Bentong And Raub Visit !!!

I allocate every Friday as my outstation visiting day.

Today decided to drive to Raub and along the way meeting a blog reader who is building a BH in Bentong.

He called and wanted to have lunch once I have a good look at his BH.

I told him that will be fined and hope that he will be successful with the new house.

He might want to stopby in Raub to order those meranti planks from someone that I introduced to him some time back.

My intention to be in Raub is obvious. The BH in Raub, which I am looking after, need to be inspected and applied with the special aromas.

I hope to see some new things in the house. Hope to see more nests and new birdshits spots.

Raub Shock Aroma And Sound Therapy !!!

Remember my Raub job in converting a "Sick" BH back to its normal self?

Today I make follow up trip to check the progress of the BH and to apply my "Shock Aroma Therapy" plus sound change.

Last visit was about 2 months ago. At that time there were about four bird shits spots.

Now the number surged to 23. One fully formed nests and about three fake nests with permanent tenants.

I was not that happy with the progress but the owner think otherwise.

"Harry before you took over there were non. I was operating the BH for 11 long months. There were nothing. Zip not a single sign of bird shits and now every time I come over there were lots of swiftlet flying on the my BH rooftop and also inside the house. The number of bird shits spots is excellent and the number of nests are improving. You have done more then what I asked for.
Thank you Harry."

Well Mr L, I was expecting double the number of nests and bird shits spots. I want you to be much happier then what it is now.

Oh yes I heard your wife died of cancer a week before Chinese New Year. Now you are looking after your three young kids and a BH. How do you find without a beloved wife?

This trip I brought along with me some new aromas and I can guarantee you that those birds will get crazy jumping in the house this evening and perhaps for a few weeks.

I hope whatever I will do today will result in more nests and bird shit spots. Trust me for I will do my utmost best for the sake of our friendship and the trust you have given to me.

So I took my things and aroma up and into the BH. Before entering the BH I stop both external and internal then switched on the nesting rooms lights. Stay about 5 minutes before making my way into the BH.

Before entering can hear those birds still inside making the keking sound. Come on please get out now. I have only two hours to finish my work.

The darkness level, when the lights were off, were exceptionally good. I feel very proud with the modifications that I suggested when I first took over. The hygrostat was working and priming the two humidifiers.

I checked the bird shit spots. There were many small patches too. The larger ones, perhaps more then 25, but will do the detail checking later.

Now let me get the aluminium ladder and start applying the first aroma onto those fake nests. This first aroma is actually a gel made of nest dust. I soaked it with warm water for 24 hours before I came over.

Got one full container and I believed it will be very useful to attract those young birds to move to the area that I selected. Balance I applied to the cement walls just below the nesting planks.

I then started to get the second aroma ready. This organic aroma I got from Kota Bahru. The smell from the black dust is awesome. I love the smell when I was pouring about one kilo into a pail. I then pour about 8 liters of tap water and stir. Before doing this I bought a few plastic containers, flat type, and pour the solution into about 5 separate containers. The smell from the organic materials was very nice as if I was the birds.

I was not satisfied with the 5 containers, which I placed at the back of the nesting room. I then decided to make the entrance areas more attractive. I told myself that the best is to mix another load and pour them into the pool area. Let the smell be vented out to the roof top.

I have one more aroma that I got from a friend from Tangkak Johore. His sister got it across to me and I brought along for the most exciting event of the day. I am dead sure that this particular aroma will make those birds crazy. Yes they did. I cannot tell this aroma's formula unless you call me for the information.

Well that was still not enough. After the aroma application I then concentrate on the external sound. I need to pull those birds on to the roof top and let them smell those cocktail that I have just applied.

I got one new sound from Kota Bahru. I called is "KB Stallion". The moment the sound was played, unbelievable, those birds were all over. The number continued to increase and many jump into the BH.

I am not very sure the main attraction for those birds. I believed the combinations but those aroma cocktail might be a very good reason.

By 6.00pm the owner dropped by and he too became so excited and started to compare between his BH and the other friends on the other row of shops.

"Harry, I think more are with us then my friend BH. Wonderful Harry."

Nothing to complain and I hope you like what I am doing.

The shock aroma therapy is working and I hope by the next three weeks we will see double or triple digit percent increase. I assured him.

Mr.L I bought a few manila white card boards and cut them into 6 pieces. I have placed all the 18 on the top of those old bird shit spots . Hopefully there will good signs when those fresh shits are captured by the board.

Let us hope for the very best.......

After 9 Month + 5 Weeks: 6 New BirdShits Spots.

My task in the rehabilitating a Birdhouse in Raub Pahang is on the right footing.

The house was with zero tenant for almost 9 months. After taking over for 5 weeks, my effort seem to be showing signs of revitalising. The house now have at least 12 birds tenanting a once empty BH.

The owner seem to know how to smile and the moment he saw those bird shits his life was back to normal.

I took lots of effort to personally orchestrate the rehabilitation.

Roughly the BH history was as follows:

The house was located among a row of shop houses in Raub, Pahang.

The nearest successful BH was about 20 blocks of shop houses away.

The owner is a Photo Shop owner and was very determined to owned a BH.

Was introduced to a so call "Consultant" who claimed to operate nothing less then 10 BHs in Peninsular. Based on such a wonderful track record, the job was given to him.

After more then 9 months, there was no sign of those bird shits anywhere in th House.

The owner confronted his Brother-in-Law for help knowing that the "Consultant" service was not showing any result.

The BIL, a very educated person, start his searches on the net and stumbled onto some internet "Sifus". I guess this was how Harry was located. That again after some hard talk with a few others.

After one visit, about 45 minutes, a full fledged recommendations was made to this Mr.Y.

He took this as his biggest challenged and did exactly as what I told him to do.

The moment he DIY those steps he asked me to come to town to inspect those modifications made.

I came in with some suitable gadgets to activate the house. The house temperature, humidity and brightness were back to normal.

Two weeks after activation, there were some signs of birds entering the BH but with no bird shit spots on the floor. Only on the walls.

Continued with the house rehabilitation, applying those fresh bird shits on the floor laced with ammonia powder, spray those new BH aroma on the walls.

Yesterday, after 5 weeks in operation, there were solid proof that the house was tenanted. There were fresh bird shits markings were on the floor. Six of them.

I am very sure in the next few weeks there will be more new tenant.

Activated the "Black Cloud" external bird call sound and the whole evening nearly every swiftlet passing by with take notice of the entrance hole and there were at least 30 to 50 birds that entered the house.

Applied the house with a few home made fake nests spike with those bird nest soup, the duck eggs, spray those wall's aroma, refresh those ammonia powder in the containers.

The internal temperature and humidity were perfect. Maximum Temperature was at 29.4*C and Humidity was 94%.

I am looking forward for the next visit to check the outcome. I know this unit will eventually be the best BH in Raub.

Harry What Is Your Opinion On Raub ?

It is very common that people whom I met will corner me with a very simple question: What is your opinion about this town?.

Yesterday I was invited to this small town called Raub. A very small town with about 30 BHs and human population about 70,000 people.

The town is about 1.5 hours drive from Kuala Lumpur.

I was promised a special dinner, fresh water fish (tapin), if I should drop by.

Well since I was already in Bentong, 30 minutes away, I took the opportunity to meet this Mr.Y and his gang.

Three of them seem to spent hours reading my blog.

Immediately after meeting at the rest house, I was taken to view a BH in the center of the town.

I was surprised that there were at least 5 BHs in this row of shops alone.

The moment I entered the BH I can easily guess how knowledgeable the person who help to renovate the unit.

The temperature was 31.9*C, the humidity was 75%, the aroma was nothing to hurt your nose, the brightness was 10 lux, all ventilation holes were wide opened, the tweeters were less then 20 units, the data room was at the back of the house (you need to cross the main hall to the back), the direction of all those tweeters were wrong, the nesting planks were not with 30cm X 100cm box, all corners were installed with those rectangular planks cut from those nesting planks left overs and many many more things that boggle your mind set.

What surprised me was, the person who renovated the house claimed to have 10 BHs in his home town.

Blind me.

I just don't understand how he can be so mean to someone who put every dollar that he has on the project. After more then one year, there was not a single trace of nest markings.

Adding salt to his wound, other BHs, about two units away, were doing well (okay).

So what is wrong with the house Harry?

Oh Dear Mother Theresa, please help these people who put so much hope on those so call "consultant" and who failed to deliver.

I just could not stop shaking my head all the time when visiting the house.

I will try to get some sketches done and perhaps provide the owner with a list of things that he should do. Let see if those birds will start to come in.

After that we went to view a piece of land, about 5 kilometers out of town, then visited a cinema which was just converted to a BH, a row of 8 BH shops owned by people from Kota Bahru and lastly the promised dinner.

This was when the question on Raub was thrown to my lap.

Well, as I always says, in Peninsular Malaysia, most towns are having these sudden surge of swiftlet population. This might be due to many reasons and I am pretty sure Raub is no different as compared to Kota Bahru 15 years ago.

Those who have accumulate lots of knowledge about swiftlet farming will benefit from those wild birds. It's a pity that there are many, who started late and with little or no knowledge they will find it hard to be successful.

If they are serious and willing to learn, I am sure they can and will be successful.

I just hope my blog will contribute some information.

I do not want to claim that my blog is the best (on swiftlt farming) but perhaps it can be a very place to start on the right track.