Kemaman Trengganu BH Visit on August 25th 2017

Yesterday at about 10:00 am visited this BH located somewhere in Kemaman town, Trengganu.

The BH is sandwiched in between two other BHs. Its a row of three stories shop houses that were designed for swiftlet farming, according to him.

Owner have engaged a number of consultants to see how to improve his ICU birdhouse.

He claimed that he did nearly everything that he can think of but failed to get his BH populated.

I saw a number of perfume bottles hung on the walls with those special drip gadget.

After 6 years of operation and two consultants the nest number fluctuate up and down but not more than 30 nests.

Now only 24 nests and he is very disappointed with his total investments.

I took some time to see what can be the reasons why those swiftlet refuse to populate his BH and I told him the followings:

In general his BH was not well designed from the outside and the inside.

The main entrance hole using both the top and side entry is not properly assigned with proper tweeters.

The hexagonal tweeter was more like a DIY piece and wrongly positioned.

The number of external sound tweeters need to be upgraded and with new and more effective tweeters.

New sound techniques should be deployed.

His water pond is not necessary since his BH is about 50 meters away from a river.

His BH is too bright.

The so called consultants who came and ran away with his so called fees were not very well verse with the amount of light that should be allowed to enter the BH nesting rooms.

The BH was with two LAL holes and both were not positioned at the right location where 100% of those birds should fly above it.

There was not VIP room on both floors.

Too many internal sound tweeters.

There was no external sound tweeters at the back of the nesting rooms/

No traps or baits to lure those wild birds to stay.

Internal sound was too noisy.

Amplifiers were not properly set.

He was unlucky with his BH venture.

Now he will be able to use Pak Harry methods of designing the BH external and internal decorations.

Will sit on his BH visit report today and will submit to him what I think it will turn around his BH.

He was very lucky to have met one of my client whose BH was very closed to his BH.

After the inspection operation I invite him to view the successful BH owned and operated by my old client nearby and see how I transformed a 30 nests BH into almost 8 kg of nests, now inside.

The word that came out from his mouth was "Impressive". That was what he said with a wide smile on his face.

He now seems to have the positive vibes about his BH.

"Pak Harry I cannot wait to read your report and I hope the cost to upgrade my BH is within my reach. Every penny will come from my pocket."

I told him that every penny spend after this will worth a million.

Skudai BH: A Challenge Like No Other BHs !!!

I must say that the revamp of Skudai BH is one of the most challenging as compared to others.

Main obstacles are the water supply, electricity and the location deep inside agricultural land.

Every time you forgot something you need to take almost 20 minutes to reach the main road.

The red soil road are full of pits and alleys which will rock you left and right and you feel like riding those roller coasters.

The only way for my workers to use those electrical hand tool and brighten the BH while revamping is to operate a generator set.

As for the water supply I have been pushing the idea of pumping fresh water from a nearby stream using ramp pump.

The owner is away for a holiday and he expect to see birds inside his BH once he is back to Malaysia.

Well that was how easy his line of thought is.

Anyway we have been working very hard to complete the scope of works.

First was to close the old entrance hole and opened a new hole on the building's wall facing the virgin jungle.

The next was to hack the barrier on the roof deck so that the mounting of power tweeters, bazookas and the hexagonal tweeter can take place.

Once those tweeters are installed we need to erect a number of walls to prevent the light penetrating the nesting rooms.

Another wall was to create a VIP room.

The owner decided to upgrade only one floor so that his cost will not kill him.  He chooses the middle floor.

While trying to install tweeters inside the VIP room my boys discovered that nearly 50% of the planks are too soft and no longer holding.

We decided to pull the old planks out and install with new planks.

This is where the big challenge starts.

Where to get a readily available stock.

How mush will the planks be and how long will it take to ship them over.

If they need 2-3 weeks my completion schedule will be dead.

Manage to get the lead and quickly drove almost 1.5 hours to a hardware shop at Kota Tinggi.

The shop owner knows me by name.

"I have heard about you from many BH owners and now lucky to meet you in person."

I am not sure if he likes me or hates me.  He is also a BH consultant.

Anyway managed to gather some nesting planks and brought them back to Skudai.

The installation begins the moment the planks arrived.

I hope by Monday or Tuesday the wood are in place and at the same time they will start installing those internal and external sound tweeters.

If the installations are done can test the BH.

Perhaps I can move to another BH much earlier.