Announcement On My Next Swiftlet Farming Seminar !!!

If you are new or have not be very successful with your swiftlet BH, try to enroll in this coming seminar on "Secret Of Swiftlet Farming".

Date: May 13th 2017

Day: Saturday

Location: Furama Hotel Bukit Bintang Kuala Lumpur.

Duration: One full day

Fee:  RM 1350.

My objective is to make you understand fully about what is wrong with most failed BHs.

You will be rest assured that whatever you learn from this Seminar you will become a new person.

You will have all the confident to be a successful swiftlet farmer.

Enroll now by sending to me your email address.

Email to harryswiftlet@yahoo.com

Or send me your email address to this number +6017 7551318

The itinerary will be as follows:

8:30 -9:00: Registration

9:00 - 9:45: Introduction: "Why Swiftlet Farming?".

9:45 - 10:30: How to Locate A Suitable BH Location.

10:30 - 10:45: Tea Break.

10:45 - 11:30: Basic Information On How to Design A Good BH.

11:30-12:30: The Most Effective Sound System to Lure Those swiftlet.

12:30-1:30: Lunch

1:30 - 2:15: Why You Need Your BH to Be Wet.

2:15 - 3:00: The Use of Various BH Aromas.

3:00-3:30: Predators that will damage your dream !!!

3:30 -4:00: Tea Break.

4:00 -4:30: Various Swiftlet Characteristics Which You Must Know.

4:30-5:00: Questions and Answers

If You Currently Owned A BH How To Benefit From It !!!

While in Sandakan, Sabah met a BH owner who order about 1000 pieces of plastic fake nests.

He wanted to have a cup of coffee and I consented.

He confided to me that the reason why he ordered plastic fake nests and internal tweeters was because of his new BH.

I knew about him having a BH before so this new BH is his second.

Well well well.

He is moving and adding another BH into his collection.

This was when I told him that he is doing well and I hope he knows how to maximize his 1st BH.

"Have you ever thought of accelerating your nests population of your 2nd BH by using your 1st BH?"

I asked him.

He was a bit puzzled by my question and look deep into my eyes as if his mind was totally blank with no answer.

I am sure there is a list of things that you can transfer from your BH number 1 into your new BH and these things can help to increase the rate of populating it.

"Like what?"

Think carefully and I am sure you know them. I told him.

Let me try to list a few:

1)  Bird shit.  You can transfer them in big quantity,  This will mask the cement smell and make the smell of your BH better.

2) Used Fake Nests:  If I were you I will use half of those newly acquired fake nests inside your old BH and let them be occupied.  Once they leave their markings you harvest them and transfer them into your new BH.

3) Raw Nest:  You can harvest some raw nests and soak them into fresh water for about 2 days.  On the first day sieve the nest and blend them.  Once properly blended soak them back into the water.  On the 2nd day you can sieve and use those fermented water.  Apply on all your planks using good morning towel.

4) Swiftlet eggs:  Might want to collect a few pieces and throw them on the walls of the second BH.

5) Dead carcass.  Maybe the smell of those dead birds on the floor will make the smell of your BH well liked by your new tenants.  Collect those dead birds and move them into your 2nd BH. Make sure you sprinkle some ants poison around the carcasses.

6) Baby birds:  You might want to know about this term "Translocation".  Translocation is when you move those young birds over from one point to your empty BHs.  Try those that are about to fly ie 43 days old.  Try to check on their wings.  If their wings started to cross each other the young birds are ready to be Translocated.  You need to erect a proper release room for this purposes.


Well you might want to add many other things.

My main point is that you do have a number of things that are usefull inside your 1st BH that you can transfer to the 2nd BH of yours.

Contact 017 7551318 for more ideas.

Three Days At Sandakan BH !!!

After three days working and guiding those locals to finish decorating a BH in Sandakan, Sabah, I managed to see some interesting results.

With the monkey house completed and sound system installed carried out the bird  call operation just to see how effective it will be.

Every evening from 6:00 pm on wards the number of swiftlet responded were wonderful.

The owner enjoyed the view and I am sure he is very keen the start his BH as soon as he can.

Just enjoy all these pictures and clips.

Will write more once I am a bit free.

Pedas BH: After Just 5 Months ............

A very unusual thingwhen the number of birds entering in the evening jumped by 121% as compared to the month earlier.

This was precisely what really happened in this Pedas BH.

The BH was handed over to me on a JV basis due to its poor performance for almost 6 years into operation.

I was asked to do what ever I wanted to and nurse it until such time the house is normal.

The owner in a way forced me to take over and help it.

I  took the offer due to several reasons and most important was its closed proximity to where I am staying.

What I told the owner was to arrest the owls entering the BH.

After which I revamped only the top most floor.

The rest of the floor can be modified once the top floor nests population is satisfactory.

As such my lay out to finance the revamp operation was about 1/3 as compared to working on all the three floors.

Once revamped I added lots of external and internal sound tweeters.

I introduced the hexagonal tweeter.

More external sound tweeters were added to pull those birds the moment they entered the LMB hole towards the back of the floor.

Created necessary VIP rooms.

Spray Mutiara aroma nearly every month.

Change the external and internal sounds twice.

Got hole of a neighbor to inform me if the external sound is dead.

After 4 months the number of birds climbed from 8 to 46.

Yesterday, the number of birds leaped to 102 after 5 months into operation.

I believed that it will continue to increase if there is no disruptions either to the sound system or attack from predators (owls especially).

Very pleased to write to the owner about her BH performing.

How I wish next month the number of birds jump to 204 birds.

Another 100 % up.

Why not?

I have listed a number of things to be done.

One very crucial is the installation of a water storage tank to humidify the BH.

The water droplets will help to wet the BH floor, increase the room humidity and of course will reduce the room temperature slightly.

Swiftlet love Bh that is cool and wet.

Kepala Batas BH: How To Keep Those Crows Away !!!

If you observe this video clip carefully you can see a black bird on the top of Hexagonal tweeter,

This black bird was a crow.

The moment they observed lots of swiftlet playing around the rooftop areas they will stand at those locations where they can plug the birds.

I was having a kind of nightmare on how to prevent them to hang around the BH.

The only method that came to my mind was to apply those rat glues above the hexagonal and the rest of the areas where they might perched to snap my swiftlet.

So who is going to climb up onto the roof?

The only solution was to bring my worker who is not scared of height.

He came and I provided a few tins of rat glue.

He went up and applied to my desire.

Look at this clip:

Now I can see that the chances of having crows on the top of the monkey house is slim.

Trying Out The Use Of black Cloth As Wall Materials !!!

Side wall to block those light

Look at the materials used as a wall in Kepala Batas BH.

I have experimented on the use of black cloth as the walls.

The cloth will reduce any light and at the same time soft and will not injure the BH tenants in the event they hit the wall.

VIP room wall.

from the back

Frameworks

Kepala Batas BH: Testing The BTB

I have been informed and observed this powerful method on how to lure your neighbor's birds into your BH.

Please study this article:

http://swiftletfarming.blogspot.my/2016/04/btb-something-that-is-worth-to-explore.html

Last week decided to test the phenomena in Kepala Batas BH.

The entrance hole was reduced to only one and at the same time the main entrance hole was reduce to only about 1.5' by 1.5'.

While the LMB was reduced in size the floors were modified by additional walls, tweeters and fake nests.

This is more like doing an upgrade to welcome the new year for those swiftlet.

Will report of its progress after a few months into operation.

This was the initial flying in which takes about 4-5 minutes of heavy activities.




This was what happen when the main entrance hole was reduced.

The smaller LMB hole will force those swiftlet to get into a kind of que.

This longer then usual que will generate a kind of sound which can attract other birds that are passing by or from your neighbors.

The que will get longer and longer once the number of birds inside your BH increased.

The longer the que the more will it attract those wild birds.

Need to see its progress after a few months.

Used to be this large size:

The original LMB size

The same hole was reduced to force those birds to que in the evening when they return home to roost.

Reduced in size.

Your BH Is Hosting Too Many Bats !!!

They maybe cute but if they occupy your BH you might need to clear all of them.

I was on a chat with a newbie whose father passed away and he was given the task to manage his BH.

One of his biggest nightmare was the present of many bats inside the BH.

Well the first thing he asked was how to remove these bats.

Masai BH: Truely Amazing To See Them Returning Home To Roost !!!

They started to return home almost at 7:30 pm.

During the 5 days they were no where to be seen during day time except on a Thursday when the sky was with black clouds.

Initially I was not very convinced that there were about 600 plus birds inside this BH.

The only signs were those nests and nest markings on the nesting planks plus the fresh bird shits.

The owner cleaned the old shit and carried out some harvesting works just before I came to carry out the revamp operation.

On the second everning I waited for them to return.

I was hoping to see them just after the evening prayers call (7:15 pm)but nothing happen for about 15 minutes.

They started to show up and became heavy until 7:40 pm.

Once the clock hit 7:45 the number of birds started to trickle.

The number of birds was around 500-700.

I am hoping that the reduction of the LMB will attract more birds to join the crowd during every evening when the crowd ques to enter the hole.

This action I called it as bird's pulling birds.

Need to monitor this BH progress on a regular basis.

Ulu Tiram BH: Unwanted Visitors "Hornbills"

While taking pictures during a test run, a Hornbill couple stopped on the monkey house roof.

This is not welcome and I can assure you that when the number of birds staying inside is large enough the same couple will visit this BH on a frequent basis.

Main reason being to catch those swiftlet when they come closed to those tweeters.

The hornbill will feed on them or perhaps take home to feed their young one.

I am not very sure what to tell the BH owner to do but ........

The fate of the two black birds will be in the hand of the the BH owner.

I can only give in the pros and cons.

Test Run Of Ulu Tiram BH !!!

This was the test run conducted after the revamp operation was completed.

Not that bad especially when they came to attack those bazooka , hexagonal tweeter and the power tweeters.

You can also watch them flying in straight into the new entrance hole.

The old was half shut to allow the current tenants (2 nests) to enter using the old hole.

Looks okay but below my expectation.

The BH now operated with two external sounds and one internal sound.

The bozzoka and power tweeters are with one external sound while the hexagonal and the rest of AG 35 tweeters at the main entrance hole and inside the BH are running the second external sound.

Need to install three new amplifiers.

Two new amplifiers were found not functioning during the start up.

Cross Woods Preparation For Masai BH !!!

Yesterday collected freshly prepared cross woods for Masai BH.

The supplier agreed to cut the nesting planks into 3-4 feet long so that they can be easily fit my Camry car boot.

After collecting decided to clean the wood surfaces and apply SP pheromone liquid.

This applying of aroma before fixing is something which I think should be done in your BH.

The wood will be more attractive to those wild birds.

Once clean I applied a layer of the liquid and wrap them with plastic sheet.

In this way the wood surface will be free from any dirt or sweat during handling.

The prepared wood will be taken to Masai and installed as cross woods.

Beside the SP aroma I plan to apply blended raw nest mix with white duck eggs.

Will monitor the outcome and should it be well accepted the same procedure will be carried out in all future cross woods installation.

Do enjoy these pictures and clips taken.

Ulu Tiram BH: Finally Completed And Back Into Operation !!!

The BH before revamp works

I took about 8.5 days to complete the revamp operation of this BH located about 15 minutes drive from Ulu Tiram town center.

The owner saw what I did and right now he is more motivated to look after his BH.

All this while he left the fate of his BH in the hands of those so called consultants.

Among the three consultants he engaged before me the third was the biggest culprit.

He changed the BH entrance hole and causes nearly all the 50 nests to become empty.

The BH was not properly managed, the planks were under severe attack by termites, the main entrance hole was no longer facing the flight home direction and many more.

But I need to say that the interest showed by the owner was not there.

He should realized that the money came from his hard earn effort and he should be more responsible to ensure that his BH is proper.

There were a number of things that were carried out during the 8,5 days and these are some of them:

1) The main entrance hole was relocated to the monkey house wall that is facing the swiftlet flying home direction.  Previous entrance hole was facing the North and not directly towards the swiftlet flying home path.

2) The new entrance hole now is elongated from top to bottom and not size way.  The dimension used was 2.5' wide by 3' high.

3) The old entrance hole was semi covered.  The half closed action is to allow the current tenants (2 nests) to return home from the window which they are familiar with.

4) The BH hexagonal tweeter was replaced with a new unit made of AG 35 tweeters.  The new set was precisely located and about 2.5' high above the monkey house roof surfaces.

5) A long range Bazooka SL 1000 was install on the roof facing a water pond where those birds hunt for food in the evening.

6) A set of 6 power tweeters were lined on the monkey house roof.  These tweeters allows the BH to operate with two set of external sounds.

7) The monkey house room was reduced by about 1/4.  A wall was erected to reduce its size.

8) All nesting planks were checked for termite attacks and those that were seriously attacked were replaced with new nesting planks.

9) The BH nesting planks were added with two rows of cross woods.  The two lines uses about 250 feet of additional planks.  The cross woods reduce the box sizes, increase the nesting areas and more important is the creation of 90* corners.

10) All internal sound tweeters were replaced with new set and this time the number was up to about 180 pieces.  Their locations are now precised and attractive to lure those new tenants.

11) A number of walls were erected and old one were removed and reinstalled with new doors.

12) One of the brick wall was hacked to create a passage door about 3'X7' wide.

13) The BH now is equipped with a number of external sound tweeters inside the nesting rooms.  I called them chocolate tweeters.

14) The BH now have one VVIP room, two VIP rooms and one roving room.  The place which I think will be heavily populated will be the VVIP room.

15) A new set of tweeters were installed at the main entrance hole.  Now it hold 8 new tweeters.

16) The BH now has two owl prevention gadgets. One those spikes at the entrance hole area and an owl trap installed on the monkey house wall (inside).

17) This BH now will run using two external sounds and one internal sound.  The two external sounds will be carefully chosen and the internal sound inside the VVIP room will be louder as compared to those in the VIP rooms.

18)  I personally installed about 300 fake nests at those strategic locations.  These will be those new tenants preferred locations.

This BH if it runs without any disturbances should be with a high number of bird shit spots on it floors.

Let us wait for about 3-6 months to know the exact situation.

Best of luck to the owner.