Found A Place Where To Get Those Building Materials For Your BH !!!

The good news for the week is that my new BH in Pahang is about half way to completion. Two more weeks and there will be some birdcall noise in this town.

After a painfull week managed to work out the renovation works with my friend Mr. O.

We were having difficulties in finding the right suppliers for some of those items that we needed to cut down our cost of construction.

While asking around we were introduced to this hardware shop owner who built BH too.

The price was very resonable and we managed to save almost RM 5000 for a 3 metric tons on nesting planks red meranti.

Price was inclusive of delivery at site and installation will be about RM950 a day.

He have a large stockpile of other building materials and we hope to use his outfit for our next birdhouse building soon.


RED MERANTI SOFT TYPE


RED MERANTI HARD TYPE



STYROFOAM 2 INCH THICK (INSULATION)


CEMENT BOARD

How To Improve Your Birdcall Sound !!!

Everytime you purchased a CD with those birdcall sound make sure they are alright and suite your sound system.

This was an advise given to me by a close friend who experienced a poor sound track that were affecting those wild birds from entering his BH.

Mr.K just started his BH in Klang and have been facing difficulties in getting those wild birds into his BH.

He have been using those, so called, good birdcall sounds given to him by some friends that claimed that they are suitable for Klang bird colonies.

After a few weeks the sound seem to attract only a few but the rest were passing by and never bother to drop by.

He called and ask my opinion on the issue. My answer is " Why don't your have a look at the sound pattern using a specialised sound edit software?"

Hmm.... at first he was reluctant but later agreed to give a try......

I recommended a sound editing software called " Sony Sound Forge". Latest addition is no 9. Cost around US 299 but U can get cheaper at the amezon or pasar malam.


His latest comments were as follows:

Harry, thank you for your kind advise. I have purchased a copy and have started to use the software. I have found something that causes the birds to fly away and I have ammended the sound and tried. So far there are improvements.

I believed that the sofeware is one of the important tool to check all those sound that you received to ensure that they are not scaring the birds away.

I am thinking of inviting him to be one of my speaker in my next round of advance seminar arrangment to be held in Kuala Lumpur.....

I plan to invite Pak Hen to participate in the seminar and he will cover those areas that he is very good at " How To Bring those Wild Birds Into your BH."

Will let my reader know when and where once I get hold of Pah Hen to Agree .....

Kulai Birdhouse Visit And There I Saw The Gun Of Neverone !!!

As I was said given the slightest chance I would love to visit as many birdhouses as possible.

Last two days I was in Johore and this time was in Kulai and Bukit Pasir.

The Kulai BH visit was on Friday morning while the Bukit Pasir was on Saturday morning.

I was received by Mr. P of Kulai at about 2 pm at Kulai Toll gate. From there he took about 5 minutes to reach a shopping area where more then 50 lots were converted into BHs.

The best was to visit one of the new BH under final touch before bringing those birds into the house.

The most fascinating was the size of the entrance roof. I thought my own BH entrance roof was big but you can imagine what size this was? Yes 20 feet by 15 feet.

The pool was the same size.

I am more mesmerized with two tweeters mounted to the wall and they looked like the "Gun Of Neverone (G.O.N)". about 5 feet long of steel pipe and about 4 inch diameter. The base was inserted with the Piezo tweeter, square type.

The BH owner claimed that this "G.O.N" was used in Melaka and it was very successful. The Melaka BH he referred to was the one that I captured and inserted in the You Tube (go down to the second last video clip). The unit was recently sold for RM 3 million.

One more interesting idea was the making of water dropping sound from any level.

In the pool area, the BH owner placed a PVC pipe, about 1 inch diameter, on one of the cement beam and allows a pump to push the water up. The PVC pipe was drilled with holes allowing the water to drip onto the water. The sound generated seem to make the birds feel peaceful, as if they are in the Cave.

The BH owner added one more water generated sound in the nesting area. He placed a large water container, about 8 feet diameter and about 3 feet high. On the top of the water container he laid a wooden support to hold pump accessories. Once the water was filled and the pump in operational mode, the water from one of the hose will drip onto the water surface. This water generating sound seems to add very interesting features to the BH.

I am impressed with these new things but a bit disappointed that the BH owner seen to take very little effort to monitor the room temperature and humidity. He takes no effort to install any thermostat gadgets to check on the room condition. No humidifiers, no fake nests and of course no aroma.

I hope his BH will be successful but from the look at the internal features I think it will face an uphill battle with those 49 more BHs around the same shopping area.

The Bukit Pasir BH, I visited this morning was very need and very successful.

The BH was a stand alone unit with a very solid dimension. It was about 30 feet wide and 80 feet length and 3 stories high. The owner adopted a top entry with a large pool area.

The weather was cool this morning and there were a reasonable number of birds in the house at 2.40 pm.

The temperature was very good, below 30; I see that there was no humidifier in the BH unit (all floors).

To tidy and the pungent smell of the bird shit was not that much in the lower floors but there were some on the higher floors.

The birds seem to stay at only the upper floors and more often on the corner where toward the pool area.

I make a few serious observations and I think if the owner can take advises to fine tune his BH, the number of birds can easily be multiplied by three or five.

I promised to make a special report plus all the necessary recommendations to the owner and I hope all the recommendations will be seriously looked into.......

Cockcroaches: You Need To Eliminate Them !!!

Yesterday everning received this very familiar call from one of my blog reader who currently have three BHs in the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia.

He was so jovial as if he hit a jackpot lottery or something closed to that.

Mr.A have been very facinated with my blog. He used to confess to me that every morning before taking his breakfast he will first switch his computer on and my blog site will be his first on the screen. Once he finished reading mine he will log on to Malaysiakini latest news.

Well his jovial reason being after nearly seventeen months he started his harvesting. He managed to collect about 30 nests and they were wonderful. He have begun his "White Gold" harvesting. The first is the best.

Among other thing that we spoke about was those cockcroahes whom he found hiding behind those corner covers holes.They are many and you can know by looking for their shit traces. If you peep through those empty spaces behind corner covers you will see these creatures hiding and most of them are very fat. They are fat because they are feeding on your bird nests !!!

I told him that he needed to eliminate all of them. The best is to set poison traps by sprinkling coackroach powder on those spots which these coahcroaches will fly to. Those hidden corners, latches and perhaps any areas that they love to hide during daytime.

The excercise to sprinkle the poison powder must be carried out every month until all these cockcroahes are eliminated.

You will find lots of dead cockcroaches on the floor after the treatment and you need to remove them. They give a kind of bad smell if you should accidently step on them.

Cockcroaches are predators to your swiftlets and you must eliminate them. Once you got rid all of them, you must regularly check their colony population by peeping through those corners again and again. The moment there are new sign of them, start the sprinkling of poison powder again.

Their life cycle is as follows:



Nymphs hatch from egg cases that the adult female cockroach deposits. As the nymph grows, it sheds its "skin" or exoskeleton so it can get larger. Each nymphal stage is larger than the previous one, and an adult cockroach emerges after the last nymphal stage. The figure shows a simplified image of the life cycle (egg stage, nymph stage and adult stage) of the cockroach.


Getting rid of them will helps your BH to increase the nest population ........

Birdsound Collection: How Many You Should Have In Your Database???

Yesterday met with a young Mr. Chris of Selangor at The Mall near Legend Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

He wanted to have the Duress birdcall sound. We sat down for about half an hour and get to know each other and talked about how swiftlet farming have change our life style.

One of the interesting question posted by Chris was "How Many Birdcall Sound Should One Have In Possession To Operate BHs?".

A very interesting question and I am sure many of my blog reader would like to know the best answer.

I have met many BH owners and each of them have different attitudes about keeping how many birdcall sound with them.

In Telok Gong, Klang, Mr. W have at least 60 sounds in his computer while in Ipoh I met Mr.T with 100 sounds.

Recently while in Sungai Bakap I met a BH owner who has a stack of swiftlet sound which he collected and dubbed for almost 5 years. He has more then 200 of them. He also has specialized software which he can splice, cut and paste those sounds to make them more attractive.

So how many you should have?

I strongly believed that you must have more then one set (External and Internal). In the first place you should be rotating the sound every 4 months. The minimum number your must have is at least 3 sets.

What if those sound is no longer attractive and there were no more birds responding to the music? If you do not make any effort to change them, you BH are doomed. You have to quickly find a solution.

My advice to all BH owners, you should consider having a good collection of at least 20 sounds (say 15 external and 5 internal). If you can collect as many as you can and expand your collection to as many as possible. For me the more you have in your collection the better chance for you to stumble onto a good and attractive sound.

Some people are willing to spend thousands for a good sound. I was in Klang the other day and this shop that I visited displayed CDs of birdsound and the price tag was RM5,000. Oh my god !!! I also have come across some people who claimed that they spend more then RM15,000 for one birdcall sound? To a BH owner who spend millions on their BHs RM 15,000 is a very small fraction as compared to the total capital injected in building the BHs.

I met Pak Hen at Pulau Kapas and he claimed that he will develop at least one Birdcall sound a month. The only thing is that his sound are priceless and he will not sell to any one. That is his trump card, according to him. He will only share or install these sounds if your engage him as the Consultant to rehabilitate your BH. Latest that he introduced in all his new sound are insects sound.

Once you have those sounds in your database, you should make some effort to try them out within your BH territory. You can test their effectiveness by playing them using the Birdcall Gadget which I promoted in my blog. Do not try them using your BH sound system. If you do that you are actually disturbing the birds both internal and external. So avoid using your BH system and use a portable unit.

Once you test them and found that they do bring those birds on to the sound tweeter you should then try to seek which of the lot are the best in bringing the birds. You need to find at least 3 sounds, the best among those hundreds, and catalog when and where the test was conducted.

These 3 sounds shall be used on your BH that is located close to the test area.

In this way you will have a good chance of making sure that you will have a continuous stream of birds visiting your roof top all the time.

If you have another BH somewhere else, you should use the same technique in selecting the best sound for that BH in that area.

Hope the tips given are well used and useful for those newbie.

Have a good day and a good week....................

Usefull Gadget To Ensure Your BH Temperatures is Within Range !!!

If your BH is pretty empty or very little birds building their nests, it is highly probable that your BH room temperature is too high.

Once your nesting room temperature exceed 31*C, you are actually in critical stage. You have to get the temperature below 29*C but not lower then 23*C.

Main reasons being the birds will feel very stressed and prefer to move to your neighbors who have a better nesting room temperature. High temperature will actually effect the nest structural conditions. The nests will become very brittle and easily broken with just a slight touched. Once broken those eggs or baby birds will eventually fall out. So what is the purpose of building nests and they keep breaking?

High temperature is also not condusive to bring up those baby birds. They will easily become thirsty and if their mom or dad never come back on time, they will eventualy die of thirst or dehydration.

Many Sifus will tell you that if you need to choose between high temperature and low humidity to arrest, go for high temperature. You need to lower the room temperature first and then tackle the humidity problem. Humidity will not kill those baby birds of thirst or dehydration.

There are many gadgets, technically advanced products, available for you to choose from.

I recently stumbled into this special product called "Smart Degree". It have the ability to detect your room temperatures and by setting the high and low value it will activate the electrical supplies to your temperature cooler (like fans) or mists spray equipment.

The item can be purchased from electronic shops in town but I will be keeping about 5 units for my blog readers to order.

If you have high temperature problem this might be the right answer for your BH.

Call Harry at 017 755 1318 for more details on how to use this Smart Degree to reduce your BH room temperature.

A Nice Weekend At My Birdhouse !!!

Been doing a lot of thinking about those wild birds. They are a marvellous creatures that response to sound and smell.

During my last trip home, last weekend, I did some installation of some new gadgets internally plus apply those Aroma.

I also came in late one night, about 12:30 am, to have some serious look at how my swiftlets were coping with their night rest.

One thing for sure you can see that they were pretty restless flying from our wooden plank to the other. Those that have their own nests, seem to be pretty calm and peaceful.

Hmm ..... the use of those immitation nests might help, it dawned on me .....

I was also not very happy that during the daytime I observed most of those tweeters were functioning. You will never notice until you put your ear to them one by one.

Hmm .... maybe the time have come to use those high end tweeters .....

While in KL, I delivered one of those Bazooka to one of my blog reader. This guy is a kind of very curious type. The moment he got hold of the Bazooka and paid cash, he took out a screwdriver and open the pack cover of the Bazooka. There they are those four unbranded tweeters used by the supplier. We checked and fully agreed that a branded tweeters (Motorola, Audex or Technik) will do a much better job.

Hmm ... I got one Bazooka installed in my BH too and I fully agree on his new idea.

One of my BH amplifier was not funtioning well. The moment the disc player changed, the sound distribution was not right. Since I am not an Electronic Engineer, I have no explainations why they behaved that way.

Hmm ... well the time have come to switch from CD player to using memory card. I remember talking to my Electronic genius/Sifu who told me that you can actually save two types of internal sound onto one memory card and the new range of amplifiers can actually split the sound so that you can use one for the left hand side of the connectors and the other the right side.

My BH caretaker did one installation using those metal magnetic compressed tweeters at one corner of the BH. After that instalation, I begin to think that I need to install one more on the 2nd floor.

Hmm ...they is nothing like having all these new installation done in one go ...

Well, well, well. Without telling my wife I pushed myself up to my hometown. My aim was to do what I firmly believed I should do....

There was nothing but to do it myself. The whole of last week I was running around to get those required assessories. It was in my car boot and when I arrived download them and get one by one done.

The final results: Outstanding.

The moment all the new tweeters were in place and a special amplifier for BH was switched on, I could not believed my eyes. All this while I thought there were only a few hundreds but now is in the thousands. They came and inspect those new sound from new tweeters and amplifier.

My sincere conclusion is that the birds do have a very sensitive sound detection system. They love good sound. Good sound come from good sound system and tweeters....

I am very satisfied and I am sure my caretaker will not go home until all those birds are in the house.....

Beside detecting those good sound they also are good in their sense of smell.

This evening while driving home I received a call from one of my blog reader who ordered Close2You Aroma a few days ago. I post lajud to him and he gladly apply the aroma as per my instruction. This was his actual wording:

"Harry, just to inform U that those birds, much more then before, are circling above my BH immediately after the aroma was sprayed by the humidifiers. Yes I laced about 150 ml of close2U in the humidifier water pan as per your advise. Thank U thank u and thank u. I will inform you more when I get some new news soon."

Well, well well, I am happy for him but I did not get his name. I know he is from Johor Bahru.

What more can I say. As long as I can make someone happy, I believed it is always my good day ......

Bird's Population: Something Bizzar But Interesting !!!

Normally I do not believed in anything that is not proven or having track record that it can work.

But since my involvement in Swiftlet Farming, I am willing to listen and perhap try, on anything that can bring as many birds as possible to my birdhouse.

If there is a tool that I can place on the top of my BH and all those birds will fly in and stay that will be something cool.

During this weekend trip to the north I met a few swiftlet anthusiasts and they have something bizzar that make me feel that it might work.

The First Anthusiast:

This wonderful blog reader of mine asked me to drop by and collect some Mandarin Books on swiftlet farming. I ordered about 30 pieces to sell to any block reader of mine who cannot read english very well. The books are very colorfull and I will try to bring them during GAHP seminar soon. Note each book was personally autographed by the author.

Well, his bizzar story is about someone in his hometown who actually invented a tool that uses a kind of electronic gadget to produce a kind of wave that are transmitted via a few antennas. I shook my head but he said that the person who relate the story was a good friend of him whom he trusted very much.

Hmmm .... I am begining to think that there are ways to cut down those tweeter sound in calling those wild birds. The trouble is that he do not know what kind of electronic parts were used to assymbled those wave??? I need to aske him to get hold of this trusted friend and perhaps hypnotise him to give all the informations that he saw . He he he ...


Second Swiftlet Anthusiast:

I think this is the King of all the bizzar things that I ever came across.

This blog reader (cannot tell who and from where) have a few BHs and some are very successful. The only thing about him is that he love to try any new things that came by in order to multiply his swiftlet population.

He claimed that he was approached by a friend of his who can bring the "penjaga" or "the spirit of the birds" who will get the Alpha Male of a swiftlet colony into his BH.Once the alpha male choose your BH as his house in no time all his colonies and friend colonies your H to the max. He indicated that the alpha male calling takes about one month. I told him that I would like to be the first to see if it is successfull. Who knows I might want him to be my Sifu too.

If it works, I too wanted to use this bizzar method ......


Well what else is new?

I tried the Ultrasonic Santra Maria at my BH today.

I spend nearly the whole morning with it. Keep turning each knob left and right, just like trying to open a safe box, and my eyes was towards the sky watching the birds reactions.

Using a sound that I called Channel8, I managed to get the combination which actually make the birds running like wild goose. They chase each other and enter those empty shop lots beside my BH. The number responding was equal to the same song played with the conventional sound system. I am pretty sure they do work. The only thing was that the faint noise that the magnetic tweeter produced, some croaking noises, that was not pleasent to my ears.

I am not sure what the generated sound tells them but I am sure it works.

I will only tell those blog readers who bought the unit from me. I just could not wait to tell them. If they should have read this article please call me on an urgent basis before I forgot the combination......

A Beautiful Advise From Swallow Sound Designer !!!

Yesterday did some equipment shopping for my new birdhouse.

What excite me most was to be introduced to Mr.T who distribute a wide range of electronic equipments that are usefull in any birdhouse.

The most interesting is a high end amplifier range that is proven to be the top notch product in the market.

Mr.T introduced himself as the person who actually provide the design of the amplifier. He make the decision on the selection of the parts that are used to assymble the amplifier.

The whole assembly is currently being carried out in a plant in China.

Hmm ..... very interesting and very informative.

One of the very interesting point that he wanted me to be aware about is the optimun number of hours that you should run the amplifier.

Since we need to run our internal sound on a 24 hours 7 days a week, we need to use at least two amplifiers. We normally need to use digital timers to switch the usage of these two amplifiers.

All this while I was using two hours as the best time frame to switch from one to another but I was wrong.

He advised me that the optimum to use is three hours. Main reason indicated was that the sound will be better when the amplifier is well heated. The moment you activate the amplifier, it will take a few 10 seconds to get heated up. During that period the sound that it generated is not as good as compared to when it is properly heated up. These heating up time is crutial for any BH. To minimise these heating up time you should try to extend the running time to the optimum.

His suggession was three house per cycle. Run the amplifier for three hours and after that you program to let the second amplifier to take over.

For a 24 hours a day operation you only have 8 cycles. Using 2 hours setting will result in 12 cycles. You save 4 cycles.

I am impressed with this new and very informative explaination. All this while I give very little attention to this minor issue. I hope all my blog reader will appreciate this new information .....

Yes, every day you will find some new things to learn from this Harry......

"What Else Should I Do To Bring Those Wild Birds Into My New BH?"

Two of my blog readers asked the same question today.

One via an email while the other via phone.

Both seem to be very concerned that those wild birds refuse to enter their brand new BHs.

For some reasons they think that I have that miracle touch which can make them understand why and what can they do immediately.

Hmm......not an easy task without having a chance to visit their BH and look both inside and outside.

Well since they asked, I quickly asked a few questions about their BH background and how many birds are responding to the sound that they played. Both indicated there are about 20 to 30 birds.

Not bad but it could have been better then that.

The next question was about their BH microhabitat. Temperature, humidity and darkness? Both says nearly the same things. Within the required range ....

Hmm.....both seem to be very knowledgable about the word "micro habitat".

What about the use of any kind of Aroma? One said yes he have splashed all the aroma recommended while the other says that he have not heard anything about Aroma before.

Then I posted about using one tweeter with the external sound in the house. Both have no idea what I was talking about.

Hmm ..... I am getting there.

Oh yeah, this seem to be a good avenue to ask them to try out something new to them.

Okay please try this:

1) Install a tweeter at the far end of your BH and connect their sound signal to the amplifier that plays the external sound. If your BH is two floors, then put one in both.

2) Apply those feaces powder Aroma on the floor. To cut down your cost get two of 5 kilograms bags and split them into four (2.5 X 4). Place them at those four corners of your BH floor. If your BH is two stories unit then get 4 bags and split into 8 bags.

3) Apply those new house Aroma on the BH walls just about 50 cm below the nesting planks. Make sure they do not come in contact with the nesting planks.

4) Get hold of the Close2U Aroma and do the followings:

Pour some into your humidifier's water bowl and let it be sprayed into the BH.

Place some in the hand spray and applied onto those entrance hole perimeter.

Also try to spray some on the perimeter of the door leading to the nesting rooms.

If you have installed those fake nests, spray some on them.

Select the most probable nesting areas on the nesting planks and spray lightly on
them. Make sure they will be quickly dried or else mold will grow (be careful).

Make sure all those ventilation holes are tightly shut except one or two.

5) Externally U should look into how to improve the macro habitats. The first is to unsure that you use the right sound. The sound you played must be able to attract at least 20-30 birds all day long. If they are not doing that, you need to quickly find a more effective sound and replace those ineffective sound.

6) If you have some spare cash, you should consider to install water sprays above your roof to attract as many birds as possible to play on the top of your BH roof.

7) You might consider installing a cluster tweeters on the top of your BH roof, to attract more birds to your BH rooftop.

8) Well what about those insect powder? Activate those insect powder and they should be operational within 18 days. Place them in the roving areas.

Try all these for at least three months without fail. If there are still no birds in the house then you should call Harry. I think we need engage some "Bomoh" to exocise the house. There must be "bad spirits" disturbing those wild birds from coming in.

By the way, are you sure that you BH entrance hole is the right size and facing the right direction?

I hope the above tips are usefull and if you are facing the same problems, just try them.

Harry guarantees that they will increase the birds population however he holds no reponsibilties if they do not work. He can only share his ideas but you have to make the final decision.

The question is, do you have any other better alternatives?

New Ideas And New Friends !!!

The GAHP Seminar in Melaka is a new milestone to my involvement in Swiftlet Farming in Malaysia. This time the itinery have my name and the Topic that I wanted to deliver. What an achievement.

From just being just a blog writer, now becoming a speaker together with Jabatan Haiwan, Jabatan Vetinary, Makmal, Agro Banks and Swiftlet Equipment. I just hope that I will be a regular speaker for the rest of 2008.

This was the first time I was officially invited to be a speaker and I was given closed to 90 minutes to talk.

It was marvellous and I am very sure that those participants learn a lot from what I delivered.

I injected some jokes plus those birds special behaviours makes the seminar more lively.

For future talks I intended to modify some of the topics to include various new pictures and topic that will benefit all participants.

About 30 new and inspiring newbies attended the talk and the next talk will be in Tanjung Malim Perak, then Shah Alam and if I am not mistaken Kota Kinabalu on June 20th, 2008.

Lots of new friends and the most exciting is Mr Chandran, the very first Indian Participant for year 2008.

Mr Chandran, from what I understand, have been hooked to swiftlet flu for almost 5 years. His wife indicated that her husband now love swiftlet more then her. Everywhere he goes, the swiftlet passion is in him. He claimed to chase swiftlets from town to town and sometime he will miss his meals and his appointments.

One special findings that he claimed to have observed is a species of swiftlet that have a wing span of at least a foot and the body length of about 6 inches. This weired phenomena, he said, happened in Nilai, N9 some time back. He imagined that if all our swiftlet are as big as this, one nest might be half a kilo in weight. Hmm.. very interesting.

Right now he owned a four acreas agricultural land but very closed to a chicken breeding plant. He is very scared of the possibility of bird flu due to the closeness of his land plus the fact that those flies might contaminate his swiftlets.

No matter what is going to happen he have alternative plans in his head. He did purchased one unit of the Birdcall Gadget plus the DURESS.

I wish him the best and I hope to meet again during my next trip to Melaka, Bandar Bersejarah.....

How To Do A Quick Check On The Number of Birds Inside Your BH !!!

Whenever I do something to my BH, I would like to see the effect on my BH. I want to know whether the number of birds coming in to stay increases or decreases.

During my last trip home I came out with a very simple way of getting to know how many birds are there in my BH.

I might not want to tell you the exact numbers but I want to share how I did the check.

1) Bird Counts Technique.

I came out with this simple idea on how to count those birds in my BH. The idea is to inspect the BH late at night. This technique is only applicable to a new BH with less then 500 birds. Those who already have thousands of birds will find it difficult to do the counting.

If you wish to see the direct result of your aroma theraphy, for example, I suggest U do the followings:

a) Get ready with all the aroma in place before you spray the following day.

b) At around mid night just enter your birdhouse, quitely and accompanied with your helper, and do the bird count. Be carefull and make as little noise as possible. Try not to scare those birds by making loud noises or even talking. You can count those that are resting while those that fly around you give an estimate.

c) The next day you proceed to apply those aromas to the recommeded procedures.

d) That same night you should visit yout BH again and do another birdcount.

Once there are an increase in the number then you know that your aroma theraphy is working. If not then you are not doing the right thing. You should call the aroma supplier and ask him why his aroma is not working. Change those aroma, if I may suggest, or change your supplier.

Maybe your aroma application was not right? Maybe too many of your BH ventilation holes are opened? Or maybe, U have been using a wrong liquids instead of aromas? Or maybe those birds hates the type of aromas that you are using (Dead Shelf Life).


2) Check For Fresh Bird Shits.

Place some fresh paper underneath those spots that the birds loves to roost. U can check the number of fresh birdshits the next day or the next week or during your next visit to the house.

I am sure you know what I am trying so say.

So make full use of the advise and see how it can help you to increase those birds population ...

Have a good week .....

PS: The above method are just an example of various ways to count your birds in your BH. Please refer to the previous write up at:http://swiftletfarming.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-do-you-count-number-of-birds.html

Which One Is Better? The Pipe Water Sprays or Humidifiers?

Yesterday, I was very fortunate to be introduced by Mr.Y of Port Klang to a company who supply the Piped Water Mist Spray System (PWMS) suitable for Bird Houses.

Mr.Y recently revamped his three years BH and he chooses PWMS as compared to the normal humidifiers cool mist spray system.

His pointed out the following points:

1) The pipe water spray system are more quite. With less noise the birds will feel safe and peaceful. You can actually locate the pump outside the BH nesting area if you want to totally remove the noise pollution. A very good and strong point and I fully agreed with him.



2)The pipe spray uses a combination of a water filter, a solenoid valve, a high pressued water pump, a check valve, high pressure piping and of course those mist spray nozzles. Their cost is more or less much the same as compared to using three humidifiers.

3) The piping mist spray system can be activated either by using a hygrostat or a temperature sensor. U might be able to set the triggering point by using either the humidity or the temperature. This is something unique and interesting. As such you can ensure that both the temperature and humidity are within the specified ranges that you wanted.



4) You can actually control the size of the mists that you wanted. This is due to the fact that the nozzles used to produce those mists are adjustable i.e you can tighten or loosen the nozzle and the mist size will changed.

5) One set of these piped mist sprays system can be used for two floors. They come with a high pressured pump and adequate nozzles to effectively used on two floors of 20' X 70'. On the everage they are cheaper then running let say 6 chicken coop humidifiers. This will cut down your electricity bills too.



6) What you need in a good supply of clean pipe water. It is advisable to install a filter cartridge just before the pipe water entering the high pressured pump.

7) When you install on the wall parimeter about chest height, you can place the mist nozzles about 4-5 feet apart. The best is to opt for the L shape design. Make sure those nozzles do not face up to the nesting planks. Let them face straight or a bit towards the floor. Facing up might cause the nesting planks to be wet thus encourage spores (fungus) to built.



8) The only thing that you need to be carefull about is the possiblity of those nozzles getting clogged. You have to check on them regularly and have some spare nozzles with you all the time.

9) Once clogged, the water from these nozzles will drip onto the floor and might cause some wetting or even flooding. So U do need to perhap keep a close eye on them.


Since they provide you with many good points, I would love to recommend the use of this method. However there is no reasons why you should throw away those humidifiers. You should consider using both the humidifiers and piped water spray in combination.

I still believed that humidifier, the most quite type, can be used for my aroma theraphy purposes. I want one of these humidifiers to spit out those special aroma (Close2You) that I spike into the humidifier water.

No matter what it is, I would say that pipe water sprays system is something that a new BH owners should look at. They are lots of benefits and if you have the time take a closer look at it.

Two of my BHs (adopted) are using this techniques and both are running without any complains.

I am also planning to deploy the system to my new BH in Pahang (now under renovation) ....

Those who wanted to order a DIY set please contact harry at harryswiftlet@yahoo.com.

Will be able to give the exact price, item breakdowns plus freight once you write in.

Special Note: The pictures displayed in this article are for my illustrations and your understanding only. This particular system is a high end type which I saw at my Golf Club. They might bit a bit pricy (RM 5K and above)and will be above your burdget. What U need is a simple system that will not cost more then RM 1,000

Do Swiftlets Go To Bed Once The Sun Goes Down ??

I am very curious about this particular question: What Time Do Swiftlets Go to Sleep?

Many would say that then will sleep at 10pm or worst case 11pm. This is because they are tired since they never stop flying the moment they leave the house as early as 6:30am.

Hmm I am not sure that they do sleep on time. I know for sure my wife goes to sleep sharp at 10pm but the swiftlets I am a bit confused.

You know why?

This everning at 9:30 pm I got this SMS from Mr.A of Kota Baru.

"Harry right now I am the Kota Baru Sultan Mujammad Stadium. You know what? The flood lights are on and there are lots of insects and there are also many swiftlets flying around having their feast."

In Kuala Trengganu, Jeff told me about this perculiar observation where swiftlets do come out of the BH and play around those streets lights. Most of the time they will be catching those insects hovering the light but some seem to be chasing one enother.

If you watch very very carefully, there are birds which actually fly out of one BH and enter the other BH. They must have two wives like those muslim brothers????

Well you never know what actually makes them not going to sleep to get ready for the next day.

We can just observe and do some prediction.

I think not all these birds go to sleep. Some might be a bit hungry so they sneak out and catch some insect from those street lights. Some might be just started their copulation excercise. Since they have eight days to keep making love, making love in the air might be a preferred position. So once the female flew out of the BH the male will follow.

As for the criss crossing from one BH to another it could be that a young birds that must have fallen in love with another birds from a separate BH. Once he feel rejected he might have decided to fly back home to where mummy is. Well you never know exactly but they could be anything......

Maybe Pak Hen can tells us more on what his version of this late nights behaviours.

If you have something that you think you wish to share, just write your comments.....

How To Choose The Right Sound System For Your Birdhouse !!!

If you want to make sure that your birdhouse is successful, you need to seriously look at the total sound system that you have selected and installed.

Poor quality systems will automatically results in poor sound that will not attract those birds inside.

Nowadays there are so many types of sound players, amplifiers, tweeters and various types of cables, you will get a bit confused which is better then the other. What more when you do not have any idea what is the best for your birdhouse.

I am a bit fortunate to meet so many BH owners and each of them have their own selection criteria which in some sense are right. Something that is right to them might not be right to you.

If I am given the right to make a decision, I will do the followings:

1) Internal sound system.

First I will select the most appropriate tweeters (piezo type) that will give me a very clear sound of the colony and baby birds sound. I want these tweeters to mimic those sound clearly so that I can cheat the new tenant that they are safe and all their "friends" are busy chatting away and the babies keep crying for food. I will not use those low quality RM1/tweeters that I believed will last not more then a few short months.

I will calculate the total number of tweeters to be installed based on the square meters of those nesting areas multiply by at least 1.5. Let assume that I have a shoplot with 20' X 70' = 1400 square feet = 140 square meters (roughtly). The minimum number of tweeters will be 140 X 1.5 = 210.

Now I need to locate the right amplifier that can deliver adequate electrical signals to all these tweeters, clear as a crystal and not one louder then the other. Some amplifiers can only deliver up to 100 tweeters so I will make the right choice to ensure that all my tweeters are functional.



Well what about having an amplifier that can served more then 300 tweeters and have at least three mode of sound imput? You need to choose one that can use those thumb drives, the CD players and of course the memory cards. Hmm sound very interesting.

What about the ability to play the left and the right side wires without interrupting the other? Hmm this is getting a bit too technical but let me do some explaination.

Nowadays, the amplifier technology are so advance that the are manufactured based on what you want. If you have, let say a memory cards, that have two separate sounds in one, such as the baby sound and the colony sound, you can play on these new generations amplifier with ease. They are designed to split the sound into two chambers and sent one to the right side and the other to the left side.

See I told you, you are learning new things everyday ............

So in a 4 meters X 4 meters colony devider, you can place those tweeters running on the colony sound on the perimeter of the devider and you can place the baby bird sound in the middle of the devider. Are you with me??????

Then again, what kind of wire cable that can do this high precision delivery of those electrical pulses to those tweeters? Oh oh, you need to find and use the right one. No cheap and unreliable cable should be used. You make the choice.

What about the number of amplifiers that you need to use? You need at least two amplifiers to run on alternate basis during the 24 hours operation period. If you use only one, you will have the only amplifier spoilt in no time. You need to install a kind of timer to alternate the two amplifiers choosing a period of let say 2 hours gaps. While one is in operation the other rest and cool down.......

What happen if during the changing of sound your amplifier runs both simultanously? You are going to scare those tenant of yours and in no time no birds will stay in. So be carefull and do not let this to happen.....

2) External Sound...

This is the key in bringging in those wild birds into your BH. The most important is the type of tweeters that you choose, how many of them and where they are located.

I will look at a tweeter that can deliver a crytal clear sound that will be heard at least a few kilometers away (by the birds and not by human ear please). I will place them facing the sky and the number and orientation of placement will ensure every birds that passes my BH will hear my BH sexy sound.

My next mission is to draw those birds in from the top of my BH roof into the house and draw them to the far end of the house so that they will have a better look or survey of my BH. So a set of tweeters shall be placed along the walls which will pull the birds in and toward an a strategically located tweeter blasting those same external sound.

The amplifiers and the numbers shall be similar criterias choosen for the internal however the number of tweeters affected is not more then 20 pieces.


Well my friend, I will not make any specific recommendations on the models that I prefer but if you wish to know, please call Harry at 017 755 1318.

How Many Types of Aromas There Are For Your New Birdhouse ???

Let me take a bit of your precious time to discuss about the reasons why we should use these BH aromas and how many types they are.

You need to remember this. Everything that you do in your birdhouse must have specific reasons. These reasons must be properly understood and their methods of installations or applications must be specific. You must never take them for granted.

If someone, even your SIFU, recomend you the product(s) you must first evaluate their benefits, why they are usefull and how they react once installed.

In the case of Aroma, I did wrote a short article sometime back. Let us recall the benefits and see how they play a major role in a successfull birdhouse.

Let us close our eyes and imagine that you are entering a successfull BH or a Cave full of swiftlets. What do you think there are inside?

Firstly they are dark then pretty noisy with birds chipping and flying above your head. The next thing that you will experience is the smell. The smell of those birdshit on the floor oxidising plus those dead birds on the floor and of course some fallen birdnests fermented.

These smell are made up of gases that are generated and are said to be consisting of amonia, hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide. To us they are smelly and stinky. To those birds these are something that make them feel peacefull and safe.

The moment a young hatchling breaks away from their egg's shell, their eyes are totally closed and they will immediately inhale these so called aromas. The smell actually tells these young swiftlets that the place is safe and this is how a suitable home should be. A safe place which my parent have selected to build a nest.

When this information is embeded in their brain, it will be atomatic that when the time of breading comes, these young swiftlets will choose exactly the same environment.

This is why you need to apply aromas in your new BH. Before you do that you must ensure that those cement smell, the wood smell, the welding of door smell, the painting of roof smell, those cigarrete smokes puffed by your labourers smell and many more must be first eliminated.

You can start by running a few high powered fans in each floor for a couple of days or perhaps every night when your construction workers stop their works at night.

You can apply some some kind of aroma suitable for new BH while have the ability to mask those smell and filling up any crevices on the walls and the wood.

Some people recommend the use of fresh pineapples onto the walls and throw some into those pond that you built and so on.

The new BH cleaning of smell exercise might take a few weeks to a few months until they are less pungent and attractive to those wild birds.

One reason why your new BH is not not attarcting those wild birds is due to this new house smell syndrome. You must plan from day one on how to eliminate them.

The moment you have successfully eliminate them you now have to look at how to turn your house to smell like those successfull BH or a cave full of birds.

First the use of a few bags of birdshit that you can purchase or bring them from your other BHs.

Then, how about placing some feace powder that can produce those amonia smell on an instant basis? You can have about 5 bags of 5 kilos on every floor (20 X 70 feet). Do not spray them on the floor but just place them in a pail or box and let them evaporate. Each bag to be strategically located in the BH.

What about applying the wall aromas? This is something that lots of people are very hesitating. The idea of using these wall aroma is to let these young birds to feel sexy and wanted to quickly mate. This is something like VIAGRA pills that those old men uses before they can have their erection.

To these male birds, once they are horny and wanted to corpulate, they need to built a nest. The horny feeling will activate their saliva gland to form and they will be able to built a nest. Once ready, they will allow the female partner to check the suitability and only after she approved the construction she will give the clearance to mate.

The two will copulate for at least 8 days. This copulation exercise continue day and night until the first egg is laid in their nest. This happened on the eight or nineth day. Within the nest 2 days the second egg will be laid.

The other aroma that can be considered is the wood plank aroma which can attract these young birds into your new BH.

This specially formulated aroma, when apply on some strategic locations in the BH will actually draw more birds into your BH and thus allowing your BH population to multiply to a resonable level.

You will see a surge of birdshit spots in your new BH within a couple of weeks.

My advise to those new BH owners is to open their mind set and try these new technologies. You need to condition your BH to mimic a successfull BH or a cave. You cannot depend on luck or leave it to GOD. You need to think that the most practical methods to shortern your return of investments and of course the faster they move in the happier you will be.

You need to set a proper schedules to use these aromas and you cannot do half heartedly like most failed BH in your area.

If you wanted to try with proper guidance, you need to talk to Harry

New Breakthrough With Ultrasonic Sound Equipment !!!

I hope all my blog readers remembered about my recent article on the ultrasonic Black Box which now I give a new name as "Santa Maria".

This unusual piece of frequency modulator allow the user to play their birdcall sound with very little sound or none at all.

Santa Maria is very usefull when your BH is very closed to a housing or residential areas,schools, bus stops, shopping center, eating stalls, hospitals, clinics, tuition centers and offices.

Just imagine if we can persuade all BH owners operating within 500 meters from any residential homes to use the unit?

Their neighbors will have a better siasta nap at noon, less sound to disturb those school children to finish their homework, less disturbances to young kids growing up, less intrusion those elderly people who need lot of rest, no more headache with those birdcall music.

It will be a win-win situation where there will be less or no more complains and the BH owner have less nighmares waiting for a notice for the local council to tear their BH down.

While in Kuala Trengganu, I managed to personally meet with the user and he gave me the exact frequency and transmission power to use. You need not change any equipment that you have now just replace the amplifier with the "Santa Maria". Use this for your external sound that usually gives the headeach to the people around your BH.

It works and I did highlighted Dr Reduan about it. He was very happy with the result but insisted that a proper study plus actual testing be carried out and a full report made for him to do the needfull. If this works and proven he will include as one of the guideline to be included in his GAHP booklet.

At the moment I really need to prove them. What I need are a few volunteers to work as a team to make our BH a better place to live with.

All you need to be a volunteer is to buy a unit and try them in your birdhouse. Those who are selected will be given the proper training on how to use the "Santa Maria".

I just need about 5 volunteers. Two new birdhouse owners and three a 1-2 years old in operations.

Common guys. I need help and I am sure your help will be appreciated. The cost of the trial units (five only) is about RM 1,250/unit plus freight cost.

If you wish to lend a hand in becoming a volunteer please SMS your interest or call direct to Harry at 017 755 1318.

You have nothing to loose but gain much more advatages since the ultrasonic sound can reach a longer distance as compared to the normal system.

So far four users have volunteered:

1)Mr Oon of Sungai Patani have responded and confirmed his willingness to use the unit. He is opening his new house this Sarturday.Thank U Mr Oon and I hope there are more who are willing to land their helping hand.

2) Mr Peter of Johor wanted to try for his new BH which he said to be very close to a Secondary School. Thank you Mr Peter for being so unselfish and considerate to those school children and teachers.

3) Hj Wan Fairus from Besut, Trengganu have confirmed via SMS. Thank you Tuan Haji. I appreciate your kind volunteer.

4) Mr Peter called in for another unit for his friend's BH in Kulai.

5) The last unit was taken up by Mr Err this morning May 15th at 10.00am. He was so excited that he make his payment immediately.

Since all the five special offer was taken up, the price for the next unit will be no longer the same. Will keep in stock about three units at all the time for new users.

NO MORE THIS TREATMENT: DISMENTLING OF SOUND SYSTEM BLASTING PAST MID-NIGHT:

A Thank U Message From The Philliphine !!!

Just got this email message from Mr F of The Philliphine.

Dear Harry,

Thank you very much for your time last May 4th.

Your are really a modern SIFU who give 101% of your knowledge
of bird house farming when we were together for 11hours that day.

We started 10AM and end 9PM going from Jalan Kuching to view
the actual birdnest cleansing and selling of 1st class birdnest.

Rawang Country Home excited me with the bird call gadget play
with DURESS CD which attract so many swiftlets playing above
the car.

The same scenario also happen in Bantang Berjuntai
where swiftlets return home. Thousands play above us with Duress
bird call CD. In between we visited Mr. Chia bird house with bird nests inside the house.

This is my first time actual viewing the inside of BH.
Am thanking Mr. Chia for his unselfish to let us into his modern BH.

Place also visited like Sungai Rambai Swiftlet City,Sungai BESAR,Sekinchan, Jalan Ipoh, Mid valley shopping and Kuala Selangor excite me.

On the way back we also view one unfinished BH which give me the perfect plan for my future BH.

This Mr Harry is heaven sent for me. We end up searching for ripe
ARA fruit for my planting here, But its not season-better luck next time.

Thank you very much HARRY.

See you soon in KL. Thank You.

Regards,
Mr.Felipe

I just did what I should always do to a dear blog reader. I really hope the 11 greulling hours were enought for him.

I am looking forward to know that his new birdhouse will be up soon.

Birdhouses In Kuala Krai, Kelantan !!!

Kuala Krai seem to have one of the highest birds population next to Setiawan Perak.

There are many tall buildings surrounding the old town and their numbers are growing.

This picture shows you the first tall building that went bust during the 1990's recession but pull out since the birds came to occupy the house.

The owner was said to be an elderly woman in her 60s. Her name was "Mek Soong". Base on her name I think she is a great singer.

While I took her BH pictures she was just around the corner with her four wheels drive. Not bad looking but high maintenance (Monopause).



To those who have never been to this town just enjoy the view of some of those birdhouses pictures that I have taken.

Some are pretty big while some are just a normal two stories shop houses turned birdhouses.

Beautiful Tips That Can Increase Your Birdhouse Population !!!

There is nothing like observing and learning as much as you can while you visit those birdhouses.

I have been very fortunate since there are many BH owners would like me to visit their BH and provide some free tips that will help to increase their birdhouse population.

During my last trip to Kuala Trengganu and Kuala Krai, I have the following tips that you might want to consider if you wanted to increase your BH population:

1) Choose the right type of entrance hole.

Before you make up your mind on which type of entrance hole, whether the open roof or dog kennel, you need to do some check on those successful BHs in your area. If these successfull BHs are using the open roof, you should consider the same design. If most of them are the Dog Kennel, then that might be the right choice. Reason being, once these birds are so used to enter and leaving the houses using the same design then they will feel odd to enter a house of different design.

2) Install one tweeter playing the external call music in your BH.

I was in a BH in KT and this owner placed one tweeter each for each floor playing the external sound music. There were at least 10 to 15 birds enjoying themself with the tweeter.
The tweeter seem to serve as a magnet drawing these birds into the far end of the house where the tweeter (with external sound) were mounted.

3) Color Your Roof Areas.

This is something that you might want to try. Before you decide, I advise you to observe as many BHs as possible in your area. What I think you should do is to carefully look at the color of those BHs that are very successful. If their color is blue then try with blue. If most of them are in yellow, then choose yellow.
You main aim is to attract those young birds to a BH that is similar to their original house. You are actually playing a trick to get them into your BH.

4) Apply White Duck Egg solution.

You may want to try this too. I am not very sure the success rate but the logic is to make the area applied, on those wooden nesting panel, looks like it was already marked by a potential male's bird.

Try not to apply too much but just enought to look like an area that have sign of those birds salivar.


5) Use Close2You Aroma If You Can.

If you have the ability to buy a liter of this special product you should use them in at least three ways:

a) You pour about 150 ml into your humidifier water pot at the base of the Humidifier. This aroma when mixed with the water will be turned into cool mist that atually give the love aroma atrracting those young birds into your BH.

b) To pull the birds into your BH you should try to spray the Close2You on the entrance hole perimeter. Spray them evently and see what happen.

c) You should also spray the aroma onto those door area where the birds need to pass from the entrance hole into your nesting areas. This will actually make the birds goes deeper into your BH.

d) Inside your BH you can apply the aroma to a selected nesting plank areas where you want your birds to start their nesting. Do not apply too much because they might let to fungi growth. Just enought but not too much.


All the above tips are something that I came across and there is no full guarantee that they will work 100%. From my point of view if they gives you a 50% success it will be better then nothing. Remember every nest that you gain by using these recommendations is equal to RM1000. Just imagine you have 5 to 100 or more nests a month ???

The Close2You aroma are available with Harry and call him if you wish to try. They come in 5 liter and 1.5 liter bottles. Harry's mobile phone number is 017 755 1318

A Big BH In A Bungalow Compound !!!

While on the way home from Kuala Trengganu, I decided with my co-driver to drive up north to Kuala Kerai via Jertih and go towards Gua Musang before hitting Raub, Bentong and KL.

I never new that this codriver of mine married to someone from Kuala Kerai.



The moment we reached Jertih, I saw this massive half yellow and half red coloured buldings that was pretty nice to look at. The bird entrance, square shape, was just below those roof joint. There were a number of birds flying around the hole.

There were at least 10 more birdhouses along the same road.





Well who says that the entrance holes must alway be square or rectangle? Just have a look at this circular entrance hole. I never believed my eyes when something weired like this pop up infront of my eyes.

They are just unique and unbelievable. These SIFU who does this must be a super high hirachy level in this bird house design selection. I am pretty sure they do have some reasons but please don't even open your mouth to Harry.

In Kuala Kerai I was taken to a bungalow how with a gigantic birdhouse about 5 meters away. The BH was in the same compound. About five stories and about 80 feet by 80 feet and we climbed in the dark from one floor to the other until we reached the top deck.

You will never guess what more that I came acrossed. More weired thing that makes your mind "kepala pusing" (unbelievable). The building walls were designed with special ventilation holes that I have never seen before. They are not holes but open window blocked by a huge piece of cement slabs.

Oh big mama, who have ever given these weired ideas to the owner????

Internally they are well designed with pretty looking nesting planks covered with corner covers. The only sore to my eyes were those tweeters arrangements. They are not facing the hole where those birds were coming into the room. The tweeters were placed deep in into the nesting plank's slots.

The roving area on the top floor was about 20 feet by 20 feet. Once those birds flew in they can roove around or snope into the LAL. The LAL between the other floors are via the staircase.

I love to see those walk rails installed onto the staircase.

I hope all of you enjoy these pictures that I took while in the BH.


A PLACE CALL MYBIRDHOUSE:


THE VENTILLATION HOLE CONSTRUCTION AND WATER DRAIN ABOUT TO BE COMPLETED


THE CEMENT BOARD READY TO BE INSTALLED ABOVE THE PLASTIC MAT


THE NESTING PLANKS BOXES AND A TWEETER


THE ROVING ROOM ON THE TOP FLOOR OF THE BUILDING


THE LAL IN ROVING ROOM WITH SAFETY RAILS


LUBANG ANTARA LANTAI (LAL) WITH SAFETY RAILS


WATER POND WITH SPRAY RODS

This Looks Like A Tree Swallows!!!!

Gentlemen,

This picture was sent by Mr.T of Daro. (Double Click on the photo for more details)

The picture shows a swallow that make her nest on a palm leave.

The question posted by Mr.T was " Is this an edible birdnest swallow's specie?"

From logic, I don't think so but it will be good if someone can do some research on this.

Pak Hen might give some ideas on this.

To those who have never experience seeing such a wonderfull picture please have a good time with it.

Catman On BH Rooftop Prowling !!!

I just hope that this will not be my daily life events. Walking on the top of the BH roof just to check on the BH bird entrance hole.

Well, the day that I arrived in KTrengganu, met this Mr.K who wanted those insect powder, the aroma for the planks, the Hgrometer, the Birdcall Gadget and few others.

I met in at the hotel carpark in KT and the first offer he have for me was " Would you like to see my BH?". Hmm hmmm I just could not resit the temptation of visiting a BH along the Kampung China.

Well I accepted his invitation and off we go to his BH.

Well well well. I was in for a very big suprise.

1) The floor was actually flooded with water, about 3mm thick. I need to pull my pants up and the water nearly enter my shoes. A bit too much of water and I don't think that is a good practise. No matter what he do got those birds in his house.

2) The room shit smell was really strong. To me this is what it should be to attract those birds in but the wet floor is not very good for the house expecially possibility of leaking to the lowest floor, slippery and hygine. He should have placed his BH birdshits onto a kind of trays and wet them so that they can fermented or oxidise to produce as much amonia smell as possible.

3) His BH have at least 500 nests. They seem to nest nearly everywhere on the ground floor only. Upper floor seem to be empty with no sign of many birdshits on the floor. They also nest on the cement walls of the BH.

4) His BH ceilings roof were made of zinc sheets. This is the first time I come a cross a BH with zinc plated roof. I wonder why the BH owner chooses zinc sheets. If they act with air and water there will be a kind of oxide layer formed on it. I hope these oxide layer will not be harmfull to the nests.

5) Those birds were colonising the walls even though the wooden planks were not fully occupied. I also observed that those white paint on the wall tend to give way when the birds anchor their nests. I believe you should not apply any paint onto your BH walls.



6) A number of these nests were warping (the lower part of the nest were curling up). The main cause of this warping was said to be due too high the humidity. In the beginning I thought it was due to high temperature. So the best way to solve this is to cut your humidity range, using hygrostat, to below 90% RH. The owner claimed that he runs the humidifier without any hygrostats and his floor were flooded with water too.



7) There were many baby birds which are about to fly away. This might be due to the season where lots of those your birds are maturing and are about to fly out.

8) His roving area were unusual. The room was about 7 feet and the only way to climb up was via a brick size path slanting at 45 degress and was wet. I nearly slipped into his LAL. This is another house design features that I hate to comment. It is dangerous if you do not plan them well from the beginning. Just imagine if you visit your birdhouse alone and you fell into the LaL? No one knows until they smell your decomposing body....

9) He wanted me to view his dog kennel area on the top of his BH roof. I crawled up there just for the sake of getting some pictures for my blog readers. I feel like the "Catman" on the rooftop. Well I now know that it is not easy to be a successfull blog writer. Some time you need to sacrify the confort of staying at home, climbing roof tops, walk on a flooded BH floors, and conduct birdcall test near people's BH. All these are danger, danger, danger man .....

10) He painted his dog kennel and a certain part of his BH roof in dark BLUE. He claimed that since he change the color from yellow to blue there were a surge of his birds population.(You may want to try but if it does not work please don't blame Harry???. I thought Pak Hendry told me that these swiftlets are color blind. He he he......)



11) His birdhouse entrance hole was fully covered with with steel grill. The size and design was just suitable to let the birds flew in but not the Catman????? The grill came in one piece and they can be fixed internally complete with a hinge. Sorry for not getting the right measurement.



11) He gave me a tip and it goes like this: " Take those duck egg white and stir them gently. Once done apply them onto those areas that you wanted to have the nest being built by those birds. They do look like a new birdnest marking and the smell is very attractive to the siftlets. (Please don't blaim me it it does not work.)

12) Before opening up his LAL hole by about 4 feet by 4 feet more he found that there were many young birds dying on the lower floor. He sacrified the additional nesting space and now there were no longer dead swiftlets. (So if you do find many dead birds in your BH, this might be one of the reason. Your LAL is too small and you need to open them up).