Amazing BH With Aluminiun Linings on its Nesting Planks !!!

I was in Setiawan, Perak yesterday arranging for hotel facilities for the coming March 5th Swiftlet farming Seminar.

It was about 2.5 hours journey from Kuala Lumpur but it was worth every effort if you have a special invitation to view a 9 years old BH with about 1.5 thousand swiftlet nests.

The moment I arrived, two good friends were waiting for lunch at a steak house.

The two good friends owned at least 15 BHs among them and both were eager to show me their new findings.

While having lunch I was lucky to have met Mr Ling , the Secretary of Swiftlet Farming Association of Manjung, Perak.

I quickly asked him about his meeting with a group of Sabah Government Officers that will be meeting him this January 26th, 2011.

The reason being, I was contacted by the Sabah Swiftlet Association President to also make my way to Setiawan to meet them.

After our lunch I was taken to two hotels in Lumut, about 10 minutes away from Setiawan.

I prefer the Orient Star as compared to The Orchard Hotel.  The only 3 stars hotel in town and closed to the 4,000 nests BH.

After meeting the Sales Mangeresss I was quickly taken to a BH that was recently purchased at about 1.6 million ringgit.

Only two stories high but with about 1,500 nests and the value was a whopping RM1.6 million. The building cost, I think, if without those precious nests will be only RM 500K to 600K.

So you tell me why it can be so high?  First it has 1,500 nests but second the BH is below those swiftlet flying path.

On the left side of the BH, about 50 meters, away is another successful BH belonging to who else "Mr John Cheng" the king of swiftlet farmer in Malaysia.

"Pak Harry I wanted you to view this BH and perhaps give me some good comments or advise on what should I do to double the nests population".  The owner retorted.

The owner claimed that he bought over the building and wanted to double the nests numbers within 2 years.

I was told that the BH have been in operation about 8-9 years.  The last count he did just before buying  over was 1,500 nests.

After the ownership was completed the new owner started using my most famous sound "Black Cloud" for about 1.5 months.

"Pak Harry, your black cloud sound is not bad. I can show you that the sound have done a good job in bringing in those new birds."

He showed me at least 10 new spots that he said was never there before.

One very interesting installation done by the previous owner was the use of aluminium plate linings.

I have never been into a BH with nearly 80% of those wooden planks being lined with metal plates.

Wow, something very interesting that I wish to share with all my blog readers.  I took as many pictures as I can using my iPhone.

"Can I know why the previous owner opt for metal plate lining?" I asked my friend.

"Well Pak Harry, it seem that he visited another BH closed to this building and they were using the same plates.  It seem that what he saw convinced him to apply the plates."

It seem that this using of metal plates is nothing new and have been used by many others.

Hmmm .....this was nothing new because I discovered the same from some famous books written by Fatick Marzuki.

I am sure there will be lots of interesting thing to discovered.  I took a long time to walk all around the BH to try to make out some new discoveries that can help me to decide on the usefulness of metal plates.

My observations after more then 30 minutes inside the house are as follows:

1) More then 80% of the nests were on the metal plates as compared to those wooden areas exposed without the liners.

2) The birds seems to have the same preference on those corners even with the plates.

3) Once there is a joint area where two plates are on each other the birds seem to like is most.

4) The preferred choice areas were at the far end of the nesting areas.

 Please enjoy viewing many other pictures taken during the visit.  I am hopeful that I will be able to visit this BH again and try to help the owner to multiply the nests numbers using anything new that I might have discovered.

Some of those things that I recommended him to do were:

1) To erect a few walls to allow those birds to feel more protected.  Something like the VIP rooms.  The wall should not be lesser then 12 feet in width.

2) Wet the floor.  Main reason being I wanted those young birds to return home and build their nest closed to the place where they were born.  Currently his humidifiers seem to be malfunctioning and not providing adequate dampness on each floor.  I think he should look at using those auto irrigate meters to flood the floor on a weekly basis,

3) Change the external sounds as regular as possible.  The best news as at today (Jan 23rd, 2011) the owner called me in the morning and was excited with what he saw.  "Pak Harry, you know something? This morning I was at my aluminum lined BH and I can swear to you that the birds are plenty above my BH while other BH are empty.  Your new sound or perhaps you smell bring more to my BH.  Thank you very much."

I am not sure the real reasons but it must be the external sound that I changed during the trip.  I always tends to be very itchy finger to tune the amplifiers if I find that they are not properly adjusted.

4) I also would advised the owner to adjust the internal sound volume slightly louder.  The young birds feel more comfortable with slightly louder sound internally.

5) The most appropriate is to properly planned for a "Force Harvest".  It must be done on the right timing of the season.  The best around june or july.

6) I also indicated to him to implement what I called "Favorable Regeneration" eggs removal technique after the forced harvest being done.  This technique will allows the BH to be continuously be with 50% young babies.  Please take note that the young baby crying sounds are said to be able to make those young birds to return back to where they were hatched after flying out.

7) I also wanted to see more internal sound tweeters.  I think the number of tweeters were not good enough.  He should increase by at least 500 per floor.  Use the cluster techniques (four tweeters place at every crossing).

8) He needed to be careful with the metal plates.  It seem that the metal plates were too thin. Once he harvested the plates below the nests seem to be totally eroded as if it was dissolved by the saliva wetness. He needed to either replace the metal plates to a thicker type or perhaps use those stainless steel type.

I am very happy to be of help to him and I am sure those who read this blog will learn something.

The advise I give as above were from my own creation and they are based on the number of observations that I made and many interesting discoveries during my 6 years involvement in swiftlet farming.

Remember I am not a "consultant" but just an enthusiast.

My aim is to try to discover as many new methods to improve any BH nest population and everything that I discovered will be shared with every blog readers with no malice.

If these discoveries brings changes to your BH please thanks god for being able to discover my blog.  You are the lucky one.

Try to share the information with others.

I will be very happy to continue searching for more ideas which will eventually be the cure of any problems with our BHs.

Call me for any helps you needed (only about BH please) and any comment about your new discoveries you have, can be sent to harryswiftlet@yahoo.com