Vietnamese Swiftlet Enthusiast In Town !!!

The last two days, after the tiring  KK and Sandakan visit, I was with two visitors from Vietnam.

The father and son team came down to take a good look at those Red Meranti logs (rectangular in shape) that were about to be loaded into a 20 foot container onward to Ho Chi Min city.

They planned to cut the and groove these planks in Vietnam.

Since I was the person who initiated the transaction, I could not do much but to attend to their site visit.


The moment they say those beautiful logs they keep saying that it was a marvelous set of items.  Well kept, dried and well packed.  They keep pushing me to get the items into the containers and move onto any available vessel to Vietnam.

I reassured them that the goods belongs to them and they will be packed into those containers once the vessel is firmed and the date of leaving is firmed.

On the same day I took them to Semenyih to view the BH under revamp.

The next day I told them to come again but this time to work as my aroma applicator.

The two were so excited and wanted to learn how to use those pumping machine and the aroma.
This is the way I tried to help those who are new in this business.

What they need is commitment to be the best.

Have a good look at these pictures:

The Star: Sarawakians going into swiftlet farming in a big way

Unprocessed swiftlet nests have a market price of between RM3,000 and RM5,000 per kg compared with at least RM7,000 per kg for processed nests.

Found At: 

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/1/17/business/7658452&sec=business

Sarawakians going into swiftlet farming in a big way

By JACK WONG
jackwong@thestar.com.my

KUCHING: Sarawakians are flocking to the lucrative swiftlet farming business as more and more bird houses are being set up in the state.

Sarawak Bird's Nest Suppliers Association secretary Colin Wong Chung Onn said there was an estimated 5,000 swiftlet houses statewide with many more under construction.

“The number of swiftlet houses has more than doubled compared with a year ago,” he told StarBiz.
About 60% of these houses are found in the Mukah and Sarikei divisions in central Sarawak mostly along the coastal areas.

Unlike Peninsula Malaysia, Sarawak is a late starter in commercial swiftlet farming.
It is learnt that the state authorities, in consultation with the industry players, are drafting comprehensive guidelines to regulate the development of the industry.

Acting on environmental and health concerns, the state authorities had investigated more than 400 illegal farms last year, said Sarawak Assistant Minister for Planning and Resource Management Naroden Majais.
He said the construction of swiftlet farms was being closely monitored to prevent illegal operations.
Naroden said two licences were needed for commercial swiftlet farming - one to construct the building for the swiftlets to nest and the second for the rearing of the birds.

Some 250 licences to construct buildings and a handful to rear the birds have been approved.
Wong said big-time investors were constructing double or three-storey concrete shophouses to rear the swiftlets while the smaller ones, like farmers and fishermen, were building wooden houses.

Unoccupied or under-utilised shophouses and residential houses have been converted into swiftlet farms.
He said it would cost about RM400,000 (excluding land), to build a three-storey shophouse (36ft x 76ft) for swiftlet farming.

Sarawak's first swiftlet eco-park, a RM40mil joint-venture between state Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) and Borneo Resources Synergy Sdn Bhd is expected to be ready in Balingian, Mukah division within the Sarawak Corridor for Renewable Energy by next year.

The park will have 40 three-storey units and 15 three-storey bungalow units.

The SEDC has been tasked by the Sarawak government to spearhead the development of swiftlet farming on a well-planned, sustainable and eco-friendly manner.

Similar eco-parks have been planned for other parts of the state.
Wong said some pioneer swiftlet houses in Paloh, Mukah division could each produce up to 3kg of swiftlet nests a month.

“Unprocessed swiftlet nests fetch a market price of between RM3,000 and RM5,000 per kg compared with at least RM7,000 per kg for the processed nests.”

Some of the raw nests are being sold by middlemen to Indonesia, Singapore and Hong Kong.
He said based on a conservative estimate of the 5,000 bird houses producing an average 0.5kg of nests a month, this would mean a yearly production of 3,000kg. At an average market price of RM3,500 per kg, it would generate RM10.5mil per annum for the Sarawak economy.

Sarawak's production of swiftlet nests, Naroden said was 2,854kg last year, up from 2,095kg in 2008.
For the first 10 months of last year, 1,757kg valued at RM7mil were produced.

Naroden said China was the biggest market for edible swiftlet nests, followed by Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia.

Wong said the production of swiftlet nests from caves, like Niah Cave in Miri, had been on the decline over the years because of over-harvesting.

Although swiftlet farming is potentially lucrative, he said there were investors who had not been successful in their ventures due to several factors.

“Choosing the right location to site the swiftlet houses is vital, otherwise it will take a longer time to attract the birds.
“Other important factors are the design and conditions, like temperature and humidity, of the houses,” he added.

According to an investor, the returns from successful swiftlet farming was comparatively higher than most businesses.

He said a two-storey swiftlet house (20ft x 60ft which costs between RM250,000 and RM300,000 to build) could produce between 36kg and 48kg of nests a year (worth between RM144,000 and RM192,000 based on RM4,000 per kg) from the fourth year of operation.

“Once in operation,it will take at least 18 months for the first collection of the nests. Production will gradually increase with more swiftlets nesting,” he added.

For the most successful operator, it would take about five years to fully recover the costs to build the swiftlet houses and related facilities, adding that from then on, the profits would be high.

Pak Harry I Need Your Help Urgently !!!

You never know when you will receive those SOS phone call asking for some helps.

Sometime when you are driving, sometime in the bath room, sometime when I am making love and the last I remembered was when I was at the airport about to leave for Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

"Pak Harry, I understand that you are coming to Sabah.  Can you extend your trip to Sandakan?
I need your advise on a BH I put into operation about 5 months ago.  Only one nests so far."

The person on the other side of the phone sounded very helpless and I hate to disappoint him.

The next thing I asked was:  How do sure are you that I can be of help you?

"Pak Harry I have been following your blog diligently and I did purchased a few external sounds from you.  I tested your top notch sounds and they are better then those unproven sounds. I know you are the one that can help my predicament".

Well as long as you are willing to wait until I finish my jobs in KK I might be able to do something.

That was how I extended my stay in Sabah just one more day.

I flew to Sandakan on January 12th, 2011 and was received by Mr. L wife.

"Pak Harry sorry my husband is stranded in KK and will be in Sandakan by tomorrow morning.  Will come and pick you up for breakfast".

Well luckily there were two other blog readers who came to accompanied me till midnight.

The next morning I checked out and Mr.L was at the hotel straight from the airport.

"Pak Harry so sorry that I was not able to take you for dinner last night and I am sure you have some friends or blog readers to see you."

We traveled about one hour before reaching his troubled BH.

The moment I arrived I was surprised with the size of his BH.  30 feet by 100 feet and 3 stories high. 

Hmmmm very impressive.  Hugh and high.

"Pak Harry what do you think of the BH problems?" He was so eager to get the right answers.

Hold on give me some time to diagnose the possible problems. 

I took a tour around the BH and pointed to him something that I am not happy with.

"You hexagonal tweeter is too high and not properly located.  You also have too long the overhang zinc above your entrance hole.  Cut is to about 10 inches and relocate those hexagonal closer to the entrance hole and not more then 1.5 feet above the roof surface".

"You need to know that the hexagonal and the entrance hole are inter related.  There is no used if you call the birds and they could not find the entrance hole. They should be precisely positioned as such that the two works together and not individually. Move the hexagonal to top of the entrance hole and make sure it is in the middle position of the entrance hole.  Cut the height to about 1.5 feet.  You want those birds to be as closed as you can to the entrance window".

Make sure all those ventilation pipe holes are properly covered with wire mesh.  If not those black red eyes birds will take residence in all of them.

Yes Pak Harry I also have the same thought before but I dare not make any modification since it was installed by my "Sifu" cum contractor.  Now since you confirmed I am happy that what I have in mind was correct. I will correct it immediately.

Okay let us take a look at your data room.

As predicted all the amplifiers were wrongly set.  The treble were zero, the mid at 1 pm and the low were all at 11.00am.  Worst was those setting on the amplifiers Kz settings.

Oh my god.  I shook my head and told him why a precise setting is a must.

Let me show you how those sound looks like when they were being played.  I took my notebook computer and run the sound using my "Window Media Player" set with "Bars and Waves" setting.

After showing him a the shapes of those bars I told him to embed the shape and start adjusting those Kz bars setting.

"Pak Harry, I never knew how critical these knobs and bars were until now. Thank you for being so helpful.  I am beginning to feel what was wrong with the BH even before showing you the inside.  Thank you sir".

Mr L all these are precision and you cannot simply set those bars to you liking.  In fact I am a person who loves to be precised". I told him.

We then entered the BH and I was impressed with the effort he but to get the BH up and running.

The moment I reached the third floor, starting from the entrance window area, I can see some gross mistakes that he was unaware of.

"Mr L you indicated to me on the phone that not a single bird went downstairs.  Do you know why?  Just tell me where are the LAL (the hole on the floor to lead the birds to the lower floor)?  You opened the LAL not at the right spot.  If I was the one who designed this BH I will choose a spot where a 100% of all birds entering and leaving this BH will cross. Where do you think that precise location should be?

I pull him to the spot and he shook his head up and down absorbing my precise location.

Oh yes you are not the only one who make this mistake but nearly every one does.  If you can we need to erect some partitions to lead those birds to fly above the LAL.

You have too little tweeters and from the number of birdshit spots on the floor, nearly all below the internal sound tweeters located very closed to the roving area, I quickly told him that I think your entrance hole is facing the west.

"Oh yes how do you know that Pak Harry?"

Oh blind me I am just too good for some body new like him.

Remember these wild birds are very smart and they need to fly out as early as they can.  They need those morning light to guide them out of the house.  If your entrance hole faces the west, the sunrise is at the east, those birds will choose to build their nest closed to the entrance hole where the morning light is the brightest.

After making a few more observations we ended up the day by doing those external bird sound test.

This was when I discovered the new sound called "Gotcha".  Every bird that came to the window will enter the BH.

I was telling the BH owner that it is very unusual that every bird that came to entrance hole are young birds.  Normally only about 30% are young birds while 70% will have their nests with either eggs or babies.  They normally will not abandoned their nests.

Pak Harry, maybe those settings that you have made plus this new sound make them to stay?

Maybe he was right but what I can say was that the one day trip was very useful to him and his family.

I am proud to have been asked to help and my advises were well taken.

I wish him the best and hopefully my small contribution will improve his BH nests population.

An Insect Barn On The Rooftop !!!

The insect barn on the Semenyih BH rooftop finally completed.

This first insect barn on a BH rooftop in the state of Negeri Sembilan will be put into operation by next week. Trying to collect those "Pom Pom" pupa ready by perhaps Wednesday next week.

The owner seem to be very excited to see how it will bring more birds to his BH rooftop and I am sure with this temporary barn his BH will get more visitors as compared to those neighbors.

Overall the Semenyih BH has the following interesting new features:

1) The only BH in Semenyih with dual entries, the top and the side entries.

2) The only BH in Semenyih with insect barn on the rooftop just beside the top entry entrance hole enclosure.

3) The only BH with water mist sprays located at the top entry entrance area.

4) The only BH in Semenyih that will have two internal sound tweeters at the entrance window at the entrance hole once the external sound stops at 8.00pm onwards.

5) The only BH in Semenyih with two VIP rooms at the far end of the nesting room.

6) The only BH in Semenyih using those aluminium plate to attract birds to build their nests.

7) The only BH in Semenyih that have more then 180 internal sound tweeters per floor installed.

8) The only BH in Semenyih with about five external sounds chandeliers.

9) The only BH in Semenyih that uses four tweeters arranged in a cluster using those straight corner covers.

10) The only BH in Semenyih that installed those fake nests at the 90* corners.

11) The only BH in Semenyih that uses a cool water tub to ensure that water sprayed onto the wet floor and humidifiers are at 25*C.

12) The only BH in Semenyih that uses an auto irrigate meter to allow the water flow to wet the wet area at a predetermined time per week.

13) The only BH in Semenyih that uses 2"x5" bullet shape as externals sound tweeters.

14) The only BH in Semenyih that will have more than one hexagonal tweeters on the roof area.

All the above features are new to many of you but to me they are my resources, a kind of research activities.

I am sure if all those wild birds are attracted to any of the items installed we can make it as a standard design in all future BH converted/revamped or new BH.

My next project will probably in Seremban and I hope there will be more new inventions and special gadgets to be used for the sake of research in attracting those wild birds.

Those of you who wanted to visit this BH need to quickly call me at 017 755 1318 for a quick tour.

There will be a small fee for each tour.

How Do Sound Volume Affect Those Good Sounds !!!

Something worth to share with all those who are new to swiftlet farming is the sound volume.

What can be the best sound volume you should use?

I have this interesting hot story which might give you some possible answer.

During my visit to KK last week, I was asked to view a one year old BH located somewhere in a small town called Papar.

The BH used to be a resort house for Mr.G who is gifted with those "Ayam Sabong" or fighting cock.

Hmmm not Harry Kok !!!!

About his one year old BH, the house was on a hill inside a durian orchard.  Hidden from those bright lights and noisy vehicles.

After getting a "Sifu" to get the BH into operation he came to the conclusion that the BH need some new ideas to push the nest population.  He mentioned that during those one year period a number of advises given by his "Sifu" were disasterous.

One of it was to run those chicken coop humidifiers for the whole day.  All the nesting planks were wet and nearly all his tenants moved out.

The second bad advise was to remove those hexagonal tweeters.  His "Sifu" got this idea that once his BH's nests reaches about 30  he should remove the hexagonal and let those birds bring their friends inside the BH. I remembered clearly Mr.G said that "they bring their friend inside". 

Only an "idiot" will give such a rediculous idea.  I told Mr. G to quickly reinstall the gadget. Never to remove those hexagonal until your BH is full.  Remember Mr G until it is full to the brim.

When he discovered my humble http://swiftletfarming.blogspot.com plus attended my Seminar he tried my idea on forced harvesting.  He claimed that after less then 3 months all the nests were back in place but the good news was there were at least 30 new nests. 

"Harry it works for me.  You are good my friend".

The moment I arrived at this BH I took some time to look around the house, the entrance hole and most important was the data room.

As usual all the amplifiers were wrongly set.  Told his daughter to readjust the treble, mid and low knobs to the right positions and check on the sounds they were using.

I was happy that they were using my "Black Cloud" however the amplifier setting were totally wrong.

The next interesting thing that I did was to test my "Marvelous Cloud".

I asked Mr.G to get a chair and look what will happened when my new sound being played.

The moment the thumb drive was inserted with the same volume already set on the amplifiers we can see hundreds of swiftlet rushed to the entrance window.

The irony was that only one out of say 50 will enter while the 49 will not go any further inside.

I asked Mr. G to see what will happen when I lower the sound volume slightly.

"Farrah, reduce the sound volume from now at 12.00 noon to 11:30am". (Farrah is Mr.G's daughter.  Remember she just delivered a baby)

"Wow, look at that Harry they now rushed inside.  Nearly 90% entered. Unbelievable !!! I have never seen such a phenomena in my life".

The lesson which Mr.G learned here is that sound volume do give positive and negative effects.  All you need to do is to tune the volume to the level where those birds will start to come over to the BH entrance window and started to rush in.

There is no use to see lots of them coming towards the window and the moment the reached the window they look like shying away from the window.

Try to test yourself and I am sure you will learn what I was trying to say in this article.

An Exciting Trip To KK and Sandakan, Sabah !!!

Came back from Sandakan, Sabah, this morning and decided to write some interesting stories about what really happened during my trip.

I can say that the trip was more then just helping a BH owner with his newly build BH.

Within the four days away, I managed to meet not less then 20 new BH owners plus some newbies who were about to start their project.

In KK alone there were about 15 people who happened to call and ask my help to meet them and some even took me to their intended site for their dream BH.

The most exciting was what happened while with my sponsor. I called hin Mr G.

Mr G met me during one of those seminars I conducted in KK.  At that time he already owned a small BH where he converted one of his weekend house into a BH.

Initially the half wood and half cement BH was doing okay but due to improper advise from his "Sifu" the number of tenants went down badly.

After removing those wet nesting plank maker his BH was back to normal but still with some problems here and there.

During his first meeting with me he bought a number of books and sounds.  From there he kind of DIY the BH and at one time carried out a "Forced Harvest".  After three months the number of nests climbed to 100.

The experiences he went through gave him the confident to start a new BH somewhere in Sugud, Penampang.

This time around his new BH is no longer half bricks and half wood.  It is more like a castle with about 25 feet wide and 70 feet long and three stories high.  On the roof top he pushed the zinc roof to a high where he can hold those barbecue party if he wished to.

To ensure that he got the right equipment and advise, he got his family to be involved as a team.  His idea was to make one his daughter to play a major role in arranging to get "Pak Harry" to be involved in getting the right equipment and ensure that the house is properly installed with those nesting planks and sound system.

After assembling about 42 boxes of items to KK I was asked to make a trip to the land of swiftlet opportunities to do the final inspection and set those amplifiers.

Perfect, the BH was as per my list of instructions.  It seem that his worker did exactly like what I wanted them to carry out.

The only new thing that I introduced, during the visit, was those insect barn.

The moment this new idea was introduced to him, he got his workers to work immediately on the idea.

He seems to like the idea of creating food for those wild birds.

Please see the various pictures taken during the visit.

After the main objective, I was asked to give some views on his 1st BH.  This one year plus BH was once a resort home.  Located in a Durian orchard somewhere near to Papar, Sabah town.

At first I was not convinced that the house turned into BH can do well but I was wrong.

Upon inspection I listed a few things that should be done to multiply the nest numbers.  The most critical was the use of a more effective sounds, play the most effective sound during peak hours, change the internal sound to "superbabyking", reinstall those hexagonal tweeters in the middle of the entrance hole 1.5 feet above the roof, reorganized those external sound tweeters at the entrance hole and the LAL, add as many internal sound tweeters as possible, focus on those rooms that shows a good number of birds, add some additional crossings and wet the floor.

One important lesson that we learned during this short visit was the effect of sound volume towards those swiftlet.

I will be writing something which you might learn something in my next posting.

Should Swiftlet Be Still Classified As An Endangered Species !!!

 

The word "Endangered Species" means:

An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has calculated the percentage of endangered species as 40 percent of all organisms based on the sample of species that have been evaluated through 2006.<sup>[2]

Obtained from:</sup>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endangered_species


Do you think swiftlet should still be classified as an endangered species?

The description says that: An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either a few in numbers and blah blah blah.

You know that the yearly transaction of birdnest is above 15 billion ringgit a year.  This was stated in many articles and newspapers about swiftlet industries.

Malaysia aimed to produce 5 billion by year 2020.

Let us try to calculate how many swiftlet there are right now in the planet and perhaps it is time for those relevant authorities to consider the idea.

If the transaction is 15 billion ringgit a year, the number looks like this:

15,000,000,000 /5000 = 3,000,000 kilograms. (I assumed that the cost of raw nests per kg is RM 5,000).

If each kilogram is made up of 120 nests this will be 3,000,000 x 120 = 360,000,000 nests being sold.

Since they produce three times a year we will divide the figure by 3 = 120,000,000 nests.

Each nest will have two birds so you multiply by 2 = 240,000,000 birds.

You also need to know that these birds will produce 3 sets of babies per year. So one year the number of birds produced can be as high as 240,000,000 X 3 plus the current population of 240,000,000. (of course not all will stay alive) which can be as high as 960,000,000.

This figure is based on the assumption that all the 15 billions are raw nests and not processed nests which is not realistic.

How about we assume that the raw nest is only a third?  This will be equivalent to 240,000,000/3 = 73,333,333.

Should 73,000,000 birds be still is under the extinction list?  I think those authorities should look into the matter seriously so that the swiftlet industry be more vibrant and less restrictions.

I am not against the law to protect endangered species but my question is should it be still applicable to swiftlet farmed inside man made buildings?

The issues since it is under endangered species can be very destructive to the industry.

The authorities relevant to keeping the law enforced can be very tricky.  They have the right to tear down any BH for as long as the birds are under the list. Remember those Mukah Tragedy?

How are we going to reach our target of 5 billion by 2020 if the the industry is designed for an endangered species?

Note: Malaysia aim to increase their share of swiftlet market to 5 billion by year 2020.

The irony is that we have so many rules and laws and this and that in Malaysia while our neighboring contries have none or very little?

Wanted Advise On Forced Havest !!!

"Pak Harry,I wanted to do the force harvest to my 2 yrs old BH with 100+ nests.

How about the eggs and young bird?

Regards"

An Email message received from one of my blog reader yesterday.

My sincere advise to him is to be very careful with the operation.

First he must understand in depth about what is force harvest.  The pros and cons plus when will be the best time to carry out the operation with little damage to those young birds.The history how it begins and why suddenly the nests number jumps up. 

While there are a few advantages e.g you will get a sudden jump in the nests population just after the harvesting it might also make the birds move to some other BHs. This usually happen when you continue the force harvest too frequent.  Too frequent is like every month or more then 2 times a year when your BH nests population is still very low.

The key point is to properly understand how to plan and execute the operation so that there will be a minimal negative impact but lots of positive results.

The term "Force Harvest" is directed to an exercise when the house owner or maybe a burglar entered the BH and remove every nests inside the house with or without its contents.

The immediate effect, which no one have ever understood why,  will be a sudden jump in the nests number within a short time after the event (3-4 months).

I was made to understand that when a forced harvest was done many of these birds will not be staying in the BH for a couple of days.  They became scared or stressed and normally will stay at your neighbor's BHs.  During the few days stay, I presumed,  they will be telling their fate to their friends and that invite other birds to move in to help in getting the population back.

In most cases the number of nest increased will be about 25 -35 %.  I was once inform by one special person, happened to be a Medical Doctor and my regular blog reader,  who carried out simultaneously in his three BHs.  His average increase in nests number was about 40%.  One of BH gained more then 75%.

"Pak Harry you are genius.   After reading your article some time back I decided to perform the forced harvest on all the three BHs and after three months they came back with vengeance. One of the unit the number of nests increased was as high as 75% while the other two was about 30-35%.  Thank you for being so honest and sharing your knowledge."

There was one occasion when I gave a talk with Dr. Riduan in Ipoh, Perak.  During the lunch break I was with one of the participant and he sound very upset when his BH was burglarized.

"Pak Harry, they took nearly everything. Big and small sizes and they threw those young birds and the eggs all over the floor. I feel very sad until today."

How long ago was that? I asked him.

"Hmm about 4-5 months ago, Pak Harry."

Okay what happened now?  Do you see any nests population increment? 

"Oh yes sir.  The nests population now increased by about 20-25%."

I think you should thank the burglar, my friend.  Try to look at the good side of the coin.  Once your BH is being burglarized, you should be very proud of it.  You are now the chosen one.  Your BH now passed the mark between just so so to good. Those burglars will not risk their life just to enter a so so BH.  They choose the best or among the best.  Your BH is among the best.

"Yes Pak Harry I think you are right.  Among the many BHs around me I am one of the best."

Well coming back to adopting force harvest, I sincerely would like to advise those newbies to be very careful.

Never do the force harvest more then twice a year.  This is also subjected to the number of nests in your BH. If your nest population is less then 100 do only once a year or perhaps once it touches 300 nests.

My next advise is to combine the force harvest with "Conducive Regeneration" technique.  By combining the two you will gain more benefits.  Try to read the article by clicking the bold words.

The idea is to properly plan your force harvest during the period when most of those young birds have flew away and at the same time do some egg removal to get your BH with lots of young baby sounds during the flying out time of those young birds. If there are young birds you might want to introduce those fake nests for tamperory housing for them.

If you can combine the two it will be marvelous.

Try to look at the time frame during the month of September every year. Observe the young birds about to leave the house.  Once they are able to fly that will be the best time.  Also take note that the young birds will take their first flight on the 45 day, plus minus, of their life.  They need to fly out to search for own food because their parent will stop feeding them.  Once all can fly your force harvesting exercise will not kill too many young birds.

As for the eggs, I believed it will not be as bad as the young babies. You can perhaps pass these eggs to those who incubate them and hatch for own use or turn the eggs into aroma.  I remember at one time I used to buy some raw eggs to throw onto the floor to create a natural aroma smell inside an old BH.

Remember try to plan your force harvest properly.

Best of luck to those who have right number of nests and I am sure you will see some improvements in your nests growth by following the above technique.

New Entrance Hole Is Coming Up on Schedule !!!

We do it step by step.

First we determine their flight path and then we open an entrance hole which will be facing that path.

Due to the possibility of polluting the sound we try to block the sound by erecting three walls around the hole turning the side entry type to top entry type.

So far the modification works is running perfectly as planned and hopefully it will be up and running before the CNY.

Meanwhile the tweeters installations started yesterday with about 150 tweeters being installed and wired.

Originally this BH was with about 50 internal sound tweeters but now we increased it to at least 200 tweeters.  Main reason being those birds loves to stay at these tweeters.

The type of tweeters chosen were the 2"X5" and they were installed in a standing position i.e the 2" side is on the wood and the 5" will be the standing upright.  The location of each tweeter need to be precisely located.  The best will be at about 1.5 inches away from those 90* corners.

To increase the number of tweeters inside the BH we installed about 30 cluster tweeters each with 4 tweeters facing the opposite directions.

Each colony zone inside the VIP room will be provided with a set of 8 tweeters arranged like a chandelier.

Looks pretty well and today will continue with the wiring and finishing up the plastering of the three walls acting as the top entrance hole.

We Started With Insulating The Hot Walls !!!

The Semenyih BH revamp works started a few days ago.

First on my list was to reduce the wall temperature using those 2 inch thick high density Styrofoam.

The owner indicated that the both walls were facing the morning and evening sun.  The wall was quite okay but those windows were not.  During our laser beam check the wall covering the windows were above 38*C.

I wanted to only insulate the windows only but the owner wanted the whole wall.  He prefer to be safe then never.

We started on it immediately after receiving those wood planks, cement boards and the foam boards.

Less then three days the operation were completed.

The next will be on the new entrance hole of the rooftop.  After observing their flying path in the evening I have decided to open a new entrance hole facing the opposite site of the old hole and erect some walls to block the sound from disturbing the neighbors.

The biggest hurdle was how to get about 2 and 1/2 pallets of bricks, one lorry load of sand plus 10 bags of cement up to the roof top. The best was to use a simple pulley mounted on a steel frame and use rope tied to a container to get the items up during the new year day and the weekend.  In this was the tenant downstairs will not notice any activities.

The new hole will be up and ready by Tuesday.

Once that is done we will focus on how to install a new set of tweeters on the nesting planks.  I have decided to remove all the old tweeters plus their wires. I prefer a new set using those 2"x5" as the old 3"X3" tweeters.

There will be at least 200 pieces which will be in the form of single, doubles, clusters and chandeliers.

Will transform the whole house to something new and special.  Once that is completed will focus on the VIP room erection of walls, doors, external sound tweeters placement and the wet floor.

The owner seem to be very excited over what we have in mind but I hope he will not be chasing me to finish as fast as I can.

I need to convince him about the insect barn.  So far I have not uttered any words about the barn to him.

Next Step Is To Erect An Insect Barn ???

 A Drawing Showing An Insect Barn On The Roof Top.

This will be my next interesting project on the once a pool rooftop.

I have not spoken to the owner yet but I think he will like this new idea.

Once the top entrance hole wall erections were done I might just arrange for some additional wood and use those Styrofoam left over materials plus some zinc with polyfoam.

The roof can be those corrugated cement board for roof construction.

The only unanswered question is who will be responsible is getting those insect food prepared and install every 10 days?

Hmm .... got to find some good team of workers to get this new idea going.

Will prepare the sludge and deliver to the BH owner so that he can apply the Insect Barn idea to his advantage.

Let us hope that he will agree to the idea in the first place..........

A Simple Method to Turn A Side Entry Entrance Hole Type To Top Entry Type !!!

View of the roof top structures and side entry entrance hole.

I visited the Semenyih BH under revamp works today and was on the roof top trying to figure out what should I do to minimize the sound pollution to the surrounding neighbors.

The three stand alone shop house was about 25 feet by 100 feet about 30 feet high surrounded with lots of those wooden house with unhappy tenants.  Even the sound of a few dogs barking will make everybody come out to see what was happening.

The building top floor finishing is restricted to side entrance hole.

Currently the existing entrance hole is facing the back and not towards the flying path.

Moving the entrance hole to the front will cause lots of noise to those neighbors that have never been experience hot irritating those external sound would be.

The only way to minimize the external sound volume is to switch from side entrance to top entry.

The way to deflect the sound towards the sky is by erecting a brick wall in front of the side entrance hole with an opening of about 9 feet long by about 6-8 feet wide.

This will be how I planned to change the side entry to top entry.

The tweeters will be properly placed so that all of them will be facing the sky.

 

Erection of three side walls to form a top entry opening.