Failed BH: Begun To Put Into Pieces Why This BH Failed!!!

Been looking at a number of BH pictures send via whatsapp.

Hmm at my first glance they don't show much errors however upon closer observations I can safe ly conclude that there are many glaring mistakes that can be easily resolved.

(1st Picture)

If you look at this first picture you will see the following unmistakable flaws:

1) The external walls were left without any cement plaster.  The contractor left the BH before finishing those plaster works.  The cement plaster is important to reduce the amount of heat reaching the internal wall's surfaces.

2) The ventilation holes were made of those flower bricks.  The holes were covered with cement boards.  Based on my many experience these type of ventilation holes will be difficult to cover internally.  If his contractor is not experienced enough his nesting rooms will be very very bright.

3) The monkey house roof was blown away and it was not replaced or corrected.  He need to cover the roof back.

4) There was no hexagonal tweeter above the monkey house.  Without hexagonal tweeter I classified this BH as not properly functioning.

5) I have a very strong feeling that this BH is with a single layered walls and not doubled.  With the current heat spell I think this BH will soon face a very high temperature internally.

(2nd Picture)

6) If you look carefully at the main entrance hole, you see only two external sound tweeters.  On the right side nearly to the top of the window frame while on the left side a bit lower.  To me two is not adequate.  Just too little.

7) The main entrance hole seems to be larger.  The top part was covered with a piece of broken cement board.  I think the main entrance hole is not the right size.

(3rd Picture)

8) The third picture shows the main door connecting the monkey house room and the nesting room.  The wall seems to be wrongly orientated.  The cement board should be place inside and not like exposing the wood structures since it can hurt those birds when they fly in at a high speed.

9) The number of external sound tweeters was only two.  It is like not very keen to pull those birds into the nesting room.

(4Th Picture)

10) You can see how much light entered the nesting room from the monkey house room (picture no 4).  This amount of light is not acceptable.  An additional room should have be constructed to reduce those bright lights.

(5th picture)

(6th picture)

11) As mentioned in item no 2 I think I was dead right.  The top floor seems to have too many light sources polluting the floor.  Those ventilation holes were not properly covered.  This is one of the common mistakes done by those "Chap Ayam" consultant.  They do not understand what those birds required.

(7th picture)

12) Have a good look at how many tweeters are on the nesting planks?  They are not precisely located and at the same time simply too little.

13) You can also observed that there is no crossing woods.  I think we can easily installed 3 rows of crossed woods.

(8th picture)

(9th picture)

14) The above two pictures (8th and 9th) shows me something.  This BH has no humidifier.  Hmm another chap ayam design.  How to maintain the humidity if there is no humidifier.  Maybe those drains are filled up with water.

The above observations are just from those pictures.  I will be inspecting this BH this April 7th 2015 and I am sure I will detect a lot more wrong things that if resolved can bring back those swiftlet.

If you are facing similar problem with your BH just call me and let me tell you how to get your BH back to its original purposes.

Call me at 017 7551318

Another BH Owner With A Lot Of Problems !!!

I am not sure how bad is this BH.

From the video clip provided the BH looks good from the outside.

There was also a picture from the inside facing the door.

My concerns are the following points:

1) The entrance hole type is top entry.  Those birds need to enter into an opening provided before entering a door.

2) There was another window opened on the wall of the house but now closed.

3) The roof extension above the entrance hole is a bit too long.  I prefer it to be as short as possible.\

4) There is no hexagonal tweeter around the entrance area.  This is compulsory if you want your BH to be active and have your external sound covered 360 *.

5) The main door into the BH seems to be too big.  Its width should be reduced to about 3 feet.

6) The external sound tweeters arranged around the entrance door's frame looks not proper.

7) I don't like to see those ventilation holes from outside.  This flower bricks will allow a lot of light into this BH.  I am 100& sure that the nesting rooms are too bright.

8) The owner indicated to me that he already installed some partition but I bet with all he might not be doing what I wanted him to.

I will be visiting this BH on April 8th 2015 and I am sure I will check for more errors.

Will let all of you know what I discover and let me tell you precisely why his BH failed to attract many tenants.

If you happenned to own a BH with very little nests please call this number 0177551318 or email your BH information to harryswiftlet@yahoo.com

My Hope And My Desire For Felda Settlers In Trengganu !!!

The Productivity Seminar at TH Hotel KT have many significant experiences to me.

I was very surprised to see so many BH owners in a big hall and all the seats were taken up.

At the end of the hall I can see that they added some additional chairs for those who happened to come in late.

This was overwhelming and I could not describe how wonderful to feel when you know that your seminar message will be heard and perhaps practiced by many of them.

I have been longing to stand in front of a large crowd and talk to them all those special findings that can improve BHs.

Here I was able to stand high and delivered my findings.

Most of these 300 odd people stayed back till the end.

One very special thing that I was very happy about was to get a list of Felda residences who own BH.

The moment I mentioned about a possible free inspection of their BHs they flocked around the person who was responsible to collect their details.

It went so well and we gathered almost 15 Felda BH owners in Trengganu.

These list of names will be forwarded to the person in charge and hopefully blessed our plan to inspect all of them.

Once inspected a short report shall be forwarded to Felda HQ for their next action.

There will be some recommendation to perhaps select the most viable BH that can be turned around.

Those that are not possible to be turned around might need their owner to perhaps do major construction.

It will a mammoth task but if their is way I am sure it can be done.

Perhaps after completing this specific task I might be asked to look at other state where Felda is operating.

If I can turn around about 15-20 BHs within 12 months I will be very happy.

My task is to help these poor owners who complained that they have no one to turn to.

How I wish I can offer the same services to all those who attended all those Seminars conducted by Jabatan Veterina.

Never give up.

Remember at least there is some one who can help you with your BH.

Raub BH: Evening Scene When Those Birds Return Home !!!

(Try to enlarge the clip)

I received this video clip a few days ago.

I believed the person who captured this special film wanted me to post it on my blog.

He is one of my very dedicated BH owner who seems to be very successful in what he does.

From the moment he met me until now he keep following my advises.

Now with almost 3000 ++ nests he is one of my favourite student.

I remembered before he met me his BH was new and with about 200 ++ nests.

His dedication in applying new methods of populating his BH (mostly learned from me) seems to be working.

He applied those fake nests, the hanging perfume garden and erected a number of walls to block those bright light.

Another very interesting idea that he used was the used of 5 sounds running simultaneously during the day time.

His method is unique and never tried before.

During daytime he will use two external sounds and 3 internal sounds.

At night he will play 3 internal sounds.

All those sounds came from my sound collection.

Bravo to my student and I hope more people who read this blog will be as successful as him.

Will keep you all posted with any new development at this BH in Raub, Pahang.

The Bank Was On His Back: Pay up or Meet Me In Court !!!

(Contractor finished without external plaster)

This is a very sad story about a BH owner from Kuala Trengganu who almost lost faith with swiftlet farming.

He took a bank loan to erect his BH.

After more than three years nothing tangible was recovered (Not many nests)

After three years he told me that the bank wanted to pull him to the Court however he managed to settle all his loan.

He already engaged 3 "consultants" however nothing happened to his BH.

What they did according to him was to ask him to change a few things but after that nothing happened.

They don't know what to do too.

I usually labelled them as "Chap Ayam" or unquailfied consultants

There was no visit report to refer to.

The building contractor was also a big con contractor.

His BH was never plastered and a lot of works inside were not properly done.

He went missing after receiving his full payment.

He told me that he nearly wanted to close shop or give up  however was very lucky to have attended the recent "Productivity Seminar" held on March 25th 2015.

Pak Harry after listening to your talk I feel better, refresh and motivated.

There is hope in the horizon and know for sure he have met the person he have been looking for.

He send a number of pictures showing his BH and after exchanging a number of messages I told him the only best way is to get me over and let me try to solve his BH problems.

I promised to investigate his BH problems and will prepare a full report so that he can used it for any revamping operation that will cure those problems observed.

He should feel very happy at least now he have me to reactivate his BH.

Never loose hope, I told him.

I will inform him about my travel plan to KT soon.

If there are others who face the same problem with their BH please quickly whatsapp your interest to 017 7551318.

Let me plan my trip for a good cause.

If we can I would like to gather those whose BH are being inspected to meet at a place to discuss about their BH.

Please take this opportunity which will be hard to come by.

Productivity Seminar At TH Hotel KT Went Very Well !!!

Yesterday's Productivity Seminar held by Jabatan Veterina went very well.

I was very surprise at the number of participants that attended the Seminar.

More than 300 of them and nearly all the seats were taken.

A very big crowd and nearly all stayed back till the end of the session.

Another very interesting observation made was the number of Malays who attended it.

All this while I was expecting a large number of Non Malays to be there however I was wrong.

Nearly 95% who attended were Malays who owned BHs.

They came to listen to what I have drawn out for them.

I presented 4 papers and every paper have a special impact on those who came.

My 4 papers took almost 5 hours standing up on the floor walking from one side to the other side making sure that these participants absorb what I wanted them to know.

Every time that we stop for tea and lunch I can see that they will come over to ask for questions.

I am so lucky to be given this opportunity to meet so many BH owners that are not doing well.

What I hope now is to get these attendees to call me so that I can arrange to visit their sick BHs and figured out how to reactivate them.

Many complained that their BHs are critically sick and so far there is no where to ask for help.

One of the attendee whatsapp his appreciation and thanks me for all the information he obtained.

He believed that after listening to my talks he became more confident that his 3 years old BH can be reactivated.

I hope one day I will be invited by him so that I can precisely tell him what are the things that his BH needed.

Maybe he should erect some walls or perhaps change those sounds.

He might install those fake nests and perhaps also increase the number of internal sound tweeters.

I am very glad with such a big response and I do hope my wish to see more BH are corrected will come true.

Please enjoy these pictures:

Bukit Selambau BH: Just Compare These Pictures !!!

(Latest picture on Bukit Selambau BH.  Just look at the things that I recommended for his BH)

The transformation done after following my visit report looks outstanding.

This BH was attacked by barn owl and the owner gave up on it.

After attending a Productivity Seminar at TH Hotel Penang and listening to my talk, the owner took a new approach.

He was very fascinated with my knowledge and immediately arranged for me to inspect his BH.

He got my full report and I told him what to do and what not to do.

The full report became his bible or kuran to him.

He carried out all the recommendations given and now his BH looks more like ready to reignite.

He got my external and internal sounds.

Right now getting the sound system up before starting a new life.

This BH will do well if he make sure that he follow my recommendations.

He must not look back on all those problems but challenge them and resolve them.

There is no such thing as he is free of problems.

Every BH owner will have some kind of problems but get the proper advice on how to solve them.

I offered him my contact number and he should call me whenever he faced any BH problems.

I am looking forward to see his BH progress.

His BH looks good and I keep telling up not to give up too easily.

Best of luck to him.

He is lucky to have stumbled onto me when he attended the recent seminar.

These few pictures taken earlier at his BH during my first visit:

This is how it looks like now after my recommendations:

1) You can see he installed additional cross woods (two new rows) to increase not only the nesting areas but also the 90* corners (swiftlet love 90* corners).

2) He increase the number of internal sound tweeters to almost 3-4 times more as compared to before.  He also place precisely at where those birds love to build their nest (at those 90* corners).

3) I also encouraged him to install as many styrofoam fake nests as possible.  These fake nests should be installed as closed as possible to the internal sound tweeters (left and right sides).

4) The internal sound tweeter must be installed on a standing up position and not laying to its side.

5) The internal sound tweeters must be installed facing the birds fly in in path.  This is how to attract those new couples that have entered your BH for the first time.

6) I think at the far end there are two external sound playing tweeters.  These external sound tweeters serve at the puller.  All new birds that entered the nesting room will be pulled to the far end of his BH.

These should be the way a BH should be in order to attract those wild birds to stay at your BH.

Call me if you wanted my inspection services.

Worth every penny.  Just trust me.

My number is 017 7551318

Kapar BH: Started My Stainless Steel 90* Corner Plate Experiments !!!

(How to reduce those 90* shaped nests.  Use stainless steel plate)

March 21st 2015, started my experiment in using 90* stainless steel plates at Kapar BH.

Managed to inform the BH owner to be aware and when he came in I was on the last plate.

First was to do the proper selection of the corners.

What I did was to check for any corner with nest.

Once that is done I need to check if the bird shit below it is new.

I will try to avoid those with young birds but with 2 eggs were okay ( with one egg is not okay).

Once these signs were proper I will harvest the nests and its eggs.

If the internal sound tweeters were closed to it I will remove them and relocated to somewhere near.

The best was to remove those wooden 90* corners but it was a bit to hard.

I covered them and let the stainless steel plate be above the.

Once done I will take some pictures.

These are some pictures taken.

Will inspect them during my next trip to the BH.

Already informed the BH owner that once the plate shows positive results I will insist that all the 90* corners with nests will be replaced and inserted with the plate.

This will ensure that the number of 90* shape nests will be reduced to the minimum.

Will report about this research once available.

Swiftletpedia: Something That Was Said About Swiftlet Farming Blog !!!

Last night I was busy responding to this person's whatsapp messages.

What I was very attracted to was his introduction message:

"Hi Pak Harry,
I am K. Came across your blog.  Its like swiftletpedia. Kudos.

I have a birdhouse which is 20'X70' x 2 floors (top of a two stories shoplot).

My shop is in  Trengganu. Can say most is jungle, plam oil estate.Behind 5 km  is a major river.

BH has been for 5 yrs.  Revamped by 3 consultants.  Only 2 years seem progress. But growth seems to halt at 350 nests.

For Temp , RH is fine at 29*C & 90%.

Around my shop got about 10 BHs.  Which many are disappointing.  But one is successful (5kg + per harvest).  This BH is just 5 shop lot away.

Just notice previously that my ext sound was spoiled.  So have it change to 5000 hp horn.

I hope to hear from you.

Regards.
K"

What is interesting was his word that my blog to him is like a dictionary on swiftlet farming (swiftletpedia).

If that is so I am glad to be a part of the industry.

As to his problem with his BH I sense that his BH is currently facing what I termed as the dry BH syndrome.

He mentioned that his BH humidity is about 90%RH but maybe he should wet his BH more often.

My other recommendations were on the external and internal sounds.

Maybe the time have come to change the two sounds or perhaps increase their numbers.

I suggested to him to list all the things that can be done to bring all his young birds back once they take their first flight out of his BH.

I think he did not know what they are but I hope once he finished reading my blog he might find some.

Maybe one day he might want to meet me in person so that I can tell him more what to put on his list.

I will be in Kuala Trengganu and I hope he will find some time to see me there.

Started My Pineapple Bokashi For My BH !!!

(Fermentation of Pineapple plus Molasses for at least 3 months)

Recently a friend from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah provided me with his Bokashi formula.

He was relating to me about his recent discovery on what happened when he applied the Bokashi (EM).

He tasted the enzyme and it take very sour.

But he wanted to apply it inside his BH.

At first he was very reluctant however after thinking for some time he decided to proceed with it.

"I took a big risk however the Bokashi works well after applying them to those fake nests and the nests markings."

He quickly called me and ask me to do a small research on it.

He gave me the formula and ask me to ferment the fruits for a few months.

Today I took a bit of my time to prepare the pineapple fruits (4 pieces) cut them into small pieces and soak it inside about 10 liters of plain water mixed with molasses.

Must keep the mixture in a tight container so that those flies will not enter and lay their eggs.

Finished doing it a while a go and wanted to report on my blog.

Let us hope that within the next three months I will be able to test the enzyme.

Best of luck to me and the rest who  follow this blog.

Rompin BH: The Owner Drop By And Text Some Interesting Messages !!!

(A new and cheap method to generate insects at your BH) 

Latest messages received from the Rompin newly renovated BH owner seems to be very positive.

He sounds very happy with all the things that were done by me and my workers.

He thank me a couple of times.

He came in to clean his BH floor with his partner and workers.

He tried the external sounds and observed that those swiftlet from the neighbors BH came to his place and they seems to be crazy with the new sound.

The Mutiara dripper were set on after the BH floors were mopped.

They are doing fined however the first day of operation the valves were stuck due to those sediments.

After flushing them the dripper works well, according to him.

 I was curios on the very new idea on how to start an insect breeder.

This new idea came from Setiawan, Perak.

The raw materials used were cheap and free.

The smell generated was also not so pungent as compared to using those Soya flour.

All you need is to mix chicken feed (1.40 rm per kilo) and bird shit (free).

Mix the two together and wet them with water.

Let them soaked for sometime and you stir them.

Once they are fermented you will soon see a lot of these fruit flies coming to lay their eggs.

Within a few short days their maggots will be all over the pail.

You can now move the mixture to your top floor areas.

I did prepared a pail of pineapple cuttings sprinkled with yeast powder as a starter to attract more fruit flies to come to the room.

When they came they not only will lay their eggs on the pineapple cuttings but also the chicken feed mixed with bird shit fermented pail.

The owner claimed that there were a lot of maggots and he carried the containers up to the 4th floor and put them at one corner closed to the entrance hole.

I asked him to mix more on every trip he visited the BH.

His sms message:  

"Oh yes, Lots of maggots and little flying insects flying about.  I moved all of them to the 4th floor including the pineapple pail.  I forgot to take the pics of the maggots.  Its quite "disgusting" but this means it is very successful."

An exciting new method to generate insects.

Remember it is the cheapest and very effective.

It will be faster (get more fruit flies to come) if a pail of ripe pineapple cutting is stored beside these fermented mixture.

The pineapple cutting must be soak with some water and sprinkled with yeast powder.

Call me if you wish to get the formula.

My phone number is 017 7551318

(First mix the two items)

(Pour some water to wet them and stir)

(I prepared three containers plus another pail with pineapple cuttings)

My Next Productivity Seminar Will Be This Wednesday March 25th 2015 at TH hotel Kuala Trengganu !!!

(My March 25th 2015 Productivity Seminar Organized By Jabatan Veterina Will Be here)

I will be delivery this talk on how to improve your BH productivity in Kuala Tregganu next week.

According to the information received my next Seminar will be organized by Jabatan Veterina at TH hotel Kuala Trengganu, Trengganu.

I was informed that all head of Felda Projects in Trengganu were invited to send their personnel plus those Felda settlers who own BH to attend.

This will be a very interesting event.

I think I have been asked to get together with these Felda participants to arrange for the BHs inspection.

I believed there are 20 BHs belongs to Felda and its residents in Trengganu state.

I might stay back for two days to make some trips to those houses that are closed proximity with Kuala Trengganu.

Once visited I will be asked to prepare a full report on what to be done to upgrade these BHs so that they can enjoy a better nests output.

The report will be submitted to Felda head office for their next action.

If given the chance I would be very happy to take the responsibilities to manage the revamp operation on each BH inspected.

I think there is a good chance to be doing what I like best and it will be for the good of this Industry.

Let us hope that the Felda boys will gather at one room and will take from there.

Do you know some secrets that happen every time I give the Productivity Talk?

Frankly my secret mission is to let those who are involved in swiftlet farming to learn a lot of my findings for the sake of the whole swiftlet Industry.

I know that during every function there will be a couple of officers and head of department that are involved directly or indirectly in this lovely industry.

The moment the attended my seminar I am sure they will open their eyes on all those interesting findings that I delivered to them.

More important is to have them apply these many ideas to their own territories or areas of responsibilities.

My desire is to see that these information given to them will eventually will benefits all BH owners who cannot attend the seminar.

Indirectly I wanted all those people responsible to look after this industry will have more brilliant ideas on how to improve those BHs around them.

I wish I could do more but I wanted to stress to all those who have met me or never have met me call me if you have some quires about your BH.


My phone number is 017 7551318.

I would be happy and love to help all.

Best of luck and meet me at TH hotel  Kuala Trengganu, Trengganu this March 25th 2015.

Productivity Seminar At Johore Baharu !!!

The recent Productivity Seminar held on March 18th 2015 at Selesa Hotel JB went pretty well.

The only complain I have was the time given to cover more than 5 topics.

I was not able to finish the last two topics due to short of time.

The number of participants attended was about 40-50 people.

They love the talk given and I can see that most of the participants stayed till the last talk.

The number of questions asked were many and useful.

Managed to answer nearly all except a question from a lady about how come there are nests which she bought recently has this layer of chocolate colored strip?

I could not provide the best answer but tried to explain to her on what really caused those raw nests to change colors.

Usually all newly erected nests are white or I called it as ivory white.

Once they are exposed to the nesting room environment they will be oxidized and turn color to more like very light yellow.

However if your BH is heavily contaminated with high concentration of ammonia gas (usually it comes from those shit fermentation) and room high humidity there are high chance that the nests will turn yellow and slowly become red.

There are many red colored nests found in those BHs that are very old and the bird shit not removed.

The red colored nests are not due to the saliva color but more toward being contaminated with a kind of bacteria or microbes that consume the ammonia gas and water.

Once they excrete the byproduct are those red colored materials that are found on those red nests (This finding and opinion is my own and it might not be right).

My advice to all BH owners if they want to harvest cleaned nests from their BH try to clean the BH floor on a more frequent basis and at the same time do not allow those nests to be left for too long in your BH.

How I wish I can talk longer and get all those prepared papers finished.

Well you cannot do all but even a bit I think I have accomplished my mission to activate all these BH owners to be motivated and look after their BH.

There were many who abandoned their BHs.

This is not good for the Industry.

Have a look at some pictures taken: