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.

What Happened When You Move The Entrance Hole ???

I visited an outlet selling BH equipment in Kota Bahru, Kelantan.

While browsing through the shop I was taken to a special room where there was a video clip being shown.(Sorry that I did not asked for it)

A few visitors were in the room. I was introduced to the owner and those few in the room and what I learned there wass something that I think all my blog reader should know.

The video clip was taken in Kata Bahru and the show was about what happen when the owner tried to shut an old entrance hole and opened a new one. He thought that when he opened the new hole the bird should straight away enter them and not knowing that these wild birds takes time to get used to the new environment.

The house owner in actual fact did a heavy extension of his BH and tried to lure the swiftlets to enter a newly open hole on the upper floor.

What happened was, the birds simply refuse to enter the BH via the new hole. They were not familiar with it and could not enter until darkness fall. There were about 50,000 of them and can you imagine having 50,000 flying around and do not know how to enter their house.

It was very fortunate that the owner rushed upstairs and open the old entrance hole. Immediately after that all the birds entered the house without any problem.

The lesson we learn from this episode was that you should never close the old entrance hole in one go but do them in stages.

First you open the new hole complete with those tweeters placed at the exact same location. Remove those tweeters at the old entrance hole.

If you can in the morning allow the birds to exit only using the new hole. Shut the old hole in total and open only after,let say, 8.00 am.

You do this for at least one week.

After a week of familiarization, you should now slowly reduce the size of the old hole by stages. First lay one layer of bricks at the bottom section of the old hole. Then after a few days another layer to the side. Then you can proceed with another layer and so on. (See picture at the bottom).

By say three to four weeks you can close the hole to the smallest possible size where only one bird can enter at any one time.

You should stop there and let the smallest hole be there until such time the hole is no longer used by the birds.

If they continued using, you just let it be there and do not shut the hole in total.

I hope this article do make sense and what is good for your BH should be remembered.

There is nothing like learning. The more you learn the better you are in avoiding making silly and costly mistakes.

Just imagine if he continued with his drastic move and not opening the old hole. The birds will be greatly stressed and they might find a new BH around the area.

Kuala Krai Swiftlets Rock and Roll

I was very impressed with those many BHs in this small town.

The sky was littered with swiftlets and I just could not stop taking so many pictures.

Out of so many BHs I choose a few that shows a very heavy activities.

The above is one and one more at the bottom.

The bottom clip shows an old BH with 20 kilos a month while the top clip was a new BH which have a very aggressive owner. He has his entrance hole facing the other heavily populated BH and his intention is to suck those young birds into his.

Just listen to the beautiful melody which makes those birds go wild. The attack the tweeters and the walls around the tweeters. This is what a good BH should looks like. The owner put in place a very attractive sound to lure those wild birds to his entrance hole.

Remember once the sound no longer pull the crowd, change them to a more attractive sound.

Well as I always mentioned in some of my articles, you need to think for your investment. The quicker they populate your BH the faster you get the return of investments.

Zang Toi ancestor's house was on the front lane of the white painted BH.

My Mr.E, my guide, shop was on the same row. He has yet to ask the tenant to move to a new place. I told him that the unit is fit to be a gold harvester. Yes make money from the air.

Kuala Besut , Trengganu Birdhouse Visit !!!

About one month ago I received this sad sms message from someone whose birdhouse was summon for RM25,000.

Oh blind me .....

I have never heard such drastic measures by any local council in Peninsular Malaysia and this was way too much. The Ketua Pengarah of the Local Council must be out of his mind or maybe the night before he did not get his wife to release those toxic chemical in his body system.

I feel very bad and it seem that a total of 22 BH owners in Besut town were asked to stop operation with immediate effect.

I replied by saying that I am in no position to give a helping hand but did a short report to Uncle Reduan at Putra Jaya.

He was very suprise too.

While in Kelatan I took my tour guide down to Besut and met with the person affected.

He was so glad to see me and he gathered a few of his elders to have a short word with me. Most of these elders do have their own BHs.

Immediately after that short introduction I was invited to take a good look at his BH and I have little choice but to run up to see how to improve the BH.

The BH design was absurd and hot and dry and floor made of wood and those windows are closed to wide opened and those entrance holes were too small and those roving areas were to small and so and so and so....

Nothing seem to be perfect but there were so many birds in the house. So this is something that we alway says that in swiftlet farming one plus one is never two.

Well I told him that it could be better if he can resolve a few important basics.

1) The house is just too hot and too dry.
The thermo hygrometer was showing a maximum temperature of 31.9*C and the humidity minimum was 75%. He need to quickly find a remedy to encourage those birds to stay.

2) The ventilation holes uses normal windows with wooden cover to deflect those light.
The amount of outside air entering the house was way to much. This was the main reason why the house was dry and hot. I told him to quickly make changes on the window openings. Try to cover all windows with plastic mat internally and perhaps place a cover, using rattan screen, to avoid direct sunlight into the window.

3)The entrance hole was just too small.
The way the entrance hole was design was a bit odd. It was very small, about 1 foot by 8 inches. The entrance hole monkey house is so small that I am very surprised that those birds still enter the BH. How I wish it can be turn form monkey house to an open roof.

4) There were too many rooms in the BH.
I have entered many BHs and this unit have at least 6 rooms on a floor of 20 feet by 40 feet. He should have removed all those room walls before starting the operating.

5) Change the sound.
I feel good that he did changed the external sound. The new sound that he was playing seem to be doing well with lots of birds playing and bitting the external tweeters.
He was unsure and keep asking me more then three times about it. "Harry is it okay that I change the sound?".
My answer was simple. "Do you want more birds to enter your BH? If yes you need to change the sound once they are no more attracting those birds to you roof top".

6) Number of Tweeters per square meter.
He might be lacking with those humidity, temperature and darkness but he suprised me with the number of tweeter per square meter. I think he have the most tweeters in every square meter. My recommendation is about one but he installed 2 per square meters. I told him that is fantastic.

7) The pigeon seem to disturb his entrance holes.
I told him to shoot those pigeon. If they keep disturbing just put a kind of trap and let them know that you mean business. Never to disturb your BH.

8) He seem to rotate the sound from external with mating.
This is something that I am very fascinated. This guy is brilliant and I think he learned very much from some of his elders. The idea is to rotate the sound from normal external with mating sound at certain time of the day. The birds simply adores those sound combination.


I am looking forward to be in Besut again and the observation is exceptional and interesting.

He allows me to have the two sounds he uses and I am sure they will be very useful to my two BHs.


WINDOW WITH BAMBOO SCREEN TO AVOID DIRECT SUNLIGHT INTO THE BH.


BH OF SAME DESIGN A FEW FEET AWAY.


VERY MANY TWEETERS.


NEST ON ONE OF THE CORNER

What Happened To Those Young Couples !!!

One of my blog reader called and told me about this phenomenon which need careful explanations.

" Harry, in my new BH have about 20 nests. Some are full cups and some are less then half cups. My problem are those nest markings. What do you think happened and where are those couple who started the nest markings?".

Hmm......


I think I need to carefully find the most logical answer. Let me digest you intelligent question and perhaps I can give you an intelligent answer.

Well, my opinion are are follows:

As you know all those birds who enter to built their nests are all those young birds.

I believed when the male started building he was horny and did not take into consideration of safety, coolness and humid. The lady birds must have make a checking and she was not happy with that particular location. So she might have told him to move to a much better location where she can lay her eggs and bring up the babies.

So please do not think that they have moved out of the house. They might have move location.

I hope the explanation given is good enough unless there are others, my blog readers, who have a much better explanations.


HOW NEST MARKINGS LOOKS LIKE.

Politically Speaking: PAS do support Swiftlet Farming !!!

I am not a politician and I am not supporting any political parties.

I just wanted to share this will my blog readers about a building which seem to be PAS Office in Kok Lanas, Kelantan.

You can see that the top part of the building is with swiftlets BH features.

I snapped this photo when I was making my way from Krai to Kota Bahru recently.

Look at the entrance hole at the top left hand corner of the building I am very sure those sweet swiftlet sound melodies were played on September 1st 08. Also look at those bricks used to cover the side wall.

I am dead sure they are swiftlet house up there.

Fendona: How It Look Like

"Harry what is the best insect poison suitable for my Birdhouse?"

I will always say "Fendona" manufactured by a German Company called BASF.

If you have never seen one please be my guess.

One liter bottle is about RM 70 only.

I wrote some technical details last month. Please read it and improve your knowledge.



(DOUBLE CLICKS FOR A LARGER PICTURE)

White Colored Princess : Please Come Back Home !!!

A beautiful photograph of a very rare white swiftlet in her nest.

She is said to bring a flow of good luck to seven generations. The house that she stays will always be full of nests.

However, in this particular case it was not so.

The person who gave me this beautiful picture informed me that this particular swiftlet was actually a baby bird.

Initially it was with black colored and when she grows the feathers changed color.

Her eyes were red.

The last time they saw the Princess was when she took her maiden flight out of the BH. She never came back until now.

Might have been caught by predators or elope with a newly found male swift.

The house owner until today yearn to see this swiftlet for one more time.

Told me to write the story in my blog and who knows the Princess might read it and come back home...

A very sad story but in nature we just let them go and just hope that they will one day come back home....

Zang Toi Was Born and Raised In Kuala Krai, Kelantan !!!

Have you ever heard about a Malaysian who is currently one of the world most respectable and famous fashion designer?

He was born and raised in Kuala Krai, Kelantan. My tour guide who took me to Kuala Krai said that they used to be neighbours. His house was about three shop away from Zang Toi's house on the main road. Well the sad thing is that the house now is a BH on the top floors while the bottom is a Jewelry shop.

Maybe you should read this article found at: http://www.fashionwindows.com/fashion/zang_toi/default.asp

Quote:
Born to an ethic Chinese family in Kelantan, Malaysia (Jun 11, 1961), Zang Toi immigrated to the U.S. when he was 20 to attend the Parsons School of Design where he graduated with a BFA in Fashion Design in 1984.

After graduation, he trained under Mary Jane Marcasiano and Ronaldus Shamask, and 5 years later, in 1989, he launched his eponymous label with a modest collection of bright sarongs, strong suits and regal dresses, he opened his own atelier.

His unique color sense that brought the tropical colors of Asia on the runway translated to exuberance in his designs that quickly captured the attention of the New York fashion elite.

In 1990, Zang Toi won the Mouton-Cadet Young Designers Award, which was established by Baroness Philippine de Rothschild to recognize new talent. On March 30, 1997, the King of Malaysia presented him with his Knighthood, with the title Bentara Seri Kelantan.

And in October 2002, the Malaysian-born designer was recognized by the International Center of New York, an organization dedicated to the advancement of immigrants for Toi's achievements and contributions.

In his acceptance speech for his award from the International Center, Zang Toi said, "Lastly, to every immigrant who came here to pursue the "American Dream"... always dream big! If a small town Kelantanese boy from Malaysia can make it here, you too, with hard work, discipline and determination can also achieve great success and happiness."

One of the most sought-after designers in New York and clothier to celebrities that include Sharon Stone and Ivana Trump, Zang Toi embodies the American dream.

He has two signature lines, Zang Toi and House of Toi, both of which are sold at Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and specialty boutiques in the U.S and around the world. Zang Toi also has freestanding stores in his native Malaysia.
Unquote:

My main reason to touch on this issue is to let all my blog readers knows that Kuala Krai do produce a world class gem (Zang Toi) but birdnest is also one of them. The nests originating from Krai seem to be four fingers in size and most of them are crystal white.

Who knows the house still belongs to him and he owned those birdnests above it?

You never know unless he says no .....


THE SHOP HOUSE WHERE HE WAS BORN AND RAISED.



DOWNSTAIRS JEWELRY SHOP AND UPSTAIRS BIRDHOUSE.

Fooding Behaviour At Eco Park In Kuala Kerai, Kelantan !!!

PART 1


PART 2


The more you know them the more you wish you can get more information about their weird behaviors.

I learn something that might be very useful for those who wanted to populate their BH.

When I was in Kuala Krai, visiting an Eco Park Project, I saw this special phenomenon that attracts my attention to the fullest.

It was those wild swiftlets hovering above a cluster of wood logs that was placed on a wood mill beside the said Eco Park.

I was so carried away that I took a few video clips that I wanted to share with all my blog readers.

The wood logs was said to be cut down from the nearby forest and known as “PERAH”. They seem to have been infested by those worms that upon maturity will turned into beetles. Each is as big as a grain of rice.

They usually mate upon turning into beetle and start laying eggs on those logs. Many wanted to fly to other part of the logs or far away logs and that were when those swiftlets will snatch them for a snack.

I took a few photos but was not that clear.

This phenomenon is a very interesting fact where you might want to apply the exact way to your BH. This is more like providing those additional food outside your BH (especially if BH in on an Agricultural Land).

What if the logs that I can find are without those insects?

Simple, you just need to stack them within a few short distances from you BH and you go and collect the same insect from a nearby log barn where they produce the insect. Catch them one by one, say about 500 and bring them to your log stack. Release them carefully and see what happen after a few short weeks.

Once they start to lay their eggs and those yummy worms start to drill through, you are on the right track.

If you wanted to be safe, just find the same type of logs with those insects oozing out and place them around your BH?

Maybe I should start a business to cut those logs and sell to all my beloved blog readers!!!!.

Hope all of you will enjoy viewing the video clips and pictures but try to think about applying this simple technique so that your BH is better then your neighbors.

A HUGE STACK OF PERAH WOOD.


CLOSER VIEW OF THE CLUSTER OF LOGS


THE BEETLE THAT WERE GENERATED BY THE LOGS.


THE BEETLE LOOKS MORE OR LESS LIKE THIS PHOTO.


ONE MORE TYPE FOUND BUT MIGHT BE TO BIG FOR THOSE SWIFTLETS.

Facinating Eco Park in Kuala Krai, Kelantan

If you post to me a question "Harry where in Malaysia is the Hotspot for Swiftlet Farming?"

My true answer at the moment is Kuala Krai, Kelantan.

Main reasons being there are lots of birds and not many birdhouses yet.

The town is not that big as compared to Kota Bahru and I was made to understand that there are a few BHs in town are harvesting at least 30 kilograms a month. Most of them are practising harvesting after the baby birds matured and leave the nests.

The harvesting technique encourage the multiplication of its population on every season. This will benefit all those new BHs built in the same area.

I have this observations that the swiftlet in Kelantan in general are larger in size, due to lots of food, and they tend to produce larger size nests. If you use proper technique the nests are cleaned with very little feathers.

The Ecopark I refer to is the Krai Eco Park located about 4 kilometers away from the main town (old and new). Actually it is sandwiched in between two swiftlets walet centrals.

Tested with the birdcall sound and the respond was marvellous. There were at least 1000 birds responded.

The best was when we observed these birds flocking around a bunch of wood logs that were stored on a piece of land beside the project. At any one time there were at least 500 birds.

From noon till late evening these birds keep flying around it and upon inspection we found out that these pile of logs were producing a kind of beetles, as big as a grain of rice, and were attracting these walet.

Beside providing a BH for you to invest in, they also provide ever ready birds in the same area.

I suggested to the sale person to relocate the logs to another location just beside the construction area. This might attract more people to buy the few units left.

Some interesting points about the project are:

1) The number of units is not that many, about 61 units only.

2) The project is located between two walet centrals.

3) The project is located in the hottest swiftlet area in Malaysia, currently.

4) The project is developed by a listed company who have a firmed joint venture partner with Kelantan State Development Board, a state owned investment arm.

5) The developer have purchased nearly all the raw materials that were required by the total project. The reason being, to avoid unneccesary price ascalations especially on those steel bars.

6) The project have been approved by the state goverment and this will resolve lisence issue matters.

7) This is the first project that I know off where outsiders can buy and own property in Kelantan State.

8) Each unit will be 3 stories and price varies from 438K to 1.5 million subject to the total square meters of each unit.

9) There are only 61 units and 30 have been sold. 31 unit left and 18 are for Bumiputras.

10) The cost is exclusive of all the internals and sound systems but can be negotiated when purchase is to be done.

11) Since the state have approved, the BH shall be built in accordance to swiftlet BH features from day one. Not like those in other states where you built to meet the certificate of fitness and after receiving those approval you then need to hack those walls and floors to make it to a BH.

12) Financial package are available if required.

13) The best are those swiftlets flying around the wood logs. I sincerely believed that this is the only project that not only provide you with BH but birds too.

14) According to their sales records most of the buyers are from Kelantan. A few from Kuala Krai itself.

I fully recommend for you to consider in buying at least one unit and the best is to buy in group.

Get four to five of your best friends and invest into a unit. Once filled up with nests get a buyer to buy over. I am very sure you will get back your investment within less then 2 years.

Be aware that you do need to put some effort in ensuring that your BH do attract those birds in.

One more interesting thing to add is the availability of cheap flight to Kota Bahru from Subang old airport.

I tried and it was marvellous. A small plane and just one hour I reached Subang .....

If you do have any other questions on the project please drop a line or call me for my sincere clarifications. Write to harryswiftlet@yahoo.com or call my mobile phone at 017 755 1318.

Swiftlet Olympic Lane In Kota Bahru, Kelantan

The event took place at a back lane of two rows of shop houses located parallel with Jalan Post Office Lama and Ridel hotel.

I woke up as early as 6.00am and waited for the famous swiftlet Olympic marathon to begin.

For my record it started around 6.30am. In the beginning only a few but within a few short minutes the number swelled to a few hundreds a minute. There were a total of about 20 exits and you can imagine the numbers oozing out of all the BHs.

Before that I was talking to a guy employed to look after the place every night. He indicated that normally the birds will keep flying out for almost one hour until 7.30am.

For the observation day, September 2nd 2008, the number slowed down by about 7.10am, short of 20 minutes.

By 7.30 am nothing happened but some were flying back towards the BHs.

These might be the young birds or those adult birds that have babies in their nests.

They seem to enjoy flying in and out of the entrance holes and I believed they love those sound being played.

Trip To Kuala Krai, Kelantan !!!

I was invited to view an Eco Swiftlet Park in Kuala Krai, Kelantan.

In the beginning I thought the trip will be just one day or two but after looking at the activities in Kuala Krai I decided to move to Kota Bahru.

In Kota Bahru met one of my GAHP attendee stick very closed for most of the time in Kelantan.

Managed to observe a few interesting and will try to cover these observations in a few on my articles.

1) Eco Park in Kuala Krai.

2) Swiftlet Food Using Logs.

3) Visit to Besut.

4) Swiftlet Olympic

5) Kota Bahru Should Be called Swiftlet City and Not Islamic city.

6) ZangToi was Borned In This Birdhouse !!!

7) Politically Speaking, Pas Is for Swiftlet Farming.

Will touch on all these titles once my wife is off my back