Some of these sounds seem to draw those birds towards the affected tweeters. The birds will land on them and start to pack them.

Some sound makes those birds cling to the tweeters and the nearby walls just to perhaps enjoy the soothing sound.

There were some that makes the birds enter the entrance hole but immediately after that they will fly out.

Some will not make any effect on those birds. It was as if they do not understand what the sound was all about. It was like those were not their sound.

In Tuaran when I entered the BH after playing my BC, the birds seem to be flying all around the ceiling as if they were searching for the caller who makes the sound.

If you play the sound inside the BH you will see lots of bird shits all over the place and not much at any specific tweeters.

To me there are still lots of new discoveries that needs to be done.

Not many local Universities or Veterinary Department that conduct any research on these kind of behaviours. To these people they means nothing to their organisation however to us the swiftlet farmer they do means alot. It is a matter of life or death.

One of the most interesting time of the day to play the right sound at your entrance hole is between 1 to 1.25 hours before darkness.

In Peninsular Malaysia is about 6.15pm till 7.30pm.

During this time of the day, if you happened to be in a BH walet central, you can see a very strange behaviour of all these birds.

They will start rushing home and wanted to be inside as soon as they can as if those predators will snatch them in the air if they do stays outside.

I make a few interesting discoveries when I was in Manjung, Perak.

During this "Rush Hour" it seem that these birds can be easily distracted and will enter any BH along their flying path home as long as the right sound with a strong volume being played.

It is like those "Cheetah" chasing the "Gazelle" in the grass plain of Africa. Those gazelle when being chased at high speed are very easily tumbled if the cheetah just slap on the gazelle's back legs. Once that happen the chase will be all over in a few seconds since the gazelle will be out of control and will flip and tumble on the ground.


Cheetah Chases and Catches a Gazelle - Click here for the most popular videos

This phenomena is quite the same when those birds are rushing home to roost.

The moment they pass any entrance holes with a reasonably good sound plus high enough volume they will simply jump into the hole.

They are easily maneuvered from going home especially those that have yet to have a nest.

If you know what to do during this time of the day I am very sure your BH will be easily populated.

All you need is to be very observant and try to find ways and means to exploit their weakness.

Use these weakness to your advantage.

There is no need to sought helps here and there but use your brain and your eyes.

Oh yes please spend more time at your BH to observe what I was trying to say.

Don't blame Harry for informing you about this special findings.

If you think that I was not right please proof that I was wrong.


Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encourangement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

In Todays The Star !!!

Entrepreneurs want a one-stop centre
By OH ING YEEN

Found at: http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2009/10/30/central/4986699&sec=central

A one-stop centre for issuing licences and permits relating to the bird’s nest industry will benefit entrepreneurs if it is given the green light.

This was one of the resolutions discussed by the Asia Bird’s Nest Conference recently.

Currently, the farmers have to apply for a premises licence from the local council to build the bird house and then apply for a harvesting licence from the Wildlife Department.

More than 250 participants from various states took part in the two-day swiftlet workshop held at the Paya Indah Wetlands, Dengkil.

It was the third and last in a series of workshops that began in 2008.

The objective of the workshop was to get feedback from participants who had ventured into the industry and to discuss the problems they face and come up with solutions.

Other resolutions that were discussed include:


»The workshop provided us with a platform to discuss swiftlet-related issue and I learnt a lot« HALIM KEPOL
·URGING the government to prepare complete guidelines for the industry;

lResearch collaboration bet-ween the government and industry players should be created or continued and government consultancy services provided, if needed; and

lrecognisING the industry as an expanding one to market the products through a standardised brand name.

Halim Kepol, 44, from Batu Pahat, got to know about the industry from friends and the Internet and has spent RM135,000 building a bird house.

“I’m interested in this industry as I feel it has the potential to succeed.

“The workshop provided us a platform to discuss swiftlet-related issues and I’ve learnt a lot from the workshops,” he said.

Another participant Abu Hussin, a retiree, said the swiftlet business was booming in Alor Gajah, Malacca.

“It’s a good opportunity as there is guidance and aid provided for swiftlet nest entrepreneurs.

“Moreover, there’s not much competition and the risk is low,” he said.

Perhilitan director-general Datuk Abdul Rasid Samsudin said Perhilitan’s role was mainly in conservation.

When asked for his comments about Sahabat Alam Malaysia’s call to ban swiftlet farming, he said the industry should not be discouraged but should be controlled.

“It has to be done on agricultural land, away from the urban areas,” he said.

A total of 16 public awareness programmes have been carried out from 2008 till June this year.

D'Awesome In Setiawan

I managed to capture this video clip in Setiawan, Perak at about 9.00 am this morning.

Not that bad and those birds seem to be attracted into the entrance hole of a BH.

This BH was empty after 12 months in operation but if you got the right sound they seem to be lively after all.

If you have the desire to own one copy of this sound please email to:

harryswiftlet@yahoo.com

The sound is currently for sale at 250 rm per piece by email. Remember the sound referred to is D'Awesome and not Fabulous Madley !!!!

Fabulous Madley is RM 880.

Those who wanted it in thumb drive and send by post please add 30 (thumb drive) plus 12 (postage by post laju).

Total will be 250 + 30 + 12 = 292.

This new price superseeded the offer for trial price and will be firmed for 6 months.

Those who attend the monthly talk will get a 20% discount.

Ask the registration desk and you will be advise on how to purchase it.

I fully recommend this sound for your birdsound library.

It Looks Easy But Those Birds Simply Shy Away From This 5 Stars BH !!!

I was on the road again. This time I scheduled to visit a small town called Trong then to Ayer Tawar and final destination Kg Koh, Perak.

I took 3 solid hours to reach Trong from Kuala Lumpur. A very small town with only three rows of old shophouses of perhaps five each.

It was for birdcall test work that was earlier booked by Mr.S.

Mr.S works with waste treatment company in Ipoh and have a piece of property that he wanted me to evaluate.

After about two hours chatting, birdcall test, site inspection, durian eating and a short trip to Kuala Trong I told him that he needed to conduct more test if he wanted to dump in 250K rm. Better to go on a smaller scale like converting an old house that looks okay to me.

He will decide on the matter soon and I told him that I will be always available to make sure that the project will be successful.

Once completed I make my way to Ayer Tawar, Perak. I got a sick BH that I was asked to turn around. The BH was empty for almost 1.5 years and now, after about 4 months there seem to be lots of activities in it.

Entered and did some birdshit inspection. There were many on the floors and there were also birds flying around.

I did my normal aroma spray and change those sounds. Spend a bit of time to see the birds movements at the entrance hole. I was satisfied that the new "Fabulous Medley" do pull those wild birds into the house.

Oh yes...they seem to like the sound very much.

Left the place and make my last destination to visit a 1 years old BH with not a single occupant.

The owner met me in Petaling Jaya a few weeks ago. He explained his predicament. I told him that I can only make my judgement after I visit his BH.

After a three hours close observation plus using my "Fabulous Medley" I told him that there is nothing major with his sick BH. What he needed is some modification with those tweeters, the amplifiers, additional entrance hole playing different sounds and perhaps rearrange the positioning of those internal tweeters.

The house also need lots of fresh birdshits and soundless humidifiers.



The strange thing about this BH is the perfect location. The BH is about 100 meters from the most successful BH in Malaysia. Every morning and evening there will be about 10,000 birds passing above and beside the unit. Every four months the birds number will increase by 100%.

So how come they refuse to stay in this 5 stories building?

My conclusion is fine tuning. The owner though that it was very easy at first but he now realised that there are lots of fine tuning plus good sounds to made available all the time.

After plugging in my "Fabulous Medley" he saw the different.

I chided that the sound will only pull those birds in but there are lots of fine tuning that I need to do for the BH.

I hope he will decide his next move soon.

I am very excited on this beautiful and strategic located BH. The best building with not a single nest after 12 months in operation.

Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Farbulous Madeley For Those Wild Birds !!!!

Is there a way to make those external sound last as long as you can and those birds will not get bored?

I am sure there are ways of making them last longer to perhaps one year or more.

What can be the best solution?

If we can make the external sound last long can we do the same for the internal sound?

My answer is simple. If there are ways we shall find it and let every body knows the technique.

If you think D'Awesome was good read this new formula.

Okay let us focus on external sound first.

Let assumed that you have a total of 10 good sounds. Well five you purchased from pak Harry and the rest exchange with some friends.

You have been playing these sounds on rotation. After a few short weeks they became less effective and you then change to the next. Then after a few more weeks the same happened.

Have you thought of putting all these sound together. I mean combine them into a medley. Birdsound "Medley".

I am currently trying this new idea and frankly it works.

What I did was to set a two hours sound medley using five plus one songs.

The five are those that I know for sure those birds will be jumping into the entrance hole while the plus one is the mating sound.

This is how I did.

When I wanted to start I need to give a special attention to the last sound of the day. I mean which will be the best sound to be played from 7pm till darkness, say 8pm.This sound I usually named it as the "Happy Hours Sound". This HHS sound can make those birds rushing home at 7.00pm onwards be distracted and enter the wrong house.

You can combine two sounds to make up the 60 minutes time frame.

Now you are left with another 60 minutes to slot in the other three sounds.

The most important will be the first sound ie from 0 minutes to say 15 minutes. Say I select the best part of Godsend to fill this 15 mins slot.

One done I will introduce the mating sound to follow the 15 minutes. Make the mating sound to last for 3 minutes. Now you have a balance of 60-18 = 42 mins.

Now you have two more sounds to fill up the 42 minutes.

I will choose say my latest hotest sound D'Tsunami. I choose 20 minutes of D'Tsunami and slot in from the 19 minutes till the 38 minutes.

Again I will insert the mating sound for 3 minutes. Balance time left is 60-38 = 22 minutes.

Okay what about the last sound. I choose the sound called the "Shooting Star". I will pick the best of about 19 minutes. Now I patch it into my "Medley". I will also place the mating sound to make those birds more crazier then before.

So let see the total:

Godsend: 15 minutes
Mating : 3 minutes
D'Tsunami:20 minutes
Mating : 3 minutes
Shooting Star: 19 minutes
Mating: 3 minutes.
Mix of Tongkat Ali and BlackCloud: 57 minutes.

Total minutes 120 minutes (2 hours).

This new piece of the most powerful sound mix I called it as "Farbulous Madley". You will see those birds flying in and out for almost the whole 2 hours.

I would like to offer this special sound to those who have difficulties in populating your BH.

The price shall be fixed after three week after being used in Kepong, Rawang and Raub.

Those who are really keen to have this Masterpiece, please send your request to my email: harryswiftlet@yahoo.com.

The first 5 will get the masterpiece at only 350 ringgit (Research Fund). (Sorry the five have been totally taken up on the first week of the offer. If you wanted to get a piece please call me for the actual price.)

The sound is far superior then D'Awesome.

Beside good sound you also need to know how to set the time to run the sound.

Yes you will given the advise how to set the timing free of charge.

Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an ancourangement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

I Was In Broga For The Second Time !!!

Yesterday I was invited to view an 8 months old BH but with not a single nests inside.

The owner called asking me to take a good look at the house and perhaps make some recommendations.

Hmm.....

Everything looks okay. Entrance hole direction was in the right position facing the returning flight path. There was a small pool in the roving area.

The number of tweeters (internal sound) were more then what I expected.

The external sound tweeters were also enough but not properly located. Those tweeters on the entrance hole seem to be a bit too awkward.

The owner seem to have his own methods of DIY the BH to what he thinks right but he forgot about what those birds likes.

He went over to a neighboring country to learn by visiting a few BHs and came back with all the things he learned.

He believed that it is better to put more light sources in the house as compare to making them totally dark.

He installed those mist spray nozzles on the supporting beam closed to the ceiling.

He recently constructed rooms at the back of the nesting room areas.

According to him he recently removed those exhaust fans since there were making too much noise. Now he placed those 4'PVC pipes but were white in color. They become like a neon bulbs during day time.

He laid a kind of very fine wire mesh on all the nesting planks. According to him it will make the birds easier to latch onto it.

One weak point was he did not change the external sound for some time.

The internal temperature and humidity were within range but why those birds refuse to enter?

I spend a few long minutes to try playing some new sounds.

The birds immediately attack the tweeters but on many occasions they refuse to enter the entrance hole at all.

Weired and difficult to understand such strange behaviours.

My deductions were as follows:

1) The area he selected was not below the flight path of those birds flying home.

2) The number of birds were not that encouraging. There was another BH build earlier but with some nests. Most of the birds prefer the other unit.

3) The externals sound was not powerful enough. The neighbor seem to have a melody of about three to four sounds while his was only one. I will try to come out with a better sound Melody for his BH.

4) The tweeters on the entrance hole was not properly located. Too deep inside as such the sound coverage areas were limited. I will arrange to relocate them during the renovation operation.

5) Since he opted to using a side entrance type his external sound only go towards the front section of the BH. What if there were birds flying at the back? I recommended a hexagonal tweeter to be installed on the rooftop.

6) The positioning of the external sound tweeters in the house were not properly located. Those birds, once they crossed any tweeter the sound will be totally lost. If you want those birds to go straight down to the targeted area the follow up tweeters must be located with high precision.

7) The LAL (Lubang Antara Lantai) was not located at the point where I would love to have. They were not immediately after the birds enter the nesting room. I feel this is one of the common mistakes of many BH owners. They placed those LAL where they feel easier for them (not the birds) to go up and down. We need to design to suit the birds not human. Since the LAL were already fixed, I cannot do much on this matter.

8) I was very concerned with the location of those water spray nozzles positioning. I think they are too closed to the nesting planks. To me they should be on the BH walls and not the ceiling beams. Too close for comfort. If there was a silly mistake the whole nesting planks will be wet and allow those fungus to grow.

9) The idea to remove the exhaust fans and replace with those pvc pipes were okay. However I was a bit disturbed when the owner opt for a white colored pvc pipes. The translucent properties allows too much light into the BH. The owner is not aware about those echolocation ability which those birds possess.

10)The owner have a very strange experience. During one of his visit the lights on the 2nd floor were not switched off. There were a few birds there but there were also a few that were dead on the floor. I cannot make any conclusion but the death could be contributed to getting lost and could not find their way out. Due to hunger or thirst they died.

11) During external sound testing, it seem that those birds do have some special attraction to three sounds "The Black Cloud, Shooting Star and D'Tsunami." Other sounds seem to be of little interest to them. The sound melody shall be a combination of these three plus those mating&baby sound.

12) There were no fake nests on the nesting planks. I remembered he just bought from me about 200 pieces. I need to push him to install during my next visit.

13) No fresh bird shit on the floor. I need to arrange for some during the coming week.

The above are just some interesting observations and remarks that can be of special helps to those of your who faces similar problems.

All you need to do is to try the above recommendations and I am sure there will be some changes in your BH.





Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Budget Speech: Look What Dato Seri Najib Allocated For Swiftlet Farming !!!!

Yesterday our new Prime Minister have deliver his first budget for all Malaysian.

I remember sending him an e-mail asking for 500 million to be allocated for swiftlet farming.

I told him that this God Give business need some help from the Government.

We need our local bank to help in financing the building of swiftlet houses. They are not cheap and all this while those banks are not of any help.

The important point was that he have in fact generated not less then 1.5 billion ringgit from this business. If we want to improve there must be some help from the Government.

Since I was busy with finishing a revamp works in Kepong I was not able to listen to his speeches.

Two calls came and I was very surprised.

"Pak Harry congratulation. Your reqests was answered but not that much your asked for but a faily good amount."

Both caller congratulated me for my bold effort in writing to the Prime Minister.

I posted the letter at: http://swiftletfarming.blogspot.com/2009/10/you-know-what-i-wrote-short-note-to.html

Need to grab a newspaper to read more about what he actually said.

I feel so glad to have written to him.

So people please drop by those banks and ask for their terms and conditions.

Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

Guarantee That Those Birds Will Enter But ......

"Pak Harry, thank you for the "Black Cloud" and "Tongkat Ali". Both did bring in lots of birds into my BH however they did not stay long. What do you think are the possible reasons?"

This was the interesting question posted by one of my blog reader who recently purchased two of my very best external sounds collection.

Well I told him that the two sounds are the most powerful sound I ever have. It will bring in lots of birds into any BH. I in fact gave him the guarantee that the birds will "enter" his BH.

What he forgot was that I did not promised that they will stay in the BH.

They will "enter" but to stay or not to stay will greatly dependent on the micro habitats of the house, the flying path in between rooms, the quantity of fungus on those nesting planks, the internal sound being played and etc.

He was really surprised that only a handful birds stays back. The rest "Cabut" or "Ran Away".

What can be the problems?

Well since the birds do enter the house but later they turn back, there must be something in the BH that are not right.

Please check everything that can be the reasons. Make a check list and see what can be the problem then make the necessary adjustments.

If you have done the needful and yet they still refuse to enter, my best advise is to get someone or a third party to inspect for you. May be dr. Harry can be of help.

It is quite normal that you cannot detect the problems yourself. There are just to many possibilities.

If you get the third party to conduct the inspection make sure he brings along with him those tools to check the humidity, temperature of the air in the BH and those walls.

I am very sure there got to be something that are chasing those birds out of the house.

My concience is clear. Those sound that he bought from me did bring those new birds into any BH.

Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an encouragement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.

The "Kangaroo Pouch" BH Design

While in Sabah, I make some new discoveries.

The best was how one of the designer came out with the idea where he can cheat those wild birds twice.

Just consider this interesting design.

Most of those stand alone BHs that I visited was constructed by the same contractor.

What he did was to locate the entrance hole on the first floor but not the top most floor.

How he did this was but creating a verandah or a Kangaroo Pouch at the second floor. This pouch is extenteded outward by about 5 to 8 feet. The exact location was at the center of the building.

Once those birds fly inside using this pouch entry they will choose to fly down to the ground floor or upward to the top floor or stay on the same second floor.

See usually most BHs place their entrance hole on the highest floor but not in this case.

So if you happened to be those AF you tend to fly upstairs and sorry you are on the wrong floor mate !!! You need to fly to the second floor to exit.

In this was you cheat the birds twice. Once to lure them inside and then they will get lost to the upper floor thinking that that should be the way out.

Genius idea and the birds got cheated twice in a row.

I think the designer is a Graduate from Australia.

The designer's main objective was to let the birds stay as long as they can before flying out.

I was really fascinated with this idea but I am not sure how effective they are in getting the BH nest population up.



Donation: I am sure you have learned something after reading this article. If you feel that the lesson learned deserved an ancourangement you can contribute a some donation to this account: Yayasan Kebajikan Nah Sabah, 100930010038410 at Allied Bank, Malaysia.