Lost And Found, Now What To Do !!!

Yesterday was busy at work site and two calls came in asking for immediate help.

"Pak Harry I got thing young swiftlet and what should I do with it?  What and where to get her food?"

He sent a number of pictures and I told him to put it back into its nest if he can.

"No way Pak, she was from my friend's BH and I don't think we know which nest when came from." his answer.

So you need to feed that young fellow until she can fly.

"She refuse to eat those grasshopper I offered?"

That was not the right thing to offer.

I think you should look at something more to her liking.  Like those termites. The flying termites are better.

Why don't you go and locate those termite mount and digging.  Collect them into a container and put the container into your freezer.

Those termite will be frozen and you can pick some for your young bird to eat.

Maybe you might need to squash them and feed them in liquid form.

Use a syringe with no needle please.

"What if she refuse to open her mouth?"

Force open but gently.

Looking at the size and shape of the young bird, I think she is about 40 days old and ready to take her flight within 3-5 days from yesterday.

I do have another formula but it will not arrive in time.

Best of luck to this new daddy.

There will be calls coming for more help all the time.

Another call was about this guy wanted to buy those Figs trees.

"Pak, I wanted those figs trees.  25 tree that are not consumable and 5 that its fruits can be eaten."

Feel like as if looking after a nursery.

Well I advised him to give me about 3 weeks for the 25 tree stems with shoots  while the 5 tree need to graft and it will take at least 3 months.

The strange thing was that he confirmed yes.

"Okay I will send a cheque to your home address." his answer.

I got to start cracking on this request and a few weeks ago sent about 30 pieces of stems with shoots to another BH owner located in Tawau, Sabah.

Well if you need some help please call me at 0177551318.  Nothing is impossible.

The Top Floor Is Taking Its Shape !!!

 

(The heat shield on the ceiling rooftop)

Yesterday was fully occupied with a Seminar conducted at Serdang Agriculture University.

Today arranged for participants to visit both the Dengkil and Salak Tinggi BHs.

We have about 20 participants and guests.

I was glad that the two days Seminar went well and I can see nearly all stayed back just wanted to than me for being so generous with all the information.

The site visit was something interesting.  Most of the participants have very little chance to visit any BH around their town.

During the site visit they learn and observed all the things that were taught during their classroom sessions.

The most interesting were the VIP rooms, the monkey house arrangements, the appropriate size of entrance hole, the opening of secondary hole for morning light, the enclosures to guide those birds to fly above the LAL, the hexagonal tweeter, the last tango system, the cluster tweeters, the chocolate tweeters, the wet floors, the bird release room and many more.

During the visit to Salak Tinggi BH they saw the heat shield being installed on the walls and the roof.

Most participants have never seen of have the faintest ideas on all those items and gadget installed in the two BHs.

I gave a special invitation for all those who wanted to inspect the Salak Tinggi BH once it is ready for operation.

Give me above two to three more weeks and please come to take a good look at how I transform the empty shop house into a top notched BH.

The conversion works on the top floor is taking shape.

The walls were all done.

The heat shield system were completed as at today.

The back VIP is taking shape with those wooden structures up and ready to be installed with those 4'X4' ceiling boards.

The nesting plank on the walls perimeters were up and ready.

I am very pleased with the progress so far.

Hope to assemble a few more gadgets before stopping by tomorrow.

Remember you are welcome to view this masterpiece during the construction.

If you wish to join the fund to help out during the erection, please call 017 7551318.

No one will offer this golden opportunity to learn about swiftlet farming but Pak Harry will.

Just pick up the phone and call the number.

 

(View of heat shield above the false ceiling)

 

(The opening waiting for me to snap some pictures)

 (Installation of heat shield on the wall facing morning sun)

 (Completed Heat Shielding on wall facing the west)

 (The nesting planks installed on the walls perimeter)

 (VIP room wall frames taking shape)

I Think I Am Getting Old !!!

I think I mixed up the date and day to sit in for the Seminar yesterday at UPM Serday.

I was cock sure that the 29th of May should be on Thursday.

So I decided to send those items to the venue and proceed to Salak Tinggi work site.

Went out early and after arrival those helpers came down to carry the BH items up.

It was during that particular moment I was told that the Seminar have started.

"You meant the Swiftlet Farming Seminar had started?" I inquired.

"Yes Pak Harry the Seminar room is upstairs," he answered.

I was stunt and take a good look at my iPhone calander to confirm.

Oh shit I was carried away with the revamp operation and mixed up the date.

Never mind about my clothing and with a pair of working sandal.

I walked up the stairs and entered the seminar room.

There were about 20 participants.

I waited for my turn and when I was given the microphone to start my talk I apologies on my very casual dressing and admitted that I mixed up the date.

The Seminar went nicely and after 1.5 hours of my first talk I felt so hungry.

I realized that I have not taken any breakfast yet.

Managed to take a bite and resumed the talk with no further hiccup.

The Seminar went well and most of the participants were very happy the talks given.

There were a number of press people and one of them was from a Chinese Newspaper.

He was fascinated with my talk and wanted to write more about my misson.

He corned me for some minutes for my time and scribble some notes about my objective in trying to help the Swiftlet Industry.

"Pak Harry I am very fascinated with your talk and usually this trade is very confidential.  No one in the industry will share their success stories with any one even their relatives. In your case you are so opened and provided so much information that are important to the industry." he insisted.

He planned to write a strong article about me and promised to serve my famous blog site.

I gave him my blessing to use any of my quotes or my web site on the condition that he quoted that it was from my blog site & address.

The Seminar went well and I am very glad with my part to talk on two interesting topics that were useful to all participants.

Just hope that there will be more such talk in the future and perhaps at different locations.

Ready To Heat Shield With Bubble Sheet !!!

I was at the work site today and was very pleased with the arrival of the heat shield from  Perak.

The four rolls of heat shield materials arrived yesterday and we should be starting the shielding operation this Wednesday.

Four walls and the top floor roof will be my main target.

The roof areas will be the first to be attended to and the next shall be those four walls.

With the heat shield installed I expect to see the temperature of the top most floor to be within 29-30*C.

The second floor, one floor lower should be hovering about 1*C lower around 28-29*C.

One blog reader wanted to take part in the installation.

I hope to have him at the BH on Wednesday.

He can learn how to install the shield and perhaps can use the same method at his BH.

The soaring temperature experiencing right now will get worse as time goes by.

Once your BH turned into a stove you will find that most of your tenants will find another cooler place soon.

I am hoping that the two BHs on the left and right side of this particular BH will face the heat problems.

If that is true there will be a sizable number of potential tenant to jump across.

Welcome to a new cooler home.

Let see if this small prediction materialize.

Confirmed To Be A Speaker At Pusat Transformasi Komuniti UPM !!!

Received a confirmation note from Prof A about my slots during a Seminar organized by "Pusat Transformasi Komuniti UPM".

Confirmed date is May 29th and 30th 2013.

The first day shall be covering some articles about swiftlet farming and the second day shall be site visits.

There will be some discussion during night sessions.

I was given two slots and each slot takes about two - 3 hours.

This particular two days Seminar was advertised in Harian Metro.

So far about 25 participants have registered.

I think it might hit 30 soon.

If you wish to participate please call this number 03 89471819/1814/1816 (Puan Nafisah or Nik Muhammad)

The fee is RM 500.

All participants owned BHs and most with some kind of nest population problems.

Main objective of this seminar is to share some interesting ideas on how to populate those sick BHs and perhap share experiences with those that have well performed BHs.

I will be focusing my talk about my experiences in this interesting swiftlet farming and all the things that I have done and discovered.

It will be an interesting thing to share will them.

All participants will have their BH inspected and a full report will be provided in they wanted to.

It will be something interesting to help all of them one by one.

Will get some pictures of the seminar and perhaps the visits made.

Semporna Wooden BH Owner Confirmed That Now The House Is With 15 Nests !!!

Before reading this article please refresh about my visit to Semporna Sabah about 6 months ago at:

The First Ever BH in Semporna Sabah!!!

The owner just SMS his BH latest status.

"Good afternoon sir, as at the moment the number of nests now is 15.  Thank you very much".

I congratulated him and mentioned that hope my last visit plus my recommendations were the cause of the increase in number.

During my visit he confirmed that there was no nest after 8 months into operation.

There were a few bird shit spots but they seems to be drying up.

"Yes got improvements after following your recommendation.  Thank you for all the great advises."

That was something sweet and make me feel a bit proud to be a small part of his success.

I wished the number of nests was bit more than 15.

To him it might be good enough but I still believed he can get more it he put a close watch on his BH.

He need to carry out more improvements if he wanted to see more nests inside his BH.

The best would be to upgrade his external sound (Selking) and keep applying the Super Pheromone liquid.

Best of luck to him and I am so glad that those tips given were showing results. 

Remember I did very little except to view the BH and listed the things that he should do himself.

He followed those simple things and his luck improved.

This is one reason why I love to enter or visit BHs.

I can predict what are not right with the BH once I listen to the owner list of problems he is facing with his BH.

From his description I can tell him off hand the possible reasons and when I entered the BH I can safely say that 80-90% of the prediction were true.

This is not a gift but some common phenomena that most BH owners are not well informed about swiftlet behaviors.

What we them to do is to fully understand these beautiful creature requirements and I am sure they will love to be your tenant.

 

Planned To Wrap This New BH With Bubble Shield System !!!

It takes about 3.5 rolls to wrap up a two floors shop house turned into a BH.

My order for four rolls of bubble heat shield was done a few days ago and the shipment should be at site this Monday.

The use of this material is nothing new to my BH revamp operation.

So far I have used the same materials inside about four BHs to isolate those high temperature walls.

Current heat spell will see many BHs facing high internal temperature.

Those with lots of birds will soon find only a few left if their BH internal temperature starts to touch 32-35*C.

I believed now is the right time to start monitoring your internal heat problems.

Monitor the highest temperature, what time it occurred and from what time to what time of the day or night.

Usually the temperature inside will start to build up at around 8pm till 10pm.


It will be get worst with the current hot weather.

My recommendation is to install those temperature monitoring gadget for about a week and transfer those data for analysis into your computer.

The moment you got the exact figure you need to start getting the right walls or ceiling area that are turning into hot plates in your BH.


Check on them and start thinking what can be done to shield them from tranfering those heat into your nesting rooms.

I would suggest the use of this Bubble heat shield system.

If you wish to learn more how to apply them let
 me know or perhaps come to Salak Tinggi Selangor to see how I get this BH insulated.

 Call 017 7551318

 

After One Year Following My Blog !!!

Yesterday at around 7:30pm met a new Swiftlet Farming blog reader  from Kemaman, Trengganu just to have a few words with me.

He called about two days ago about his plans and would like to meet me for a cup of coffee.

I told him to come over and it will be nice to talk more about his problems.

He drove his Hilux 4 wheeler for 4 hours and I was glad that we met.

His main reason was to have my opinion about a new BH that he wanted to construct and at the same time wanted my views about other BHs (about 4 others) that were not doing well.

What he did was to read books written by birdhouse experts from foreign countries.

I told him that I used to refer to those books too but one thing that I realized was that they were written in languages that were difficult to understand and we tend to become confused when some of the wording was never in our dictionary.

More often than not they were written many years ago and become a bit obsolete. 

The best is still to refer to those active blog-sites which are fresh and at the same time you can directly communicated with the authors for any explanation.

He found and followed my blog for almost one year.

He tried a number of my ideas and when he saw the results he make this attempt to call me for some help.

There were a number of serious questions that were posted and I answered every one of them with lots of references and ideas how to resolve them.

We have a simple dinner (roti nan) and his plan now was to invite me to his BHs in Kemaman and Besut.

No matter what he wanted to do next is up to him but I will be happy to help in whatever things that he wanted me to do.

At least now he will have someone to guide him.

"So you are staying in KL tonight?" i asked.

"Nope we are driving back home now.  Thank you for your time Pak Harry and it was worth the trip." he answered.

"No matter what the outcome between you and the Telok Kalong BH owner please try to find time to visit me in Kemaman soon." he affirm his commitment.

Will find the time to drive up to Kemaman next week or the week after.

The most important is to know that he was very happy with the three hours meeting with someone he admired.

A New Job Converting A 3 Stories Shop House !!!

My next new project will be in Salak Tinggi, Selangor.

This particular project will have something special where the birds will be forced to stay on the lower floor.

The top floor will only be opened once the lower floor accumulate at least 200 nests.

I need to convince the owner about my objectives and one day he will realize why I wanted the first batch of birds should be on the lower floor.

Let us look at the advantages of the lower floor as compared to the top most floor:


1) Usually the top floor will be the brightest.  Swiftlet will prefer the lower floor since it will be darker as compared to the top most floor.

2) The temperature of the upper floor will be much higher as compared to the lower floor.  As a rule of the thumb the temperature different will be at least one degree Centigrade.

3) The humidity at the lower floor will be superior as compared to the upper floor.

4) The lower floor will be a much safer place to raise a family since the chances of being rob by those predators are much lesser.

5) This particular BH is a shop house.  It is using a hanging false ceiling.  The ceiling boards were those light weight boards that can be easily pushed open.  One common predator that might stay or make their nests above the ceiling are those rats.  Every nest on the top floor will face this nuisance.

The advantage of the top floor are as follows:

a) It is very near to the exit hole.  This will have something to do with a fast escape out of the house if you know that is someone in the BH.

b) Lesser traveling time to fly in and out bringing home food for their babies if they choose to build their nests on the top floor.

c) Easier to navigate to locate where their nests are especially in total darkness.

No matter how many advantages there are to stay on the upper floor, the environment on the lower floor are much superior as compared to the top floor.

In my many years involvement with swiftlet farming I can safely say that it is very rare to see a BH with birds staying at the lower floor more than the upper floors. 

One of the most common reason lies is to give the birds a free choice to stay where they wanted to.

The next common reason is that the main entrance hole faces the west.

The other reason will be the LAL was not rightly located.  Those birds that entered the BH could not find the path to the lower floors.

The Power Of Hexagonal Tweeters And A Good External Sound !!!

(Hexagonal Tweeters + Sel-King Power)

Play this video clip and have a look at the power of using hexagonal tweeters paying a powerful external sound.

I always prescribed the use of hexagonal tweeters at every BH that I visited or constructed.

This powerful tool will triple the number of birds to your BH rooftop if you used and located it properly.

One of its strong benefit is to push your external sound played at 360* angle.

Yes your external sound will be pushed 360 degrees angle and will attract more birds from what ever location they are flying closed to your BH.

Every birds that flew around your BH is a kind of asset to your BH.

If they can be invited over your BH and flew inside the entrance hole you will stand a higher chance of getting them to be your permanent tenant.

Usually if you play a good and powerful external sounds those birds will in fact come to kiss your hexagonal tweeters.

They will try to land on your tweeter and might stays there for some short seconds or a few minutes.

My best recommendation to any BH owner is to fix this powerful gadget as closed as possible to your main entrance hole.

Remember the right location plus the right height will force them to enter your main entrance window.

If you choose the wrong location plus too high above the roof surfaces you have lesser chances to draw them into your BH.

Let those birds come to the hexagonal tweeters and quickly forced them to enter your entrance hole.

Make sure all that responded (100%) will eventually enter your BH.

Try this idea and I am almost certain that your nests population will suddenly shot up within the next few months.

I assumed that your BH internals are proper.

If they entered and not a single one stays, you need to ask for help.

Call 017 7551318.

Look At This Hornbill On BH Entrance Area !!!!

I am not sure if you have ever known about Hornbill.

Someone told me before that Hornbill can be one of your BH predator.

I was visiting this colorful BH in Kemaman.

During sound test operation at its site I was surprised with two large birds that flew closed to the BH.

The owner confirmed that the large size birds were actually Burung Engang or Hornbill specie.

"Pak Harry, at time they will land on the roof top very closed to the top entry opening." he confirmed.

I was a bit taken back and mentioned to him that that was not a good thing for a BH.

If I am not mistaken during breeding season they will not only feed their babies with fruits but also meat surplement.

The meat supplement I think comes from baby birds of other specie or other birds.

I could not comment much on what to do but I think he suggested his special plan which I do not wish to make any comment.

Have a good look at the entrance hole area.

Selangor King (Sel-King) In Vietnam !!!

Recently a friendly party tested my new Sel-King external sound in Vietnam.

He was kind enough to capture a video clip during the test.

He wanted me to share with my blog readers.

Look at this special clip:

.


Something special about the BH tested.

The BH was put into operation for only 6 months.

The total number of nests was above 300.

According to my source the owner uses "SuperBabyKing" as his internal sound.

He uses lots of internal sound tweeters plus fake nests.

He applied Super Pheromone on all his fake nests and corners.

His original external sound is a medley of the most powerful sounds he collected and most of it were from Pak Harry album.

I am happy that he complied to my ideas during the design.

I hope that more people will be as successful as he is.

To those who wanted to try this new sound please call 017 7551318 or write to harryswiftlet@yahoo.com

A BH At Telok Kalong, Kemaman Trengganu !!!

Another not doing well BH located somewhere at Teluk Kalong, Kemaman, Trengganu.

A very unusual BH using a special kind of colored bricks as it walls.

Each brick, according to owner was about RM 1.60.

This three stories building about 65 feet by 25 feet was put into operation about 2.5 years ago.

I counted the number of nests yesterday and I found only 25 nests.

Nearly all except one were found on the middle floor.

Special note here is that the lowest floor was under conversion into some kind of rooms for human.

What do you think about its performance?

The owner wanted some help to check why the nest number was so low and nothing happened so far for almost one year.

I drove about 4 hours to perform my duty and I would like to list some of the things found not right inside this BH.

1) The first thing that I think was not right was the sound system.  The external sound was not functioning or loud enough to hear from the outside.

1A) There was not tweeter on the roof areas.  In the monkey house tunnel only one tweeter was working and the sound volume played was very low.

2) The owner indicated that there was a freak accident when a lorry that passed by his BH hit those cables and he blamed the lorry for the sound system failure.

2A) After the freak accident the owner connected his only was of reactivating his BH and I think it was not the proper method.  He actually used those telephone cable line to reactivate his external tweeters.

3) The BH location was a bit of a problem.  It was surrounded with residential homes.  I think he cannot maximize his BH external sound.

4) The number of external sound tweeters inside the monkey house and its surrounding was not adequate or appropriated.

5) The top floor was a bit too bright.  This was due to his opening of doors at the main entrance areas.  The floor brightness makes those birds feel unsafe and 24 of the 25 nests were found on the lower floor.

6) The LAL was a bit obscure and not properly though of.

6A) The BH was very dusty and dust on the floor will usually causes its nests to be very dirty.

7) The BH has no humidity control system.  No humidifiers and no wet floor.  I think the dryness might be one of the possible reason why there were not so many tenants.

8) There was no external sound inside the BH.  The sound around the LAL was also internal sound.

9)  He was lucky to use those BabyKing as his internal sound.  He it was some other freeking sound it will be a much larger disaster.

10)Finally I think the owner's knowledge about swiftlet farming was a bit on the low side.  There was no one or nobody that he can turned to.

Overall I think this BH was not well managed and lack of knowledge about managing BH was the key point here.

If he should have someone from, let say, the Jabatan Veterina I think his BH should do well.

Again I am not sure how knowledgeable are those from the Jabatan.

I wish that these Government Department do something in upgrading their knowledge and know how about swiftlet farming.

Make it as soon as you can please.


If there is no one to help in upgrading their knowledge call 017 7551318

 

The monkey house roof areas.

Two entrance holes one on the top and one at the side.

 

The connecting door from the monkey house to the nesting room.

Too wide and little external sound tweeters.

 

The middle floor with no partition, open concept.

 

The owner went with double stack nesting planks arrangements.

My Humble Opinion About How To Orientate Your Expensive BH !!!

I remembered walking with a "chicken breeding expert" towards a BH in Dengkil, Selangor.

While climbing up the steep hill we passed a newly constructed chicken rearing building that was about to be completed.

You know what he said to me.

"Oh oh I think this chicken house is not in the right orientation.  It should be in line with the sunrise in the morning and sundown in the evening.  Which mean to say that it should be from east to west and not southeast to northwest or north to south."  he said.

Any significant effect if the are not in line with the sun?

"Oh yes, if the sun is allowed to shine to the side of the BH those chicken will fight for a place on the opposite site for shed.  Likewise in the evening when the sun is shining on to the opposite wall area the chicken will now move or cramp on the other side with the shed."  he explained.

He make a lot of sense and I fully agree with him.

What he was trying to say is that if your chicken house is not properly aligned with the sun or east to west direction the chicken house utilization is only half.

This is because they will avoid the hot sun area and will cramp to the max on the shady areas.

What about swiftlet BH?

I think the same thing applied to the east and west alighment.

If your BH is not in the preferred orientation you will have your the larger surface areas of your BH be hit by the sunrays on a direct basis.

In the morning the largest surface area walls will be hitting the hot sun in full blast and in the evening the other wall will be absorbing those sun heat.

If you have not make the necessary arrangements to minimize those heat reaching the inner walls, like double wall type, your BH will face a severe high temperature problem.

Beside the heat I think the entrance area like your monkey house or top entry areas should be located on the east side of the building.

My main reason being we need the morning sun to enter the BH as early as possible and this morning light will be able to guide your birds to find their way out of the BH.

If your monkey house is on the west the morning light we have to use the wall to reflect into your nesting rooms.   It will take a longer path thus reducing the intensity to guide those hungry birds out of the house.

If any one who read think that I am wrong please email your reasons.

I will be very happy to publish your points if I receive them.

Everyone have their own opinion but it must be supported with facts and logical explanation.

Remember I do not claim to be a super consultant but I am just voicing my opinion.

Call me if you wish to advise your opinion.  017 7551318.

Super Pheromone Seems To Work Well In Dungun, Trengganu !!!

An exciting new discovery about the effectiveness of Super Pheromone.

This time was in a small coastal town called Dungun, Trengganu, Malaysia.

I first met this BH owner about 8 months ago during my conversion job in a palm oil plantation closed to Dungun.

This person called and wanted to have a cup of coffee after working hours.

I told him that I am free to meet him at one of the Coffee shop to a cup of coffee.

We met for the first time and he expressed his gratitude for my informative swiftlet farming blog.

During our discussion we touched based about testing the use of fake nests made of pine trees leaves.

I have no experience in using it so does he.

What we did was to purchase some and try out in out BHs.

I installed a few but nothing happened.  He complained the same poor result.

Yesterday, after nearly 4-5 months of its installation, it seems that one out of the many installed seems to be occupied.

The only different was that he sprayed this particular fake nest with my Super Pheromone spray.

"Pak Harry just to inform you that one of my cemara fake nest now have a tenant.  This particular nest was sprayed with your super pheromone.  I planned to spray on the rest of the fake nest with no tenant during my next visit."  he confirmed.

This is something worth to report and make known.

Super Pheromone is something that was recently discovered.

The product have some kind of special effect the moment those swiftlet smell it.

It is something like when you wanted to take the first bite of those assam fruits or pickled fruits.

The moment you hold the assam/pickled fruits at your mouth you will find a strong surged of saliva coming out of your saliva glands.

This is what happened to those swiftlet the moment they smell the Super Pheromone.

It works in many places however in Peninsular Malaysia it shows partial success.  What I meant is that some places it works and some it does not.

My strong believed is that it you are lucky and it works in your location you will get a jackpot.

Once those bird species in your area responded well to this plank aroma you can quickly draw more new tenants into your BH.

You not only get more but if you carefully plan on how and where to apply, you will get better shape and quality nests.

Please get a canister and try.

Call 017 7551318 for a bottle.

The cost is only RM165 per bottle excluding postage.

Possible Conversion Job In The Card !!!

"Pak Harry I need your help to convert a three stories shop house into a BH."

That was what transpired between this shop house owner and me a few days back.

I told him to wait for me at the shop house on Sunday and we have some good time to view the two floors he suggested.

The shop house seems to be abandoned for any business for more than 15 years and there were at least 40 BHs all around it.

This empty shop house was it between two successful BHs with at least 3,000 nests in total.

Very interesting location and lots of young feeder birds every season.

The only sore point is that it might be against the local by laws.  I told him to be very sure of his decision.

The top floor seems to be perfect but the 2nd floor have some minor short coming.

The floor was too small and there is no way of using the staircase as the LAL.

It seems that the only way out is to hack the floor and pull those birds downstairs.

I took home the floor sketches and came out with my recommended proposal.

The ideal point to hack the floor was somewhere near the wall about 15 feet away from the front wall facing the flying path.

After listing down the terms and conditions I emailed to the owner for his confirmation.

If this particular job is confirmed I will have a ample opportunity to train a few newbies to be a good swiftlet farmers.

There is a very strong possibility of training two undergrads from UPM too.

I just hope that the project will be confirmed soon.

A BH That Needs Some Major Rectifications !!!

You will feel very sad when you list down the number of mistakes inside a non performing BH.

Basically there are no proper school or institute or university that provide a kind of certificate to certify the qualification of anybody who claimed to be BH consultant.

The type of mistakes they carried out is sickening and make you want to vomit blood.

Today I happened to inspect another very critically ill BH in Sekinchan Selangor.

The owner is a Malay man about 60 years old, retired.

The three stories building was with 25 feet wide by 60 feet long three stories using a monkey house operation.

It was put into operation about one year ago and two months ago a consultant was engaged by him to make some repairs works.

He was desperate since there was not a single nest after 10 months into operation.

The Consultant promised the owner that after his repair works his BH will be filled with a lot of birds.

The helpless old man took the bait and told him to go ahead.

The so called consultant screwed up the whole house by making so many silly mistakes.

He was using external sound (black cloud and marvelous cloud) as the BH internal sound.  The external he used was DHoney,

The first thing I did was to confess to the owner that it was a major blunder by a not qualified "Consultant".

If someone who claimed to be a "Consultant" and not even able to differentiate between internal and external sound, I think he should be exterminated or maybe go for a refresher course about swiftlet sounds.

Once you know his biggest blunder you can imagine what to expect inside this BH.

Let me list down some interesting observations which I hope those who happened to read this article learn as much as you can.

1) From the outside the BH looks okay.  However after some checking with the compass app I told the owner that the BH was wrongly positioned.  The monkey house should be on the opposite side of the building.  It should be closer to the east which means that it will get the light much faster as compared to putting it on the west side of the building.

2) The main entrance hole was facing the South and not the flying path (returning).  The son told me that the birds tends to fly flow the north to the sound.  So the main entrance hole should be facing the North.

3) The second entrance hole was facing the west.  This is also not right.  It should be facing the east. Those birds need the early morning light to guide them out of their nesting rooms.  If there is no light they need to wait longer to find their way out and they will find an excuse not to stay too far away from the monkey house area.

4) The LAL "Lubang Antara Lantai" or the window on the floor to pull those birds downstairs were far to the back.  It was a total disaster and I told the owner to open new holes and shut the current two holes.

5) The monkey house tunnel was not flushed.  The contractor erected a kind of semi floor that block those birds from flying down smoothly.  I told the owner to cut them out and let it be flushed.

6) The nesting planks were with a very wide gap with the ceiling.  This is a no no to those birds.  The air gap will cause air flow during high wind season and those young birds don't like them.

7) There was no external sound inside the nesting room.  I recommend at least one or two kite tweeters.

8) The number of internal sound tweeters were too little.  I think it was less than 50 pieces and I recommended to increase to at least 150 pieces per floor.

9)There was no fake nests inside the whole BH.  I explained with full conviction about the important of fake nests.  Try to install about 100 per floor.  It should be removed in phases.

10) The BH was with no water pipes inside.  If you wanted to avoid having those dry BH syndrome you should be prepared to spray water mist inside your BH. My recommendation was to install at least two set of water pipes for each floor.  Use the top floors to operate those mist makers while the ground floor use them to wet the wet floor system.

11) There was no roof to prevent direct sunlight onto the top cement floor/roof of the BH.  You can try to imagine how hot the BH was.  I took some  temperature readings using those portable temperature detecting gun on the walls.  Maximum temperature was 33.8*C.  This is not right and something have to be done to cut down a few degrees.  What about the heat from the roof?

12) The internal sounds were totally wrong.

13) The external sound tweeters were not well install to pull more birds into those nesting rooms.

14) There were two partitions on each floor but no VIP room concept.

Looking at the above shortages I think we need to do so major revamp on this BH.

I hope to get a full report out to the owner and let him decide what to do next.

If you are keen to join my team to revamp this BH please call 017 7551318.

Let us have some fun.

A BH Using External Sounds As Internal Sounds !!!

Too many consultants running around with very little knowledge about sounds.

One good example happened today.

I was invited to visit a critically ill BH where there was not a single nest inside after 12 months into operation mode.

I pitied the BH owner but I told them that there is no way to stop these so call consultants who don't even know how to differentiate between internal and external sounds.

From my various observations, if you use external sounds as your internal sounds you will have very little or no birds staying as your tenant.

Those birds tends to move from one tweeter to another and will not take a fixed position.

No fixed position means no building of nests.

Even if they take up a fixed position they tend to avoid making any nest on or around the external sound playing tweeters.

We do not have the exact reasons why but this is very true if you monitor your BH carefully.

The moment I entered this BH located somewhere in Sekinchan, Selangor I told the owner that I would like to listen to his external and internal sounds.

I switched off the external sound and listen carefully what internal sound was in operation.

I was shocked to hear my Black Cloud being used for the ground and first floor while the top most was using my Marvelous Cloud.

"I am sorry to let you know that you have been wasting your money and time waiting for those birds to enter and stays.  I guarantee that there is no chance of any birds staying.  Even if they stay they will not erect any nest."  I told the owner.

He was speechless with nothing to comment or says.

The guy who recommended the so called consultant was at the back of us shying away from joining the conversations.  He quickly dismissed himself and was not with us within a few short minutes.

I explained what happened when a wrong sound is played as a BH internal sound.  Yes you cannot  play external sound like Black Cloud and Marvelous Cloud as your internal sound.

The only exception is playing the Babyking.  Babyking sound can be played both as internal and external.

These powerful external sounds will makes those birds to go crazy and will not stay at one location.  At the end of the day they will run away and you will have no bird shit spot on the floor.

As a BH owner you need to at least learn how to differentiate between the two types of sounds.

If you ignored and leave it to your "consultant" you will one day regret for your entire life.

In this particular case the "consultant" was as blurred as the owner.

The "consultant" charged him so exorbitant and yet what he got was worth nothing.

I was right in saying so.  We checked the BH and there was not a single fresh bird shit spot on the floor after two months into operation with external sounds played and internal sounds.

Never mind I told them with a big smile.  This is why I am here to help out.

I quickly arranged to erase the wrong sounds and copied my SuperBabyKing sound.

I told him to see the result for the next few weeks.

I managed to change his external sound to my "Sel-King" sound.

The owner confirmed that the birds behavior now were more positive and many came and entered his sick BH.

He was happy with my advice and wanted me to come over to rectify the many mistakes that I detected.

I feel so glad to be given the opportunity to diagnose the reasons why this BH remained empty after more than 12 months into operation.

My sincere hope is that more people will come forward to let me have a good look at your sick BH.

I am here to provide some help.

There is nothing better than putting a sick BH back to it original path.

If you need my personal view about your BH please call me at 017 7551318.

I normally come out with a report that is priceless and used it as your guideline on how to further improve your BH nests population.

Another Interesting Visit Soon!!!

I will be making a 4.5 hours trip to this O&G town called Kemaman, Trengganu, Malaysia.

The date is Thursday May 16 2013.

My main purpose is to answer an SOS call from a BH owner from Kemaman whose BH have been in operation for 2 years but with only 30 nests.

This might be a good candidate for a force harvest and at the same time I planned to bring along a few simple gadgets to prove my theories about fake nests, good sound plus perhaps the super pheromone spray.

The owner sounds very desperate of wanting to find solutions.

He must have been very disappointed that his BH has not been doing well ever since he started the BH.

It will be a challenge to identify what can be wrong inside the BH.

My prediction are as follows:

1) The BH must be a bit too dry.

2) The external sound is no longer effective.

3) There were some kind of predators inside the BH now.

4) There must be something wrong with the amplifiers.

5) The BH must be a bit too bright.

Let see if the above are true.

This is going to be fun and I hope I can reactivate this BH similar to what I did for the Bukit Selambau unit.

Keep your fingers crossed.

If you wish to join the fun please call me at 017 7551318.

I will be happy to have someone to accompany my trip.

Leaving Kuala Lumpur at about 8:30 am towards Karak Highway.

Sel-king Performance in Sarawak !!!

Another short clip send by a newbie using my Sel-King.

The owner was very humble and and he SMS to be the following words:  Yes it attract many birds. Thanks a lot.

I replied:  Very good and I am happy for you.  Hope lots of birds inside.

He replied: Thank you.

This is a small part that I can do for this industry.

At least there are something new to share with those who own or operate BHs.

If no one wanted to help I am here to be that special person.

Call me at 017 7551318 if you wish to have one for your BH.

A Visit To A BH In Morib, Selangor !!!

Two days ago received an SOS call from a lady who owned a BH with one solitary nest.

According to her after more than 1.5 years her house seems to attract no new birds inside.

I briefly to her what she can do and let me have a good look at it before I compile the list of things she should do.

She quickly chose the date and I complied to her request.

We met somewhere near Morib mosque and I followed her can to where ever the BH was.

After about 10 minutes we were at the location.

I took a brief look around the BH and noticed that the two story building was a bit too low sandwiched in between those palm oil trees.

Inside my heart I told myself that no matter what the owner do inside the birds will not be able to locate the BH once those palm oil trees grow taller than the BH.

Those leaves and branches will cover the whole place and it will be a very tough to lure birds into it.

This is why if you wanted to build a BH inside a palm oil plantation the design must be proper.

The most important is the height and more important is to have more open space between those palm oil trees and the BH walls.

I went inside and there was nothing that can make me surprised.  Every thing that you can think of why those birds refuse to stays were shown all over the place.

1) The monkey house area was a disaster.  The person who was given the task to erect this BH seems to have very little knowledge about those delicate birds.

2) The main entrance hole (window of 2' x 2') was facing an unfriendly neighbor and the owner was given no choice but to open a new hole on the rooftop of the monkey house.

3) Using the monkey house extension to open the rooftop is not a wise idea.  Monkey house should be equip with side entrance and not top entrance.

4) The owner twister the direction of those tweeters at the 2'x2' window backwards.  This was more like pulling the birds from the inside out.  Ah ye ye ye .....

5) The windows/doors connecting the monkey house roving areas into the nesting rooms (one upstairs and one n the ground floor) were not properly thought of.

6) Both the top and ground floor nesting rooms were too bright.  I keep my point that the darkness must be a 2 feet gap with no vision of your friend's face.

7) I was not very happy with the number of internal sound tweeters inside this BH.  I told the owner to increase by 3.2 folds.  Now only about 15 per floors and what I wanted was 50 a floor.

8) There was no external sound tweeters inside.  I push my idea on the use of kite tweeters and where they should be located.

9) The number of fake nests were also very little.  Since they might be tight I recommended the use of styrofoam which will not cost more than 20 sen a piece. Put about 50 pieces per floor.

10) If the can I wanted them to upgrade their external and internal sounds.  Tested my marvelous cloud and during my testing there were birds inside.

11) I also wanted them to apply those pheromone.  Spray a bit on those fake nests.

Wrote a brief report for them to follow my recommendations and I told them that I will be ready to drop by if they need my final advise before putting the BH back to order.

I feel grateful to have help this retired couple and I hope I can be of help to others too.

If you are facing the same situation please call 017 7551318 for any help.

A BH With 1000 (One Thousand) Fake Nests !!!

An interesting article about a newbie who followed my advise.  I think he went over board.

His JV BH was put into operation for about a year ago now the number of nests have passed his expectation.

He started his harvesting work  a day ago but said that most of those nests were erected on those fake nests.

He in fact installed more than 1000 styrofoam fake nests.

That was a bit too many and I asked him who told you to put so many?

His answer was:  I followed your advise in total.

I could not remember the exact number of fake nests I recommended during construction but I told him to take it as a blessing in disguise.

His main concerned was that the nests erected on fake nests tends to be a bit distorted and its base are actually hollow.

This is true but I told him to look into the bright side of the whole thing.

Remember those fake nests are just for you to lure those birds to quickly stay, build their nest and lay their first eggs.

Once that cycle is completed they will become your "permanent tenant".

The key word is Permanent Tenant which means that they will be yours forever until they die.

Once those fake nests have served its purposes you need to remove them in phases.

Good example you can remove all of the fake nests once your BH total birds population passed say 500 or 800.

He agreed to my explanation and he sound very glad that his BH now is doing very well with the nests number increasing every month.

During his first harvesting of 20 nests he did remove a number and he shall do on stages as per my recommendations.

"Pak Harry I really followed you advise and I am glad that all those that you recommended are showing results"

I will continue to pay a short visit to his BH every time I drop by in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

It is great so see a friend who started from zero, build his BH on his own and now have many birds staying inside.

What he did was right.  He got someone to guide him before he started the construction.  Followed the advise to the dot.

He continued liaising with him and invite him to inspect his BH once or twice a year.

He continue upgrading his knowledge, add a few new discoveries and change to new sounds once a while.

I told him that the location he chose was risky since the number of birds responded to the call test was very low.

The only strong point was that there was a successful BH nearby.

Thank You For Your Help & Support !!!

(This picture was taken in Gambang)

The new sound "Sel-King" was tested in Bintulu, Sarawak and it was marvelous.

This was a story about a husband and wife venture in swiftlet farming.

They have been into swiftlet farming for at least two and half years and doing "OK".

The number of birds staying was around 400 and the number of nests was around 150.

What he wanted was something to accelerate the nests numbers.

This was why he make his first move to contact me for some help.

He started with asking about those super pheromone and later wanted my personal advise on what else to be done.

With the very little information about his BH I recommended him to upgrade his sounds.

The best was to use the newest sound "Sel-King" for his external sound and "SuperBabyKing" as his internal sound.

He quickly took my advise and I send him the two items for trial purposes.

As at yesterday I was glad that he tested the sound and confirmed that the swiftlet specie in Bintulu seems to respond very well to the new sound.

Remember sometime the same sound that is good in Selangor might not be suitable in Sarawak and like wise the opposite is possible.

I asked : "Were the two sounds good?"

His wife answered: "VERY GOOD THANK A LOT FOR YOUR SUPPORT" and it came in bold capital letters.

When a reply comes from the wife I think it has more weight in it.

I told them to send some video clips and hope will receive some soon.

This is something that I love to do and help those who are having BHs with little movement.

A Date Which You Should Not Miss !!!

Try to see if you can allocate your time to attend a one day Seminar on Saturday May 29th 2013.

This particular talk will be mainly about how to identify what is wrong with your BH and how to solve them.

If you own a BH and the nest population remain low or slow in its population or stagnant for months you need to consider attending this seminar.

The Seminar will be organized by Pusat Transformasi Komunity, University Putra Malaysia (Agriculture University) located at Pusat Latihan UCTC, UPM.

More details can be obtained from +60389471819/1816/1807.

It will be conducted in Bahasa and the tentative contents of the Seminar are as follows:

Objektif Kursus:

1)      Memberi pendedahan kepada scenario semasa industry burung walit di Malaysia dan cabaran yang dihadapi.

2)      Memberi  pengetahuan dalan mengesan kelemahan pada rumuh burung walit.

3)      Memberu pendedahan kepada peserta berkenaan kaedah bagi meningkatkan penghasilan  sarang burung walit.

4)      Menerangkan pendekatan terkini bagi mengekalkan prestasi yang tinggi sarang buring walit.

5)      Memberi input secara klangsung kepada peserta melalaui lawatan ke premis perladangan sarang burung walt.

 

Aturcara:

8:00 – 8:30 pagi: Pendaftaran

8:30 – 9:30 pagi:  Senario semasa industru sarang burung walit (Prof Azhar Kasim)

9:30 – 10:30 Pagi: Cara Mengesan Kelemahan Pada rumuh Burung Walit (Prof Azhar Kasim)

10:30 – 11:00 pagi:  Minum Pagi

11:00 – 12:45 tgh hari :  Penambah suai Struktur Dalaman dan Luaran Rumah Walit (Smart Partner UPM)

12:45 – 2:30 ptng:  Rehat/Makan/Solat

2:30 – 5:00 ptng : Meningkatkan Kualiti Dalaman Rumah Burung Walit (Smart Partner UPM)

I might be invited to be the smart partner for the talk.

This will be an ideal way to help the industry and I do not mind to be the special guest speaker.

There might be some special announcement that might be a kind of highlight of the day and I hope it will be something special for those who are not able to find the right answers to their sick BH.

Maximize The Power Of Your Hexagonal Tweeters !!!!

This article I wanted to share with you about the Power of hexagonal tweeter in a BH.

One very important part of my revamp works is the introduction of hexagonal tweeter.

Hexagonal tweeters plays a vital role to lure more birds into your BH.

You need to know how to use it by following my tips on where this special gadget should be installed.

Most people who uses the gadget have very little idea where to install it thus the effectiveness become very little to get more birds inside.

Hexagonal tweeter is a piece of equipment where you arrange a set of about 5 pieces of 2"x5" tweeters in a circular shape.

Usually it will be covered with steel plate to prevent rain water from wetting the connectors.

One more thing that it should come with is a 1 foot pole with a nut lock so that you can mount it onto a pole using a suitable TV bracket.

I will usually connect the cable this hexagonal tweeter to an amplifier playing the external sound.

You can share a set of knobs or make it on a stand alone basis.

The key point is to know where it should be located.

Most BH owners have no idea where to locate it and many failed to maximize its power.

Some will be put it on a tall pole and some will put at the back of the entrance hole and many have very little thought of where is should be precisely located.

This is where your experiences counts.

My best choice will be right above the main entrance hole.

Put it in the middle of the main entrance hole and it should not be more than 1.5 feet above the roof areas.

My reason for this has something to do with experience by observing the birds behaviors.

Usually when you play an effective sound on your hexagonal tweeter you stand a good chance to push your sound in a 360* out into the air.

Any swiftlet that pass by will be attracted to your BH.

The moment the come near they will start to react to the sound which usually with led them into your entrance hole and eventually into your nesting room.

The height above the entrance hole plus its closed proximity will help to guide your visitors right towards the entrance hole.

If your hexagonal tweeter is placed way to high or too far from your main entrance hole you will usually loose a chance to draw them inside.

Remember every visit into your BH gives you a 50:50 chance of wining them to be your permanent tenant.

Try to apply this idea and I am sure you will get the maximum benefits.

A Newly Discovered External Sound !!!

This new sound was discovered during the revamp operation of a BH located in Dengkil, Selangor.

I coined a name for is like Selangor King or short name SelKing.

The sound seems to be very effective in a few tested locations like Taiping, Bukit Selambau, Segantang Garam and Sungai Patani.

I recently asked a friend to try is out in Kuala Lipis, Pahang.  Hope to hear some feed back soon.

I am very pleased with the sound and I hope this new sound will become popular among my blog readers all over the region.

Have a look at these video clips:

 


and




You might want to add this to your sound library and it cost only RM350 for the first five person.


Hope this new sound will increase more nests in your BH.

Call me to order and I will arrange to advise the payment methods.

The sound can be in MP3 or WMA.

Call 017 7551318 to order.