A Short Description of a Failed BH in Kajang !!!

Please allow me to list down some of those things observed in a failed BH located in Kajang, Selangor.

My main objective is nothing more then listing down the BH configurations especially what it lacks and once revamped we can make a good comparison.

1) Currently the entrance hole adopted was the side entry using an existing window located at the front of the shop house. I planned to shut this window and relocate the entrance hole to the back using open roof technique. We shall try with the open roof for about 6 months and analyze the result. If the number is below say 30 then the owner might need to go for a monkey house configuration.

2) There is a hexagonal tweeter place outside the house closed to the entrance hole but a bit too high, more then 4 feet above the roof. I planned to relocate the hexagonal to the back and it should not be more the 2.5 feet above the roof and closed to the entrance hole.  Will find a precise location to hide the tweeter away from any person to see from the ground floor.

3) Internally the current owner placed a pond as the roving area and he pond seem to breed lots of mosquitoes.  He asked me if these mosquitoes will benefit the BH since it will provide food to the birds.  I told him to forget about the idea and better to eliminate those mosquitoes immediately.  If those local authority should drop by he will face more problems then helping those birds.  Perhaps he should install those insect barn instead.

4) Every inch of the BH floor was literally covered  covered with bird shit mix with water.  This was not the ideal way to apply the wet floor technique I told the owner.  The best is to concentrate in the VIP room only and perhaps use those plastic mat. Due to this dirt on the floor I instructed my worker to sweep the floor and remove all the shit so that we can work with less dirt.

5) The nesting planks on the ceiling were orientated haphazardly in a number of zone.  One of the main reason was the lack of understanding about those birds habits.  The best orientation, according to what I understand, is to ensure that they are lined as such they are facing the flight path when those birds enter the door of each room.  It should be perpendicular to the flight path. Just imagine yourself as a bird entering the house.  You will have difficulties to latch onto the nesting plank if it is running to the side of you.  The previous so called "sifu" installed the plank to suit the plank that he ordered.  This is something common in many failed BHs.

6) The gaps between those planks looks a bit slightly larger then 30cm apart. There were no boxes created to provide additional corners for those birds.  The only box provided was a divider that was used to hold the other end of the plank.  Usually the recommended box size is 30cmX100cm.  This will encourage those birds to start their nesting at those 90* corners. Looking at this short sightedness you can easily predict that the owner or the person who installed the nesting planks was clueless what swiftlet farming was all about.  I need to take down some of those planks and reorientated  them to face the flight path and insert adequate crossing to generate more 90* corners.

7) The number of tweeters were not more then 30 pieces.  The type of tweeters used was those square 3" sized.  I am not in favor of square tweeters.  My main reason being the size of those birds with the wings closed is 1" roughly.  If two birds sit side by side you will have one more inch for a trouble makers.  During courting the female normally produces some kind of smell that might attract other male.  If you use the 3" you might find it hard for the male to look after his female partner.  I will go for a 2"X5" tweeter and installed in a standing position.  The number to be increased to at least 200 pieces.

8) There was not a single room inside the nesting areas.  The owner have yet to reach the article about my ideas of having a kind of VIP room to attract those birds into the house. There was no partition to block those bright lights too. I need to erect at least two partitions the first for light blocking and the second for the VIP room.

9) I made a checked the placement of external sound tweeters inside the BH.  There was only two locations.  One at the entrance window and another two somewhere at the front part of the house. There were nothing to pull those birds to back part of the nesting room.  A very common mistakes and no body seem to understand how those good sounds works with the special birds. I panned to have at least 6 single unit external tweeters on the walls and the doors coupled with at least 2 sets of chandeliers tweeters mainly inside the VIP room.

10)  The owner used two chicken coop humidifiers.  One at the front and one at the far end.  He covered the two humidifiers with a kind of cover, like a house lamp cover made of plastic and two pipes protruded on them.  Interesting and to me I would say that the owner do have some innovative thinking but not good enough.

11) The amplifiers used to operate those sounds were only two.  A small unit for the external sound and a larger unit, Nikkodo, for the internal sound.  He uses a normal digital timer to set the playing time.  I planned to upgrade the system with two more amplifiers with a special timer to allow two or more sounds to be played in a day.  The most effective sound will be played in the late evening with a louder volume and the standard sound during the day time with lesser volume.

12) There were some aroma bottles on the floor of the data rooms with a spray bottle.  I was told that the expensive aroma were applied once every two weeks on the walls but nothing happened so far.  Once completed I planned to provide an automated aroma spraying technique that will help the BH to have my "EROTIKA"  aroma sprayed at least four times a week. The best is to locate one at the entrance area and another in the VIP room.

13) The BH seem to have some Styrofoam fake nests however they were unusually too big, the size of those normal bricks. There were about 10 of them. I was amazed with the big fat brick fake nest and I think it will not served the purpose of luring those birds.  What I planned is to remove those brick size fake nests with smaller type made of wood, plastic, metal and Styrofoam too (smaller in size).

14) The VIP room will be the focal point of the BH.  The new room will be located at the back of the BH about 14 feet with and 20 feet long with the door in the middle.  The nesting planks needs readjustment and the floor will be with the wet floor design.

I hope to complete this new masterpiece within three weeks before moving to a BH in Nilai with 300 nests after 2.5 years in operation.

This owner wanted to double asset (nests) within less then 12 months.