A Common Mistakes which you can avoide !!!

"Pak Harry, I attended your Swiftlet Farming Seminar last weekend and I would like to seek a second opinion about my BH under construction."

That was the main conversation between myself and a blog reader.

Okay I will come over tomorrow morning and see what are not right. I told him.

The BH was under construction and it was about half way up, a total of three stories, about 30 feet by 70 feet.

Upon reaching the construction site I was very impressed with the number of birds hovering above the BH and the nearby areas.

Full of thick forest and a number of water reservoirs around it.

This owner seem to have done some homework and attending my swiftlet farming seminar was his last act.

Along the way he managed to learn a few things from here and there and come out with a design that will fulfill his dream.

Before entering I asked him to let me take a short tour around the house.  Did some checking on the direction of the sun and I started to sense something was not right.

I keep to myself and will tell him once I finished the tour up to the roof.

He seem to fully understood on the need of double wall with 4 inch thick Styrofoam plank sandwitched in between.

What caught my eyes was the color of the red brick.  It was not red but rusty red.  He explained to me that those red brick were unfired bricks.

Hmmm.... everyday you learned something, I told myself.

The number of ventilation holes were too many I told him. He need to close all except a few at the back.

The ceiling was a bit too rough with those wood joints.

The LAL looks okay from the ground floor looking upward.

The first floor was still not covered with any bricks.

The 2nd floor was about to be covered with wooden plywood to hold those cement.

I was not happy with the excessive monkey hole dimension.  I advised him to use the original beam and not current dimension.  He called his site supervisor and asked him to carry out the modifications.

During the walking down from the building I indicated to him where those VIP rooms to be build and how big it should be.

I also cautioned him on the placement of those amplifiers, never below those holes he used to pull the wires.

After the many more advises I broke the sad new to him about the wrong placement of the entrance hole.

Mr M, I need to tell you that you should have designed the entrance hole the opposite side.  The entrance hole should face the east and not the west.  This is mainly due to the fact that those birds needs the early morning light to guide them to fly out of your BH.  They need to be out of the house as early as possible.  Remember the word : Early birds catch the worms? Oops insect !!!

If you choose the west then there will be a short delay in getting the light inside the BH which will make those birds to wake up late.

Normally if this is the case those birds will tend to build their nests closed to the entrance hole area.  The other problem will be they will not colonies the lower floors.

Aye yer yer yer, I did not realized that Pak Harry and I am very disappointed that my first Sifu never advised me on the matter.

Well you better call him and make sure he learned from your bad mistake. He must be either a new sifu or never use know about this before.

It is better for him to learn from you now and don't let others using his service to have the same problem in the future.

Wetting The Wet Floor Area In Your VIP room !!!

Have a look at this video clip taken today after the installation of those 3/4" PVC pipes to a "AutoIrrigate" gadget.

Not bad and it served the purpose and will ensure that your wet area will be always supplied with water.

I choose the timing of about 1 minute per three days.

Will need to check the area once a week for at least three weeks to ensure that they will be over flooded.

The Best Way To Cool Your BH !!!

 

"Pak Harry when I first started my BH there were lots of birds coming in to stay.  However after 2-3 months there went missing.  It seem that my BH room temperature was hitting 34*C."

This was the exact word from a BH owner whose BH was recently renovated with proper roof and side walls protection.

He should have done that during the construction stage but that time he was trying to cut corners.

The relevant lesson here is that when you design a BH you need to make sure the internal room temperature will not crossed the 30*C level.

Make sure the top floor of your BH are protected from direct sunlight and those walls facing the sun are double walls.

To those who have not taken the necessary precautions you best bet is to regularly check your BH and in the event your temperature hit 30*C and above you need to determine where those heat are coming from.  Use those laser temperature gun to find them.

A few months ago I was helping a BH owner to revamp his BH.  I saw this simple gadget to cool those water used by the chicken coop humidifiers.

The unit was made of a big tub complete with the water inlet and outlet plus a pump to suck the water up to a pipe which spray the water back into the tub.  A fan was used to cool the water when it fall down.

The water temperature was about 25*C.

If you push this water to your humidifiers in your BH, can you imagine what will happened to your room temperature?

Yesterday I check the BH temperature and the result was about 27*C.  Prior to the installation it was about 30.5*C.

Simple but effective for those BH that face slight temperature variations.

The total cost to put the unit together was not more then RM400.  If you wanted to own one give me a call.  Will sell you one at RM500.

An Irrigation Water Timer For Your Wet Floor Area !!!

I discovered something special yesterday.

You see when I started deploying the wet floor idea, I did not realized that the wet floor area need to be watered every day, if possible.

If you need to do that then there will be no time to do other things and at the same time I will disturb those precious birds inside.

I keep thinking of the cheapest and easiest way in wetting the area with an automated tool.

What I really need is a pump or a gadget connected to the water pipe that can be digitally programed to wet the floor at a predetermined time.

While trying to hunt for this gadget I remembered meeting a guy who showed me something that he said will work like I wanted it.

I quickly called him and ordered 10 pieces.

He was surprised with the big order and I was very happy to start using it today.

The gadget is called "AutoIrrigate" Gadget.

What it looks like is just similar to those gas meters and it cost only RM140.

You just need to attached it to the main water pipe and insert a two 3A batteries.

You can set the timer to open the valve every two or three days.

Set it to 1 minute per watering session.

If you need to purchase this special gadget let me know.  Call 017 755 1318

What Happened To Those Late Comers After You Shut Your External Sound?

Just something that you might have never thought before.

Have you ever wonder what happen to those young birds when you set your external sound to stop at, say 8:00 pm, and there are still some birds flying home until late at night?

I stayed late at one of the BH under revamp today and the owner was telling me that he installed those steel gate which will shut down at 8:00pm.

The moment the gate was closed I observed that there are still lots of birds that were not prepared to fly in between those 8" wide openings (gaps between those solid 2 inch diameter bars).

So what I did was to reset the door closing to 9:00 pm. The moment the gate was reopened those stranded birds do entered the house smoothly.

My next very important observation was the number of birds entering the house after the stoppage of the external sound.

The moment the external sound stopped the number of birds returning or entering the BH was not many. If you blast the external sound back the number will be higher. (Try and test for your self)

I think once you switched of the sound your BH will no longer have the pulling power or attracted to those birds which are still outside rushing home.

I strongly believed that we should play a low volume sound  after 8:00pm to pull those remnant young birds rushing to be back home.  You need those sound to pull them in. 

Hmm.... why can't we do something to pull those birds even after those external sound were stopped?


Is there any other method to let those late comers to stop at out house and not going back home?

Normally we have our internal sound on for 24 hours.

What if we place two small tweeters, 2"X5", at the entrance door but we connect them to those internal sound?

I have never done this before but my gut feeling told me that the number of birds will be higher as compared to having no sound at the entrance hole at all.

The best is to play those "BabyKing" as your internal sound.  I have discovered at many places "BabyKing" can be used both as internal and external sound.

Yeh, why not !!! My sincere advise is to try out and watch your CCTV screen and count the number of birds entering your BH once the external sound stopped.

Make sure the sound will not disturb any house or neighbors in the vicinity.

Best of luck to all those who wanted to try using this new discovery.  Keep this as your secret gained from being my blog reader.

If you wish to know more call 017 755 1318

My New Inventions Installed at Nilai BH !!!

The Nilai BH revamp operation is about to be completed.

I am happy that this new masterpiece has all the new ideas which I invented recently.

The most recent ideas were as follows:

1) The wet floor technique using fine sand and bird shit.  Applied inside the VIP room only. (3rd BH using this new invention)

2) A special water control gadget is used to activate the water flow from the tap to the wet floor area.  I called it as "AutoIrrigate" meter. This is a very new gadget discovered just last week.

3) All water to the humidifiers in the BH (6 units) were first cooled using a Cooling Basin. (1st BH using this new invention).

4) The entrance hole area were installed with a hexagonal and three noisy tweeters. (2nd BH using this new invention).

5) Two small tweeters installed at the entrance door to play the baby king after 8:00pm after the external sound is stop.(1st BH using this new invention)

6) There will be about 40 bottles of perfume hung on the nesting planks. (3rd BH using this new invention)

7) The crossing planks were laced with special aroma before its installation. (1st BH using this new invention)

8) Two special reservoirs of erotica aroma installed one at the entrance hole area and the other inside the VIP room.(2nd BH using this invention)

9) After stopping the revamp works at about 5.00pm I tested a new sound called VivaKajang.  This new sound was recently developed for a friend in Ayer Jernih Trengganu.  Lot of those clicking sounds.(1st BH using this sound)

The result as at today was fascinating and encouraging.

There were at least 600 - 800 birds entered the birds within less then one hour. The observation was done from 5.00pm to 6:00pm.(Note: It was a rainy day with lots of cloud.  The birds came home early.)

The owner was with me and we used the CCTV cameras to observe the reaction of those swiftlet. We were very sure that nearly all that entered never leave the BH. Unbelievable and truly fascinating.

I shook my head many times and confirmed with the owner that my target of 1000 nests is achievable and he should sleep well.

His current nests number was 350 and I promised to increase his nests population to 1000 within less then 12 months.

It was very encouraging and I feel that I am getting very near to right method on how to get a BH easily populated with swiftlet.(My aim is to find the correct ways and appropriate gadgets to ensure that any BH can be easily populated and those old BH can double its nest within less then one year).

If all these new ideas and my inventions properly understood and properly installed your BH will have a high degree of success. I do not guarantee but I can only say that your have a higher success.

Remember I am not a Consultant or Sifu but just an enthusiast.  I just love to invent some new gadgets and new ideas on how to populate the BH both the sick or new.

4Th December Swiftlet Farming Seminar !!!

The total number of participants was 42 and invited guest was 4.  Total 46 person. No advertisement on any other channel except my humble blog.

It was really a very interesting day so much so we finished the talk at 6:30pm.

I felt very honored when all the participants says something good before they say goodbye.

Some came because they wanted to start their dream bird house, some came is as a second time, some came because of the insect Barn, some came because they were half way completing their BH under construction.

You can see the glow in their eyes after absorbing those information which they have never thought or heard before.

Just read these comments from a few of the participants:

"Pak Harry I need to scrap my initial drawing and redraw all over again.  Your information has been very very useful. I am so lucky to have attended this Seminar"

"Pak Harry, my dad have started his three stories BH.  Now already 2 floors.  I have a great feeling that the BH need to be torn down.  So many mistakes and I need to get you over to Vietnam to advise how to salvage the current structures."

"Pak Harry, I am new in this swiftlet farming business and I am so great full that I learned so much from your Seminar.  So much info and there no way I can get them from anybody else."

"Pak Harry, you are amazing.  How the hell do you know so much about those swiftlet?"

Just imagine these participants learn things that they have never heard before as follows:

Swiftlet love to sing to each other?

What about the reasons why you find lots of feathers on the floor when they started mating?

What about why those nests will have birds feathers on them?

How about the effect of sound volumes in your BH?

Then there was this story about why you should choose the evening flight path as the entrance door direction?

We have some interesting laugh about how a person knows that the marvelous cloud is a male voice?

Before the female birds allows the male to copulate, the nest must be at least ready to receive her eggs?

Those birds when they make love they do everywhere.  In the house and also in the air?

If you can make the bird says I do as your tenant, you are on the right track.

Never count the nest before there is an egg in it?

Can you use dead baby birds as your BH aroma?

What are the main reasons swiftlet have a flying path?

How many grams do they eat a day?

Why and how frequent should you do those forced harvest?

It is true that in Sabah you can get 5 young birds every year at RM 5 each?

You can actually push those birds to build their nests where you wanted them to?

Swiftlet is something like your young kid who refuse to go to school unless you give in to what they wanted?

On the 43rd day of their life, swiftlet will stop eating, why?

It is better to ensure that your entrance hole to face the East, why?

What can be the reasons why there are three eggs in a nest, normally only two?

How you wet the floor but not flooding it?

What sound should be used to for those noisy tweeters?

How to use those long range bazookas effectively?

Well there are many more new things that these participants learned from the seminar and I am very glad to have stand in front for almost 9 hours until my two legs cramped.

Reached home at about 9pm and I went to bed at 9:30pm.

What a day.  So you think it is easy to be a speaker?

Swiftlet Attraction Using Insect Barn !!!

Have a good look at this latest video clip on the progress of the insect barn.

The number of birds have increase dramatically and the owner indicated that his nests increment is more then satisfactorily.

No regret so far according to him:

This will be one of the best option to get more visitors to your BH.

They come for the food and if your BH is well designed and playing those soothing sounds I am sure you will be better off as compared to your neighbors.

The insect barn concept is recommended for those BHs located on agricultural land.

The raw materials is nothing more then 6 kg each of Soya Bean flour, Wheat flour, Fresh Yellow Mee and a few spoons of minerals and vitamins (used to strengthen livestock).

The total cost of these raw materials for each batch is about then RM 60 (indicated by the Barn Owner).

You need a boiler to boil about 6 gallons of fresh water.

Those who are keen to learn more about the insect barn technique please make some time to call 017 755 1318 for a site visit date and we will teach you how to start it.  The cost for the visit and transferring the knowledge is about RM1200 per head.

Get some friends to join and your fee will be given a discount of RM 100 per head.  Example if you bring two person, your fee will be RM1200 less RM200 = RM1000.

Our main aim is to teach you to be a successful farmer and if this knowledge is useful to you and your friends we will appreciate your small contribution for future research works.

You will be amazed with the result once you get the insect into your BH and around the front area of it.

A SimpleTechnique On How To Test Those New Nesting Planks Aromas !!!

"Pak Harry, do you supply the H3N1 aroma? Is it effective?"

The exact words from someone that I have never spoken before.

I told him that I would like to reserve my comments about any product that are in the market.

However I would love to conduct some serious observations using CCTV cameras using a simple technique using those crossing planks as my test case.

The following shall be my criterias:

1) The bird house that I wanted to conduct the tests shall be heavily populated like 300 nests at least.

2) On each test I will used at least three different types of aromas.

3) The nesting planks shall be those of red Meranti wood and new.

4) I will treat the wood with those aromas and dry them up before installation.

5) Each wood will be marked with a white marker to allow me to remember what kind of aroma was applied to every piece.

6) The planks will be distributed in the BH and the progress of birds building their nest on them will be monitored by CCTV cameras plus manual inspection.

The above was done at Nilai BH and I am looking forward for some result soon.

If any of the three works, I will be very happy to share with all my blog readers.

The Energy Saver That Can Help To Reduce Your Monthly BH Electric Bill !!

All you need to do is to plug it in one of your BH three pin socket, nearest to the electricity fuse box, and immediately you can reduce your monthly electricity bill by up to 40%.

No fuss and no wild thinking.

I was very impress with this new item and maybe we can cut our monthly expenses to the minimum.

I think 40% saving is exceptional high and if this helps then why don't we start asking our electrician to install one socket as closed as possible to the fuse box (distribution box) of our BH.

It also reduce those temperature created on the electrical wires embedded inside your BH walls.

The best is that your sound gadgets (both the amplifiers and tweeters) life expectancy will be extended, claimed by the manufacturer.

The product is fully manufactured in Malaysia, carrying an immense amount of credibility.

For single phase wiring
• If electricity consumption is between RM 80 – RM 250 at induction load, use only one unit
• If electricity consumption is more than RM 250 at induction load, use two units or more.

For three phase wiring
• If electricity consumption is between RM 200 – RM 600 at induction load, use one unit at each phase.
• If electricity consumption is above RM 600 at induction load, use two units or more at each phase.

Life expectancy of the E2SAVER is a minimum of 8 years at a usage of 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In some cases, the life of the E2SAVER can be prolonged, for example in the office as the unit can be turned off when it’s not in use. Perhaps the most attractive offer for E2SAVER is their 60 days money back guarantee and a three years warranty against all defects including lightning strikes.

For a unit that stabilizes the flow of current into your building, improves power efficiency, reduces temperature of wire & risk of fire and prolongs the span of electrical appliances, the E2SAVER is quickly becoming a staple in every BH, household, offices and commercial venues.

The cost per unit is about 350 to 450 ringgit ex Kuala Lumpur.

You can get the product at most hardware shops around your town but if you wish to have one please call 017 755 1318

His Main Aim Is To Be Ready For His Next Battle !!!

One Smart BH owner in Negeri Sembilan wanted to be ready for a war with his neighbors.

"Pak Harry, my BH now have about 350 nests after 2.5 years.  I wonder if the population can be increased to 700 within the next 12 months.  Please come and inspect the BH and recommend what are the things that I should do."

Are you having any problems with the BH? I asked.

"The nests population grew steadily for the first 1.5 years but after that the number seems to be stagnant." 

Well a BH with an interesting problem that are pretty common now days.

This can be due to many reasons but if you look around this BH there are at least 20 new BHs around it.

The owner also realized that his competitors are growing rapidly and if he do not act early he will loose all his young birds to those unscrupulous neighbors.

"Pak Harry, now there are more then 20 new BHs around me and I know that those empty units next to my current BH will be turned into BHs within the next few months.  Can you see the urgency of you revamping my BH?"

To him is like getting into a war and he need the latest bullet to be a winner.  A very smart man.

I now realize why he keep calling me nearly everyday to confirm when I can move my workers to his BH.

I took about 45 minutes to check the status of the BH before getting the revamp works started.

Most of the nests were on the upper floor and strangely they love to occupy those nesting planks located above the staircase tunnel (the highest part of the building about 12-13 feet from the floor).

Hmm.... I think there must be some reasons why they love to have their nest here as compared to the normal ceiling areas.  I think these birds knows that the higher the ceiling from the floor the more difficult for predators (human) to harvest their nests.  I am very impress with this new finding.

The next interesting observation was where they occupy the nesting planks.  Yes nearly all the crossing or those areas where the nesting planks rows and crossings meets. Since they love these crossing with corner covers, I asked the owner why don't we increase the crossings?

Those areas closed to the internal sound playing tweeters are also pretty occupied.  The sad thing was that the number of tweeters installed were very little. I also inform the owner that I will get at least 150 internal sound playing tweeters per floor.

The 2nd floor have the least number of nests.  Roughly the top floor was with about 330 nests and the lower floor not more then 20 nests.  We need to drag those young birds down and I need to figure out the right methods to ensure the lower floor are with more nests.

The nesting planks looks okay but were about 2 feet apart with very little crossing planks. I need to increase by at least four rows but what I have in mind is to use those aroma laced planks.

The entrance hole area looks pretty okay but I do not see any hexagonal tweeters or the noisy tweeters.

There were no proper VIP room on each floor.  I think a wet floor VIP room will be very useful to get more birds to stays.

What can be the reasons why those young birds are not staying back or return to stay after taking their maiden flight?  BH owners need to ask this question over and over again.  Just imagine this BH already have more then 350 nests and every breeding cycle it will produced a total of about 700 young birds.  For 12 months there should be at least 700X3 = 2,100 of them but how come they are not staying or return to build their nest beside their parent?

There must be some good reasons that causes them to move to somebody else BHs.

I was asked to come out with the reasons and perhaps helps to make those babies to stay and helps in the nest population increment.

A new task that need more planning and time to squeeze my already dried brain.

The floor were very dry and those chicken coop humidifiers were not functioning.

Yesterday I moved two of my workers to site and one is at the warehouse to receive my instruction on what he shall assembled or get ready for me to collect.

An interesting new revamp works and I think this will be something new for me to try out some of those new ideas that I have accumulated for some time.

We shall give a try and see if the number of nests can multiply to 1,000 within 12 months.

Those who would like to visit the BH during the revamp works can do so by calling this number 017 755 1318.  There is a small visiting fee (RM300 per head) to support  my research activities.

You Can See The Scars On The Wall Of These Buildings !!!

All in all due to lack of knowledge about those wild birds.

Have a good look at this picture and tell me what do you think went wrong?

From Far

 

Closed Up

 

The BH was designed with a veranda on the top.  This is where those young swiftlet will enter the house from the top entry and fly down via a tunnel.  But I believed they refused to follow what it was planned for.  After a few months there was no tenant so the owner opened a new entry hole at the side. A big hole about 12 feet by 16 feet, I think.

From Far

 

Closed Up

 

This BH have the some problem.  In fact she was about 100 meters away from the first BH.

Facing the same problem where the original top entry tunnel was not working.  The owner resort to opening three new entrance hole at the side.  If you look carefully this was the second time he opened the side entries.  The first was along the tunnel then he shut them and moved inward in the nesting room.

Assuming that the new entrance holes now works, my conclusion is that the swiftlet in this area prefer the side entry not the top entry.

I recalled the observation made in the town areas nearby these two BHs the most successful BH was using the side entry.

The lesson we learn here is that before you decide to opt for any type of entry please do some investigation.  Get to know those birds and where do you think your tenant, mainly young birds, will come from.  They normally will come from the most successful BH(s) in your area.  Look at the type of entry of these BHs and choose exactly like them.

What if the number is nearly equal?

Be my guess just think of the best solution.

Bagan Dato: A sleepy town with many BHs !!!

I was asked by a blog reader to evaluate a piece of land located in Bagan Dato, Perak.

It took me about 3 hours to arrive from Kuala Lumpur and the visit was not bad after all.

The moment I reached this small town I started my investigation how my BHs are there along the main street and how many in the vicinity.

To my surprise nearly the whole town was with BHs on the upper floor.

The way to detect them is to drive at the back lane of the town, jalan tikus.  You will start to hear those external sound and you can pin point where they are coming from.

The two rows of shop, making up of the whole town, consisted of about 30 shops.  I think more then 60% were converted into swiftlet house (top floors).

Among all the BHs one seem to be the heaviest with birds population.  The end unit nearest to the river mouth.

Outskirt there were a number of BHs mainly stand alone but unfortunately not many that can be classified as successful.

You can see the scars left by the owner opening and closing those entrance hole on the BH walls.

The number visited was not more then 10 units.

Enjoy these pictures and if you happened to visit Bagan Dato open you eyes and try to locate them: