He wanted to seek my advise on his plan to help his father to build a BH on a piece of land in Kuching.
"Pak Harry I have been following your blogspot for more than half a year now and recorded your phone number into my mobile phone. Really wanted to meet you in person to ask a few advises." he said.
His concern was how to educate his father who wanted to quickly build a BH on a property belonging to the family.
"Have you carry out any bird call test on the piece of land?" I asked.
His answer was no.
Oh oh that is no good. I told him.
He bought from me a test gadget and I told him to precisely carry out a number of test but before going it will be better to conduct a kind of trial run first.
"You need to learn how to operate this gadget. My advise to you is to locate a BH that is doing well and test the gadget about 50-100 meters away either on a field or open areas. Once you switch the gadget on push the sound volume to about 9:00 am. Immediately after that focus your eyes on the sky above the gadget."
Look at what will be the reaction of those swiftlet in the sky especially those from your neighbours BH.
They will come and start flying above the gadget.
Look at the behaviour, the flying patten, the size, the hight they circled, is it clockwise or anticlockwise and etc.
If you increase the sound volume to 10-11.00 am what do you think will happen?
"Once you have the idea how the gadget will perform you can now proceed to your farther piece of land." I advised him.
When you carry out the bird call test you need to focus on a few of these things:
1) How fast the birds appeared when you switch the sound on? Is it a few seconds or a few minutes?
2) Keep a good count of the birds that came and hover above the gadget and how many minutes.
3) You need to observe which direction they are coming. Is it from all the direction or from a few specific directions.
4) How far are they flying up above the gadget?
5) Do they fly at a fix hight or move up and down?
6) Look at the size of these birds. How big they are. If they are big in size then there are plenty of food around your land.
7) Look at the flying pattern. Are they moving in one direction or mix. Do they mainly move in an anticlockwise or clockwise?
8) You can pull them lower if you wave a piece of cloth or leave branches to them.
9) Look at the different body colours. Their main body, abdomen and the back of their tail.
10) Once you run the gadget for about 15 minutes try to switch off for about 10 minutes and restart. Check the activities again.
11) You can also use the gadget to detect their flying path. Test during evening time. Put the sound on and wait until there are at least 20 birds and switch the sound off. Watch where they will fly towards.
The results obtained from carrying out the bird call test will give the rough ideas what you consider next.
a) If there are very little bird responding should you find a new piece of land?
b) If the number of birds was marginal what will be best sized BH should you build?
c) If the test call brings thousands of birds what shall be the optimum sized BH should you build?
d) Which direction should you place the BH in respect to the flying path and the sun movement?
e) Where should my BH entrance hole(s) will be facing?
f) Which precise location should I open the entrance hole if most of the birds are flying on an anti clockwise or clockwise?
g) Should I use the side entry or top entry.
h) Can I open both?
i) Should I build a four stories or three or two?
You should be able to get the right answers to the above if you wanted to have a good start in swiftlet farming.
If you cannot get the right answers please try to attend some seminars on swiftlet farming.
The best will be those that are conducted in English and held by Pak Harry.
There is one on November 3rd 2012 at East Inn Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Call him at 0177551318 for a seat.
If you wish to get more exposure try to ask Pak Harry to arrange for a Swiftlet Farming Tour after the one day seminar.
You will see more and learn lots more new things.
Remember out of 10 swiftlet farmers 8 are not successful.
You cannot be in the unsuccessful group but in the 20% group that are successful.
All that you need is to know what you are doing and how to be a successful person.
1 comment:
hi there Pak Harry,
it was a pleasure meeting you last Tuesday.
anyway, just as i inform you this morning, I've test the gadget behind my house and i can see it really work. really happy with the result.
i'll keep you update once i try at the proposed land for the project.
thanks for the advice and looking forward for you to come to Kuching.
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