Birdhouse Makeover At Paya Berenjut !!!

(Have a good look at the result during one of my sound test)

While on my way back to Kuala Lumpur I called this BH owner whose BH above a shop house was upgraded with all those ideas that I have in my head.

I added a few new and interesting ideas inside this two years BH with only 15 nests.

A small unit about 20 feet wide by 60 feet long by 8 feet high

The short length make life very difficult to get the right darkness.

"Thank you for trusting me and my workers to revamp your BH and the keys are with Uncle Ngah at Cenih." I told him

"No Pak Harry I am the one who should say thank you and not the other way round.  I am truely grateful and fully satisfied with what your have done and they look so nice and ready to start rolling." he answered.

There was nothing in my mind during the revamp operation but my thought was on how to make this short in length BH to be the best along the row.

There were four more BHs along the same row and I need to make sure that this particular BH will be the most attractive to all the birds flying around the area.

After careful study on the BH plus what was done prior to my intervention I came out with something that make the BH the best and become one of my favorite.

The list of things that I carried out were as follows:

1) Heat shield the back wall since it was facing the hot evening sun. The room temperature used to hag around 30*C plus but now drop to about 28*C plus minus one.

2) The three partition walls were replaced with something new and its doors were precisely located.  Those birds can now take a very easy flow from the main entrance hole to the VIP room. The three walls were also designed as such the amount of light coming from the main window were to its minimum.

3) To further control the light source I came out with adding another wall forming a kind of box around the main top entry area.  The box was allocated with a window about 4 feet by 5 feet.

4) Upon completion I was still not satisfied this force my workers to add a sliding door to reduce as much light as I can.

5) I added a number of tweeters at the top entry hole areas.  The first was a kite tweeter and six power tweeters too.

6) Two original tweeters (hexagonal and mini bazooka) were reorganized to maximize their effectiveness.  They were relocated.

7) I discovered this new method to arrange those external sound tweeters at all the four doors in the BH.  I call them as "Pole Tweeters".  I will write in detail about how I discovered and how effective they were.

8) The number of internal sound tweeters inside this BH was quadruple or maybe more that 4 times. My mission was to allocate as many tweeters to provide greater choices to all those birds that entered this BH.  I used lots of "cluster tweeters".

9) My favorite gadget are those fake nests.  Added about 200 pieces in many shape and materials made.  Some were industrial plastic and some were sponge while other were aluminum.

10) One new thing that I deployed is a set of 24 hours external sound playing tweeters.  It consisted of two "chocolate tweeters" and two "cross-leg tweeters" inside the main VIP room.

11) Sprayed all the fake nests with "Super Pheromone" liquid.

12) Carried out a kind of research on a new aroma that was recently discovered in Muar.  Applied with those brush at a row of nesting planks.

13) Install the wet floor system in the VIP room.

14) Mobilized about 8 bags of fresh bird shit taken from a BH in the same area.

15) The best external sounds selected were the "SuperVac", "Selking" and Pukau.

16) The best internal sound deployed were the Babyking (daytime) and Super Babyking (night).

17) The last tango sound system was also tested and installed.

18) Mobilized owner's mist maker into the main VIP room and was controlled by a auto sensor.

19) Activated an insect generator using bread, condensed milk and ripe bananas.

So glad that I broke my own record in finishing the conversion within 3.5 days.

The owner wanted my help to cover the glass window with heat shield materials and we did that with very little problems.

The best part of the who operation was to clean up the mess that were left around and inside the BH.

I recommended to him not to keep anything inside his BH since they tend to become the nesting place of common predators like rats, cockroaches and ants.

We removed about 3/4 ton of debris and swept the floor many many times to reduce dust inside the BH.

Upon completion the BH looks tidy, clean and attractive to any visitors (human or non human).

It was a great pleasure to complete another masterpiece.

I am sure those birds will love to stay.

We tested just one night and the number of fresh bird shits on the floors were considerable.

I showed those spots to the owner and he could not believed his eyes.

That was only one night test.  What if we complete and let them familiarized for three months?

Call me if you are interested to know more or maybe revamp your BH now at 017 7551318 or write to harryswiftlet@yahoo.com

 (Heat Shielded Back Wall)

 (More Cluster tweeters)

 (Fake nests installed very closed to those tweeters)

(Another view)

(Find cross leg tweeter in this picture?)

(What about chocolate tweeters?)

(The Bazooka, mini one)

(The home made hexagonal only three)

(A kite tweeter installed above the top entrance hole)

(The three installed side by side)

(A set of pole tweeters)

(The sliding door to block the light)

(Applied special aroma on the nesting planks, testing)

 

(The mist maker moved into VIP room)

(The wet floor sprinkled with fresh Birdshit)

(The insect generator using bread, milk and bananas)

(Just one night lots of fresh bird shit spots on the floor)

A Good Question On Which Sound Is Good For Your BH !!!

This early morning received a call from a newbie who designed and operated his own BH by just learning from the internet.

He was amused with the Chinese Daily report where the title was something like "Swiftlet Doctor who help to save billions."

Ever since he read the article he followed my blog for some time and confirmed that what I wrote was right and after testing a few ideas of mine he decided to call me.

"Pak Harry I actually needed your most attractive sound.  My BH is in Kuala Selangor and I have above 60 nests after operating the BH for almost one point five to two years."

"I think right now my BH is almost similar to what you have described in your blog.  I followed most of it. I have installed your wet floor ideas and I believed the time have come to call you to ask for some good sounds.  I lack practical experiences."

He agreed to my advise that even if the external sound is good and lots of birds came in and play plus entered the main entrance hole there is no guarantee that they will stay and build their nests.

Everything will be dependance on how well they accept your BH.

Usually they will enter and perhaps fly around your BH to familiarized with your BH flying in path.

If they are not ready to start a family they might not stay for long.

However if they are already with a spouse and ready to start a family they might explore more by coming in to stay inside for a couple of days or weeks.

During their first few days of staying they will move from one location to the other to determine how safe is your BH and how easy to come in and fly out.

Good example if your entrance hole is facing the East they will move deeper inside.

However if your main entrance hole faced West they will tend to stay around the entrance hole where they can fly out in the early morning much faster.

They will check your BH temperature and humidity range.

If too hot and too dry they will abort your BH.

If you used the wrong internal sound they will also abort your BH.

What about if your sound system always stop half way?  No sound for one week or more? They will leave even after the signs on the floor were with thick shit markings.

If they smell something unusual like a human being entered the BH too frequent, they will also cabut (fly away).

Then again if your BH have too frequent visit by birds of preys like owls and hornbills they will be scared and will move out too.

So no matter how good is your external sound there is still a lot of areas which you need to be careful about.

This is where Pak Harry comes in.  He will be the best person who can give you the actual synopsis on your BH health condition.  His visit will be will a full report on what is wrong with your BH and what should be done to rectify it if he feel wise.  Call him at 017 7551318.

You can rectify on your own or if you want precise revamp you can ask his workers to help you out.

Coming to a good sound I told him to consider getting at least three of my best sounds (external).

My suggestion was the "SuperVac, Supper Passionate, Marvelous Cloud and Selking".

He will consider my offer and will keep me informed.

He seems to be the second person who read the newspaper article, followed my blog, tested a few ideas of mine and called me for some advise.

The first person was from Jenjarum who happened to have the newspaper cuttings for my reference.

I remembered him showing the cutting and it was given to him by his father.

"Pak Harry my dad showed me the newspaper cutting and I told him that I am about to have lunch with this Swiftlet Doctor."  he told me.

He must be very proud to be the first person who read the article and met me on the following day.

I will be meeting him in Kemaman tomorrow to review his Kemaman BH.

He believed there are many things inside that are not right even though there are 500 nests inside.

I am truly honored to be invited to another BH but this time I think the owner wanted to test if I really know my stuff.

Sometime BH Owners Can Be Very Sacastic !!!

This is a true story on how you can be deeply hurt after helping to populate a BH for a care less owner.

I was on my routine operation looking after a BH.

The owner was a bit upset.

She feels as if what was done were not good enough for her.

"How come I only have 30 plus nests while my cousin brother have 50 plus nests?  He started his BH nearly the same date."

There was another BH in Pahang whose owner came with this claim:

I asked him " How your BH performance now?"

"Pak Harry 3 years after your revamp operation the BH now is with 400 plus nests.  I am not very happy because by brother-in-law's BH have 450 plus nests."

Never appreciate what was done for them and always wanted more but with very little effort.

He used to offer me dinner every night when I was in his town but now never even want to meet for a cup of coffee.

 This is something a person like me have to bear and keep that painful experience deep in my heart.

The thing here is that when their BH does not perform all the blame will be on you.

However if their BH does well all the credits was them and not the person who came to help.

The lady owner have her BH on a piece of agricultural land also in Pahang.

Before her BH was erected I conducted a test to check on the number of birds responding to the Duress sound.

The total number was not more than 80.

Her recent count was 88 birds came to stay in her BH.

The point here is that all those birds, in fact 8 extra, came in and become her BH tenant.

More than 100% entered and took residence in hers and I think she should be very proud of that.

If she wanted to get more she need to wait for those birds inside to multiply.

I am no magician to direct birds from other BHs to flying in.

This is what I always recommend to properly choose your BH location.

If your call test resulted in 1000 birds and if Pak Harry can pull in 100% plus into your BH what do you think will happen?

However if you bird call test showed only 20 birds there is very little thing that can be done unless you wish to spend some extra money to "Translocate" those breed birds.

So those of you who wanted to be successful in your swiftlet farming venture try to be a bit nice to your advisor.

Choose a location with lots of birds responding to the Duress sound call.

If you need my expert advise please call me at 017 7551318.

Don't worry I wound have any grudge on you or anyone else even if they stab my back.

Kemaman BH: Ground Floor Lunch Break Visitors !!!

 (Note the background sound is natural sound made by those swiftlet)

This video clip was taken just after our lunch break.

We put the external sound for those parent to enter the BH to feed their babies however the rest followed inside.

They seems to like the BH and both floors were filled with about 100-150 birds.

An unusual thing to happen and from that day we never played the external sound during lunch hours.

A New Job At Paya Berenjut Kemaman Trengganu !!!

At first I wanted to decline the mini job but looking at the condition of the BH I decided to take up the job.

A mini size job to rehabilitate a poorly performing BH at Paya Berenjut, Kemaman.

The owner is the same who owned the two stories BH at Cenih Kemaman which I wrap up last Wednesday.

While doing my round with him he asked my opinion on this first unit he converted to start learning about swiftlet farming.

He rented the lot for a sizable cost and after more than 1.5 years the number of nests hover around 15 nests, according to him.

I took a short look at the BH and pretty impressed with what he did inside.

His basic understanding about brightness was a bit on the wrong side.

It seems that he used those gadget to check on the light intensity but my six sense tells me that the nesting room was a bit on the bright site.

What I told him was that those books he read must not be always right.

I prefer to use my method of measuring the light intensity.

No gadget but just get two person to stand about 2 feet apart and they should not be able to see each other face.

A very simple technique and it works all the time.

If there is no one with you to stand two feet apart use those pillars or walls.

The idea is to get the right darkness and if I am not wrong my method is the most appropriate.

To reduce those light polluting the nesting room I plan to erect a kind of a box around the main entrance area just below the top entry hole.

Erect a box and allow only a reasonable amount of light towards the nesting door connecting the roving area and the nesting room.

Those light escaping from those 4" diameter ventilation holes pipes need to be tackled.

There is a strong reason to perhaps heat shield the back wall facing the west.

The nesting planks needs more tweeters and fake nests.

The current hexagonal tweeter need to be precisely located.

I plan to upgrade the external sound amplifier.

Those surfaces that are reflecting too much light into the nesting room shall be painted black.

I will test all the good sounds in my collection and use the one that attract the most number of birds into this BH.

There is a big chance of activating an insect generating system using those breads and condense milk added with slices of ripe bananas.

To wet the floor I am thinking of applying the wet floor technique.

All the above should be ready within 1-1.5 weeks from Monday July 15th 2013.

The owner seems to be very pleased with my recommendation and I look forward to finish the job on time.

Predators (Big Birds) Protection: Just In Case They Came To Visit Your BH !!!

During one beautiful evening I was watching those birds returning home into a BH.

A neighbor who happened to stay about 200 meters away from the BH came for a small chat.

We were talking about things that we did with the BH and when the word owl was mentioned he told me this interesting thing.

"Don't worry everything was taken care of." he smiled when he said that.

I asked him what do you meant by that?

"Well we have taken care and in fact our method is very very effective." his smile was getting broader.

I wonder what he meant by that.

"Oh we used chicken heads laced with some kind of drug that will prevent them from exploring further."

Oh my god this is a bit cruel.

However I came out with a mechanical gadget that will make them scared from entering the BH.

What I did was to deploy a spring loaded clamp that will make them think twice before entering the BH.

The best location to install this gadget on a wall inside the roving room area.

Just look at the wall and try to figure it out where will be the best place for these owl to land if they ever entered your BH.

It should not be too far from the main window but not too closed too.

Have a good look at the gadget plus I still believed to have those spikes on the main entrance door frame too.

Beside owl there are cases where those hornbills or enggang venturing inside.

Humor: Never Bit Those Nipples !!!!

I was reading this newspaper article and I think there is a very big lesson from it.

Read this Google translated version with little amendments:

BEIJING, July 12 - Spending baby nipple biting her breasts while she was breast-feeding her child, an eight month old baby boy was injured as a result of being stabbed 90 times by her mother with scissors.

Baby is lucky to be alive and had received 100 stitches most of the face.

The incident occurred in Xuzhou, east China's provinces, Jiangsu, where Xiao Bao lived with his mother and two of his uncle who earn a living by selling recyclable goods.

During the incident one of Bao's uncle found the baby lying in a bloodied state not far from their homes and rushed her child to the hospital.

The victim's mother later admitted he stabbed his daughter use scissors because the baby was biting her breasts nipples during breastfeeding.

Neighboring local governments urging victims care of the baby, but authorities were unable to do so, because the authorities could not confirm whether the suspect was suffering from mental problems or not and baby involved can still guarded by two of his uncle. - AGENCIES

Lesson here is that if you make love tonight try not to bite your spouse nipple.

If you do you might experience the same being stabbed 90 times.

He he he.

Bringging Those Swiftlet From One Floor To The Other: It Is Easier Say than Done !!

(They avoid flying low since they have a kind of distorted legs which will not allow them to jump)

I am not trying to make you feel discouraged or angry with any bad decisions you made on your BH LAL location.

Not: LAL refers to the connecting hole or door between the higher floor and the lower floor.

It you have made the right choice in selecting the proper location to open the LAL you might want to know that those birds will have the final say.

For the new BH at Salak Tinggi Sepang Selangor I wish to share my problem with the exact thing about pulling them into the LAL.

Yesterday during my free time (I am having a small fever and running nose after returning home from Kemaman) I dropped by to change the external sound at Salak Tinggi.

The owner installed a three channels CCTV camera and I was using it to know how many birds will enter the BH with a few different sound.

Tried a few and the best for this BH with a lot of birds entering was the "Marvelous Cloud" and "Super Vacuum" .

They entered the roving room and started to head towards the door connecting the room to the nesting area.

They came in and flew above the LAL.

Yes the LAL was right below where all the birds will fly inside and outside.

What disappoint me was that not a single bird came downstairs.

All seems to fly to the back of the top floor and none showed any indication of flying to the lower floor.

This can be a good lesson to all about how important is the selection of LAL in your BH.

Remember even you put it at the right location with 100% birds flying above it does not mean that any will fly downstairs.

Just imagine if you select a wrong location?

It will be a bigger disaster.

The only thing that I think can make them to come done are the followings:

1) Give them a few more weeks and see if they will start exploring the lower floor.

2) Control the sound volume of the lower (louder) floor and the upper floor (lesser volume).

3) Try to have a separate cable line for tweeters installed around the LAL frame. If you do try to get the external sound louder.

4) The last resort is to erect an enclosure (temporary) around the LAL and force the first batch of birds to the lower floor.  This would mean that your BH is not opened in total but only the lower floor.

I add a few more ideas but for the moment the above are something that might activate you mind to think of any other ways to lure those birds to the lower floor(s).

A Tale Of Two BHs Back To Back !!!

      (Two BHs in a row.  The one at the back is using water spraying on the wall to cool the BH)

While repairing the Kemaman BH I remember asking the owner about the second unit just at the back.

The interesting thing that I happened to watch was the number of birds visiting this BH as compared to the one that I was repairing.

Most of the birds around will fly to the front unit and a few, the left over, will be visiting the BH.

There must be something not right with this replica.

I wondered who was the owner and why they are spraying water on the wall.

The answer was something like this:

"Pak Harry the owners of that BH are some investor who have extra money but have little idea about swiftlet farming. They build it and keep their finger crossed.  If they are lucky they will see some result but if it does not perform they will have an empty BH."  his response.

The BH was erected and put into operation about 6-7 months ago.

Main problem was the gap between the two layer walls.  It was too small and not insulated with any insulator.

The only was out was to install a number of water nozzles spraying water from a nearby lake about 5 times a day.

The walls looks wet all the time but a bit dirty with some kind of growth.

My main questions were:

Does the system works?

What if the pump failed to work?

What if the electrical supply failed?

What if the weather is so hot and the pond dried up?

What kind of monthly electricity bill is the pump consuming?

On the long run will this system works without any distruption?

I don't really have the answer but I think the method used is not a very good choice.

There are so many other better method and one of the method was the use of heat insulation technique which I have recently deployed inside the BH just in front of it.

My next point of concern was about the direction of the main entrance hole.

It was facing the west and I think by now all my blog reader knows the answer what will happen inside.

Those birds if they stayed in will not populate the back area.  They will stay as closed as possible to the main entrance area to get the early morning light.

There was one more thing that I was concerned about.

There was no hexagonal tweeter in front or at the back of the BH.

If you installed a hexagonal tweeter on the roof you will be able to get the attention of more birds to come over.

I guess the owner might want to do something like what I did with the one in front.

We shall see the result and compare which one will out perform the other.

Enjoy some pictures taken while walking around the BH.

Three Phone Calls And Three BHs Needs My Help !!!

After completing the revamp operation at Kemaman I came home for a short break.

Most of my joints were in pain.  My temperature went up and my nose starts flowing.

I think I am sick.

I need some Viagra .......

Anyway while resting at home there were a few interesting calls that will keep myself busy for the next few months.

The first call was from the same BH owner from Kemaman.

When are you coming down to start work on my 2nd BH?

Maybe this Monday. Let me take a good rest and will mobilize my workers on this Monday.

He was very excited if I could start as early as I can.

But my whole body is painful.  Maybe I got a flue or something like that.

Hope by Sunday I will be better.

The second call was from the Maran BH owner.

"Pak Harry I would like you to start work on my BH but I need some discount."

I told him about my not being well and I would love to do up his BH as soon as I finished the job in Kemaman, the second unit.

The third call was from a BH owner whose 1st BH was in Jenjarum Selangor.

He owned another BH somewhere closed to Kemaman and currently occupied with 500 nests.

"Pak Harry are you in Kemaman this weekend?  I plan to drive up there and would like to have you inspection services done on my BH in Kemaman."

I promised him that I will be in Kemaman on Monday and will be most happy to take a look at his BH.

He started following my blog about one year ago and have tried a number of ideas I wrote and they are proving to work.

"Pak Harry after doing up the walls you suggested during your visit to my Jejarum BH, I immediately got two new nests. They really works." his precise words about his BH latest performance.

I told him that I am very honored to have suggested those interesting ideas and it works.

This is where I got the trill.

I know most of those ideas are more like those from a person with practical experiences.

They are not by trial and error but more like being tested many many times and once it works I will introduce them to all my blog readers.

Heat Insulation Works Inside Kemaman BH !!!

 (Heat shield installation on the West wall)

Let me give you the exact details on the heat insulation works carried out inside Kemaman BH.

During my first visit to the BH the owner was showing me around and he gave me some report about the nesting room temperature of his BH.

It seems that he installed a gadget to monitor the exact humidity and temperature for a couple of weeks.

His summary was as follows:

"The temperature will start to rise sharply from 8pm till 10pm and after that it will stabilized with downward trend after that.  The highest temperature he recorded was above 31*C".

Why listening to him I told him about the method I adopted in Salak Tinggi BH using this heat shield that will make all the affected walls to be at 29*C or lower.

He quickly snap with the word "Ok Pak Harry I want that to be carried out in my BH".

Since the highest was above 31*C I told him that usually if the higher floor is 31*C the floor below it will be about 30*C.

To minimize the overall cost I suggested that we should apply the heat shield method only for the top floor.

That was how the heat shield installation started its history inside this Kemaman BH.

The moment my boys arrived I told them to concentrate on the heat shield.

We got the heat shield rolls ready, ordered some woods (2"x2" X 12 feet.) and about 110 pieces of ceiling boards (4'X4'X3mm).

I told them to start on the wall facing the west and move to the one to the south and finish with the east wall.

They did just that.

What I like about this method of heat shielding is that it is very simple, quick and less messy.

My worker will erect the wood frame about 4' apart and installed a number of crossing 4' apart and stapled the heat shield materials.

Once the heat shield is in place the cement boards will be nailed to act as protection from any possible damage.

The surface on the cement board will be always 29*C or lower.

We have monitored the temperature inside the affected room and it was below 30*C.

A very quick and effective way of cooling down your nesting room.

If you need to learn more let me know.

Call 017 7551318.

 (The Frame of 4'X4' to receive the cement boards)

Decided To Erect Two Wet Floor Pools Inside Kemaman BH !!!

 (One of the two wet floor system in Kemaman.  Have not apply with fresh bird shit yet)

The use of wet floor system was not new to me.

It was discovered many years ago during my routine BH inspection.

My observations during the many BHs visited which prompt me to use these wet floors are simple.

Those rooms that are wet seems to have more birds.

The dry rooms have lesser birds.

There was once story from a BH owner whose BH was flooded and his ground floor tenant complained about it.

When he rushed to repair the leakage he found something unusual.

The floor with those water were with many birds inside.

After repairing and drying out those water the birds went missing.

"Pak Harry I should have let the water stays as it was." his main regret.

There was one more incident in Sabah.

This BH owner converted a row of classroom into BH.

He donated a substantial amount of money to build a new building for a primary school and requested the board to allow him to take over the present classrooms that were easily flooded when it rain.

After the conversion operation he observed something strange.

Out of the many BHs he owned the one with flooded floors seems to perform the best.

This include the classroom BH.

Since these two incidents I tend to favor the deployment of wet floor system.

I thought about how to design them and the best is to use those ready cut blue canvas easily available at most hardware shop.

Get four pieces of 2"x 3" wood and form a frame about 10'X12'.

Open the canvas and staple the canvas onto the wood frame.

Make sure you staple the canvas properly and do not allow the canvas to leak.

Once that is done try to cover the pool created with fine sand about 1 inch thick.

Pour water onto the sand and allow the water level to be about 1 inch deep.

Now you can sprinkle some fresh bird shit on the water surface.

The fresh bird shit will soon create some powerful smell that is natural to those birds.

The pool of water with fresh bird shit inside provide not only water inside your BH but also fresh rotting bird shit from it.

A good way to help in getting more birds to stay inside but it also help to lure those young birds back once they have taken their first flight out of your BH.

It you need more information please call 017 7551318.

The Best Way To Lure More Birds Into Your BH !!!

This was how it looks like when we first arrived.

We transformed to something like this.

It looks like as if the BH went to the barber to have a hair cut.

My main reason was to reduce the roof extension to something that will reduce unnecessary blockages of the birds flying down from the hexagonal tweeter areas.

We also installed about five power tweeters on the wall of the monkey house plus change the hexagonal tweeter.

It used to be those giant type with four mini bazooka tweeters covering only four directions.

The new hexagonal is with five tweeters.

The perimeter wall area was painted with a special black paint with a kind of bird smell.

It help to make the entrance hole looks larger.

If you look carefully the window now is layered with nesting planks.

The wood will help our installation of tweeters on it.

Have a look at some pictures taken during the roof cutting operation.

It was a tight operation.  Yes the only hole available to sneak onto the roof is thru this small area found by by workers.

My boys did a very good job and they eventually complied to by design requirements.