National Guideline Implementation.

Something very irritating about the National Guidelines implementation.

"Pak Harry when do you think the Government will implement the so called National Guidelines?"

My frank answer is: I don't really know.

Every time there is a press released about swiftlet farming in either the star or bernama they sound the same.

It is either next month or early next year.

It has been the same situation like the previous previous years.  Note two previouses !!!

Many new investors are a bit irritated and some do not know what to do.

There was also this guy who abandoned  the idea of having any birdhouse and moved to Thailand.  He sold nearly every BH that he owned and moved to the neighboring country.

"Harry the business climate here, on swiftlet farming, is far less stressful.  In Malaysia I cannot sleep because everyday you will hear new laws and regulations.  Gua Bai Tahan."

One more interesting happening is the courses by Jabatan Pertanian where you can get those GAHP certificate.

When Dr Riduan was around, there will be regular courses conducted by him so that more people can get those certificate. 

"Harry where do you think I can go to get the certificate?"

The best is to visit Jabatan Pertanian website and search for those courses.  My advise is don't put too much hope.


Just happened that the Star newspaper issued this article:

Sunday October 31, 2010

RM5mil for swiftlet farming

KUALA LUMPUR:

The Government has allocated RM5mil to involve the country’s hardcore poor in the swiftlet farming industry.
The Veterinary Services Department has identified 500 families under the e-Kasih database who are eligible to receive an RM10,000 grant each to set up swiftlet premises.

“We will encourage them to collaborate with each other in joint swiftlet farming as bigger premises are more productive and will generate a higher income for them,” said department director-general Datuk Dr Abdul Aziz Jamaluddin.

He also announced that the swiftlet industry guidelines would be unveiled next month to govern the licensing, farming, processing as well as import and export of bird’s nest.

The industry, which is an entry point project under the Economic Transformation Programme, is expected to capture 30% of the global market and generate revenue of up to US$1.45bil (RM4.5bil) by 2020.

“We are encouraging the participation of bumiputras in this industry as they currently only make up 20% of swiftlet farmers in the country,” he said after launching the 7th series of seminars on swiftlet farming at a hotel here yesterday.

Swiftlet farmers are required to attend the one-day seminar before they can be licensed.

Obtained from:  
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/10/31/nation/7335675&sec=nation

This special news is very nothing new but my comments and perhaps giving my constructive criticisms are:

1) I think the goal is unreachable if the current National Guideline is implemented.  Main reason being the person who drew the guidelines has very little knowledge about swiftlet farming.  He or she never owned a BH and have very little knowledge about the Industry.

2) The Guidelines have many flaws and it is more like killing the Industry rather then helping them. If I were them I will first focus on the objective of the Guidelines.  Example: "To promote Swiftlet Farming Industry so that by 2020 Malaysia will the second largest producers of high quality birdnest in the world".  Right not if you review the Guidelines it is more like a propaganda to let people know that there will be no more bird call noise once the National Guideline is implemented. That should not be the ultimate motive.

3) The same statement was made about the date of implementation however the Jabatan or the Government have been delaying the implementation date months after months and now more like year after year. The date seem to me like a piece of log drifting in the open sea.  It never landed anywhere until today.

4) Swiftlet farmers will be at the mercy of the head of those Local Councils.  It seem that he or she will decide to give you the license or not.  It is not the Jabatan Pertanian but the Ketua Pengarah of the Town where your BH is located.  There will be lots of payment under counters if the Guideline is implemented.

5) The so call grant for the hard core poor is going to be a big waste.  It seem that the RM10,000 is for the construction of a wooden BH which is so small with no roving area and internally not conducive for those swiftlet. Based on the designed, by an unqualified designer, it will be more like a SPA.  Even if the BH is occupied there will be an easy target but those professional burglars. Just with a small crowbar you can pierce the wall opened. You know who benefit the most from this so call hard core poor project?  The company who manufactured the so call SPA.  I don't think they have any idea what those swiftlet are all about?

6) When will be the next GAHP course?  If you visit Jabatan Pertanian website, the next possible course will be ....... I don't think I can find anywhere on this website:


http://www.doa.gov.my

If you search for kursus you will get this: 

http://www.doa.gov.my/web/guest/home?p_p_id=77&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=maximized&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-2&p_p_col_count=5&_77_struts_action=%2Fjournal_content_search%2Fsearch

And when you search for GAHP you will get this:


http://www.doa.gov.my/web/guest/home?p_p_id=77&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=maximized&p_p_mode=view&_77_struts_action=%2Fjournal_content_search%2Fsearch
How to capture 30% market when you cannot even generate adequate GAHP savvy BH owners in the country?

They need to be a bit more pro active if they want to achieve a target. Statement without proper planning is a shear waste of time.

My comment above is just my humble opinion and I am have no intention to belittle any body in the Industry.  Both the investors and the Government needs to work together but the Department in charge must be a bit more pro active.

How To Prepare Those Bubur For Those Insect !!!

A video clip showing how a small time birdhouse owner produce those soup for those insects.

 

 

Sorry to say that there are lots of improvement to the method used but for a start it was something to think about.

 

I would say this crude method is alright for a beginner but if you wanted to produce larger volume you need a better mixing equipment that will produce better quality soup.

Just enjoy the clip and see what you can learned from it.

Automatic Electrical Switcher With Counter !!!

What happened if your BH is far away and the electrical supply to the BH always have those tripping or regular power failures?

This is common in many parts of Sabah, Sarawak and also in Peninsular Malaysia.  In Peninsular it is more due to lightning.  When lighting strike those electrical pylons the electrical surge will cause your BH to trip.  Once trip you need to send someone over to reset the controller box.

If you BH is about 2 hours away and you only visit once every two to three weeks, you will find that all your new tenants will not visit your BH.

Yes with no electricity you will have no sound.  No sound means no birds.

To combat this you need an auto electrical resetting device or a switcher.

I was introduce to this special gadget that was said to have proven to many BH owners in Malaysia.

The single phase unit is not that expansive but is valuable to your BH operation.

Once your BH power supply tripped it will automatically reinstalled once the electrical supply is back to its normal function.

The gadget have a counter that will allows you to know how many times your BH have been experiencing the shut down.

Have a good look at the product and is made in Malaysia.  Malaysia Boleh !!!

Food For Those Insects !!!

I was at the BH with the insect Barn today and manage to take a good look at the method to prepare the insect food.

They seem to be quite an interesting preparation.

The supervisor in charged indicated that he normally prepare the insect food every 10 days.

First he need to make sure that one of the four rooms is no longer producing those insect once they finish  gobbling up the food.  They will normally be harvested or move into the BH roving room or moved to the next room using a kind of bright light technique.

Once the room are empty or with little number of insect, the supervisor with open the entrance door and start his cleaning operation on the 9th day.

Once cleaned the trays where those insect food are kept are cleaned and dried they will be ready for the next batch.

The method of preparation is simple but need some exposure on the various steps.

First is to boil those plain water, about 100 liters, using normal LPG gas burner.

The water must be boiling hot.

Then he laid another container just beside the boiling water pot.

He will scoop about half a liter of hot boiling water and rinse the new container.

Once rinse and cleaned he will start his preparation by getting the powders, two types, and wet yellow me e ready.

There were also some minerals, two types and yeast beside him.

To begin the preparation he will scoop about 2 liters of the boiling water and poured into the empty but cleaned container.

First is to dissolved those minerals and yeast.  After that he will start pouring the two powders but the mee was the last to be added.

The mixture was stirred using a kind of rotating rod with a propeller at the end of the steel.  He was just using those drilling gadget as the rotator.

The mixing looks easy however the hot water and the mixture tends to splash up.  If the mixture hit your skin you will need to be taken to the hospital.  I suggest that he put on some protection glove and apron. 

Every few minutes he will add those hot boiling water into the mixture so that the mixture will not be too thick but not too thin.

The mixing took about 30-45 minutes and ho la it became a yellowish porridge, quite similar to corn porridge to me.

He will allow the mixture to cool down and he will move to the barn to make the last minute preparation.  What he did was to block some of those 6 inch diameter pipes to prevent any insect flying into the BH but only into this new unit.

Once that was done he will carry a bucket of the cooled mixture to be poured into those trays.  First the top and later move to the lower level.

He did indicated to me the thickness of the slug but I don't think I remember.

Once the work is done he will shut the door so that the cooling takes place and those life insects from the other three rooms will migrate into this room.

What a day and I am pleased with what I saw.

This is a must if you wanted your BH is to be quickly populated.

Landslide: If You Have Never Seen Before !!!

Click on this:

http://sorisomail.com/email/42722/ja-viram-desmoronar-uma-montanha.html

Something to laugh: Physiotherapist

Physio was an intelligent boy. After doing a physiotherapy course abroad for 3 years, he returned home and set up a clinic in his hometown.

He asked a designer to make a new name plate to be hung on the wall outside the clinic. The next morning, when he went to his clinic, he was pleased to find that the name plate was already put up. But he was greatly annoyed by the wordings on the plate : TUKANG URUT.  He went to the  designer and took him to task.
 
"How can you insult my profession? 'Tukang Urut' means masseur in Malay. I am a physiotherapist and not a masseur!
Make sure you change the name right now! And see that the word is spell correctly!" Physio said angrily.
 
The designer apologized and promised to make the changes immediately.
 
Without further delay, he proceeded to change the name but found that the word "physiotherapist' was too long. So he broke it up into three words to make it easier to read.
 
The next morning, Physio hit the roof when he saw the new name. On the name plate were written : PHYSIO THE RAPIST

High Temperature Inside His BH !!!

This is a real story about a person who wanted to purchase those humidifiers to cool his BH.

I will not try to put his name in but try to learn about what transpired and how you should tackle those high temperature problem in your BH.

First was his email to me dated Friday 22/10:

Dear Pak Harry,

How are you doing?  

A friend of mine attend your seminar at 1U and he recommended you to me. I have a 2 years BH, the numbers always stay at 70 nest ever since from the 1st day. My BH is very hot after 4 pm up to 31 C. one day, I sneak in to BH at 7pm to take measurements, i was surprise that the temp is 35 C, and I believe it will go up at night. 

So, I have come across to your website and seeing your humidifier unit, what recommendation do you have? My BH is 25 x 70. 2 story independent unit. I intend to try your humidifier to bring down the temp and see how it goes.
Thank you.

 My respond to him on the same date:

Dear Sir,

35*C is bad.

That might be one factor why those birds are not staying in your BH.

You need to list all the possible causes and eliminate them.

Try to consider to put a roof on the top or insulate the wall from the inside or insulate the wall on the outside or prevent direct sunlight shinning onto your BH external walls.

Internally you might want to consider to use the cooler tank with a few humidifiers drawing water from this tank unit.

In worst case U might need to look at installing those air cond unit but run them only at a specific time not more then 2 hours.  Try to monitor your BH temperature fluctuation using those data logger.

Best of luck to you and it anything that I can help please let me know.

Harry 

He replied and send the sketch of his BH.

I replied after reviewing his BH drawing:

 

 

Dear Sir,

 

Thanks for the schematic.

 

I think you first need to check where the heat is coming from.  Use those laser gun temperature sensor and check those walls and roof surfaces for the higher temperature zones.

 

Once you have identify then isolate them or put some kind of insulation internally or externally.

 

Once that is done then we look at the use of humidifiers inside.

 

Beside the heat I think you have something not right on the walls location.  Too short for the birds to turn and the LAL is not proper.

 

Harry
He replied as follows:

Hi, I just pin point the heat on the wall, mostly the heat coming from northwest wall (35degree) and the bird entrance (37 degree) . What is your most conservative way to prevent the heat? All wall are using light weight concrete. Thank you.

I asked him what dimension was the affected wall?


His reply was:


The North-West wall is 70ft long, 9"inch thick, height is about 13ft.

Hmm... the wall is facing the evening sun.  That is a sure reason why those walls were so hot even with a 9 inch thick wall?

My first reaction was to ask him to consider putting up a cover preventing direct sunlight onto the external wall:

Sir,

I think you need to think carefully the various alternatives.

Putting the humidifiers will only reduce about 1*C or so but I think it is better for you to look at installing a kind of sun protection barrier on the outside of the affected wall.

Try to think of a way to prevent the sunlight from hitting the affected wall.  You can use either plastic overlay or  orchid mat or roof sheet or zinc plate and etc. They must be about 10" gap between the main wall and the shade materials.

 The reason is to let the sun hit these new wall and the heat will not be directly touching the BH wall.  Once the front shield heats up the air between the gap (10") will be able to shield the BH wall.  Normally once air got heated and will be lighter thus it will flow upward and cold air will replace the void. 

In this way you will get a reduction of at least 2*C.

If the heat is still above 30*C on the internal surface, you might want to add another layer of heat shield inside the BH.  Use a kind of wood to about 3" think to latch to the affected wall then you put a layer of this shield.  You can then put a layer of cement board to hold the shield in place.

This will get the house to be below 30*C normally 29*C.

Then the humidifier can come into play to reduce the heat a bit lower to 28*C.

The whole idea is to get the temperature down.  Forget about what kind of low density brick you are using.  If you put in a 20 inch slab but the wall inside is still above 30*C you still have to do something?

Best of luck to you.

Harry

His immediate reply was:

Thank you very Harry. I will started to work on the wall, then we will see how it goes. Will keep you updated.

THANK YOU again!!!

That is how I tackle people's with problems at their BH.

I have never met him before but I always treat them as if I have known them for years.

I hope one day he will appreciate my sincere help and he can repay me by helping others like what I did to him............

Yellowed Colored Raw Nests !!!

Three missed calls and from the same person.

I contacted the person and asked him what was his problems?

"Pak Harry, my birdhouse nests are yellow in color.  What can be the reasons?"

Now becoming a center of information and this question is something interesting.

What can be the reasons for the nests to turn from white to yellow?

His birdhouse floor was wet and humidity was always on the high side.  As such there were little dust in the air to contaminate those nests.

He did not informed how long ago he last harvest all the nests.  Maybe those nests were a bit too long in the BH and there is a strong chance that those colored fungus were growing on the nests.

What can be done to reduce these yellow colored nests in your BH?

Perhaps you should consider to harvest these nests on a regular basis.

Perhaps also clean the floor from those old dirt and reduce the humidity to around 85-95% RH.

Then there was another guy who wrote about a BH at Seri Muda that was blasting those external sound on 24 hours basis.

The bird house is in Seri Muda 25/61 no 44, pls ask the guy to lower down the external tweeter volume. The extender volume never switch off even after 8.00pm. This is very annoying as the sound is set to so high and 24 hrs non stop operating. Pls ask the owner to switch off after 8.00pm else he will get complain from the people surrounding and will report it to MBSA !! Thank you for your cooperation. 

I am not sure who is the owner.  Those of you who knows the owner please call him and ask him to turn the sound volume down and also make sure there is a system to stop the external sound after 8.00pm

Torchlight With Video Camera !!!

I was given the opportunity to evaluate a special gadget that can shine those light and capture the item you shine one.

I called it "Video-touch".

Beside taking video it can also record the sound made by those birds.

This gadget is new in the market and is difficult to say if it will work or scared the birds away.

I bought a unit and plan to use it once the time arise.

A Factory BH That Will Have An Insect Barn(s) On The Roof Area !!!

Sorry I was on the road for a few days and managed to activate another BH in Ulu Tiram Johore and Sungai Pasir in Kedah.

The two was successfully launched and complete with a two VIP rooms each.

Took a lot of time to ensure the wet floor were implemented.

The owner in Ulu Tiram was a bit tricky and he was playing with time to remit the final payment while the SP was will lesser hessle.  He paid promptly and wanted more ideas for his factory BH(s).

He is contemplating of expanding the BH operation by those swiftlet breeding techniques and I told him to go step by step.

His BHs in a factory was about 120 by 120 feet and two stories high.  The internal were split into three each with their own entrance (side entries in a tunnel 20'X20').

My suggestion to him was to start the insect barn as the next step.  The insect barn shall be on the roof top in between the current operation unit and the second unit.

I was lucky since he did attended a seminar on insect generating and understood my idea pretty well.

There will be at least two Barns each about 12 feet by 10 feet.  Each day each unit should be able to generate at least 3 kilograms of insect.

I will be getting ready with the design, materials, cooking pot and stove, the raw materials for insect food and the insect pot.

Hope to get this special project started before the end of 2010.

This will be another milestone in swiftlet farming.

Why can't insect barn be a part of your swiftlet farming ?

Cool Water Tank Suitable For Your Humidifiers !!!!

Last week I was in pretty busy with a revamping a BH in Ulu Tiram.

The works involved was nothing more then upgrading a BH that have no birds after more then 2 years in operation.

While doing the inspection I came across a unique DIY water storage container with a blower fan and failing water.

The first thing came to my mind was what actually the it was for?

It seem that the owner wanted to cool the BH.  The operating principle is very simple.  He installed a submersible pump inside the container that pushes the water upward into a kind of water hose with holes.  Once the pressured water flowed into the hose they will be pushed out and drop into the container.

To cool the house an exhaust fan was used as a blower.  The owner placed the fan upside down so that the air is blown downwards into the container.  In this way the air will blow towards the bottom and come upward passing the cascading water.

From this simple process it seem that the water in the container and the air are pretty cool.  I measured the temperature of the water, using a temperature laser gun, and it was about 26*C.

Hmm ..... a very interesting gadget that helps in cooling the BH however the fan should be covered with a wire mesh to prevent any birds dropping on it.

Well what if you push this cool water to your humidifiers?

I was just thinking that if you use these cool water to form mist and sprayed into the house, the temperature will be drop to about 26*C.

An ideal solution for your BH if you understand how to use this idea.

If you need one unit for your BH let me know.  It can be easily installed and can be ready within 1 week after you ordered.

The cost of the unit is estimated to me around RM 320 ex Kuala Lumpur.



Call me at 017 755 1318 for any further clarification.

Small, Compact and Viable !!!

How small do you think a BH should be?

A question posted by a BH owner whose BH was only about 12 feet by 20 feet and 2 stories high.

Well my answer to him was do not under estimate these so call AF birds.  I have came across a BH as big as your house toilet and producing about 1.5 kg a month.  To be exact it was a toilet of a house with resident in it.  They build a new toilet when the saw those birds started to colonies their main toilet.

That was something to inspire a BH owner whose BH was never put into real operation mode since he got so many negative comments from so called "Sifu" before me.

"Pak Harry before you came there were a number of people from KL who entered the BH but nothing happened."  A comment from the caretaker of the orchard where the BH was located.

I have a very strong feeling that the small house can be successful as long as the sound played is right, the building properly renovated, the internal temperature is within the range and the humidity is perfect.

The current house meets nearly all the basic requirements.  The only short coming was the orientation of the entrance hole.  It was not facing the flying path, I told the owner.

No matter what others said I told him to think positive and let me use all the knowledge which I have gathered all these while.

After my 1st visit I list all the things that he should proceed with and once those partitioning and placement of additional crossing I will drop by to finish the internal decorations.

I got two workers with me for three days to install additional tweeters, place those sand on the floor, spread those fresh bird shit on the floor and installed some fake nests to lure those birds to stay.  Got a new set of amplifiers for both the internal and external sounds.

After 3 days the BH was put into operation mode.  Told the owner not to enter the BH for about 3 months.  He got those CCTV cameras working if he wanted to see what are inside the house.

Frankly it was a very hard job with back ache and neck sore.  Lots of mosquito once the time was about 7:20pm and got to drive above 1 hour out of the palm oil plantation to find a place to sleep.

It was satisfying and I hope the revamp works will come into effect by the next few days.

On My Way To Ulu Tiram, Johor

It is not surprising when I visited any BH with my full report the owner tend to wanting to get the renovation started.

Today I planned to be in Ulu Tiram Johor but before starting my journey a blog reader and a seminar participant wanted my opinion about his newly purchased building in adjacent to his current BH with 350 nests.

I told him that his current BH seem to be alright but he should consider or look into increasing the nests to perhaps 1,000 in the next 12 months.

The idea I planted into his brain was that he needs some kind of objectives on the direction he should laid and works toward it.

Since his current BH already have a nice population of 350 nests, his first hurdle is over but his next is to go towards a more lucrative number of 1000.

He got a high advantages as compared to those new comers with zero nests.

His BH now can generate at least 700 young baby birds per breeding season.  Assuming that there are three seasons every 12 months, there will be at least 2,100 young birds generated internally.

If he can focus on how to get these 2,100 young birds to stay, say 40%, that will be 840 birds or 420 nests.

If you add 420 + 350 = 770 nests.  What about getting other young birds from his neighbors?

It seem that the birds in his current BH tends to prefer those corners.  He can easily increase the number of corners by deploying additional crossings.

The number of tweeters seems to be limited, about 50-60, and he should increase their numbers to at least 150 per floor.

There is no VIP rooms anywhere but there are a sort of it.  I told him to get the VIP room properly done and get the floor wet.

The room humidity was about 74%RH and that was too low.  Push it up to 85 -95%RH.  Get more humidifiers, at least four per floor.

The entrance hole areas need some upgrading.  Those old tweeters needs serious inspection for any failures or improvements in numbers and positioning.

The hexagonal tweeters needs to be properly relocated and perhaps changed to a more powerful type.

The amplifiers seems to be a bit outdated and are not properly operated to its optimum capabilities.  The best choice is to upgrade the amplifier with special ability to control the internal sound volumes.

I told him that he can actually draw those birds to populate which zone in the BH by setting the sound volume based on his nest populating strategies.

Those birds have a strange weaknesses. They love loud volume tweeters.

His new BH was just at the other side of the current BH.

He got a very huge benefits from getting this new unit.

He does not need to open another entrance hole any longer.  What he now needed is to complete the new BH renovation and open the connecting walls.

Before doing that he need a proper planned on how to expand the BH so that he can maximize the current scenario.

Will get a full report out for his evaluation and perhaps will help in upgrading the current unit and after that the new unit.

Well I can easily says that this person will be a successful owner soon.

What ever his decision I will be happy to improve his nests population.

As planned today I will driving down to Ulu Tiram to help another BH owner whose BH seem to have not a single nests for over 3 years.

Followed My Advises And He Got Immediate Effects !!!

"Hey I remembered asking you to cut those roof extensions and you did exactly what I asked you to do?"

That was said during my last visit to a BH at Pokok Assam, Sungai Patani to a BH owner.

"Yes Pak Harry I cut exactly to your requirement and it works very well.  I also closed the other opening and opened only one entrance hole at the tower to avoid swiftlet's short circuit. Pak Harry I also installed the hexagonal tweeters just above the entrance hole as per your advises.  Thank you for all the precisions."

His precise answers.

I never knew that every words from my mouth were so useful.

According to him after the simple revamps on his one year old BH, plus those new sounds he bought from me the house nests population increase reasonably.

I was glad that those easy and simple renovations were proven to be very effective.

Good for him and at least one more newbie got a strong chance to be a successful swiftlet farmer.

He need to work hard towards increasing the nest population.

I did asked him to look into the erection of partitions for a few VIP rooms and increase those tweeters plus the 130* corner covers installation.

Looking forward to visit his BH again.

More Video Clips On A BH with Insect Generating Barn !!!

Please have a look at the number of birds flying above and around the BARN:

Also this:

What You Should Do To A Bh With 400 Nests !!!

I was asked about buying an operating BH with more then 400 nests in it.

"Pak Harry, what is the benefits of buying an old BH with 400 ++ nests?"

Buying a tenanted BH is a very quick way of increasing your asset.

What you should ask yourself before buying the asset will be can I double the number of nests within the next 12 months?

There is no use of having a BH with 400 nests but the nest numbers starts to move on the negative mode after taking over.

You need to prepare a plan on what can be done to double up the nests population prior to buying the BH.

A BH with 400 nests will be able to generate about 800 young birds every breeding cycle and in one year you have at least 2400 of them.

These young birds have a very strong tendencies to stay with their parent if their birth place is in a perfect conditions.

If the BH humidity is good with perfect temperature range and little predators there is a very strong chances that they will stay put.

However if the BH is not well maintained with lots of negative readings these young batch will move to a new location.

So you need to determine what will make these young birds to stay put in your BH and not flying to you neighbors across the road.

The best is to come out with an appropriate plan what should be done to achieve your target.

Look at the BH in total and audit the flaws and list the kind of remedies that you should look into.

Be attentive to the role of those sounds, internal sound tweeters, external sound tweeters, hexagonal tweeters, nesting planks, aroma, predators on the floors, those spiders, wetness of the floor, VIP rooms, room darkness and so forth.

Each of them do play a kind of role in increasing the nests population and you need to make sure all of them are reactivated to ensure that your young baby birds to come back and stays.

If you are not sure what need to be done, get someone who can help to diagnose your BH and perhaps submit a recommendations which will guide you towards achieving your goal.

Remember it is easy to buy but it will a challenge to double the nests population within 12 months.

How Often Should You Revamp Your BH !!!

"Pak Harry, How often should I revamp my BH?  Will it affect my current tenants?"

A very common question and I need to be careful with my answers.

If you have just revamped your BH and you waited for almost three months.  The moment you entered the house there was nothing progressing or no new bird shits markings on the floor and you know that something is not right.

You now have a few choices to do.

First is to give a few more months to evaluate the effectiveness of your revamp works done or you can look at what you have done wrong with the previous revamp.

If the recent revamp works was not right you might need to rework on it.

In operating a new BH you need to set a target number of nests which you wanted to accumulate so that you will have enough young birds to fill up the nesting planks.

The moment you nests population stop growing of reduced in the number of increment you need to start working on what else to be carried out for your own good.

I would say that you need to continue with the revamp operations until you get the target number of nests you set in your plan.

To minimize any disturbance try to carry out your revamp works during a specific time of the day when the number of birds at home are not many.  Choose the right day, hot day if possible, and start at about 9.00am till 4:30pm.

Try to get your workers out of the BH before 5:00pm.

Strange But Unique Observations !!!

I visited another BH about 22 months old with 49 nests.

About 9 months ago I was asked to test all my best sounds and the owner got the Tongkat Ali, Black Cloud, Gold Pot and the Medley.

It was these sounds that pushed the nest population up, according to the owner.

He was unhappy that I did not take a look inside his BH.

When those sounds were no longer as strong as before he called and ask me to get a new set of sounds plus wanted to know my opinion about his BH.

It was nothing unusual but soon after I came across something that I would like to share with my blog readers.

1) The birds seems to like the 130* more then 90*corners.

The owner told me that prior to my first visit to his BH the number of nests was very little.

After my 1st to conduct a sound check about 9 months ago, he got himself a couple of cluster tweeters and covered a number of 90* angle closed to the clusters.

He was surprised that after the installation and change of those external sounds the birds started to enter and seem to love to build their nest on the 130* corners.

There were plenty 90* but 130* seems to be their favorite.

Something strange but it is true in this particular BH.

If they like 130* corners give them as many as you can.  I recommended to the BH owner to perhaps increase the number of the same corners closed proximity to the cluster tweeters.

2) Strange insects found in the BH.

I was looking around for something unusual in the BH.  Suddenly something on the bird shit strike my eyes. There were lots of those odd shape white pieces of paper or broken boards on the bird shit.

I picked up the item and squeeze one of it.  There you are there was a kind of crawling insect.  Where can it come from?

It must be from something that were brought in by either the owner or something else.

I took a good look around the BH and saw this pile of twigs located just below one of the air pipe.  It seem that those birds (mynah or black sparrow) were working hard to build their nest inside the pipe but they keep falling down.

Upon closer look at the pile of sticks there were lots of those insects crawling around the twigs.

They came together with those twigs.

The most important is to avoid those air vent holes to be opened to those other birds.

If you apply Fendona these insects will be dead.

 Hope this article teaches something unusual but useful.

Inspection Of A BH in Kemunting Taiping !!!

Yesterday I was in Kemunting, Taiping to visit a newly acquired BH located in an Industrial area.

The semi-D two stories building was recently purchased and with about 400 nests.

The person assigned to look after the BH was keen to know how to improve the BH.

I took not more then 5 minutes to tell the caretaker that the external sound was not in operation.  The player was not operating and there was also no thumb drive on it.

The previous owner must have taken it away or perhaps tried to sabotage the nests population.

I told him that the external sound is something like your heart.  No sound means no heart.  No heart means your BH will be dead.

The internal sound amplifier, only one was out into operation, and runs only up to 4:00am.

The timers on those control timers were not synchronised.

There was no hexagonal tweeters on the roof top.

The pool in the entrance hole was not operational.

The external sound tweeters needs replacement and additional quantities.

The best was that there were at least 100 birds inside the house during the visit.

Floors, both downstairs and upstairs were pretty dry with one humidifier looks not working properly.

No signs of any VIP room anywhere in the house.

After the 45 minutes inspection I pen down the list of things that can help the owner to increase the nest numbers by at least 100% within 12 months.

Submitted to his attention and I am sure he need more then the report.

Eversince The Insect BARN Started !!!!

I was very busy with my list of things to do for the day and suddenly received a phone call from a BH owner and my student from Klang.

Been out of town for almost four days and can you imagine the number of things to do, the emails to be answered and the blog to write/update?

But no matter what this call was very special. I will drop everything when something new is available for me to see and make a report.  It will greatly benefited my blog readers:

"Pak Harry I just wanted to make my report about the insect generating project.  You know what nowadays everyday from 10.00am till 7:30pm those swiftlet and some martin birds will be flying low above the BARN just in front of my BH entrance hole. This begins to happen ever since the insect started to flourish in and outside the BARN.  You should come and have a look for your self. Thank you very much for pushing me to build it in the first place.  I cannot think of any other person who is so devoted in helping others. You financial contribution for this project have also have helps me to materialized the Insect BARN."


I cannot think of any thing better then to drive up to Klang and make my own observation.

The moment I arrived I saw so many birds flying low above the BARN, all around the BH and many entered the entrance hole.

I called the BH keeper and asked him to open the gate.

"Sorry Pak Harry, I am trying to harvest the insect to feed those young babies.  We have about 100 young birds that need enough food to be fed."

I accompanied him to see how he was trying to harvest the insect.

The insect is nothing more then those Fruit Flies but a bit whiter then normal.

I asked him when the birds started to come over every day.

"Pak Harry they will start to come from 10.00am till darkness.  A lot of them and the whole day.  Before the BARN was in operation there were little or none."

I was so fascinated with the insect generating and I am of the opinion this should be a must for all those BHs build on a stand alone basis. 

The idea is to erect the BARN just below the entrance hole of your BH.

You need to split the room inside into four or more.  Internally you need to put some racks to hold the insect food.

Have a look at these pictures and I am sure you will believed 100% of what I am trying to say.

Yes more insects more birds.

Those wild birds will come to the BARN to catch escaped insects from it.  The more they escape the more wild swiftlet will hunt around the area.

If the owner knows how to lure them into his BH and make sure they stay then it will be such an easy way to get the nests population to increase.

Look at the insects harvested :

The number of birds were plenty and I was quite sure that many of them do entered the entrance hole of the BH.

Just look at these video clips and count the number of birds can you see flying all around the barn and the BH:

If you are keen in having one similar barn at your BH let me know.  Will try to assist you in what ever we can to help in pulling more birds to your BH.

Estimate cost of the building is RM 4000 inclusive of materials and labor.

The total cost complete with training, manual and providing you will all the tool and raw materials for the barn to be operational is RM 10,000 for the first 5 units.  After these 5 our price will be RM13,000.

You may want to add on the incubating of eggs and breeding those young birds.  The additional cost is RM 5,000 with about 100 eggs provided for.

The ultimate mission is to bring in more birds to your BH just in front of your entrance hole. 

We will not guarantee that they will enter into your BH and stays but we shall in bringing those birds to your BH entrance hole.

It will totally change the scenario from being so quite and drab to a very heavy with birds all around the house.

Think wisely and make the right decision.

We are here to help and nothing less.

A very interesting gadget which I came across while visiting a BH in Johor.

Consisted of a big pail, water pump and an exhaust fan.

There will be a control float inside the pail to set the volume of water inside the pail.

A submersible pump is used to push the water to the top and allow it to flow down.

A fan is use to blow the water to get the humidity.

Very interesting and never seen before.