The Most Unusual Swiftlet Nest !!!

We have seen 90*, 130* and 180* shape nests.

These are common nests shape in every BH.

Those 90* comes from the corners without any corner covers.

The 130* from corners that were installed with corner covers and the 180* when those swiftlet build their nest on straight planks surfaces.

What if these birds build their nest hanging from the ceiling?

It will look something like this picture:

A very rare and strange shape nest will result.

The bird will anchor their nest with two attachments and build their nest like a swing.

A very strange and interesting picture found in the internet.

Happy New Year 2013 !!!

Just wanted to wish you guys a Happy New Year.

May 2013 be a more prosperous and the price of bird nests will soar to its highest level.

My wish is that the swiftlet industries will grow at a better pace and I will continue with my contribution to the industry.

I plan to contribute more time with a number of research works on swiftlet farming with a local University.

I will continue to find new sounds that can pull more birds into any new BHs.

I will continue to develop new ideas on the use of new aromas.

I will continue to help those who newbies that have difficulties to populate their BHs.

I will continue to introduce new ideas that was never thought of.

I will continue to conduct Seminars on how to be a successful swiftlet farmer to educate newbies in the industry.

I plan to give more attention to Sabah and Sarawak.

I hope this new year will be a good good year for all of us in Malaysia.

Never give up hope but let us help each other in improving this special industry.

All the formed nests were on those tweeters !!!

Something unusual that proof that internal sounds are the preferred location to build their nests.

Yesterday I took a trip to Karak, Pahang and this trip was to conduct some maintainence at a BH that was put into operation about a few months ago.

The owner have very little hope with it but after some modifications the BH seems to have a number nests and lots of bird shit spots on the floor.

I wanted to use this BH for my Super Pheromone spray test.

While conducting the BH nests count I found something strange.

Nearly all those formed nests were on the top of those internal sound tweeters.

They prefer to erect their nest just above the tweeter and not on its sides or far away from the tweeters.

These tweeters played those internal sound.

The were a number of kite tweeters playing external sound with a lot of bird shit spots below it but not a single nest on them.

This phenomena is something that tells us that it is important to make sure that your internal sound tweeters are working at all time.

For a new BH they formed the right location where your first nests will be erected.

There is no proper explanations being made but my gut feeling are as follows:

When you stop your external sound say at 8:00 pm those birds that were clinging onto the kite tweeters will feel like a lost.

The external sound that pulled them into the house is gone.  This couple will have three choices.  The first is to stay put at the same location, the second is to fly out into the dark or the third moved to those internal sound tweeters.

Usually if your internal sound selected is right the couple will moved to the internal sound playing tweeters.

Their preferred selection is the loudest sound made from it.

To fly out into the dark will be their last option.  However if your internal sound sucks they will fly out of your BH.

A good internal sound should be packed with baby sound and these baby sound will make those birds feel very calm and less stress.

This selected location will become their favourite location soon and they will start putting some markings on it.

What happen when they entered the next day?

If they happened to re enter your BH the next day they will usually go straight to the spot which they are laid their marking.

If that place was taken by another couple they will usually fight for the same spot.

If the occupants were strong they will give up and start searching for a new tweeter.

Once these birds have stayed for about three to four weeks or more the urge to start a family will come.

This will be when they will need to start building a suitable nest for the female bird to lay her two eggs.

Mating will vigorous and the male will remove a number of feathers from his partner's wings.

Once you see these feathers on the floor you know that their mating have begun.

The female will lay her egg on the 8th day after eggs fertilization.

She need a properly build nest to lay her eggs.

Once she lay her first egg the sex orgy will stop and now this couple will become your permanent tenant.

One Already Taken His Life !!!

The on going dilemma due to the closure of China market is taking it's toll in Malaysia.

This morning while have a small conversation with an old friend from Tanjong Malim Perak I was told that a BH owner from Butterworth have taken his life.

Why he took his life away? I asked.

He cannot service his bank loan since the raw nests price was too low.

I was a bit shock but the truth is that this low price syndrome is affecting many BH farmers and those who are involved in settling the export issue with China should be more efficient in starting the export trade.

There will be more to come if the whole process takes too long to settle.

In the meantime I was happy to know that a new concoction of bird nests with honey and zam zam water seems to he a bit with men in Malaysia.

The report indicated that this lady from Kelantan discovered her product can boost men energy level and she is having a brisk sales.

I wonder how good it is.

Maybe should try a bottle.

Read this article:

I have a very strong get feeling that if her production can be so effective to those men which sexual problem the raw nests price will jump up soon.

What we need is to get more variation in using bird nests to be an accepted health product.

Another friend of mine wanted to produce a varieties of bird nests processed products that can be a hit among young men.

He is looking at mixing the nests with Tongkat Ali and packed into satchel for easy consumption.

I suggested to him to copy a product that use gel as the base.

Let see if I can give some interesting ideas on his processing venture.

Once Very Little Nests But Now 350 Nests & Growing !!!

During Christmas holiday I took a short break and drove back to my home town Sungai Patani, Kedah.

Let my wife with his family and I keep myself busy with a few interesting things visiting a few sites that make every evening a sure happy evenings.

The first that I wanted to check was the BH at Paya Terubong Penang island.

It was beginning to show some good signs after waiting for more than 10 months after converting the entrance hole from top entry to a monkey house with 4 windows.

During my last trip I took a canister of the super pheromone and applied to nearly all the fake nests.

Upon entering and checking the floor areas the number was more than doubled.

They were thick and fresh which I interpreted they are still staying in their respective nests.

Nearly all fake nests that were covered with cloth skin have tenant.  There were more than 25 of them.

I have this gut feeling that the cloth help to soak the super pheromone liquid upon being sprayed and make the smell last longer.

This might be the possible reasons why most of these type of plastic covered with white cloth works well with the pheromone.

Some interesting observation made was on those 16 inches long styrofoam fake nests.

There were two that seems to be attractive to those swiftlet.

One was with a full cup nest while the other have lots of markings on it.

Both were sprayed with super pheromone.

I can safely said that this particular BH shows the effectiveness of super pheromone.

A very rare phenomena but from now I will put more attention on where I sprayed the pheromone.

I wanted to prove to all my blog readers that it works and if you wish to quickly populate your BH you must try this product and use it properly.

Why inspecting I received an SMS message as follows:

"Hi Sifu, Mr P your disciple from Raub.  Completed my phase 1 with 350 nests after 2 years and 3 months.  Thank you."

I was surprised with his message and replied back by congratulating him.

He seems to follow my advises and got where he is now.

Prior to this he has only 7 nests.

Applied those duck eggs and played my Marvellous cloud it when up to 30 nests.

The next move was to change his external to Pukau2 and internal Pukau3Internal.

The nests went balistic.

With 350 nests after 2 years & 3 months I think he is on the right track.

Told him to look into implementing the phase two scope of works.

Good for him but now wanted my latest sound for another missile power.

Will get him something to try my super pheromone.

Only Two Swiftlet BHs In Semporna Town !!!

(Seafest Hotel where an IKS Seminar was held on December 14th 2012)

My favourite past time when I visited any town is to check any swiftlet farming BH in that particular town or row of shops.

Recently when given a chance to visit Semporna Sabah I took a walk from Seafest hotel to Semporna main town areas.

I took less then 10 minutes to reach and spend about 2 hours walking around the small township.

Most interesting were the view of people boarding and unloading those water taxies shuttling people and goods from Semporna to those islands nearby.

The wet market were as usual very wet and the fish displayed looks pretty fresh.

A sizeable tuna was for sale.

Among other think that I have in my mind was to make a count on shop houses converted to swiftlet farm house.

There were at least two units where the top floor were converted.

Both were doing well.  One with top entry while the second was side entry.

This town looks a heaven for swiftlet.

If there are no guidelines to stop people from converting shop houses into BHs I choose this town as one of the best place in Sabah.

Most of these buildings were pretty old and suitable to be converted.

With the recent stringent guidelines I doubt if it is a good idea any more.

Have a look at some pictures that was taken during my walk in Semporna, Sabah.

(A side entry BH in Semporna town)

A top entry BH in the same town.

Wet market 

Water taxies

Loading and unloading taking place

Some coming some going

They do have a supermarket.  Not bad.

My Day On A Dentist Chair !!!

Yesterday visited my Dentist to pull one root that was left when the crown on it broke.

This dentist happened to be my beloved wife.

She was pretty gentle with me and it came out without much pain.

After feeling those numbness on the left side for about 3 hours it came back to its normal condition,

While resting received a number of calls and SMS messages.

One call was from Kuching Sarawak. He wanted to get an external sound from me.

I advised him to go with a set.  One external and the other internal.  These two sounds compliment each other.

Complimenting means it help to secure your new visitors longer inside your BH.

The two sound are similar in its base sound.  However the internal sound has a larger portion of those baby birds sound.

Which means that when the internal sound is played the new visitor will know that the external sound that she heard when she was lured inside your BH is still playing but in between there are these baby sounds.

In this way she will continue enjoying the same sound but intermittently.

This happened when your BH external sound is stopped for the night.

He was new to the subject and after listening to my explanation he agreed in full with my new invention or recommendations.

"Pak Harry I read your blog on a very regular basis nowdays.  Before this I used to read another blog but I think that blog writer was a bit arrogant and I don't like some of his harsh words used. I prefer yours since yours are more like a fatherly person when you write. You create more ideas and at the same time you never criticize others."

I reaffirmed to him that when I started my blog I set some simple objectives.  One of the most crucial is to help newbies like him to minimize doing mistakes and improving their chances of not becoming a failed BH owners.

I do not wish to criticize other since deep in my heart I know they are also trying to help but their methods maybe were not polished or right.

They have different motives and normally they were more towards selling their products.

Later part of the day I called another BH owner also in Kuching, Sarawak.

He was excited all over after knowing that I was on the line calling him.

"Hey Mr S how are you and your BHs?"

"Pak Harry you know something?  After following all your recommendations inclusive of your last Tango sound system my new BH is doing very very well.  I think it will be ready for your next Seminar in Kuching Sarawak."

I was impressed with his words and if he was keen than I am also keen to organize a talk in Kuching town closed to where his BH is located.

So next year 2013 there is a very strong chances that I will be visiting Kuching more often.

Another Very Very Strange Thing That Happened In A BH Located Somewhere In Pahang !!!

It came to me with another surprise.

This time a BH owner called and told me about his unusual experiences when there was an uninvited tenant in his BH.

This tenant have been terrorizing those swiftlet until no swiftlet came close to his BH even with a totally new good sounds played.

Months after month nothing seems to happen and he was getting very upset and rejected.

He could not understand why and what was causing those birds refusing to come and stay.

One day while observing those pictures captured his CCTV he saw the rascal.

It was not a rat or a musang or an owl or cat or squirrel but a "Casper".

What do you mean by "Casper"?  I asked him.

A baby ghost with wings flying around in the BH after 7:00 pm every evening.

You mean something like "Casper" the friendly ghost?

Oh shit !!! This is a very strange story and at first I wanted to laugh but he stopped me.

"Brother I am not joking but after getting a "Bomoh" to remove the "Casper" the birds started to come and stays." he reaffirmed.

"Now I have 100 birds and before that nil".

Hmm now I am beginning to wonder if his story might be true.

Let me see which of those BHs are facing difficulties in birds populating.

Yes I got one candidate and will call the owner to do some work to collect those CCTV clips on all the rooms after 7:00 pm.

I am pretty sure this might be true.

Those of you who are experiencing the same please take a step back and think about your current BH.

I do not want to believe but if my BH is still not filled after all the recommendations being done I would try to check on this.

It Was Due to The Sound Volume !!!

If you have the chance to visit BHs you should try to be observant.

Observant simply means to look out for any new things that will provide you with new ideas on how to get more birds staying in your BH or any BH.

This was what I did when I entered a BH.

I will tell myself see if there is or are new things that were used inside and attract more birds to where they were installed.

Last week when I was in Sabah, I was allowed to visit not less than 5 BHs.

Most of them were sick and new but there was a BH that was doing rather pretty well.

This special BH belongs to a friend who happened to have met me prior to coming out with the BH.

He was very lucky that I responded to his request and I managed to look at the BH design.

Told his to do some modifications to the plans and advise him which direction the entrance hole should be facing.

During construction I was there twice to view its progress.

I was also there when the BH was installed with those nesting planks and tweeters.

The owner was a bit carried away and he came out with many new things that I told him to go ahead.

One of those things that he created himself was this corner fake nests made of styrofoam.

After putting his BH into operation using my sound system plus my selected sounds the BH went pretty well.

During my recent visit I was very happy to see a sizeable number of bird shit spots all over the floors except the lowest floor.

Beside that there was something that he did not noticed.

I took him to the front VIP room on the middle floor with a lot of fresh looking bird shit spots and later pull him to the VIP rooms at the back with quite a bit of bird shit spots however most of them looks like dried up.

I asked him why did that happened?

He was speechless and could not find any answers to my question.

When you see those bird shit spots on the floor like crumbling with no fresh shit on the top you know that those birds have moved to another location.

I gave him a simple clue.  "Can you listen to the internal sound volume?"

I now asked him to walk to the front room and listen to the sound volume and after that return the the back room and listen to sound again.

"Any different?" I asked him.

"Yes Pak Harry the sound volume at the front room was much louder than the sound played at the back room." his answer.

"You mean to say that those birds will move to the louder sounded tweeters?" he asked.

"That is correct."   my frank answer.

He never realized how those birds can be easily moved from one room to the other all because of the volume.

At least that particular visit teaches him something new which will eventually help him to manage his BH in a more proper way.

The other problem about drawing more birds to the lower floor was arrested as well.

A Closer Look At A Wooden BH In Papar !!!

(Wooden BH in Papar about 20 feet X 60 feet and 8 feet high)

I wanted to have a closer look at this wooden BH for quite some time.

My main intention was to review its performance and see if this can be one of the most ideal low cost BH for those low income groups.

While in Kota Kinabalu Sabah, I was given another opportunity to view this 1.5 years old wooden BH located some where near a town called Papar.

The cost to erect one unit of 20 feet wide by 60 feet long by 8 feet high was said to be around RM 60,000 excluding the cost of buying the land and pulling the electricity line to site.

It was elevated using those solid wood to prevent any flooding or attack by wild pigs and so forth.

What I was very concerned about was the temperature inside.

What about the nesting room's humidity and darkness?

After viewing the external and internal I have to say that overall the design was not that bad however it could have been better.

The internal temperature was on the high side.  If I was the fabricator I will install either those heat shield roll on all the side walls and the ceiling.

The internal temperature must not be above 31*C but the thermometer recorder indicated a maximum of 39*C.

I wonder why didn't the fabricator who have been building so many similar type of wooden BH take no notice about this critical issue.

The second point of concern was the darkness inside the nesting room.  It was not to what I would love to have in my BH.  It has to be dark enough where when you stand two feet apart and you could not see each other's face.

In this BH you can still still see each other even if you stand 5 feet apart.

The owner have to do something.  What I recommended was to erect a kind of wall or partition to block the light and at the same time create a VIP room.

The next biggest concern was the external sound tweeters.  They were all located at the entrance and roving areas but what about inside the nesting room?

I explained my reasons why he needed a few kite tweeters playing external sound inside his nesting room.

Most contractors or consultant will ignore the importance by I for one will always advice to BH owners to think about it and perhaps try it out.

I manage to touch about the position of the entrance hole.  I prefer a monkey house however this BH its entrance hole was at one of the wall.

If a monkey house is erected the height would be better and you can actually use the monkey house to your advantage.

You can install a hexagonal tweeter at a higher level, install a few power tweeters on the monkey house walls for Lang Tango sound and the roof can be shorten.

Inside the Monkey house you can easily block the light from polluting your nesting room.

You can also open more than one entrance hole up to four at any one time.

The BH humidity could have been better if the owner should install more water into those plastic pails.

The place where the sound amplifiers were positioned was not very friendly to those swiftlet.

It was too closed to the entrance hole and every time you enter your BH to change the sound volume or sound it will disturb those swiftlet.

There were a few more things that I commented and I hope the owner will make some of my recommendations.

I assured him that if he follow my recommendations the number of birds staying will improve within a few short months.

He got nothing too loose but more to gain.

The First Ever BH I Visited In Semporna, Sabah !!!

It happened to be a two stories BH made of wood and cement boards.

While is Semporna I was tracked by this school teacher who happened to be reading my blog.

He knew that I was coming to his home town and he make every effort to track me up to my hotel.

I have never met him but he was very persistence about getting my attention.

Early morning of December 15th 2012 I was having my breakfast and he called to seek my time.

I told him to come over and within less than 20 minutes he was at the lobby alone.

He joined me for a cup of coffee and started his stories about what is happening to his BH.

"Pak Harry my BH is made of wood and have been in operation for almost 8 months.  So far there were no nests but I think there are a number of birds staying.  I need your help to view what can be the reasons why they refuse to stay and to make nests."

Looking at his expression I think he was not very happy with what was happening and need my second opinion.

He soon took me over and there in front of me a BH made of wood just at the back of his house.

It looks impressive and those birds should like the house.

I entered through a small door and checked his sound system.

Not bad since he was using something like I always preaches.

The external and internal sounds seems to be al right   I believed the internal sound was those of superbabyking while the external was not in my library.  An old sound that I must have left out.

The next move was to inspect the roving areas and the two floors.

The top most was too bright and the number of bird shit on the floor was little and thin.

The second floor looks more promising but it was still quite bright.

Both floors were not very conducive as far as the birds are concerned.

Those bright lights were coming from the roving room just below the monkey house.

"Pak Harry my consultant says it was okay when I asked him."

I thought of telling him that if it was okay then why was he chasing to get me over.

I stressed to him about the special gift that those swiftlet has.  They have the ability to use a kind of echo sounder which allows them to fly in total darkness.

Since they have this special gift they prefer to build their nests in a closed enclosure that is pitched dark.

The rule of the thumb is 2 feet apart and you cannot see each other's face.

Told him precisely how to close the roving areas and open about 3 feet doors floor up.

Another interesting observation was those bird shits spots on the floor.

I wanted to show him where the bird shit spots were on the floor and where the tweeters were on the nesting planks.

It was like look down there is a spot and when you look up there is a tweeter.

"Mr H this row there were 5 bird shit spots and if you count the number of tweeters there are the same numbers.  Why don't you increase the tweeters number to ten?"

He was amused with my request and it make senses.

"If you have five tweeters and all of them have a large spot of bird shit below, why don;t you install ten?"

He never thought about it.

I precisely told him where those new tweeters should be installed.

The next was about external sound tweeters.

"Do you realized that your BH external sounds are only made available at the monkey house areas?"

Well according to him his Sifu told him that you do not need those external sound in the nesting rooms.

The same mistakes and it seems that this short sightedness in common in swiftlet industry.

The best was to install about one or two kite tweeters to lure those birds inside the vip rooms.

I left him with a few advises on what he needed and took a small drink at his house.

Pak Harry I wanted to show you this marketing materials from my Sifu.

I flipped through and I was surprised to see more than 15 pictures out of about 50 were from my blog.

"I think your Sifu is a copycat.  He copied these pictures into his marketing materials and came over to Tawau to bluff every body that he is good."

My frank opinion about your Sifu is that he have many more chapters to finish before teaching you about swiftlet farming.

He should call me and let me tell him some mistakes that he should have avoided.

I understand that he has a group of followers who uses his uncooked knowledge.

I guarantee you that all his followers have the same problems where those birds came but refuse to stay or stays but refuse to build their nests.

Told him that he was lucky to have got me over and pin point those mistakes.

I guaranteed him that if he modified as per my recommendations, a few things,  his BH will be okay.

Just trust my gut feelings I told him.

PS:  This BH owner called me a few months ago and confirmed now his BH has more than 20 nests after less than 3 months after revamping according to my advises.