My Latest Research Gadget Used To Ensure My External Sounds Stays Effective !!!

There is always strong possibilities that after a few days or weeks or perhaps months if you play one external sound it will become less effective.

What I meant is that the number of birds entering or even coming into your BH keep getting lesser and lesser.

This is a common phenomena which happened in nearly all BHs that I have visited.

In other BH once the sound is changed there will be a certain surge of birds coming into the house but soon after they will become less effective again.

So what can be done to ensure that your BH sound will stay effective for a longer period of time or perhaps forever?

I think you should think of a method that will solve your problem and I think I know the right answer.

What if we have some gadget that can change the sound from one to another and later to another and so on.

This is what I have installed in one of my BH about two months ago.

A simple gadget that will automatically change the external sound on Monday and Thursday every week.

I set the changeover at midnight 0:00 hr on and 0.01hr off.   This would mean that every week on Monday and Thursday at mid night my BH external sound will be change to the next sound stored inside or perhaps attached to the gadget.

Initially I was a bit skeptical that it will work but after monitoring the effectiveness, by counting the number of birds entering the BH via CCTV system I think this method do works.

The idea was to install about six thumb drives onto the "Sound Auto Changer".

Currently I used the latest sounds in my collection in the following sequence:

1) Pukau2
2) NBU
3) Pukau2
4)SilverBullet
5) Pukau2
6)VacuumKing.

Since I am a bit inclined to Pukau2 I used it three times during one cycle. You can choose your own combination.
With the times set for my weekly sound changes I can now come out with a chart that will helps me to monitor those birds entering my BH.

It looks like this:

From	To	Name of Sound	Effectiveness
Jun 25	June 26	Pukau2
June 27	June 29	NBU
June 30	Jul 3rd	Pukau2
July 4th	Jul 6th	SB
July 7th	Jul 10th	Pukau2
Jul 11th	July 13th	Vacuum King
Jul 14th	July17th	Pukau2
Jul 18th	July 20th	NBU
July 21	July 24	Pukau2
July25th	July27	SilverBullet
July 28th	July 31st	Pukau2
Aug 1st	Aug 3rd	VacuumKing
Aug4th	Aug 7th	Pukau2
Aug 8th	Aug 10	NBU

The chart will gives me some good idea which sound is getting the crowd and which one need to be replaced.

The good thing that I love this system is that it allows me to make the right decision on which direction my BH birds population is moving.

I cannot afford to make a guess but I can now accurately determined how many birds are entering my BH every evening and which sound bring in the most number.

Can you imagine that you have a chart in front of your working table indicating exactly the number of birds entered in your BH everyday?

You can use the chart to predict how many you will get within the next few weeks, months or years.

Every effort and every new gadget you install can be monitored at home on its effectiveness.

You no longer need to enter your BH too often.

Just view them at home and on your mobile phone.

There will be more to come and I am sure you will think that I am crazy.

Only crazy people have so many followers who keep reading his blog !!!

After about two months with some fined tuning here and there the number of birds visiting the BH seems to be encouraging.

The rotation makes the roof top a favorite spot for all birds flying nearby.

Those of you who wanted to apply this technology together with the four sounds let me know.

The cost of this gadget inclusive of the four sounds is only RM 3000.

For more details please call 017 755 1318.

You BH need a special gadget and I think this is one of them.

This special offer is only for 10 person.

Once I reached 10 in numbers the price will be doubled RM 6000.  So you need to be pretty quick.....

So far got one who confirmed to get one:

1) Mr Anding

These Waste Wood Corners Will Be Taken Out Shortly !!!

One of my interesting finding which I recently deployed inside my JV BH in Kuantan, Pahang is the waste wood corners.

I discovered this interesting way of creating more 90* corners using those excess of waste nesting woods that you planned to throw away into your dustbin.

It is more like recycling of waste wood that are shorter than your cross woods.

What I did was to cut them into short pieces of about 6-10 inches in length and nailed them onto those nesting planks that are installed on the perimeter walls of the nesting rooms.

The most appropriate location is in the middle of those box created of the nesting planks.

The idea was to increase the number of 90* corners in the nesting room, since those wild birds loves to make their nest there.

Once they occupied these corners, my idea is to harvest these nests, one on the left and the other on the right, and after that try to remove the waste wood.

Make sure those nails you used to attach the wood to the nesting plank are properly removed.

Assuming that those birds will return to the same location to breed for the next breeding cycle, both with start their nest at the same spot.

If they do use these spots, you next generation nest will now be a 180* shape.

This is a very brilliant way of forcing those birds to build more 180* as compared to 90* shape nests.

In my JV BH at Kuantan, the number of waste wood corners already occupied is 5 and I planned to remove them during my next trip, probably in early August or late July 2011.

I planned to take some photos before and after the experiment.

My hope is that my prediction will work and this we can now have a new technique on how to force those birds to build more 180* nests shape.

Those who haven't try please look around for these waste wood and install them as a trial basis.

I am sure you can see some result soon.

Grey Color Is Not Recommended In Your Roving or Tunnel Areas !!!

"Pak Harry, after painting the roving area from white to grey the birds number dropped drastically.  Do you think there is a relationship between colors and swiftlet?"

I was very skeptical about the effect of color to those birds.

All these while many people believed that birds are color blind but I don't think so.

What will happen if you choose the wrong color for your BH?

The most critical will be the areas where the birds will enter the house especially the roof, the monkey house area, the tunnel and the roving room.

Once they are inside the nesting rooms the wall colors might not be that critical, I think, since it will be pitch black.

Just read this special email from one of my blog reader asking about the effect of colors:

Dear Harry,

Thanks for your reply. We are using CCTV cameras to view their numbers actually and we enter the BH once each month. Everything in our swiflet farm going smooth and develop constantly before we paint the internal of monkey house. The beginning of 10 months (before paint), the number of birds visiting is really good and number of birds increase constantly around 10++ birds each month. After painting, the number of birds visiting really decrease a lot, only 1 or 2 birds , even no birds willing to visit our farm.

And the main reason i said the color is the factor because i did try to change my external sound (marvelous cloud/black cloud/tongkat ali), as ordinary, nearby swiflets will come near due their curious. But the different between before and after paint, Before - lot of birds come near and willing to fly into the roving area, After - maybe still same number of birds come near but they are not willing to fly into the roving area, once they fly into the entrance hole they fly out immediately, some of the birds not even dare to fly into the entrance hole, but just fly pass by the entrance hole. Besides, what i view and realize through CCTV camera is that birds come near and fly with high speed toward the direction of the entrance hole, the moment their fly near the entrance hole, they change their fly direction suddenly, seem like scare to fly inside the entrance hole. This is all what i realize using my cctv camera. 

Before painting, there is no such kind of problem, large number of birds like to visit the roving area. This is my case , my story. The reason i felt dark color of internal money house causes young swiflets not willing and worry to fly inside. Maybe i should do an experiment using white manila card stick at the internal of monkey house to check any influence of the color. 

Anyway thanks for Mr.Harry reply and the sound you create is really fantastic. Lastly, i want to know the height for the aluminum fake nest. If not mistaken, my swiflet farm nesting plank is about 1 inch width and 6 inch height, does the aluminum fake nest can fix it ?

A Classic Example Of Old Birds Moving To Other BHs In Kuantan !!!

This might sound strange but there must be something strange that can lead to old birds leaving and staying at other BHs.

Normally we assumed that once those birds says "I do" they will stay in that particular BH forever.

This was a kind of assumption that once they have laid their eggs they will incubate them and later the eggs will hatched.  The parent will then look after the babies until they are able to fly and be on the own.

We than assumed that after about 10 days or so those parent will then start their breeding cycle all over again at the same spot or the same nest.

This might be true to the majority but let me tell you this strange story obtained from two BH owners in Kuantan, Pahang.

The first person owned about 4-5 BHs and he complained that the number of birds coming back to his BH located in Kuantan town proper is dwindling.

"Pak Harry if you look at the sky nowadays you will see very little birds flying around low or high up in the sky.  Even after a  heavy shower.  This should not be if all those birds are flying back home every evening.  It seems that other town like Pekan, Rompin, Kuala Trengganu and many other towns, their skies are filled will birds at most of the time but not Kuantan."

He hinted to me that his monthly harvest in his BH located in Kuantan town is getting lesser as compared to about three to four years ago.

This gives me a kind of strange feeling and how come the numbers are going downward.

The second person I met have a brother in law who claimed that his monthly income came down from about 30 kg down to 20 kg. A loss of 10 kg which is equivalent to about 1200 nests a month within less than 2-3 years.

His B-I-L BH was at the fringe of Kuantan town and according to him the current harvest is getting lesser and lesser every month.

It seems that all his neighbors were facing a similar nests reduction.  Yes there were at least 10 to 15 BHs in this row of shop houses.

This strange happenning is something that will happen to any area when the number of new BHs are getting too many.

When there are too many new BHs were erected of agricultural land, those birds might have preferred to stay nearer to their food sources.   By doing so they will travel lesser distance to find food for the young chicks.

The next possible reason might be the food production is not adequate to support the growing population.

To have a better chance to breed with a healthy chicks is to stay as closed as possible to the food source.

But my question is "Will they abandoned their first BH that they say "I do"?"

The answer seems to be leaning towards "Yes".

So to those who own BHs with a full house or a reasonable number of nests just be cautious and try to make sure your BH is in perfect condition.

Try not to allow those wild birds to give any excuse to move house.

You need to evaluate all the possible reasons and come out with a list of things that can help to ensure that those birds will have little reasons not to move out.

Good examples are:

1) May be start those insect generating barn.
2) Make sure the nesting rooms are wet.
3) Make sure the temperature of the BH is always below 30*C
4) Make sure you maintain the birdshit on the floor and do not remove them.
5) Change the sound if you have never done it before.
6) Perhaps look at some ways to get those birds to populate other floors which have very little nests.
7) Monitor your BH progress regularly and make sure they are always new nests in your BH.
8) Get an expert opinion on what should be done to increase the nests population.
9) Use new technologies that are proven to help in increasing the nests population.
10) Attend new seminars that can help you to maintain the BH yourself.

Worse case is to get Pak Harry to drop by and give his opinion what can be done to help the situation.

Call him at +6017 755 1318

A Vietnamese Visitor: Rearing To Go And Learn !!!

Sorry guys I have been very busy with my Bidor BH conversion project plus attending to a visitor from Vietnam.

While arranging for various contractors to replace the old asbestos roof with those polyform coated zinc roof, four steel doors, removal of rubbish and bricks, ordering of building materials, searching for additional workers and getting those nesting planks plus internal equipment, I was surprised with a visitor from Vietnam was already in Kuala Lumpur.

"Pak Harry I am at KL Sentral now waiting for you to pick me up.  I am here to learn by following wherever you go during the week until Thursday June 30th."

With so many things to do and here I am with a Vietnamese with his accompanied person who wanted to follow me where ever I go.

So with little complain I told them to be ready for a long trip to Kuantan, Pahang and on Monday to Bidor, Perak.

I was very happy to have him to visit my JV BH in Kuantan.  It was already 4 weeks after my last maintenance visit.

This trip will get my men to upgrade a number of new gadgets:

1) The mist pump machine with 8 nozzles inside the 2 VIP rooms.

    Since the supplier of the mist machine indicated that his mist maker can last about 3000 operating hours I adopted using the chicken coop mist machine during daytime and noiseless humidifier shall be operated at night.

2)  Installation of another aroma spray system.

The only unit installed initially was one in the monkey house area.  Now added a new unit with bigger capacity storage drum that can last about 5-6 weeks in operation.

The new unit was inside the nesting room main hall area.

3) Added a number of perfume garden bottles.

I was facinated with my Vietnamese friend whon met during my last trip.

I think this is a very new area that we should investigate.  Just imagine we have a specially formulated aroma just for the perfume garden bottles.  If 8 out 10 of these bottles are occupie, then I I is okay.

4) Sprayed those Mutiara aroma inside the VIP rooms and roving areas.

One of my very strong believed is to spray those Mutiara aroma regularly inside the VIP rooms.

Their smell with the wetness in those rooms applied will help to stimulate those young babies to stay and breed inside this BH where there were born.

5)  Realigned all tweeters at the doors and the entrance windows.

I realized that many of those tweeters were not properly installed by my workers.

This time all were adjusted to a proper height on the windows and doors perimeters.  All tweeters were first attached to those steel bands for easy fine adjustments.

6) Added additional tweeters on the entrance window.

I also realized that the number of tweeters on the main entrance window were not adequate.  Installed two more powerful magnet bullet tweeters.

After the installation and testing more birds seems to be drawn into the roving area.

7) Tested a very new sound called "Pukau" or Hypnotize in English.

This was a new sound that I created just before I make the trip.

It seems that those birds were pretty attracted to the sound.

Need more time to evaluate the sound effectiveness for at least one to two months before deciding to share with my blog readers.

For now it will be not for sale until proven as effective as those Black Cloud and Marvelous Cloud.

8) Used the 6 sounds auto changer set.

My main objective was to observe the effect of different sounds being played in each week.  I lined up six sounds (3 Pukau, NBU, Silver Bullet and Vacuum King) and change the sound every Monday and Thursday.

The sequence will be NBU, Pukau, Silver Bullet, Pukau, Vacuum King and Pukau. 

I have my CCTV cameras that uses broadband to transmit the birds movements into my Data room at mu KL home.

The exact performances of each sound will be closely monitored from my home and any sound that gives little result shall be removed during my next visit.
  
The job were completed on the 2nd day and I was happy to drive back to Kuala Lumpur spending a good weekend with my beloved family.

On my way back stop at Gambang to have a second look at a BH whose owner wanted my help to rectify.

The unit was put into operation for almost 1 year with less than 10 nests.

I need to get the owner to agree with my terms and conditions.  I do not wish to have any disagreement once the house being transform as required.

The Vietnamese friends stayed in a hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

Two short video clips showing the activities at 7:30 pm upward.

Pretty nice to see a reasonable number of birds entering the monkey house.

Penang Misleading Their Own People

This article from the STAR dated May 16th 2011 is an embarrassing situation. The high political situation led to unnecessary problems both to the people and the state ruling party.

They should have been more careful and work together with the people to achieve a mutually agreed solution.

Found at: http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2011/5/16/north/8689531&sec=north

ASNI: Penang govt misled people about Unesco’s swiftlet ban 

THE state government has misled the Penang people by claiming that Unesco called for a ban on swiftlet farming in the George Town world heritage site.

Association for Swiftlet Nests Industry (ASNI) president Carole Loh (pic) said she received a letter from Unesco dated May 4 which stated that they (Unesco) were merely asking the state government to asses the impact of the birdhouses on the heritage enclave.

“Why did the Penang government tell the people of Penang that Unesco does not allow birdhouses in George Town and that the letter was a warning? Unesco has now confirmed that this is not true.

“The state government is now saying something else and that the birdhouses are having a negative impact on the inner city’s outstanding universal value (OUV) which gave rise to the listing,” she said when contacted yesterday.

Loh said ASNI had a three-hour meeting with a Unesco representative in Jakarta on April 15 and “we have been recommended to promote a dialogue to reach a mutually beneficial conclusion that will satisfy all stakeholders”.

On a claim by state Local Government Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow that people were moving out of George Town because of the birdhouses, she said the real reason was because of the sharp increase in rent after the repeal of the Rent Control Act in 2000 and not swiftlet farming.

“He also said that swiftlet farming had caused the building facade and streetscape to change but he must remember that there are many birdhouses which have been beautifully renovated to preserve its heritage.

“We have offered many times to work with the state government to help renovate the buildings so that they are in line with heritage guidelines.

“Moreover, birdhouses are not considered Class 1 buildings, in which the facade and interior of the buildings have to be preserved, and we only need to ensure that the facade is maintained,” she added.

Loh said Chow also alleged that noise from recordings to attract the birds were disturbing the neighbours but this was not an issue as the playing of such recordings had already been banned.

Loh said under the George Town Unesco World Heritage Site Special Area Plan (SAP), existing trades and businesses which have been listed as non-permissible activities will not be asked to move out of the heritage zone as it will affect the livelihood of people in the area.

“What about the existing birdhouses in George Town and the livelihood of its owners? ASNI had offered to work together with the state government for a ‘win win’ solution but they are not interested.

“They do not care that the livelihood of our members would be severely affected.

“Why are the birdhouse owners treated differently? Why the double standards?” she asked.

Loh said the phenomenon of swiftlets living within a heritage enclave is unique to George Town and Malacca and the birdhouses should be seen as ‘Living Heritage’, an aspect which contributed to its OUV.

By closing and eliminating all traces of the birdhouses, she added, the Penang government was tampering with the authenticity of the inner city’s heritage and rewriting its history.

Bidor Town With A Case Of Great Swiftlet Farming Mistakes !!!

"Pak Harry currently there is a big war in Bidor between the tenant and the building owner.  It seems that the building owner refuse of extend the rental and the tenant who converted the top floors into BH is very unhappy."

If you happened to pass a town in Perak call Bidor you should not miss the most successful BH covered with those black orchid farm covering plastic mat.

It has the highest number of birds, infact full, and the owner was no longer allowed to rent the unit after filling up the BH to the max.

This is a good case for you to consider with the hope that you will not do the same mistake.

If you want to convert an existing building into a BH you need to avoid renting the building but better to  buy the building and convert.  This will ensure the BH will be yours for a long long time.

In this particular case the building owner refuse to extend and all what is inside the BH is his.

Yes he got a full BH.

He makes the tenant a fool but legally the tenant have very little right to do any thing.

Perhaps he should have a 25 years JV agreement.

 

 

So guys try to learn from this poor decision making and in the end you loose everything.

Latest I heard was that the building owner recently received a life bullet in his mail.

Well no matter what happened between them I will be hanging around the town for at least 1 more month to finish a BH under conversion.

I was engaged by a practicing doctor to convert two floors of a building somewhere at the back of the shop houses.

Those who plan to build their own BH my advise is to come for a preview.  You will be able to see something new and get some fresh ideas while visiting.

Remember nobody will allow you to enter their BH but Pak Harry always welcome you to see his latest masterpiece.

You might be able to view, subject to when they are being installed, a new method to change the BH sound remotely, lots of cluster tweeters. chandeliers, kite tweeters, hidden tweeters, specially made corner covers, umbrella tweeters combined with hexagonal tweeters, latest mist maker installations, auto aroma spray technique, owl protection, hanging perfume garden and etc.

If you are a new comer and wanted to be right from day one call 017 755 1318.  Allow me to schedule your timely visit.  Only five person per day and the best is during the last few days before being put into operation mode.

There will be a small fee for inconveniencing me during the preview.  Please bring some extra cash. I will make your visit worth every penny.

You can also come and view the BH that was having a big war between the building owner and the tenant......... From the outside !!!!

Something New In Installing Internal Sound Tweeters !!!

 

"Pak Harry I concealed all my internal sound tweeters and as you can see there is no tweeters at all."

That was the word from a BH owner who was very proud to show me his new BH in Perak.

Hmmm.... no tweeters but concealed in a kind of wooden frame with stainless steel wire mesh covering the top part.

I was very trying to think the various possible reasons why he adopted this new technique.

His explanations were as follows:

1) The way the tweeters were conceal with a layer of stainless steel wire mesh on the top will provide the birds with the most soothing place for them to roost.  It is at the middle of the tweeter that will provide the loudest and the clearest sound.  He got a good point here.  If you install onto the plank the birds have no choice but to hang on the top ridge of the tweeters. As such the head or more precisely the ears will be on the top and not at the middle of the tweeter.

2) There were at least two to three tweeters in one assembly of the wire mesh.  They can be assemble at home before installing at site.  As to install them will be very easy and fast.

3) He recently visited a BH nearby his current BH where the owner uses this technique and according to the owner he managed to get 300 nests in a year.  That is substantial however there might be many other reasons to get such a sizable number.  it could be to be at the right location. Well this might be his strongest reason to adopt this new conceal tweeter concept.

4) The stainless steel wire mesh covering the tweeter is absolutely something new.  According to him once the young baby grew up and if you trim their nail, they might have difficulties to migrate to other BHs without the wire mesh layer.  As such they have little choice but to return home to their place of birth.  Hmm....something new where the owner need to trim the claw of the young birds before they can fly.

No matter what he said I am of the opinion of trying it out.

I need to figure out how to get them together at my warehouse and bring across for installation.

I prefer a mixture of these new idea plus my cluster tweeters.

I leave it with you guys to configure if it can help to populate your BH.

Best of luck.....

Sorry I Took So Long !!!

This is today's joke to smile at:

Last Saturday night we were dressed and ready to go out to a party. We turned on a night light, turned the answering machine on, covered our pet parakeet and put the cat in the backyard.
Because we knew we would be having a few drinks, we phoned a cab company and requested a taxi. The taxi arrived and we opened the front door to leave the house. 

As we walked out the door the cat we had put out in the yard, scoots back into the house. We didn't want the cat shut in the house because she always tries to eat the bird. 

My wife goes on out to the taxi, while I went back inside to get the cat. The cat runs upstairs, with me in hot pursuit. 

Waiting in the cab, my wife doesn't want the driver to know that the house will be empty for the night. So, she explains to the taxi driver that I will be out soon, saying "He's just going upstairs to say goodbye to my mother." A few minutes later I get into the cab.

'Sorry I took so long,' I said as we drove away. 

'That stupid bitch was hiding under the bed. I had to poke her ass with a coat hanger to get her to come out! She tried to take off, so I grabbed her by the neck. Then, I had to wrap her in a blanket to keep her from scratching me. But it worked! I hauled her fat ass downstairs and threw her out into the back yard! She better not shit in the vegetable garden again!' 

The silence in the cab was deafening

Perfume Garden Works Well In Vo Cong, Vietnam !!!

"Pak Harry I logged onto your blog almost two hours a day.  I have followed nearly all your ideas and so far I have more than 400 birds in my BH. Prior to that nearly zero.  Thank you sir."

This was the words mentioned to me by one of my Vietnamese blog reader whose BH is in Vo Cong, Vietnam.

After looking at him closely I now remembered that he was the guy who came from the back and grab me and say "You are Pak Harry who wrote those beautiful blog.  Welcome to Vo Cong."

That happened about 6 months ago during my last trip to Vietnam.  I happened to visit Vo Cong and was walking around a number of BHs using those small lane in between the BHs.

That was the time when the incident happened when someone that I have not met came from the back and grab me.  He scared the shit of me.  I thought I was going to be kidnapped.

During my recent trip to HCM he stopped  to have a small chat and he brought his wife too.

While having a cup of coffee at the hotel's lobby I happened to know that he installed my perfume garden  idea.

The perfume garden is actually an idea which was introduced about 7 months ago by a friend staying in Penang.

The idea was to place raw nest water inside those pepper bottles and hang them on the nesting planks.

Make sure those bottle caps are drilled with holes to allow the raw nest water aroma ooze out of it. 

You can try doing this if you wanted to see if it works.

If this idea works than I suggest you can hang more bottles inside your nesting rooms. 

I have reasons to believed that the idea works since my Vietnamese friend showed me these photos.

 

Just 3 Weeks With Black Cloud And SuperBabyKing Sounds In Java Island !!!

I was kind of taken back and very glad that these two sounds have never failed to increase the number of nests in an old BH.

According to this BH owner, a practicing Medical Doctor,  his BH already has about 200 nests mixed with those Serinti birds.

He has been reading my blog not long ago and started to apply everything that he can used to improve his BH.

Once he got hold of the two most powerful sounds, the Black Cloud and The SuperBabyKing, he launched his BH of 26/5/11.

After three weeks he took some trouble to report to me on the fantastic result.

Just read the following email just received:


Dear Harry,

On 26/05/2011 I revamped my BH in Kraksan, East Java Indonesia, with only about 200 AF nests and many house Swiftlets (Serinti).

I only applied 85 Internal and 6 External Tweeters inside the BH (nesting rooms),

Due to the locations with tight neighbouring, I did use External sound just inside the BH.

I play Black Cloud inside the BH and turned on from 04.30 to 06.00 and again on 16.00-19.15

And Superbaby King as internal sound 24 Hours.

Yesterday 17/06/2011 i came from the BH and found many many new markings somewhere near the tweeters.

But not on stiroform as fake nests. I have applied duck eggs to the stiroforms.

I think the methods i get from your Blogs works. Thank You

I Hope, i can report you the progress again in 3-4 months.

Here i send you the pics.
 
Thanks

Dr. EH


The only thing that did not work were those styro foam nest applied with duck eggs.

 Not a bad result if you look on the overall exercise.

I hope he will submit more information after a few more weeks of months.


Well to those who wanted to know more direct from him I wish to inform you that he will be coming to attend my July 2nd 2011 Seminar at Shah Alam.

He might be able to share some of his experiences on that day with us.