Belara BH Revamp Operation: Completed And Now On Test Run !!!

(If you want to enjoy viewing this clip please enlarge it)

Very happy and glad that the revamp operation at Belara BH, located about 20 minutes drive from Kuala Trengganu, is now completed.

Feel so relief and satisfied with all those things done and gadgets installed inside this BH.

The first time when I was given the chance to visit the BH I was very sad to see how something that is so valuable and with a very high potential of having a full house was neglected and left without any maintenance.

During my first visit the nests number was about 800 pieces.  That was about three years ago.

Fortunately I was again given the opportunity to inspect the same BH above 10 months after that.

This was when I discovered that the nests remained almost dormant like increased by about 37 nests.

Since the owner wanted my full inspection report I submitted one complete with all the things that were harming the nests population increase and at the same time what can be done to quickly put it back to be a normal but productive BH.

My philosophy about any BH is that the nests number should hit about 100% increase in nests number every 12 months.

In this Belara BH case it should have crossed 1600 nests by now.

However I was told that the nest number was not more than 900 (recent count).

I received a positive response from the owner who asked my help (thru a Company) to correct the BH.

What were in mind was to find ways to make the BH more attractive to those new couples and special attention must be given to those young couples who were born and raise inside the same house.

If 1/3 of all those young baby birds should return home every year I can get that 100% increase in nests number.

If more than that it will be a bonus.

What about those young couples originated from other BHs?

This might be the extra extra bonus.

The nesting rooms need to be darker.

This darkening of the nesting room became my first priority.

The main entrance area need to be erected with partition walls to block those bright light but a door will be allocated to allow those birds to enter the floor.

The second correction made was to open a new inter floor hole on the floor (LAL) to allow those new couples to fly down straight to the lower floors.

Currently the only way now is to take a very long twist and turn to reach the lowest floor.

I opened this hole about 5 feet wide and 8 feet long.

A tedious, dusty and noisy part of the whole operation.

After the hole was opened it was installed with external sound tweeters around it.

My third priority was to do something to anchor those young baby birds to return home once they take their first flight.

From my various observations and trial, I connect them to the BH wetness.

If you want them to return home you need to wet the floor and of course you BH must be within the normal recommended room temperature (26-30*C).

I do away with those chicken coop humidifiers but choose this mist spray pump method.

Each floor was installed with a set of pump complete with water filter and a total of 15 mist nozzles.

I am sure this will be the key requirement inside this BH to attract those young birds to return to the house where they were hatched and raised.

The forth critical modification was on the entrance area.

I enlarged the main entrance hole (LMB) or main window and installed with a set of suitable external sound tweeters.

The installation of a hexagonal tweeter on the rooftop was another key gadget to lure those birds both flying in front or at the back.

Two bazooka tweeters were installed somewhere outside at the roof areas.

The fifth was to upgrade both the internal and internal sound system.

I have deployed three sophisticated BZ 106 amplifiers and one normal amplifier.

Two of the BZ were for internal sounds (2 internal sounds) and one BZ for external.

The smaller amplifier was for the two bazookas.

The sixth important thing done inside the BH was to install a total of 900 feet long cross woods.

These cross woods helps to increase the nesting space and at the same time create more 90* corners.

Every joint installed will create 4 X 90* corners.

I lost count but I guest there were at least 1800 new 90* corners created during this time.

Young birds prefer 90* corners to erect their first nest.

The seventh interesting installations were those gadget to force those who have used the 90* to move away from it.

This new technique was picked up during a meeting with BH owners and nicely done for trial run.

If it works I plan to install on all those 90* that are with tenants.

First their nests need to be harvested and after that the plastic chain shall be hung.

The eighth important thing I did was to install as many as 1500 fake nests.

Fake nest is as attractive as those 90* corners.

What if you install a fake nest at those 90* corners?

It will be more like a double bonus for those young couples.

These fake nests and 90* corners will be a kind of bait to mesmerise them to quickly build a nest and lay their first egg.

From my knowledge once the new couple laid their first egg, they will live inside the same house until they die.

Enjoy some of those things done inside this masterpiece BH.

My Preferred Method On How To Make Those Young Birds Return Home !!!

I was about to go to bed but manage to pull myself up to write about this idea which I believed will be useful to all BH owners.

While doing my site inspection at this BH located in a small village called Kampung Belara I was put to task to lure back those young birds to return home.

The Belara BH is facing a very common problem where the young one after flying out of the BH will refuse to return home.

I have discovered why and I wish I have something to proof my suspicion why.

Usually after about 3 years into operation almost all BHs will face this phenomena I called "Dry BH syndrome".

The main cause have something to do with the drying of the BH in total.

The water that were used to mix into the cement are totally dried up.

If you should hose with tap water on the floor you will find that within less than 10-20 minutes the water simply disappeared.

They will either be suck into the cement floor or evaporated into gas.

When this condition is not taken care of your nests will all start to cracks and become brittle.

This type of nests will be a trap to these young birds.

They know that if they should miss their step their legs will be caught in between those cracks and once trapped they will be dead.

I believed when they take this first flight out there is a very little chance that they will return home.

They know that if they start their family inside the same house where they were lucky to be alive is not suitable to their kids.

So my question is how can we stop this from happening?

How do we correct our BH to make sure that every batch that were raised inside our BH will immediately return home to adopt the same house where they were hatched?

There have to be something to make those nests not dangerous to those young birds.

Let us go to the basic?

Why those nests cracks and brittle?

Lack of water inside the walls, floors and perhaps inside the house.

What I will do is to install a proper water spraying system that will ensure that my BH is always wet.

The floor especially must be wet all the time.

If given a choice I will make sure all my BH floors are wet and you need to wear a pair of "Chow Choo Kang" rubber boots to enter my BH.

However since this Belara BH is not water proof (I suspect) I dare not wet until those water start to flow all over the place.

The two floors upstairs will be just wet but not flowing wet.

The ground floor might be like what I wanted a BH floor should be.

Yes I am going to set my mist pump system to operate much longer hours a day.

My preferred method to wet my BH is by using those mist pumps.

Each floor, at Belara, I install one pump unit with 15 nozzles.

Three floors I have 3 separate pumps with a total of 45 nozzles.

The top most floor with the most number of nests will be very crucial to have a wet floor.

I want all baby birds to come back home.

Come Back To Daddy !!!!

Belara BH : Top Floor Nearly Completed !!!!

(Two rows of cross woods with fake nest sprayed with Super Pheromone)

The revamp operation at Belara BH started about one week ago and going a bit slow.

Main reason being shortage of qualified workers.

With only one person with lots of experience the operation went pretty slow.

I was a bit unhappy however after looking at the amount of works completed and how well they were done I feel pretty happy.

The top most floor now is almost 60% completed.  The installation of cross woods took a lot of time.

The second thing done were the erection of two partition walls to block those bright light.

I managed to installed a sizable number of fake nests on those cross woods.

Two mist pumps were already installed and functioning with 15 brass nozzles per floor.

I will be picking up another experience worker who will be able to do up the sound systems.

First will be the installation of a hexagonal tweeter above the monkey house.

This will be a big task and I am very sure he will be able to get it installed.

The main entrance hole will be widen to 3' wide by 4' high.  Once done the window perimeter will be installed with wood linings.

An additional window about 1.5' wide by 1' high will be opened facing the morning light.

I am thinking of installing a perspex plastic sheet just to allow the morning light in while it will stop the entry of any predators especially vampire bats and owls.

Once that is done a hole about 6' wide by about 10' long will be opened on the top most floor to allow those tenants staying on the lower floors a new flying in path.

The mouth of this LAL will be again lined with wood planks and about 12 external sound tweeters will be installed.

One of the three mist pump went wrong and need replacement.

Ordered a new piece and I hope it will arrived soon.

The two lower floors needs only at least one wall and at the same time four rows of cross woods.

A total of 400 new internal sound tweeters will be installed once the cross woods were done with.

I am hoping that within 8 more days the job will be completed and those birds will have some peace.

Sorry need to do some renovation.

I am sure once completed they will love their newly decorated home.

I have promised to double the nest population within the next few months and I think it will materialize.

The Plastic Chain: How To Reduce Those 90* Corner Nests !!!

A few days ago wrote about this new idea on how to prevent those birds from using 90* corners at :

http://swiftletfarming.blogspot.com/2015/06/plastic-chain-cheapest-method-to-reduce.html

Immediately after writing about this new idea I received a message saying that this idea was not new.

It started some years ago (2009) by someone.

Another message came from someone who provided some pictures taken from a research paper.

How interesting.

Now everybody claimed that this plastic hanging ideas is theirs.

Obviously it is not mine but I think it is a beautiful idea and simple to use.

I have started to install some at Belara BH and I hope I can deploy more next week.

Main idea is to discourage those old couples from using the same spots once their babies have flew out.

You allow new couples to use those 90* corners but not for long.  Once they have laid their first egg you know they will come back cycle after cycle to breed.

Once they have occupied the corner (please take away those corner covers), allow them to breed there for at least one time.

Once that is over and their babies took off you then hang this plastic chain.

You may want to use those steel band tied to a screw.

Let is hang and dangle so that when the same couple return they will be pissed off or disturb with the chain hanging on the same spot.

They will usually move to the side of the chain.

When this happened the next nest they erect will be 180* shape.

If you apply this technique you will be able to reduce you corner nests to the minimum in no time.

Best of luck to you all and thank you to the person who invented this idea.

Marvelous  !!!!!