Completed The Training And Finally Back Home !!!

The special training for the two Cambodians were completed today.

It was a back breaking adventure. Started on November 18 th and today November 23 was their last day.

For record purposes these were the thing that I covered:

1) A full day presentation on swiftlet farming. After that we have a question and answers.

2) Covered a total of 1,600 kilometers journey from KL - Port Klang - Sungai Rambai - Kuala Selangor - Sekinchan - Sungai Besar - Setiawan - Bukit Mertajam - Padang Serai - Kota Bahru - Tumpat - Kuala Besut - Kuala Krai - Gua Musang - Raub - Bentong - KL.

3) Visited 12 birdhouses and 6 of which we entered for evaluation and inspection.

4) Did 4 bird call tests along the way.

5) Inspect a BH with more then 3,000 nests.

6) Have a look at one BH about to complete in Setiawan.

7) Visited a BH about 80% complete in Kota Bahru.

8) Visited a stand alone BH just started with the footing in BM.

9) Visited a BH that was turned around after not doing well for 9 months in Raub.

10) Visited a very sick BH in Tumpat.

11) Visited a row of Swiftlet ecopark in Kuala Krai.

12) Visited the Ridel Olympic lane in Kota Bahru.

13) Visited the most successful BH in Setiawan, Padang Serai, Besut, Kuala Krai and Bentong.

14) Visited the most colorful BH in Sungai Rambai.

15) Visited a shop house that was ear marked to turn into BH in Grik.

16) Encountered a total number of 9 wild elephants while of Grik-Jeli highway. The leader nearly attacked our car.

17) Met a 12 years old girl, Miss Ying, who is my blog reader.

18) Submitted a 12 pages BH visit report to Mr.L of Tumpat.

19) Visited a BH in Besut of which I was fascinated with it's progress.

20) Spend about 30 minutes at Bentong to look at those birds swooping into my BH.

21) Take a very good look at how "Black Cloud" performed in Setiawan and Besut. At both places BC was over my expectation.


Overall the trip was fantastic but I don't think I wanted to break my back again.

I was lucky not to loose my way both on the way up and back.

It was scary when those elephant nearly attack our car along the Grik highway.

What I am sure off was that both Cambodians were in good shape and they got what they came for.

I showed them nearly everything and I hope they will be doing the same like I did for the sake of swiftlet farming in Cambodia.

Bye Nal and brother. Hope to receive your email about the wonderful four days together.


THE YOUNGEST AND THE INTELLIGENT.

THE MOUNTAIN VIEW WHILE CROSSING BANJARAN TITIWANGSA.

THOSE WILD ELEPHENTS WERE THERE TO GREET US.

THE MOST SUCCESSFUL BH IN BESUT.

HALF CEMENT HALF WOOD BH.

TOKO SWIFTLET FARMING EQIPTMENT IN KOTA BAHRU.





BM BIRDHOUSE CONSTRUCTION GOING AS PLANNED.







ZENG TOI'S BIRTH PLACE.


KUALA KRAI ECOPARK MOVING SMOOTHLY.

THE LARGEST BH IN TUMPAT, KELANTAN, A STAND ALONE UNIT.

BESUT BH WITH LOTS OF TWEETERS ON THE CEILING.

Black Cloud Is Doing Well In KT !!!

This conversation is interesting about the Black Cloud birdcall sound.

The caller was Mr.T who purchased the Black Cloud and tested it in Kuala Trengganu, Trengganu.

He was conducting his first trial and was looking at the entrance hole area of his BH.

"Pak Harry, This is Mr.T from Kuala Trengganu. Just wanted to ask you about the Black Cloud you sent last night. Are You sure that it was not Duress?'

Mr.T why did you ask me that question?

"I am now using the sound in my BH and the response is marvellous and the number of birds are huge."

Mr.T, I sent to you the Black Cloud. Can you tell me your observation. Are those birds entering the entrance hole?

"Yes Pak Harry they are entering the hole but how come so many of them as if I am playing the test sound DURESS?"

Mr.T if you play the Duress the birds will not enter the hole.

"You are right Pak Harry. That means the Black Cloud is fantastic and is very effective here in KT. Thank U, thank U and Thank U."

You are welcome.

"Pak Harry one more question, do you have the best sound for internal?"

Yes, Black Cloud goes well with Cloud Nine. If you are interested I will be happy to let you try in KT.

For record purposes, the above conversation takes place yesterday November 22nd, 2008.

A Painfull Experiences In Tumpat!!!

Reached Kota Bahru at about 1pm from Bukit Mertajam.

Along the way here I took the two Cambodians as early as 5am to Padang Serai, Kedah. Took them to see those birds going out in the morning.

At 7am took the east west highway to Kota Bahru. A fantastic experiences and those mountain views were fantastic.

The moment we crossed the mountain area and entered Jeli we stopped to conduct some birdcall test.

The two seem to be doing fined. They came out with a very detail observations. Pak Harry there are more then 5 groups of birds here. Each tend to group in their own colony.

Hmm they are learning very fast and more then what I expected.

Upon reaching KB called Mr L to pick up his Bazooka tweeter plus take me and the Cambodians to visit their "sick" BH.

Pak Harry, the BH have been in operation for more then 7 months and there is no nest but with a bit of Bshits on the floor. Please tell us what is wrong with it."

Mr.L called all his 3 partners to receive me at the BH.

The unit was beside a house and in an abandoned padi field facing Ridel Hotel, KB. To the left, about two kilometers away, is a successful BH.

What do you think is wrong with the BH? Located under the flying path, in a town called Tumpat and lots of open fields and water sources too.

My rought conclusion, before entering the BH, was that there was a major screw up in the house. The whole house is facing a very serious "sickness" which in term of human being need to be hospitalised in the ICU unit.

Tumpat, according to my Kelantan friend, is the second hotspot location after Kuala Krai.

You simply cannot fail unless your BH have some major problems.

I entered the BH and as expected the whole place was unbelievably in a very bad shape. The roof was leaking, the floor was wet, the entrance hole was too big, the nesting planks were full of fungus and you name it you got it.

I was in a very deep pain. Sad to know that they did now know how bad their BH was. They should have monitor closely before reaching this "ICU" stage.

Just could not undestand while their "Consultant" did nothing to stop the rot?

Just imagine, if you want to count the findings using your fingers you need to have three more sets of hands, at least.

Well, I am glad that they realised their faults and have some one to help them to redo the whole BH.

This morning, November 22 I submitted a twelve pages hand written report to Mr.L.

He was so happy and promised to follow what I wrote on those papers. He promised to call me for one inspection, after doing up0 the BH, before playing the Black Clouds that I have given to him.

Well at least this trip, I managed to help one more BH that is stranded in the "ICU".

I am sure there are more to come........

What Happen If Your Internal Sound Is Not Good/Right !!!

I was driving this morning from Bukit Mertajam to Kota Bahru.

Well the trip was more then 4 hours and the two Cambodians were with me anxious to see those birds coming home in KB.

While driving I received a call from Mr.K from Klang.

"Pak I got something very interesting to share with you and your blog readers."

"I have recently opened my second BH in Shah Alam Selangor, thanks to you for those positive advises, and this was something that I wanted you to know."

"I installed several CCTV cameras and took very little notice only after the third week."

"Then some strange thing happened. Every evening there were at least 80 birds that entered the birdhouse but after a few weeks I entered the BH there were not a single bird shits on the floor."

"I begin to wonder why and took a very good look at my CCTV clips that I saved."

"You know what actually happened?"

"The moment my external sound is off for the day, those birds gets irritated with the internal sound and they immediately fly out of the house. Really strange and unusual."

"What I did was to immediately replace the internal sound and now they seem to be staying"

"I am really surprised that internal sound is also a very important thing to look into for a BH. I think it is more important then the external sound. There is no use to bring them in and shew them away after that."

"Harry I hope this special finding is useful to you and your blog readers."

"Anyway thank you for being so helpful with my first birdhouse and I owe you a special dinner. I have just harvested about 25 nests after about 6 months."

Mr.K thank you very much for sharing. I am looking forward for more of this kind of things that can be shared with all those who read my humble blog.

Thank you and thank you. Mr.K you still owed me one dinner.

How Much Money Wasted Due To Failed BH in Our Country !!!

Just wanted to record something that might be of interest to all my beloved blog readers.

During dinner last night, with the Cambodians and Mr.D, we discussed about the rate of failure in Malaysia and Cambodia in swiftlet farming .

In Cambodia there are only about 50 BHs, according to Nal. More then 80% are not successful.

In Malaysia, there is a report from sme Penang that the number of failed BH is above 70%.

Let us choose 70% as our selected figure.

There are more then 50,000 BHs in Malaysia so let us use 50,000.

So the number of failed BH is 70% of 50,000 that is 35,000 BHs.

If one BH, an average of Rm200,000, we have a total of 35,000X200,000 = 7 billion riggit of BHs (in value) that are not doing well.

Can you imagine how much it effect those BH owners.

The lucky part, I think, is that most of BHs in Malaysia belongs to those who have more then one BH. These people are not that effected much because even they are 10 failed units, they do have at least one that is doing very well.

But what about those that are not that well off?

Well that is why I created swiftlet farming blog. We need to help these people plus those who are new in this business.

What I hope is that my blog gives all who visited it a chance to learn and get all the knowledge that can minimise those risks.

We need to give the right information so that less people make those unnecessary mistakes.

Well as I say I am always available to share what I know.

I might not be that good as compare to those King Players but I am always ready to lend my head to solve your problems (swiftlet farming problems only please).

"But Harry everyday even if you help one person there are 10 others who jump into the field without any knowledge."

Well we do our best for we cannot cure the world by our self.

So Nal, please take up this challenge and do the same for your people in Cambodia.

"Yes Sifu, I will do my best but at the moment I need to learn a lot more from you in Malaysia. As far as I know you are the best Sifu that I ever come across. You are so helpful and have a very very good heart."

Setiawan DIY Birdhouse !!!

We were about to reach the town of Setiawan from Teluk Intan.

Managed to call Mr.D to meet us at the normal meeting point in Setiawan.

Just when I put down the phone I saw this wooden BH that looks abandoned, made of half wood and half bricks.

The monkey house was very small and on the wall there were a couple of exhaust fans.

No sound played and I am very sure this is a DIY birdhouse that failed to take off or perhaps the owner gave up after no birds entering his BH.

Now wait a second. The house is in Setiawan, the capital city of swiftlet farming and no birds coming in.

Hmm I wonder if you ask thinking like what I am thinking........

To fail in Klang or Nilai is understandable but in Setiawan, tak ada logic, unless the owner have little or no knowledge in swiftlet farming.

So the morale of the story is that even you have the right location and below the flying path but you have too little knowledge the chances of success is not very sure yet.

The best is to gather as much knowledge like how these Cambodians are doing. They are willing to come to Malaysia and learn from people who they believed will ensure that they make lesser mistakes.

How Lucky These Cambodians Brothers !!!

They did the right thing in their life and I believe others should follow their foot steps.

Travel and get those knowledge before embarking on their dream BH.

The two brothers never ever dreamed of entering a BH with 3,000 nests. Never ever dream of getting somebody to be their sifu in their venture and now they nearly accomplished all by making the right decision.

Learn as much as you can and then embark on your dream BH.

Four days with Sifu Harry and learn everything that they need to know.

Nal is a computer graduate and used to work with a American organisation in Cambodia. After a three years as an employee he wanted to be on his own.

After looking at all the available options he stumbled into swiftlet farming. He got it from a dream, he claimed. He visited Malaysia once but did not learn much until he found Pak Harry swiftlet farming blog.

He finished reading every article written in less then one month and not one time but more then once.

He was not satisfied and wanted very much to meet Pak Harry in person. He admitted to borrowing some money to fly over to Malaysia to learn hands on with his Sifu.

I was very honored but no matter how much he learned from me I told him to give back to all his Cambodian swiftlet farmers.

I advise him that my aspiration is to help those who are in need of proper guidance in swiftlet farming. If he can do that in his country I will be very proud to be his Sifu.

In the meantime, today we had a fantastic day.

Starting from KL to Klang then to Sungai Rambai. After the short stop we moved to Kuala Selangor and Sekinchan. Took them to those padi fields with many big size BHs to stop by.

Arrived Setiawan, Perak at about 4.30pm and received by Mr.D.

The first thing he did was to find us a simple hotel. Mr.D was very pleased to help and he can never stop talking about "Black Cloud" sound.

We entered one of his BH with 3,000 nests and the internal view was breath taking. Those birds were everywhere and their nest were crystal white.

The best was to have a look at how effective "Black Cloud" was.

Harry those birds become so crazy and even after 7.45pm there are still some pecking on those tweeters.

I saw with my own eyes and I just could not believed to see how those birds were attracted to the sound.

"Harry the "Black Cloud" is the best sound that I ever have and I wish you have found this much ealier. It is effective and marvellous."

How To Make Those External Sound Effectivenes Last Much Longer !!!

How many weeks do you think a very good sound that you have purchased from Pak Harry will last?

I mean its effectiveness?

Maybe 12 weeks or best case is 4 months (16 weeks).

What do you think the best way that you can stretch their effectiveness to a much longer period?

All this while I thought I was the smartest but frankly I am not. I am just a rusty Mechanical Engineer who sometime got this memory lapse like a 65 years old man.

Today I met someone who is far superior then I am and I am truly fascinated with his ingenuity. He owned more then 12 BHs in Setiawan, the Capital city of swiftlet farming in Malaysia at the moment.

How he did is simple.

First he plays those external songs and observed how many days they will get those swiftlets got bored.

One day it dawned upon him that birds are like human. Once they listen to the same song all day long they will get tired of it. At the same time if you play the same sound from morning till evening without stopping these birds will get hungry and tired.

So the best is to limit playing those sound to a limited number of hours a day.

The most important is from 6.30pm till 7.30pm and maybe another hour in the morning.

In the morning you actually catch hold of those young birds to come and visit the BH but the evening is where the pulling action takes place.

In this way the sound will be magnetic and will stay effective much longer as compare to playing all day long.

It makes sense but if you wish to try please be aware that the guy who give this idea will hold no responsibilities if it does not works for you.

It works for him very well and I believe the method he is doing makes lots of good sense.

Again there is nothing to loose by trying............

Pak Harry just wanted to share something special and I hope this article will not upset anybody.

If I do I would like to say sorry.

How To Remove Your Body Odour In Your BH !!!

I was talking with a blog reader on the best time to visit a BH.

"Pak Harry, if I want to enter my BH what is the best time and when I should be out of the BH? "

My sensible answer was:

"You can enter anytime convenient to you but must be with a specific purpose. Try not to enter your BH to often for no specific reasons. If you really need to enter, it is better to have a plan what to do and get everything ready on the floor before starting those works.

If you have a few workers then I would advise that you brief them the rules when they are working inside. No smoking, cooking, welding, soldering or eating in the BH. They need to enter say from 9.00am and must be out by 4.00pm."

If those works are not completed, push the works to the next day and to be finished within the same time frame.

Try not to work in the BH for too many days at one time. Split the works to small portion and the most is 3 days or so. If you have another job to be carry out just after the 1st, I advise to push the job to the next two or three months gap.

This recommendations is important to a new BH owners. You might make those birds feel not very safe. Once they have that feeling they might find another BH around your area.

Even if you enter the BH for the day I suggest that you take a handful of the ammonia powder and spread them on the BH floor just before you close the exit door. The idea is to allow the ammonia powder to vaporise and mask your body odour.

A smart thing to consider and your have nothing to loose.

From today onward I will try to remember to say sorry if I have offended any of my blog readers for every articles that I wrote.

I just love to write and each article is something that can make my blog readers learn something.

How To Conduct The Effectiveness of Your Internal Sound !!!!

Most swiftlet farmers are not awared of how important are those internal sounds.

We tend to focus more on the external sound but tend to forget that internal sound is also as important as the external.

Just imagine when the birds enter your birdhouse for the first time.

They were attracted by your soothing external sound. The moment they enter your BH they will follow the sound path into the BH and once inside will be bombarded with those internal sound.

If the internal sound are not attractive or alien, they will quickly rush out of your BH.

However if your internal sound are perfect to their ears they will feel peaceful and have the urge to stay.

The best method to know if the sound you played is good or not is to device a the sound splitting technique.

You might want to run two different sounds in your BH. The normal sound and the new sound for testing. (Note all birdsound comes in two streams, the left and the right streams)

If you have say three floors, the new sound you play at the lowest floor while the normal sound on the first and second floor.

If your new sound in good most of those young birds will move to the lowest floor. Observed those bird shits on the floor.

To test that they will follow the sound, you might want to switch the sound cable.

After a few days you might want to push the sound to the upper second floor and let the lowest and first floor uses the normal sound.

Check whether those birds do go up from the lowest floor to the highest floor. If they do you know that the new sound is effective.

The only problem is how to find this effective internal sound?????

You need to think carefully about this idea of using the right internal sound. They are crucial and now you are given the best idea in checking how effective they are.

Hands On Training For The Cambodian Brothers !!!

Tomorrow my training program for two Cambodian brothers will begin.

They have landed in Kuala Lumpur and staying close by to my Apartment.

They seem to be very excited over tomorrow and I hope I am too.

My plan is to ensure that what they learn will benefit their country swiftlet industries. Who knows one day both will be great sifus in this part of the world.

I plan to ensure that they will not become "Consultant" that cheats those newbies in this industry.

What I need to galvanise them is to have a proper set of objectives. They are welcome if their intention is to ensure that every newbies that engage them will benefits from what they will learn from me.

I just do not wish that one day every Cambodian who engaged them will point their fingers to Pak Harry for not creating sensible sifus. Sifus who are out to make the kill like some that I came across in Malaysia.

Will first take them to Kuala Selangor and then to Setiawan. After Setiawan will visit Bukit Mertajam and Padang Serai. Once that is done will be up in Kota Bahru and Besut before stopping over in Raub, Pahang.

This will be something that I hope to do when there is enough participants who are really serious in learning swiftlet farming.

Is It Possible That The Birds Change Their Flight Path !!!

This question was posted to me recently:

" Pak Harry, after some time can these swiftlets change their flying path? Let say now my BH is below their flight path now, say 5 to 10 years, from now will they change?"

A very sensible question which I thing need to get sensible answers.

My answer is yes however the probability is slim unless there are a few drastic changes in the followings:

1) The food source which they used to go and hunt depleted badly. This might be due to bad weather or a serious forest fire. If their hunting ground are totally burned down they will move their hunting locations to a newer place. This will effect their flight path.

2) A new walet central suddenly came into the vicinity of your BH. This can happen when a new walet central was created by some one who is good swiftlet farming. This person knows the ins and outs of making sure that his new BHs are perfect and will pull all those birds to move to his new BH. If this should happen, very rare in deed, the flight path will be affected to.

3) Suddenly there is a new source of food along the way home. This is something that not many people have thought about. Just imagine suddenly a new water pond or waste treatment plant were in operation a few short kilometers from you BH and they are spewing out lots of those mayflies. These birds will now move their flight path to that pond before going home. If this ponds are not within your BH range, you will experience this unusual flight path change.

What can you do to reinstate them?

The best that you can do is to look into creating the environment to lure them to you BH areas.

I suggest that it would be advisable for you to start looking at proving food within your BH compound.

You might want to built a suitable water pond and inside those ponds you rear some kind of plants that will produce insects.

You might want to store some wood logs. Choose those that are capable of generating a kind of beetles that are a food source to those swiftlets.

The easiest would be to built a small barn where you can generate fruit flies. These fruit flies are easily cultivated. What you need are rotten fruits and some yeast. If they are slow in breeding you might want to introduce those insect powder in the barn to be the core insects to spread onto those rotten fruits.

Well if you are afraid that they might change their flight path, you need to quickly populate your BH in the first 5 years.

Remember, the best is to get 500 nest within the 5 years period and the rest is a history.

Once your BH touches 500 nests, subject to the stable micro and macro habitats, they will multiply at least 3 times a year. From this moment they should grow in an exponential path.

As such you are on the way to the bank every three months. That actually is the right flight path. He he he.

A Wanderful Way Of Detecting Any Defects In Your BH !!!

I managed to buy a new cam coder, Panasonic, with 4 gigabytes memory card.

The moment I got it in my hand, I keep thinking how can I maximise the use of it for the sake of swiftlet farming operation.

If I have anything that I am very curious I should now be able to detect using my new cam coder.

I went over to the camera shop and got one of those tripods stand.

Fix the cam on it and decided to check which entrance hole the birds prefer to fly in.

Hmm...... something that might help to proceed with my next plan on my BH.

The only setback is that the battery will only last for one hour unless I connect direct to the charger cable.

Without those charger cables, I can only run the can while the battery last.

So went into the BH and set the cam at the selected location. Once ready switched the cam on.

After about one hour went to pick the CAM home.

The result is wonderful. I can now know exactly how those wild birds enter the hole and which hole they preferred.

My conclusion is, using cam coder, can help you to make a better decision. Just imagine if your wall is too closed to the entrance hole you might want to check their flying path into the house. If the pictures taken do indicate that they are not right, you can immediately make the changes.

You will realised how fantastic to know exactly what is wrong with your BH.

Use your cam coder regularly.