Edible Birdnest farming can be considered an ideal, most exciting and a very lucrative business. This venture is suitable for those who live in parts of Cambodia, Southern Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippine and Indonesia. This blog is dedicated to my findings, crazy ideas, encounters with newbies, comments from friends, local news, pictures relevant to Birdnest plus my personal experiences and knowledge gained in swiftlet farming.
(Note: The above picture was taken from my photo collection. This picture shows the beauty of nesting planks arrangment by a very experience Contractor name Mr Tiong)
Have you ever tried using "Black Cloud" as your BH internal sound?
Remember "Black Cloud" is my favourite External Sound.
I was very curious about this crazy idea and wanted to know what happen if I do so. Beside me there were several blog readers who called and asked "Pak Harry what will happen if we use the Black Cloud as the Internal sound?".
What I did was to have a go in Raub, Pahang BH.
I did that three weeks ago and was pretty excited wanting to know what happened after those three weeks.
The result was outstanding. I did not inform the owner since he left the whole house to me to look after after getting zero nests in 14 months.
I entered the BH yesterday and after opening the main door, one floor only, there were a number of birds in the house.
I moved in slowly saw a good number of new bird shit patches on the floor. I would say that the number was extremely high and I am pretty sure that those birds do stays.
There were lots of fresh bird shits on the walls too especially in the roving areas.
I think there are lots things to come. I have decided to continue with the research and hope can share this strange thing with my blog readers.
The only disadvantage will be :"Will they build their nests?"
The way to go is to firstly get them to stay for a few months and collect those shits on the floor. The more the shits the better will be the aroma in the house.
After a few months if they do not build any nests, I need to change the sound using those mating sounds.
So far so good and to those who wanted to follow this idea please get a copy of "Black Cloud" and try. If you are kind enough please put your comment in this string.
Out of so many blog readers, there are three to four that have a special liking to me because of those bird sounds collection.
When I was invited to participate in a Seminar in Kuching, Sarawak there was this Mr.Lim who purchased about three of my good collection.
Immediately after that he keep calling for more and more.
His message way simple:" Pak Harry, if you come across any new and good sound please alert me. So far most of the sound that I got from you perform well for my BHs."
To ensure that I do not forget, he calls every month of so just to day hello.
There was another blog reader hailed from Indonesia and reside in Singapore. He currently operates a few BHs in Johore and Indonesia on a JV basis.
His remarks were special to me:
"Pak Harry before meeting you all my JV partners, 4 of them, have very little respect on my sound collection. Now that I got to know you and bought those top of the chart bird call sounds, they are in love with me."
Now he will call once or twice a month reminding me of any new sound that he can purchase.
To make sure that the sounds are not yet in his collection, he will ask me for a 15 sec clips.
The third blog reader was from a small town called Sibu in Sarawak. He is a doctor and runs his own Veterinary Clinic. Must be an animal doctor?
I am not sure how many BHs he operated but he got hold of me and wanted to start a sound library. He ordered 10 sounds in one go.
"Doc, are you sure you wanted 10 sounds in one go?"
"Harry give me the best. Give me 6 externals, three the internals and one the bird call test sounds."
I post lajued what he wanted using those 2 gigabyte thumb drives (one sound one thumb drive) and the moment he tested he called just to let me know the outcome.
"Harry your Black Cloud is effective here in Sarawak. The birds response pretty well. I have yet to test the rest. Will inform you once I complete all the sound test. Anyway thanks you for your helps."
These three are the lucky one and what they did was to start a small collection of good sounds.
I keep saying that you will not be a successful BH owner if you have only one Birdcall Sound in your collection. It is more like a disaster or catastrophy.
The best is to start with five and slowly increase the numbers to a reasonable numbers. The first five must be obtained form reliable person who do not compromise the quality and most important from his effective birdcall sound collection.
If you wish to follow the advise given and wish to follow those three guys call this number 017 755 1318
(Special note: The picture above is from my collection of BH pictures. It was randomly picked to for this article and I have never enter any of them.)
The number of BHs that failed to bring in the right number of birds to stay and built their nests in our Country is very alarming.
I remember when I was in Sabak Bernam, Selangor having a Forum with a crowd of BH owners with the present of YB Ronnie Liu.
I was sitting beside him and holding the microphone in my hand.
One of the sentences I used was "In Malaysia the number of failed BHs are much more then the successful units. There were reports saying that the percentage is about 70%".
The moment I finished the sentence, YB Ronie could never take my word. His face was in disbelieved.
He quickly grab the microphone and ask if what I said was true?
All the BH owners on the floor agrees.
Well I was very relieved that what I said can reaffirmed by the attendees. YB Ronnie was very concerned over the issue. Maybe after this he seem to be a bit more soft to those BH owners.
Why there are so many failed BHs?
There are so many reasons and only those who have the experiences to own one can easily provide you with his long list of why.
From my very recent visits, I can say the followings do contribute to the little birds entering the BHs:
1) The owner have very little knowledge on swiftlet farming. He tend to follow the contractor's advised whom have very little knowledge too. What they believed is in luck.
2) The external sounds are usually no more effective. It might be when it was first installed but after many months without changing, their effectiveness are close to zero.
3)The Entrance holes (Monkey House type) were not facing the right direction of the birds are flying back home path. Some instances the owner seem to avoid placing the entrance hole nearest to his neighbor successful BH al in all he wanted to be a gentleman. This attitude is not making much favor to the nests population.
4)The flying path from the roof top into the nesting room were not properly design. For example the bird need to turn more then 180* to reach their final destination. This can cause the birds to choose not to stay.
5)The dividers or partitioning on the floor up to the ceiling are too close to the entrance hole. These partitioning were used to block those bright lights but they were not place correctly to avoid injuring of those priceless birds when they fly home at high speed.
6)The nesting room brightness were too high. The owner have very little idea what brightness level is good to make those birds to stay. They forgot the special gift that those birds have with them, the echolocation.
7) Those big gaps between the nesting planks and the ceiling floor. The gaps tends to allow air flow and it seem that those young birds will not survive it they are exposed to those are flow.
8) The fungus growth on those wood panels or partitions. These fungus will spread their spores in the air and will make the birds to dislike the house. That is why the use of those chicken coop humidifiers should be avoided.
9) The smell of the BH were not pungent enough for the birds to feel comfortable. The owner tend to make very little effort to fill their BH with those fresh bird shits. The best is to get them from the next door neighbour who owned a very successful BH.
10) What about the room temperatures and humidity? This is something that need to be closely scrutinised. If the BH maximum temperature always hit about 31*C, you need to look at ways to reduce them. If the minimum humidity is always below 65%RH you need to prop them up. But most failed BH do not have any instruments to measure these two very important barometer.
11) Most failed BH have all those ventilation holes open wide. They will open all and allow the external air to pollute the house. I always believed that the external air are not suitable for any BH. They are hot and dry.
12)The number of tweeters on the nesting planks are not that many. I always saw nearly all the tweeters were occupied and the most sensible things to do was to increase their numbers to as many as they can? Why put 20 when you can install 100?
13)The use of external sound tweeters in failed BHs are usually not well understood. Most owners have no idea how to pull those wild birds from the roof top into their nesting rooms. They need to close their eyes and imagine that they are those birds. How will I be guided into the nesting room?
14) Can we use specialised aroma in our new BH? This is something that many failed BH owners should consider. They prefer to wait and see if they got the luck and not trying to do some research on the proper selection of the aromas suitable for their BH.
15) They wait and wait and wait for those promised birds. After 6 months with no signs and 12 months still no signs and they keep waiting. They should at least take some initiative to get someone to visit their sick BH and get the medicine fast.
16)Some of the sound player and amplifiers are antiqued. Some of them are no longer in the market. Some still using those CD players and the sound distribution using the "Balance" knob.
17) There are no goodies to attract those young birds to make them to stay. Why can't there be some fake nests on the nesting planks. These fake nests, can be plastic, Styrofoam, nasi lemak plates, aluminium plate, rusty bars and etc, provide a kind of protrusion that encourage the birds to build their nests.
If the above are properly understood and these owners put a little more effort to improve them I am sure those failed numbers can be reduced.
Perhaps these owners can form small groups of discussion groups and get help in improving their BHs.
I am always available if they need me to be at their monthly discussion activities...
This is something that I described as genius idea.
When I make a visit report for any of my blog readers, whose BH are not doing well, I always remind them to provide all the goodies that will lure those birds to start building their nests.
One of the most important goodies are the fake nests.
I will not hesitate to include those plastic types, the Styrofoam, the rusty iron angle, the plastic mesh strip, the nasi lemak paste and many more.
These fake nests in actual fact provide a kind of protrusion on the nesting plank's surface to help those young birds to start making their nests.
Yesterday when I was with a friend he introduced me a unique two into one aluminium clip on fake nests.
This genius fake nest need a normal paper clamp which helps in holding the aluminium fake nest in place.
These are some advantages that you might want to consider:
a) Very cheap as compared to those plastic molded fake nests.
b) Each unit provide you with two set of fake nests. One at the front and the other at the back. That means you buy one but got two.
c) The aluminium will not rust. As such you can use it forever.
d) You can actually move the fake nest from one place to another with ease. Just open the paper clip and pull the fake nest out. Move it to another location, if you wish to.
e) When those build their precious nests, they will building on the top of this fake nest. More often they will be building on the surface of the nesting planks. The fake nest is just a mode to provide a protrusion on the nesting plank to help those young birds to start their new nests. If you remove the aluminium the nest will not be affected.
f) You can recycle this aluminium nests for as many times as you like. My suggestion is to move their location after those birds have built their nest on it and used for one time. Their markings on the aluminium can draw young birds to nest much faster.
g) You might want to soak the aluminium with your favourite aroma before fixing them. These aroma will last longer by pushing them in between the nesting plank and the aluminium surface areas.
h) Application wise is simple. Just clip on with the paper clip provided. Using normal fake nests you need to screw or nail them onto the nesting planks. The work is more tedious and you mike hurt your thumb (hammer your thumb).
i) Due to using those clips, there is no noise generated during installation. No noise mean less disturbance to your tenants in your BH.
A great and very innovative product to quickly improve the nest population in any new BHs.
I will do the necessary research to prove that this new invention is worth my money.
A set of 10 is just ringgit 50. You get 20 nests (one at the front and one at the back) with it. Each piece is only RM 2.50.
A very interesting product that you should try some.
My recommendation is a packet of 10 per floor. If the birds uses more then 50% of the units installed get a few more bags.
You need to install them at strategic locations. The best is close to (about 3-5 inches) away from those internal tweeters and closed to those 90* corners. Choose those dark areas.
When you use those soundless humidifiers there will be a very strong tendencies where they will be covered with thick bird shits.
This is something that you cannot avoid especially when you have lots of birds on the top of your ceiling.
I took a picture where these soundless humidifiers were installed in a very successful BH.
You can see that they are partially covered and you can also imagine the number of birds in this house by looking at the number of shits on the floor.
I was informed that this house produces almost about 10 kilograms a month.
The owner was very humble when he keep saying that this was nothing as compared to the other BH nearby with 30 kilograms a month.
Getting 10 kilograms a month was much better then 1 kilogram a month, I stressed to him.
It seem that the soundless humidifiers do a lot of goods to this BH, according to the owner.
The temperature range was very much superior as compare to prior to that and the birds simply love to stay in the house during a hot day. There were no sound to scares the birds away.
I can certify to that. The time of entrance was 4.30pm and it was a very hot day. There were plenty of birds in the house which confirm his statement.
Once the two babies takes their maiden flight the parent will shortly start another breeding cycle by having a 10 continuous days of sex activities.
I am not very sure how many times a day they copulate but it will be a lot of times.
It seem that the male sex drive will be phenomenal.
I think all male birds looks forward for this special event of the year. In this particular case at least three times.
The sex activities will stop once the lady bird lay her first egg, which is about the 10 days of the copulation period. The next egg will normally be laid on the second of third day after laying the first egg.
Once that was done the lady bird will no longer be interested in any sexual activities but more towards incubating the two eggs.
Well by this time the male bird must be so exhausted and he too will want no more sex. Ten days of playing non stop sex activities.
He did that in the house, in the air and while she is repairing or rebuilding her new nests.
Well talking about sex, I read about this interesting story about a Malay couple in Malaysia whose husband have sex with her 17 times on the first night after her marriage. After the first night this strange guy continue with ten times a day.
I think her husband is a superb sex driver but this continues for almost six months without stopping. What do you think the sex drive come from?
Read this strange article from Malaysiasun.com
"Two Malay women file for divorce over husbands' unusual sex drive.
Malaysia Sun Monday 27th July, 2009 (ANI)
Kuala Lumpur, July 27 :
Two Malay women are said to have filed for divorce from their husbands on the ground that they have an unusual sex drive that is linked to black magic.
According to Metro Ahad, Syarie Lawyers Association deputy president Musa Awang said, in the first case, the couple had been married for a year.
"The riddle to the husband's unnatural sex drive was answered when a relative of the wife saw the husband in the house when the family had seen him left for work earlier," the Star Online quoted Awang as saying.
"The relative heard the husband's voice in the bedroom and upon checking, found an 'individual' in the room looking exactly like the husband," he said.
Awang said that the wife had since filed a complaint with the religious department and applied for fasakh, which means ending a marriage by the Syariah Court after hearing the wife's complaint.
In the other case, Perubatan Islam Mustajab specialist Nazri Md Isa said that an 18-year-old woman had filed for fasakh after her husband asked her for sex more than 10 times a day.
Nazri said that according to the wife, the husband had the ritual of going to the bathroom before having sex with her.
"It all started when he had sex with her 17 times on their wedding night. The wife did not suspect anything then as she thought he was merely performing his duty as a husband," Nazri said.
"But when the situation persisted, she discussed the matter with her mother-in-law, who told her that it was a normal behaviour.
"She told her own mother, who brought her to the religious department to file a report because the latter thought it was sexual abuse," he said.
When an investigation was carried, it was found that the husband's demeanour was strange.
The wife and her family had a shock when they found "two individuals" that look alike in the bathroom.
Religious leader Datuk Abu Hasan Din Al-Hafiz claimed that it was not impossible for a man to have sex many times in one night if he was "friendly with the devil".
"It is not impossible for the devil to have carnal intercourse with the man's wife," he said.
"This happens because the devil can appear to look like the husband," he added.
He further said that while it was normal for a man to want sex two or three times a day, anything more than the usual would most probably not be the husband but the devil.
I was vary facinated with this story of how a chemical engineer turn himself to finding a cure for cancer.
"Ten years ago, Mark Davis was a chemical engineer with a successful career-until his wife Mary was diagnosed with breast cancer. Mary described her treatments as so unbearable that "she wanted to die." She turned to Mark and said, "there's got to be a better way-you can fix this." Mark felt like saying, "But I don't know squat about cancer." Instead, he immersed himself in a new field. Ten years later, Ray Natha, a pancreatic cancer patient with 3 months to live, agrees to be the first subject to be treated with IT-101, the nanoparticle drug Davis engineered. But will it work? And if it does, what are the implications for cancer treatment as we know it?"
A very moving story of how a person can do something that will help everybody who have cancer.
He took 10 years to find the cure and using nano technology he did that.
"Pak Harry, I heard from coffee shop talk that the most successful BHs in my town now are adopting those forced harvesting technique. Why must they do that?"
(A forced harvesting technique is one of the harvesting method that you pick all the nests in your BH with or without those eggs or babies in the nests. You pick the nests and you throw away all those internal contents (eggs and babies).)
I smiled and quickly asked him how successful is the BH?
"Well they can easily harvest about 40 kilograms a month."
Hmm .... very interesting. Inside me I was assembling my thought on how to give this guy the right answer.
If I use the wrong words that I will be punished and he might think that I am not willing to share my knowledge but if I utter the truth then I might be giving the wrong vibes to the industry.
Do you want to know the truth nothing but the truth?
"Yes Pak Harry, the truth please?"
Well in that case let me tell you something about most of these successful BH owners behaviors.
They know that once their BH is full to the brim all those young birds will move to the neighboring houses. If this happen they gain very little from this exercise. Those greed's in them is something that God have given to them.
So to practise forced harvesting will actually prevent the development of more young birds thus reducing the chances of those neighbouring BHs to get a free young birds.
However, my young man, the real truth nothing but the truth, is that the owner wanted to increase their bird nests population.
"But how Pak Harry? How does it works?"
Let me ask you this question. Have you ever come across any BH owners whose BH were recently burglarised? Can you ask him what happen after the incident?
His answer will be " Yes my birdnest population increased by about 20% immediately after the burglary."
What do you think happened that make the nests population suddenly increased by 20%?
You tell me. Just think for a short moment what those burglars did that makes those birds started to increase those nests?
Usually when a BH is being burglarised, you will see lots of broken eggs and dead baby birds on the floor, right? Everything on the nesting planks are left with marking of traces.
What do you think will those mother or daddy birds do when they came back and saw their their nest are cleaned and those babies and broken eggs were on the floor?
Yes they cried and wailed and uncontrollably ask others to come and moan for their loses. These so call noises must have invited others birds to come and help to rebuilt the colony.(This is where those 20% comes from.)
This reaction is more like animal instinct.
They feel that their generation will be lost and the only way out is to quickly rebuilt their new batch of babies.
So what is this burglary thing have to do with forced harvesting?
My simple answer is they are exactly the same.
I am not trying to suggest or giving you any wild ideas but this is what I concluded and if I am wrong please give me a better explanations.
Please minimise the use of this force harvest technique. They are not very kind to those young birds.
I was passing by my Kuala Lumpur Golf Club and saw this exciting tree replanting technique that might be suitable for those who are building their new BH on agricultural land.
This new techniques can actually put in place a matured lamptoro trees with a safe distance from your BH within a few hours.
Just have a good preview of this video clip and enjoy the unique way of tree replanting.
Today, I was in Rawang Country Home to see a group of investors launching their first BH.
This group of investors got together and pool adequate capital to convert a stranded shop house into a BH.
I was directly involved as their advisor and the person to carry out those monthly maintenace works.
The BH was on the top floor or a four stories building and I took not more then 10 days to complete the total conversion.
Today it was officially launched and during the occasion I invited Mr.T of Ipoh to join the function.
Mr.T met me yesterday when I was in Ipoh to review a sick BH located somewhere in Section 18, Ipoh.
What Mr.T has in mind was to start on a marvellous idea of constructing BHs based on modular system using containerised concept. After reading my earlier article about converting old unused containers he fell in love with the idea.
Initially he wanted to buy those old 20 footer and 40 footer container and recycle them. It seem that it is not very easy to get hold of these so called rejected containers any longer.
His idea was to bring those containers into his factory and work on them until they are fully ready to be mobilise to his customer's sites.
Now he wanted to construct similar containers from zero and get them ready as BHs.
I was quite fascinated with his unique ideas. I told him to look into it seriously. I was prepared to be his advisor in materialsing his dream.
Since he has never entered a BH, I invited him over.
While in Rawang and after the review of the new BH we set for a cup of coffee.
I spoke to him about various things and touched on the new mist maker humidifier. The new generation soundless humidifier for BHs.
We spoke above the benefits especially getting your BH to generate those pure white nests.
Imagine if all BHs in Malaysia uses this new and cheap technology. All raw bird nests originated from Malaysia are crystal white while other countries are dirty yellow.
What would the consumers from, say China, says about our products (Raw Nests)?
"Malaysia's raw bird nests are better and crystal white" or "We prefer bird nests originated from Malaysia" or "Malaysia bird nest very good" and etc etc etc.
What will happen to our bird nest industries by then?
Can you visualise the benefits that we will be able to harvest?
Malaysia Boleh .......
So if you read this blog and you do owned a BH, I invite you to participate in this noble exercise.
Let us be the biggest producer of Crystal White Birdnest. Get hold of about 4 to 5 units of these mist humidifiers and install them in your BH. Remove those conventional chicken coop humidifiers.
The finest birdnest in the whole World will be from Malaysia......
I am still in the state of "shocked and surprised". !!!
I was on my way to Ipoh,yesterday, to visit a sick BH. While driving on the PLUS highway received this interesting call from my favourite blog reader who have just installed about 20 units of mist humidifers in his BH.
"Pak Harry, I have just installed those humidifiers in my BH and immediately after that I harvested all those old dirty looking nests away. Just barely two short weeks I can see many new nests are up. You know what? They are crystal white and not like before (dirty and yellowish). I cannot believed what I saw and this investment using those mist humidifiers are paying off."
"By the way Pak Harry, I already have a buyer for these new crystal clear nests. The new buyer have placed a price tag about RM5,000/kilogram. Those old nests prior to installation of mist humidifiers were fetching at only RM3,800/kilogram. A clean RM1,200/kilogram additional profits and it pays what I paid the unit for."
Just imagine this BH owner have at least 4,000 nests (33.33 kilograms) and if all those nests are fetching such a price he now earned at least RM40,000 additional profits per harvest. Yes every four months.
Yes just one harvest his investment on those 20 mist humidifiers in his two stories 24 feet X 100 feet BH immediately paid off. A handsome paid off to me !!!
BEFORE INSTALLATION
Amazing ,unbelievable and I am feeling dizzy.
This is why I have indicated earlier that this will be the next generation humidifier for all BHs in Malaysia.
It will be a must for any BH that I am looking after.
Their benefits superseded the cost of deploying them.
Those who have more then one BH, try one BH and see what I was trying to say.
I might want try to get the contact number of the new buyer who agrees with such a high raw nests price.
Let see if he is willing to book all our nests at the same price !!!!
He he he .....
What do you think the cooling effect generated when using these mist humidifier?
Assuming your BH maximum room temperatures are always above say 31*C.
What can you do to reduce them?
You can buy an expensive paint to coat the outer walls or built a shade using those orchid farm plastic mats or insert those bubble sheats under a layer of cement board or you can insulate the whole house using those fibreglass wool or styrofoam and etc etc etc.
How about you deploy these mist humidifier to do the job?
My advise is to try this. Enter your BH at around 3.00pm. Bring those temperature sensor laser gun and check which walls or ceiling that are showing the highest temperture reading.
Once you have the determined where the heat is coming from you now deploy say three or four mist humidifiers to form a row of soldiers. You can shoot those mists nozzles towards the affected wall from say 10am till 12 midnight. If you want a better result you shoot the mist on 24/7 basis.
The next few days check your thermo-hygrometer. I can guarantee you that the room temperature will drop by at least 3*.
Well now you know that beside keeping your BH clean, cool and humid you can also use the humidifier for a specific reason. In this case is to cool the room temperture.
One more benefits from using this new generation Humidifier is the reduction of air movement in the BH.
If you utilise those conventional chicken coop humidifier you create not only noises but also a strong breeze that disturb those birds staying your BH. The fan on the humidifier blow a strong breeze with water droplets into the air.
High velocity wind tend to create a bad internal environment for your very precious birds and if directly exposed to those young birds they will die within a few short days.
Check this if you can. Enter any BH and check if there is any nest just above the functioning chicken coop humidifiers. You might see lots of Fungus but no nest.
So if the above are right you are left with the only solution.
Change those chicken coop to soundless humidifiers today. Get hold of the distributor and make your order today.
One compulsory, top of the list of, things to do before your part with your hard earned money is to check the number of birds available in the area of interest.
Before you buy a property for your Dream BH, you must conduct a test.
Reducing your risk is the key word.
I always advise people to check the birds numbers by conducting the "Bird Call Test".
The more the number of birds responded to the "Duress" sound calls the safer is your investment.
Minimum number of birds that responded must not be less then 250 birds. The higher the better.
Recently I was introduced to a more powerful birdcall "Plug N Play" gadget and it is just amazing looking at it alone. The sound can be at least 50% louder then the previous model.
The test unit uses sizable amplifier made by "Swallow Sound" Model SS-33 with six square tweeters.
This unit is 1.5 times louder then the older sibling with four square tweeters.
The unit is a bit larger but one good thing is that it can use both the DC and AC current.
Once you have selected the property you can dismentle the test gadget and use the amplifier and those six tweeters for your new BH. We call is as "RECYCLE".
Yes you can play using your cigarette lighter in your car or your house three pin power plug.
Very interesting and a must have for those serious BH enthusiasts.
What can go wrong if you commit to purchase a BH that have the following characteristics:
1) The BH is under construction and about to be completed.
2) The bird call test resulted in about 2,000 birds above the bird call gadget.
3) Your new dream BH is about 1 km from the most successful BH in Town (25,000 nests).
4) The place where the BH is built is located in the Hot Spot areas in Malaysia.
5) The number of BH is little as compared to the birds population.
6) The project is a JV with the state authority.
7) The title given to the land is "For Swiftlet Farming business"
8) 3 kilometer away from your new BH there are many with 2,000 nests.
I was at the meeting conducted in Kuala Lumpur to convince a buyer to buy this spare unit.
He was not very sure in the beginning but after a while he confirm buying a unit.
This was before he asked me "What can Go wrong?"
My answer: Based on the above 8 points, you should ask what will go right?
Imagine if you buy and let it be as it is. Yes you wait for the other units to be populated then you sell it. Do you think the price will remain the same?
The more there are those black dots in the sky the higher the value of your empty shop unit.
Remember your unit is with a certificate of approval to built a BH.
If you do proceed with the renovation, you need to spend at least say 80K-100K.
What happen if your BH is populated with say 100 nests?
The value now escalated to at least the BH original cost plus those renovation cost but donlt forget the 100 nests. These 100 nests will catapult your BH unit by rm1,000 per nest.
What if your BH accumulated a total of say 5,000 nests?
You BH now fetch something like 5 million plus the original cost and you can add in those conversion cost.
My question: can any property in KL golden triangle fetch this kind of escalation?
Impossible but not so in swiftlet farming......
You need to think for yourself and get enough knowledge and information to ensure that you get the returns that you are hoping for.....
I have been receiving so many emails, SMSs and phone calls asking me more information about the soundless Ultrasonic Humidifier.
Some wanted to know more about the price, some about where to purchase, how to install and the best what are their benefits.
I might be wrong but to me this gadget will one day replace the use of those chicken coop blue colored humidifier and those piping with nozzles on the wall will be things of the past.
Let us look at their benefits:
1) Soundless.
This is the core issue. The unit uses no motor or fans to create those water droplets.
The chicken coop humidifier uses a motor to rotate a fan to create those mists.
The wall piping uses a motor to provide the water head to push those water towards the nozzles and once they passed the nozzle they will become a kind of water mist.
In the case of ultrasonic mist maker their method is more like using a piece of ceramic plate that vibrate at a very high speed to cause the water molecule to change into a very fine mist. There is no sound coming from gadget.
2) Very Fine Mists.
The size of those water mist generated by the ultrasonic unit is so fine that they are more like those clouds when you are at Genting Highland.
The size are so small that they can be easily evaporated in the air as long as the heat in the surrounding can vaporise them.
Due to the very fine size they are more easily evaporated as compared to those water mist generated by those nozzles or the chicken coop humidifier.
These fine mist not only will cool the BH much faster but it also trap all flying dust in the air. 3) Produce Better Quality Raw Nests.
This is something that the importer tried to impress on me, many many times.
According to him those fine mist will limit dust in the air.
With little dust your nests will be cleaned and crystal white.
He posted to me the two pictures showing before and after.
Before The Installation:
After The Installation:
The value of these white nests can be as high as 1,200/kg extra as compared to normal BH using those chicken coop humidifiers.
4) Minimise Air Breeze In Your BH.
One big advantage of using the new generation humidifier is the minimum amount of breeze it produces.
Using the old chicken coop humidifier causes strong air blast created by the blower fan powered by an electrical motor.
This air breeze carry the water droplets upward and usually after some period of time the nesting planks located just above will be empty of any nests. More often there will be fungal grwoth on them.
The high velocity wind created tends to cause a kind of danger to those baby birds. If these young birds are exposed to heavy air blast they tend to die. This might be a good reason why those birds avoid building their nest just above the humidifier.
5) Light Weight.
Most BHs are located on the upper most floor of shop house. Some can be as high as four to five floors high.
Just imagine carrying a humidifier that weight 30 kilograms up and down for repairs.
The ultrasonic is less then a kilogram in weight.
5) DIY repair works.
If your ultrasonic humidifier breaks down they are mainly due to those ceramic plate and their microchip plates. These can be easily available and you may replace by DIY.
The cost of these simple spare parts will not harm your pocket.
Just imagine if your chicken coop motor being burned? You need to actually take a very heavy works to replace those motors. They are not easy.
6) Automatic shut off relays.
The ultrasonic humidifier comes with a special water level detection. If you BH is short of water supply the gadget will switch off by itself.
This will prevent the standard damages on those ceramic plates.
In the case of chicken coop humidifier, if you keep running the motor without any water in the basin, the motor will be easily burn down. Your damage will be substantial.
All the above information were provided by the importer and I just record them on my blog so that my blog reader will think carefully before switching to this new Gadget.
Price varies from at low as 380 rm per unit to 330 rm subject to the number of units perchased.
To support Harry's good work in helping the industry please order from him by calling 017 755 1318.
I remembered reading a ruling that you are not allowed to convert the lowest floor of you shop houses into swiftlet farming.
Main reason was to encourage the use of these floors as shopping outlets and to ensure that the complex will not become a ghost town.
Most BH owners are not following this requirement since they find that allowing a business on the lowest floor will disturb the farming upstairs.
Well they might be right if the tenant downstairs opens a restaurant and everyday those smokes billowing from their kitchen do disturb those precious birds.
If the tenant carry out a steel fabricating business, the bagging sound made when these steel structures are tossed around will also cause lots of noise.
What about a motorcar or motorbike repair shops? These activities will also cause a kind of loud noise when the tenant starts to test those cars or motorbikes after their alterations or modifications.
The best would be to allow business like an optical shop or a car windows tinting sevices or a bookshop or a mobile telephone distribution shop or a hair dressing saloon.
Well during my trip to Sibu and Ayer Tawar the lowest floor were used as the Casket Sales shop.
In Rawang I was fascinated with this owner. He convert the lowest floor into a fish breeding area.
Hmm.... this will cool the BH and at the some time gives those fishy smell which I was made to understand are well like by those swiftlet.
Pak Hendry Mulia uses fish oil in his aroma concoxion.
You might want to guess what type of fishes my friend was breeding? .......
I remembered meeting a BH owner hailed from Seberang Prai, Penang.
During my conversation with him, he confessed two big blunders he made, and all his tenants moved out.
The first was using those Infra red camera and the second was when he deployed the use of chicken coop humidifiers.
Those infra red, according to him, cannot be operated during the period when those birds are coming home. If you do that the birds will be very scared. I am not very sure about his idea but in many other BH this effect was minimum.
The second was when he deployed the noisy chicken coop humidifiers. He installed two units and the noise was so bad that causes all his birds to fly away. Zero tenant after only three weeks.
He then decided to install those spray nozzles on the walls. This time those nozzles blocked with dirt and all those water pissed onto the floors. His BH were flooded and causes those nesting planks to grow fungus.
"Pak Harry, are there any gadget that will help to keep my BH within the humidity range, noiseless and cool my BH?"
I took every effort to locate a suitable unit for him. Earlier I saw those huge unit and they weight at least 30kg. Also it will cost nothing less then RM1,800 ex KL.
Last week when a blog reader called and swear to me that he has found something that I was looking for, I grab my bag and drove 3 hours to see the gadget.
The moment I saw the unit I was pretty impressed.
Very small, easy installation, light weight, good mist producer and noiseless.
I wanted to see how it operates in a BH.
"Pak Harry, let go upstairs and look how it can be used in a BH."
I found it very interesting and magnificent. Price is very affordable in fact cheaper then those conventional units.
This was the product that I was looking for and I told myself that from now on I will never use those chicken coop humidifiers any more.
This gadget is so quite and you can adjust the amount of mist that you desire. Maximum was 350 ML per hour.
If you need further information please call Harry at 017 755 1318
I felt very glad that the owner(a young man)was absolutely very happy over what happened today.
Yes I finally reactivated a BH that was not doing well in Kuantan Pahang.
Three hours drive up and three hours down. Very taxing and back breaking but the joy was to see those big smile on the owner's face.
Started my journey this morning and was there at 11.00am.
The owner was there waiting for me.
Greet him and his Mom. I told myself that if I wanted the house to be ready need to act fast.
Did the inspection one by one and ensure that those new tweeters were installed facing the right directions.
The fresh bird shits taken from Setiawan were distributed on the lower and upper nesting rooms. They make the room smell very pungent and nice.
The humidifier were reactivated using a Hygrostat and a timer.
Both sounds, external and internal, were activated to check for any problem. Perfect all were well.
The most problematic was the activation of those amplifiers using digital timers for the switching of sound at different time.
Two of the 4 amplifiers were not working as per design. The right side connectors were not sending any signal.
Hmm ...... what can be done?
I quickly swab the amplifiers. Use the internal amplifiers and swab for the external. The external needs both the left and right while the internal using one side is no then enough.
All went well and before 3.30pm sprayed the walls and the entrance areas with my new formulated aroma called "Erotika" and "Mesmeriser".
These two are my latest formula and I hope those birds will not be scared or hates their smell. If they works well then I have a new formula to be shared with all my blog readers.
By 4.30pm the house was ready and we started with Tongkat Ali. Not many birds around due to the extreme weather condition (too hot).
By about 5.30pm the sound now was running my famous "Black Cloud". Waited and waited until darkness.
There were a number of birds that were affected by the call but the best was the short period just before sundown from 7.20pm till 7.45pm.
This was went those birds rush home. The moment they passed the roof top the "Black Cloud" lured them into the house.
It was something like a magnet. They will be drawn to the hexagonal, make a short round and in they go. There will be at least one bird every 10 seconds.
It was marvellous to see the whole activity. We have a neighbour who was also there to look at his BH just two units away.
The number of birds entering were more or less the same according to him.
After about 8.00pm I started my journey back to Kuala Lumpur.
The owner was very happy and I told him a few tips which I wanted him to do on a daily basis.
While on the Karak Kuantan Highway he sent this short SMS:
"Pak Harry, thanks for launching my BH and setting up the system together. U did a great job. I enjoyed working with U to make the BH successful. Thank U very much. From Steve."
He sound very happy and I hope all those efforts he put together following all my recommendations will do well for him and the family.
