What Will Do If A Big Rock Is In Your Way For Your BH !!!!

I was in Papar, Sabah a few weeks ago and was given a red carpet to view another new BH under construction.

The 80% complete BH was on a hill surrounded by padi fields and at least 6 new BHs under operation.

The BH seems to be okay with two layers walls but there was something unusual on the ground floor.

There was this bolder half section on the surface while the balance was embedded in the ground.

"Pak Harry, since the bolder was too big I let it be a part of my BH.  What do you think?"

I was a bit taken back but I agree with him that as long as the bolder is hidden under the ground and the exposed part is inside his BH, it will provide a cooling effect to the ground floor and the rest of the BH.

The cool temperature from the ground will be transferred to the top exposed area thus will cool the air that comes to the rock surface.

This is something unusual and the first of its kind that I came acrossed.

He will be finishing his BH soon and I hope he will draw as many birds as he can to the BH.

Pak Harry, How Come You Are Never Tired ???

"Pak Harry I know you are 60 years old but I how come you are still strong running from one place to another nearly every day?  I don't think I can match you Pak Harry even I am much younger than you."

The first comment age about 55 years old.

"Pak Harry don't you feel sleepy during your 4 hour drive from KL to Kulai?  My work requires constant travelling.  I always tend to fall asleep and don't know where I am after I woke up.  How come you are so steady and strong?"

Second Comment from a 50 year old man.

"Pak Harry I need to ask you this.  How come you can stay alert even after standing up to give the seminar for one whole day?"

Third comment from a young man of 45 years old.

These are the interesting comments that I have compiled for all of you to note.

I am 60 years old but I am active with so many activities especially helping people with their BH problems.

I conduct Seminars on a regular basis in Kuala Lumpur, I also conduct seminar in Kota Kinabalu once every 2 month, I visit sick BHs everywhere in Malaysia, I climb all these sick BHs to the roof, I shuttle from Kuala Lumpur to these BHs once revamp works are in progress and more.

I also have to manage a number of BHs that are under JV and most of them are about 1 to 4 hours drive.

I am still fit and with these daily travelling most people are very jealous of my ability to move around.

The key issue here is what really drive me to be so active and what kind of food do I take?

Well the truth is rally in my passion plus this new energy supplier, VLT gel, that was introduced to me recently.

The gel is so effective and I have never knew any other products that can be as effective and simple to use.

Taking it once a day and you will have the best day nearly everyday.

I used to carry a few sachets in my travelling bag just in case I need an extra boost, like during a long drive or a during a hectic day.

Yes if I feel sleepy I will take one satchel just to make sure I am alert while driving.

A very interesting story about a new user.

I was in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and while in the car driving from KK to Papar and back, this swiftlet farmer asked me.

"Pak Harry can I know how old are you?"

I told him that I am 60 years old.

"Oh I am younger than you.  I am just 55 years old but how come you are so full of energy?"

I looked at him as smiled.

"Do you remember this morning when I was in the car I took something into my mouth?"

"Yes I remember seeing you sucking from a satchel and can I know from you what was that?"

That was my energy booster, I told him.

"Pak Harry can I try a box? You see I have a ping pong match this weekend and I think this special booster will be of great help."

I managed to let him tried and see if it really works.

That was last week and yesterday when I was driving he called.

"Pak Harry that energy booster really works.  I thrashed my opponent during the ping pong match and I saw that he was so exhausted and I was still eager to play another game. That gel was superb and I need more to introduce to my closed friends."

Unbelievable and I think if you are at my age and have an active life I recommend you to try the product.

Just one box of 30 satchel and cost only RM210 ex Kuala Lumpur.

If it does not work, please return the product and you money shall be returned with no question ask.

Just give me a call at 017 7551318 and I will help you with the delivery.

Progress Of Revamping Works In Karak !!!

My current concern on this sick BH is its location.

My big question is "Will there be birds passing the BH in the evening?"

The owner have decided to put up the BH in the middle of a palm oil plantation with a small hill at the back.

The closed proximity with the hill allows the house to be cooler since the sun light will be blocked off by about 5:30pm.

The disadvantage is the air flow.  A bid on the low side so we might need to install those exhaust fans.

There were not many birds that flew above the BH in the evening. Been observing the sky for 2 days and not many flying about it.  Hmm .....

Not a very nice feeling but there must be a way to lure them into the BH during the day time and once they are on the way home they will drop by and stays.

The revamp operation is running well.  So far have completed a few things:

1) The first three days we focused on the highest floor (3 stories). The partitions were done and now if the birds entered the connecting door they will be guided to fly above the LAL before entering the two VIP rooms created.

2) The second operation was to remodel the entrance tunnel area.  Two new entrance holes were opened and the old hole will be shut.  The connecting room from the tunnel to the roving area was also relocated.  The old door will be shut too.

3) Today I have instructed my workers to start the installation of those nesting planks crossings.  They should start inside the VIP room at the back part of the building and move to the front.

4) During the crossing planks installation I wanted them to install those 45* corner covers, for cluster tweeters purposes.

Hope by next week the top floor and the entrance area revamp will be completed.

In the meantime I am getting ready with about 100 fake nests made of paper laced with fermented raw nest water.  I plan to have these nests installed prior to putting those external sound on.

The best shall be the installation of those hexagonal tweeters (2 pieces) on the monkey house and my Last Tango gadget all around the monkey house.

The BH will be properly ready with a proper sound system to pull as many birds as possible into the two entrance holes.

The BH is practically very bare with not cluster tweeters, chandeliers, kite tweeters and fake nests.

I planned to install all these so that those birds will have a reason to stay.

The internal smell was a bit too clean.  My Mutiara aroma might help to make the BH smell better.

The walls on the top most floor were a bit too bright.  A coat of black and brown paint might help to reduce the light intensity coming into the VIP rooms.

Next week will be more exciting and I am sure there are plenty of activities for me to carry out.

To those who have never enter a BH but planned to own one please arrange your time to come and visit the revamp operation.

You will be vary surprised to see the transformation.

Call 017 7551318 for this BH tour.

If you wish to join the tour and stay with me in Karak let me know.

Will arrange for a suitable budget hotel and will shuttle up and down.

You will be given a task to do and help in the revamp works.

The more you learn the better you become.

Come and learn with Pak Harry

Busy With Karak Sick BH !!!

Last three days mobilized my workers to another BH in Karak, Pahang.

This particular BH is somewhere in a palm oil plantation about 2 km just before entering Karak main town.

It was put into operation for almost 8 months with very little signs of those wild birds entering and staying inside.

The owner, who attended my seminar last year in KL, called for help and after one visit I told him what I think were not right.

After reviewing my visit report he decided to engage my revamp team to upgrade the house.

"Pak Harry, I thought of doing it myself but I think I will do more harm than good.  I think it is not easy to look after a BH if you have little ideas about those swiftlet.  Please do your best for my BH."

The key point is that he now realized that it is not easy to draw those wild birds into his BH without adequate knowledge on those techniques that only experience people has .

Well, I will be shuttling up and down from Kuala Lumpur to Karak until the revamp operation is over.

Those who would like to visit this BH please let me know.

You will need to meet me in KL and it will take about one hour to reach the location.

Call 017 7551318 if you have the interest.

A Discovery Simply By Shear Accident !!!!

These newly discovered birds behaviours might needs further research before we can confirm that they are the right ways to pull those birds to the lower floors.

If you have a very tall BH, says three stories and above, there is a very slight chance of getting those birds building their nests on the lowest floor.

Worst will be when you put those LAL on the wrong position.

The rule of building a good  BH is to get those birds to occupy the lowest floor.

You might think that that is easy but I think they are not.

These birds are lazy and they do not want to fly too far to the lowest floor.  Worse is when the LALs are not at the proper location, too small in size and the birds needs to take sharp corners to reach to the lower floors.

The good thing about the lowest floors are as follows:

1) They are much further away from the main entrance hole.  This will gives those birds a higher safety factor from any predators that enters the BH.

2) Since they are further from the main entrance hole, the room darkness are greater.  In some case the nesting rooms are too dark so much so those birds will find it hard to enter and build their nest in it.

3) The temperature of the rooms are lower as compared to the higher floor.  Usually it will be about -2*C as compared to the highest floor.  This will be an ideal place to stay especially when the external temperature is above 30*C.

4) The humidity on the lower floors are always higher as compared to the higher floor.  This is due to the damp air being heavier and denser.  The weight per volume of air will tend to stay on the lower floor.  Even if you placed  humidifier on the upper floors the mist produced will usually be falling down, via any staircase or LAL to the lower floors.

It is the most ideal place for those birds to build their nests.

But normally they will avoid the lowest floor.

I have repaired many sick BHs and I think among the many observation made these three are of special interest:

1) The right location of those LAL.

I was in Pancing Kuantan inspecting two BHs.  One was with a ziz zag LAL placement and one with a straight pattern.

The zig-zag LAL BH have little birds on the lowest floor while the straight down pattern have so many birdshit markings on the floor.

2) The use of water fountain do draw those birds down.

This interesting observation was made at a BH in Ayer Kuning Perak.

The BH was will a tunnel from a monkey house entrance hole.  The tunnel build from top to the bottom was with a water pond at the lowest floor.

The owner installed a fountain in the middle of the pond.

This house was unique.  The birds prefer the lowest floor more than the middle floor.

I concluded that the pond and the water fountain was the reason for the population on the lowest floor.


3) The light that was not switched off.

This was what actually happened recently at Kuala Linggi, Melaka recently.

My workers reported that when he switched on the light there were more birds coming down.

What he did next was interesting.  He covered the light nearly half and let the light be on for the whole night.

It seems that these swiftlet do like to stay with the light on if you wish to populate the lowest floor.

Remember these are my observations and there is no 100% truth in these things.

You need to experiment with them if you have difficulties in population your lowest floor.

Best of luck to all of you.

Just Arrived From Kota Kinabalu, Sabah !!!

The 4 days in Kota Kinabalu was very fruitful.

The moment landed in KK someone from Sandakan, Sabah called to get an appointment to meet me for some advise on his failed BH.

He thought the building of a BH is simple but unfortunately after putting the BH into operation not a single bird entered his entrance hole.

"Pak Harry they came but never get closed to the entrance hole."

The moment he produced his sketches and pictures, I smiled and told him one simple observation :

"The roof is too long and that might be one of the reasons why they cannot find your entrance hole, I told him. Cut the roof extension to only about 10 inches and raise the entrance hole closer to the roof.  You need to install a hexagonal tweeter just above the hole about 1.5 feet above the roof."

Pak Harry what else?

You LAL is not at the right position.  Too far to the back.  Usually LAL should be located closer to the entrance hole where 100% of the birds entered or leaving shall pass above it.  Yours will be very little number of birds going downstairs.

Anything more?

Are you sure your entrance hole is facing the flying path? What about the sunrise?

Both answers given by him was not to my satisfactory.  They are the opposite to what I have been preaching.

This is a kind of mistakes that newbies will do and it is very sad that many will eventually gives up and let the BH become a ghost house.

We talked until midnight and I asked for being excused since I need to rest to prepare for the next morning seminar.

The seminar went pretty well.  A total of 28 participants attended and some were their second time.

I was given the floor for almost 6 hours and I am glad that all of those who planned to own a BH came forward to thank me for being so generous with informations.

"Pak Harry I never got bored with your seminar.  You always gives us everything that know and discovered.  I am very impressed with the idea on the last tango."

A remark from one of the participants.

The next day I started my day early meeting a blog reader who wanted my input on converting his 23 acres of agriculture land into a swiftlet eco park.

I brief him my opinion and I look forward to fly to KK on a regular basis to help him with his project.  There is about 80% chance that this project will take off and it will be the first in Papar.

Just before noon I was taken to Papar to view a very new project on the top of a hill.  The owner seems to ask for some help to get his BH on the right footing.

After inspecting his two stories newly constructed BH I mentioned to him that I will be an honor to he given the opportunity to help him in what ever I can.

We then adjourned to a just completed three stories BH at Kimanis.

The BH was about 99% completed and I was given the task to activate the sound for a test run.

I did my setting and tested for about 2 hours.  About 30 swiftlet came over and some entered the new house.

The "Last Tango" will be used to lure those birds into the house.

Since the house is not fully ready I told the owner to start the aroma treatment and try to finish those wiring.

I hope he will have a good chance to populate his BH.

Be Careful With Your Investment !!!

If you are a newbie please read this email carefully and try to learn from his scenario:

Greeting Pak Harry,

           My name is BB from Sandakan Sabah, I am glad to read through your blog it is very informative and encouraging.  i am new in swiflet industry my first introduction to swiflet farming was in April 2011 when i attend a swiflet talk by Dr L, after visit to one of the swiflet farm near by and ask lot of question about establishing swiflet farm i excited to make some research and design and according to the course recommendation   space 6m wide x 10m wide x 3m high (each level).  Since i was overwhelm with getting the building done i ask contractor to build the building according to my design.

          When the construction in progress i don't seem satisfy with my own idea and lack of information about establishing the BH and i search for more information from the internet about swiflet farming ( i don't want to depend on consultant), and i found Dr CL which seem to have a lot of experience on this field, so i went to book a ticket and join his talk in Subang on November 2011, purchase a set of internal, external  and pooling audio from him including pheromone. i even go to pasar road to search for audio system and a solar panel. for your information the land my BH build on still do not have electricity supply, so i am using a 12 volt solar system to power my 3 amplifier system.

         After getting all the equipment and some comment about my BH from the 2nd talk, i am kinda demotivate because most of the recommendation space to establish a BH that being introduce was way to big and not as i expected. but since my BH building is almost complete i start to do my own wiring and speaker setup according to the talk i attend. i even spray about 5 litter of pheromone that  recommended by speaker. the 1st week of launching the sound system seem to have a lot of hiccup.. where unstable supply and improper setting of volume. 2 week 12noon - 2pm about 40 bird circling on the sky & only one bird rush in and out of the Hole.  it is kinda frustrating with waiting..

       In last seminar the speaker recommended me to read on your blog which i did..  i would spend time to learn more about swiflet from you step by steps. i would like to ask a few question. 


1. Through your experience how long does it take to encourage bird to fly in a new BH to stay, provided with an ideal pulling sound.  


2. if i would like to purchase an external sound and internal sound could i purchase it one by one because getting the whole set for RM 6000 is very burden as a Government Servant. 


3. which sound do you recommended for a new establish BH.

with this i thank you in advance, hope to get new update from your blog.

p/s: with this i attach a layout design of my BH

Sincere
BB

I believed that if you are not very familiar with those wild birds you need to perhaps get someone who knows well and willing to help you with your project.

I am sure there are good people around you who are kind and willing to help.

Remember not all those people are bad.

Many are not willing but there are those who will help.

If you cannot find one please call 017 7551318.

Revamp Operation Completed !!!

Yesterday morning I was in Kulai, Johor with a blog reader.

He accompanied me to view his under performed BH and wanted my opinion on what to be done to reactivate the BH.

It was put into operation for two and half years with only 3 miserable nests.

We were at the BH about 6:30am and waited for those birds from his neighbours to start flying out.

After watching those birds for about 30 minutes I told him to open his BH door and allow me to review the BH.

Since there were only three nests for 2.5 years I think you can visualized what mistakes were done.

I normally will start from the entrance hole area and move towards the lowest floor.

To an ordinary person there is nothing wrong with this BH however to an experience person he can see the many mistakes that could have been avoided.

He replayed the CCTV recording and you will be surprised that the birds do entered the entrance hole but rarely enter the nesting rooms.

What could be the reasons?

I took some time to analyse the situation and promised to prepare a visit report on what to be done.

My answer to him was to carry out some major revamp.

Late last night I managed to pull together my report and email to him.  There were at least 12 major issues and I hope he will do the needful.

After the inspection I push up to Kuala Linggi, Melaka.  The revamped BH was up and ready to be left alone.

Upon reaching bought some lunch and ate together with my workers.

They were very happy to see me and ready to go.

I did my final inspection on all the floors and the sound system.

I know, deep in my heart, this BH will do well.  I prayed to my creator to help in populating the BH since I have put in everything that I have invented.

"God please help to populate this BH for I have install all the things that I know those birds loves to have."

I shut the front door and says goodbye to the house.

"Bye bye dear BH.  You make sure everything runs as required and let those birds stay in peace."

I called the owner and told him of my departure.

The back part of the BH was ready for those insects breeding roofing area with a water outlet. He planned to install some large containers and put in some rotting pineapples.

Told him that before we left there were about 15 to 20 birds on his BH rooftop.  It was never like this before  my revamp works.

He was very happy with the news and we need to give at least one month to inspect the nesting rooms.

Best of luck to your BH, I told him.

Kuala Linggi Swiftlet Eco Park !!!

Out of 43 units five were about to be put into operation.

The rest are empty land, about 1 to 1.5 acres each plot, and waiting for the right buyer.

This project is situated on a plot of land, originally palm oil plantation, which the Melaka state Government given approval to promote swiftlet farming (legal).

The move is a good one and each state should have the initiative to follow this foot step.

The role of each state is to help to nature the swiftlet industries towards the long term objective of the Government in producing about RM 5 billion income a year by 2020.

Those who hold the portfolio in promoting this high income industry should get their act together in helping the industry so that lesser people will be lured towards converting their shop houses, illegally, in town areas into BHs.

There is no used to blame those investors if each state is not doing their part in allocating the right location and license to those who would like their land to be converted into swiftlet Eco-Park.

Remember the location must be proper and BH design must also be correct.

Both the developer and the state authorities must ensure that the piece of land is ideal for swiftlet farming.  It will be appropriate if the service of Jabatan Veterinar be involved.

To add value to this kind of Eco-Park, the developer should engaged qualified swiftlet consultant to help in designing a cost effective buildings complete with proper gadgets to lure the birds into these houses.

In the case of Kuala Linggi Eco-Park, I have these few comments & observations to share and I hope it will be looked at positively:-

1) This project can be used as a model to other Eco park developers.

2) There are 43 lots and each lot is on a piece of agricultural land about 1 to 1.5 acres of land. Only five lots were developed while the rest are empty.

3) Each lot is sold based on the size of the land and a three stories BH mainly 22'X72' (33 units) and 24'X80' (10 units). Price ranges from RM600,000 to RM750,000 each.

4) Each lot has it own title and will be transferred to the owner once they complete the S&P agreement.  This arrangement allows the owner to apply for suitable loan from their bank.

5) The BH design is fixed by the developer and the owner will only be able to make any changes once they were given the keys to the BH.

6) The Eco Park is in a gated community area.  Most of the land are currently used as weekend getaway houses with orchards.

7) Some used their land to plant Gaharu Trees.

8) The developer chooses the top entry type of entrance hole. In this case there will be no side entry type or dual entry types.

9) The internal design provided for each BH will be the same with minimum gadgets to draw those swiftlet into each BH.

10) Each BH buyer need to have a high degree of knowledge about swiftlet farming if they wanted to be successful once they take over the key to their units.

11) I was informed that the developer did engaged an experience consultant during its initial stage however the relation went sour.  This gives the poor owners to find their way out to get the right advisers.

12) From my personal inspection I can safely says that there was nothing wrong with the BH design, overall, however the internal finishing is as if the person in charged is totally ignorance about swiftlet farming.

13) The developer might have his own agenda to minimize cost and make lots of profit from it but it is not to the advantage of the owners.

I am still confident that Eco-Park will one day be the kind of arrangements to be promoted however each developer should be bound with responsibilities to ensure that each buyer will be given a fair chance to be successful.

There is no used to lure them to invest a huge sum of money but with little returns to pay their bank loan.

You are not trying to help these investors but put you put them into a kind of a "state of disaster".

Try to be kind to them and give them some hope to be a successful BH owner.

No Sounds Means No Birds !!!

Just wanted to share something that happened to one of my blog reader who happened to experience a very unusual event.

He was on the phone with me relating his experience where nearly all his tweeters went blank.

The number of birds dropped from as many as 700 pairs to less than 100 pairs.

His agony started when his BH nesting planks with fungus.

Though there were more than 700 pairs of birds he felt that something have to be done to clean up those fungus.

Without any clue on the action of salt water with those wires he did not gave a clear instruction to his workers to stay clear of the wires (exposed connection points).

The planks were cleaned using salt water mixed with raw nests.

The raw nests was used to provide the natural aroma smell while the salt was used to prevent fungus from infesting the plank.

What happened next was damaging.

After the cleaning works he left for UK for a business trip.  He was there for about 2 months.

When he arrived home and inspected his BH the tenants went missing.

The internal sounds were almost dead.

He begin to realise that there was something unusual and how come all the birds were missing.

After some checking he concluded that those salt water accumulated on most of the connection point and with current flowing the joints were disconnected.

All of the tweeters were dead.

He quickly got into action and reconnect his dead tweeters back and within a few days the birds started to return home.

After a few weeks many more came back to populate his BH.

His conclusion was "Pak Harry, when the sounds went dead the birds will run away.  No sound means no birds."

This particular event served as a good lesson to all of us:

1) Be careful when you use salt water to clean fungus those planks. Yes you can use them but make sure your workers are aware of the effects when those salt water touches the cable connection points.

2) It's advisable to use those plastic cover on the connection points of all your BH tweeters.

3) Those birds are very attracted to your sounds.  Make sure all your tweeters are functioning all the time.  If they are not replace them.

Remember no sound equals to no birds ............

Kuala Linggi Revamp Bird House Test Run with 600 or more birds responded!!!

(Mr R showing his skill in spraying Mutiara Aroma)

After doing up the top floor and the entrance hole areas I did a test run with the present of the BH owner Mr R.

He rushed from Kota Damansara, Selangor just to be with me and help in what ever he can.

One of the thing I did was to ask him to install those water filter(s).  It seems that the water supplied via the main pipe was too dirty and will clogged the humidifier mist maker eyes.

The second thing that he did was to prepare his first Mutiara Aroma using those fermented bird shit and sea weeds.

I showed him the mixing method and how to spray the aroma on those walls.

Since he was around and those tweeters were set to play I conducted the first test run ever. The test run was conducted on 28th January 2012.

The number of birds responded was at least 400 to 600.

Mr R commented:

"Pak Harry prior to your revamp the number of birds that flew in I think was about 3 to 5 but now it's more that a few hundreds.  Unbelievable and a miracle to me."

I told him that if he did nothing and hope for the developer to provide the system he will be doomed.

The number of birds that responded to the sound was about 7:25pm.

At first there were about 3-5 birds and soon after the number started to multiply exponentially.

Out of no where they stormed the entrance area and many will attack the power tweeters installed on the walls.

Beside attacking the tweeters some will hang onto the walls.  At peak time there were more than 15 birds clinging closed to those power tweeters as if they were enjoying the vibration created by the sound.

The number of birds climbed every minute until at about 7:50.  Most of these birds entered the BH and their number started to decreased and at 8:00 pm there were about 2-3 left flying around the entrance hole.

I believed most of them entered the BH.

I estimated that the number entered were about 600 or more.

I told Mr R that he was a very lucky man.  Those birds seems to be coming from all over especially from the Palm Oil plantations and nearly all flew into his BH.

His comment was " Thank You Pak Harry".

I was very happy that those new gadgets that I invented and installed were showing unbelievable result.

I am pretty sure that these gadgets will help many others who have difficulties in populating their BHs.

To those who have BH that are not doing well call 017 7551318.

A Cave BH Under Construction In Vietnam !!!

A blog reader from Vietnam recently email some pictures showing a BH under construction.

The owner seems to have this idea that swiftlet loves cave environment.

As such he build his BH in a staggered roof system with about 12 layers.

The structure is build inside a kind of factory with covered roof to prevent direct sunlight shinning on the BH directly.

Enjoy these pictures: