Trade Marks In Kuala Selangor !!!

The Kuala Selangor swiftlet BH visit and noble mission accomplished.

It was pretty neat to see how birdhouse owner keep their birdhouse sleek and tidy.

Mr. A picked me up at my house in Damansara and proceeded to fetch Mr. Y at a hotel in KL. The three of us proceeded to Port Klang on route to Kuala Selangor. On the way stop at a mamak shop for breakfast. We reached Kuala Selangor at about 11am.

A bit about Mr A. He is one of those who was inflicted with the same diseases like those who read this blog i.e. Swiftlet Flu (Crazy About Swiftlet).



If you should ask him his current profession, his answer will be in the Hotel line. Yes his clients enter from the rooftop. They never pay and every time they finish their job Mr. A will confiscate their belongings (nests).

His mobile phone rings the sound of swiftlets and everyday he talks about nothing but swiftlet. Crazy guy but fun to be with.



Mr. A have with him a birdhouse (BH) on a three stories high building which he used to rent to a tenant paying a merge RM200 a month. After 2 years of tenancy he manage to relocate them to another building nearby and quickly convert the 3rd floor to a BH. He regretted that he wasted 2 precious years....

Anyway I entered his birdhouse for inspection and starts with my routine observations that I usually do.



First, the air in the BH. It was like a fresh air but have a bit of those birds hit aroma. Too thin and I don't feel like a BH.

Second, the humidity. No good I do not sweat for almost five minutes. They are not humid enough.

Three, no measuring gadget to detect the humidity and temperature. Hmm no good. How to know the temperate and humidity accurately?



Four, the bird call sound. Internal sound okay but external not that awesome. The volume was also not very strong ....

Five, the brightness. Looks okay but looking at the amount of light coming in from the roving room it was a bit too bright ...

Six, the room's set up. I was quite impressed with the tunnel concept. The moment the bird enter the house they are directly connected to the tunnel which allows the birds to enter the nesting area without any problem. A very impressive design. What I was not happy about was the size of the tunnel. It was almost 7 feet width. I would like it to be reduced to 3 feet or lesser.



Seven, the nesting area consisted of two portions the back (20 ft X 15ft) and the front portion about 60 feet X 13 feet. The size is okay for the roving of birds.

Eight, the nesting planks. They were well installed and each follows the standard dimension that maximized the usage of nesting space. I like it.




Ninth, the tweeters. All tweeters were those of a rectangular shape type. There were 92 pieces. I am of the opinion that they are a bit too little. I am looking at least 200. Better if it is increased to 300.

Tenth, the tweeter's mounting direction. I was not very sure whether the technician who installed those tweeters knows much about swiftlet ranching. First the way they mounted (wrong) and second the direction where they were facing (some facing directly to the wall, about 1 foot away).



Tenth A, tweeters wire mesh covers. I would prefer all the tweeters are with wire mesh covers. This will helps the birds to have a better clinging surface areas.

Eleven, the corner covers. They are perfectly installed using the wood covers that I have described on my blog. I wish they can be my appointed contractor (only the ceiling wood, please). Neat and perfectly done.

Twelve, any fake nests. I did not see any. It is like a big mouth without any teeth (Mind U my wife is a Dental surgeon). I prefer to see at least 20 sets which I told A to do.

Thirteen, humidifiers. He got two units installed. Both the chicken farm type and operated by analog timer each. The timers were set to operate every hour and daytime only for 15 minutes. (Hmm might be too short). I think the number is too little and I recommended to have the number increased by one. Try not to use analog timer. Better to use a proper hygrostat or perhaps digital timers.


Fourteen, the fluorescent working light. He got only one and working pretty well.

Fifteen, the ventilation holes. There were six ventilation holes that were with about 6 inch diameter plastic pipes. The arrangement were nice but all the holes were widely opened. The first thing I did was to close nearly all using some newspaper. They are not to be open until such time they are ready to.



Sixteen, the passage from the nesting to the roving area looks like a tunnel but they are facing the entrance hole diagonally. It seem the light was so bright for my eyes to open.

Seventeen, the roving room. Well designed and was almost 15 feet by 20 feet. All the walls were painted black.



Eighteen, the entrance hole path blockage. Directly at the back of the unit was another shop that have a high kernel that blocked the flight passage of the BH. I am not very happy at all however to the left of the said tower there seem to have enough roving area (external). I have a very strong feeling that this will be the biggest hurdle in getting those wild birds into the BH.

Nineteen, the entrance hole's size. The entrance hole was pretty big. It was at least4 feet by 4 feet. Too big and it drained out the room humidity, the aroma applied and also too much light entering the roving areas. I strongly believed is should be around 2 feet by 3 feet. Once the house tenancy is big the hole should be further reduced to guard against buglars.

Twenty, the external tweeters at the entrance. Mostly, about four were those of rectangular shape. Two on both sides of the entrance hole sides. Looks okay to me.

Twenty one, the pull tweeters. There were two sets along the corridor toward the nesting rooms. Too little to me. I prefer at least three more sets along the corridor.

Twenty two, the sound players. I see that Mr. A is pretty well organized and now using thumb drive as his music storage gadget. Cool and pretty state of the art. He plays three sets of players...

Twenty three, no CCTV. Not his favorite to install.

Twenty four, security feature. Not very critical at this stage.

Twenty five, bird shit count. Very little ...

Twenty six, Pool in nesting room. Nil.

Twenty seven, insect powder pails. Nil.



Twenty eight, cockroach. There were some signs of their feaces on the floor.

Twenty nine, working ladder. He got one in the unit and made of wood.

Thirty, any birds entering the house when we were inspecting. Yes at least three who flew in.

Thirty one, did the humidifiers works while the inspection was carried out? Yes both did runs.

Thirty two, any nests or its marking? Sorry nil.

Thirty three, external lighting. Installing some flood lights outside close to the entrance hole will be a good idea.



Thirty four, neighbors birdhouses. There were three more in the same row. Just a few meters away there were at least 10 to 20 more. His BH is located in a cluster of BH belonging to many swiftlet enthusiasts. Good at least there are lots of new birds being produced every month.

I guess these are my observations and my main purpose is to let all newbie that these are the kind of things that you should be looking at.

If you can do any better then me then you can be my Sifu... He he he...

I will be making some recommendations but I am pretty sure there will be lots of changes within the next couple of week/month.

How and what will be done cannot be exposed without the owner's prior permission. Sorry for that....

I hope those who would like to check their BH status can do the same like what I did. I am sure a third party will do a better job ...