More Interesting Results in Rompin, Pahang !!!

Everyday I will be receiving good news about "Black Cloud".

Today came from Mr.L who bought the sound when I was in Butterworth, Penang.

He bought a few weeks ago before his holiday trip back to his hometown in Rompin, Pahang.

Since I managed to sit with him for almost 1 hour, I managed to provide him a few interesting tips that I told him to try.

Just read his email received a moment ago:

Harry,

Good day.

Your "Black Cloud" sound is working very good at my Rompin BHs :)

I followed your advice of only turning on during certain time slots, especially 5:30-7:45pm.

New birds really stop by or make U-turn when they passing through my BHs.

Thank you Guru.

So cool and I am very very happy to add one more town to my Black Cloud list.

So wonderful to know something that you have works well and at the same time share with others who are badly in need to improve their bird nests population.

I have not spoken to Mr.L personally to know the actual result but I know he will be waiting for me in BM.

To those who have yet to purchase this special sound, you need to think quick.

I will soon close the sale on the sound soon.....

Most Common Problems In New Birdhouses !!!

My wife is a Dental Surgeon and the above are her problems to solved !!!

What do you think the most common problems in almost all birdhouses that are not doing well?

My personal observations are the followings:

a) Temperature.

Nearly all that faces nests population problem are due to high temperature. The owners are not aware of it and they never have any indicator to monitor their BH temperature.

I believed the main reason is not the BH but the "consultant" whom they employed who is either an old fashion guy or who never have any clue on the dos and don't of a good BH. They simply follow what the have been practising all these while. No scientific method to ensure that the room temperatures are within range. Just depend on some luck.

They need to monitor the temperature as accurate as possible and make sure they are within the recommended range (26*C to 29*C). Use the most up to date calibrated sensors to do this, if you can.

The hottest time of the day, BH standard in Peninsular Malaysia, is after 3.00pm up to 10.00pm. Most critical is at 7.00pm till 9.00pm when those birds starts to come home to roost.

2) Humidity.

Why do you think humidity can be a major factor in attracting those young birds to stay and be your permanent tenant?

It has something to do with the quality of nest which they will bring up their babies up. If your BH humidity is dry (60% RH till 80%RH) the nests constructed will be very dry and brittle. If your BH humidity is within the recommended range (85% RH to 95% RH) the quality of nest, especially it's toughness will be superior.

Consider this, every nest can only accommodate one bird to lay inside it at any one time. Just imagine when those two young birds are growing up. The moment they outgrew the nest size one of them have no choice but to move out of their nest and cling to their nest. Just imagine if the nest is weak, dry and brittle? The moment the young bird, with not fully formed wings, grip the side of their nest and it break, she will fall to ground. There is no way she will survived.

So if you are the going to be parent entering a BH with such a sick environment, will you build a home for your family? Just sit down and think deeply on the situation and make a decision.

However what happen if the humidity is too high (above 95%RH)? It is better to start a mushrooms plantation. Those wooden planks will be wet and soon you will start having lots of white powder (fungus) on them.

So how can you get the right humidity ? Call Harry 017 755 1318

3) The External Sound.

More often then not they sound played are some oldies that attract very little attention of any birds within a thousand meters.

The sound have no significant contribution the BH at all. It is like not having any sound at all.

All in all the owner is not aware on how important those sound can be. Their "Consultant" have stayed away from any new sound and maintain the fact that what they have put in place will last forever.

The owner is not aware that when you play the same sound day in and day out the effectiveness of these sound are dead.

The owner need to constantly find the latest sound that will bring back those birds into the house. Sound like "Black cloud, D'Honey, MamaKathy and RaubCloud" are just a few that need to be added into the current sound collection.

Have you heard about "Harry's Masterpiece"? You should never leave those stones unturned. His technique is unique and never before being introduced by any others before.

Call him (017 755 1318) for a trial date.

4) The Sound Equipment.

More often then not their "Consultant" will install the cheapest ever found items in the market. Be it the tweeters, the amplifiers or the sound cables.

How do you play a sophisticated sound, like black cloud, if there are no buttons to tweak on those outdated amplifiers?

What about those tweeters? The most important are those external tweeters. Look at the quality and how long do they last? Just ask the owner the brand and the value?

"Hmm I am not sure about the brand but I know each unit was not more then 80sen."

How are you going to be a super star BH, fighting with those 5-6 stars BH, using these kind of low quality items?

"Harry I just talked to the BH owner beside my BH the other day and his BH is doing very well. He told me that he uses only the cheap tweeters?"

Do you think he will tell you the truth? He might not want to leak his secrets to you and let you believed that low quality tweeters is okay. In this way you will be always be below his superior standard.

5) The Owner Have No Idea On How To Be a Good Swiflet Farmers.

If you want to be a successful chicken farmer, what will you do?

If you want to be a successful burung puyuh farmer what will you do?

If you want to be a successful chili farmer what will you do?

If you wanted to be a successful goat farmer, what will you do?

The answer is always the same. Learn as much as you can about the chosen line and do not leave everything to those "Consultant". The more you depend on those "Consultant" the higher the risk of becoming a failed farmer.

In swiftlet farming, I always recommend the swiftlet farmer to have a specific goal.

A good example is " Within two years (24 months) I want my BH to be occupied with 300 nests."

Then you list down all the things that you will do to achieve the chosen objective.

Provide enough allocation to attend seminars, talks, invite a knowledgeable person to be your advisor, read as many books on swiftlet farming as possible and so on.

You also need to list down all the necessary actions to ensure that the target is met.

The list of things that you need to attend to every month, every two months, every three months, every 6 months, every year and so forth.

All these lists will eventually help you to move towards your goal. You cannot let the BH to run by itself without any intervention. Everything need to be scrutinised to a specific range of good swiftlet farming practises.

If the above is not enough please call Harry (017 755 1318).

Why There Were Many Feathers On The Birdhouse Floor?

On many occasions, when I visited new BHs, being occupied by those young birds I do come across a few with those long feathers on the floor.

Come to think of it sometime there can be as many as four to five long feathers (wing feathers) while many are those short feathers.

I wonder if anyone of you have ever asked what really happened and why?

I was at my birdhouse one everning and glued my eyes on those swiftlets returning home via the CCTV. Once a while I can see certain activities (wing clapping, chasing and so forth) at a few of those new nests.

There were a few occassions I observed that one of those birds was hanging to the wing of the other bird resting in the nest. The hanging, I strongly believed, is the cause of those long feathers being pulled out of the wing.

The agression continued for many minutes and many nights.

I concluded that this must be a young couple who have just built their nest and the male must be harrassing the female for copulation (making love).

Why should the male pull those feathers out?

I strongly believed that the male just wanted to remove a few of those feathers so that the female birds will be a bit defective in order for him to chase and catch her more easier. With a few shortage of long wings feathers she will be much slower during flight. He will have the advantage on speed and get what he wanted. Yes easier sex in the air.

If you do those birdcall tests, you might come across some birds that have a kind of missing feathers (like human with missing teeth). Those probably are female birds.

I do not wish to claim an expert on this but the above might be some explainations why there are so many feathers on the BH floors.

If you have a much better explaination please share with the rest !!!!

More New Pictures On BM BH !!!

Welding onto the Steel Bars

Opps cannot remove the same picture !!!

Steel Formworks ready for cement pouring!!!

Keep the cement coming !!!

Walls Ups !!!

Higher everyday !!!

Wooden Frame for 1st floor Beam

Wooden panel

Wooden Panel act as floor support too

About to be ready for nesting areas.

Reinforced steel mash for a 3 inch thick flooring.



Those cement are poured and dried.

2nd Floor Beam

Another Wall Up

Going For The Entrance Tunnel

Plastering of tunnel areas

Last Wall to be Cement Plastered

Master In Finishing Plastering

Roofing Zinc with styrofoam layer.

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Given A Choice I Will Invest On More Then One Farm !!!

Today I received this special email about investing on a 36,000 square feet BH on a 3 1/2 acreas land:

Harry,

I'm considering of buying a consultant owner partnership in swiftletfarming which the consultant take 20% and us 80% for 30yrs of the income harvested monthly. The consultant is building on the land 9 swiftlet houses 3 1/2 storeys which is as big as 4000sqft each. Meaning alltogether is 36,000 sq ft.

Will it take longer time too? All of the birdhouse is linked together.

Can you give some opinion about it? I really appreciate it. As I'm curious and at same time worried if the investment return will take a long time.

I am pretty excited over this kind of letter and I can read something in between the lines.

The "Consultant" seem to be up to something and I am sure if you use a logical thinking it will be something stupid to go for this deal.

My frank advise is to split the investment into small packages and built the nine units or more in different locations. Get someone to locate the hot spot locations and built them one by one.

Diversify your investment and go for a smaller trial units. Once you diversify you have a much better chances of success. To reduce the risk you go for trial units, small and well designed complete with the best sound system and super microhabitats.

In swiftlet farming the best method is to achieve one successful unit. Once that is achieved you can dispose those that are not doing that well. You keep the very good one and sell those that can recoup all the rest of your investments.

Just imagine building a 36,000 square foot of BH in one location.

Just consider this statistics:

For a 36,000 square feet you need 9 nests per square foot to fill up the BH.

Total number of nests: 36,000 X 9 =324,000 nests.

Total number of birds: 324,000 X 2 = 648,000 birds.

Amount of food required: 648,000 X 5 grams a day =3,240,000 grams of insects.

Don't you think it is better to diversify and have more BHs at different locations?

The "consultant" is up to something that is benefecial to him but not to the investors.

Just be careful when you are being approached by this weirdos.

Merry Chrismas To All Christians Blog Readers !!!

I do not want to forget wishing all my Christian blog reader "Merry Chrismas and Happy new Year."

May success in swiftlet farming brings lots of happiness and cheerfulness to your beloved family.

I am not still in BM waiting to start the sound system's installation.

This morning HjA of Ayer Tawar, Setiawan, Perak drop by for a visit and showed him the new BH.

He started his stories on how he got into BH about 5 years ago.

He wanted to go into plantation (rubber and palm oil) how ever his was asked to consider swiftlet farming. The inputs he received was that swiftlet farming was cheaper to enter and the returns is superior then those plantation.

He never looked back except that he regretted for not learning more before getting involved. He was very lucky that the "Sifu" who helped him was an experience guy and he did nearly everything. Got back the keys when his BH was pretty occupied by those birds.

The nest population keep climbing until it reached a climax of 200 nests. Suddenly it stop.

"Harry I need some advise. I have this three stories BH in Ayer Tawar and now, after having about 200 nests, it stops multiplying. Can U be kind enough to visit and advise me what to do?"

During one of my trip back to KL from SP I detoured to Ayer Tawar and visited the BH. After a short review came out with all the necessary things to do and emailed to HjA. I also installed my Black Cloud sound.

As for the fee, I told him to donate to the nearest mosque.

He indicated that after following my advise, the room temperature drops to a reasonable level and the birds are coming back. He wanted to install more tweeters during this coming holidays.

Today he thank me again and would like to built a few more units.

I explained to him where he should consider buying those agri lands. Choose those Malay reserve lands, since he is a Malay, and I am sure there are lots of birds there.

I hope he will come back for more advises.

Do Not Apply Any Aroma Directly On The Nesting Planks !!!

"Harry I need your advise, what kind of aroma I should apply to the nesting planks?"

This person who called me for a little advise have two BHs just built outside KL and Kota Bahru, Kelantan.

Mr.T I am not against the application of Aroma directly onto the nesting planks but just listen to this advise:

The chances of breeding those fungus is very strong if you apply any water based materials directly onto those meranti nesting planks. Once they bread those fungus, you BH is gone. You will find that those birds will go away and new one will shy away from the house.

So, think carefully and use other methods.

The best is to apply them onto something that is not permanent example fake nests made of papers, woods, styrofoams or plastics.

You get hold of those fake nest and apply those aroma carefully. Once that is done dry them up. Once dried you fix them onto the nesting planks using either thumb tack or nails or screws.

By adopting this method you will be pretty safe from those nesting planks fungus.

Remember, do not apply those water base aroma directly onto those planks.

I hope he remember these recommendations loud and clear.

To those of you who have the same intention, just remember the advise.

What if I dry the planks after application of the aroma using hot air blower?

Hmm......you might want to but how sure are you going to dry those water properly? Just think of those corners where the aroma seep thru?

Black Cloud Doing Well In Medan, Indonesia !!!

I am happy for Mr.P of Medan Indonesia.

All this while I thought the sound was only good in Malaysia.

He ordered the item last week and delivered via email then with the hard copy with airmail.

He sound very happy and confirmed that it works in Medan. Read this email:

Thank you for the sound Harry.

It works well in my BH. I still haven't check inside got birdshit already or not.

What i want to ask is what aroma should i use ?

I have seen in your awesome blog spot but i didnt get any idea which work the best.

Thank

I am not saying that the Black Cloud is the best but ................

What I am happy about is that it works at many places and is one of the best sound so far.

I have recently doing a few research on other sounds. Beside Black Cloud I standby a few others that will be needed once its effectiveness goes down.

To those that are keen to try a few more give me a call. The three hottest beaties are the D'Honey, MedamKathy, D'Raub. Tested nearly three days and they are fantastic too.

I have yet to decide the price but it will something like the Black Cloud, except cheaper by rm50.

If U wish to have a copy please let me know.

I can also sent a 15 seconds clips for your analysis.

Never Try To Burn Charcoal In Your BH !!!

Have some one tells you that he got this special technique to clear those wood fungus.

His idea is to burn those black charcoal for three consecutive days.

I can safely says that all your tenants will move out and no matter how long they have been your staying the chances for them to come back is negligible.

I received this email message from one of my blog reader recently and I am amused with the kind of advise that you might have heard:

hi harry,

i'm fm sarawak n need ur help regarding my swiftlet house.

Last time i heard my frens advice using charcoal n burn it inside the swiftlet house for 3 days . This is becos my wood had produced mushroom (fungus).

Then i used the ammonia again just like before. but until now no more swiftlet want to come over again.

Before the charcoal burning there were already 3 swiftlets staying inside the house.

So, how do recovered everything back to normal again?

Please help, Harry.

I told him to air the house for a couple of days. Open all the ventilation holes, put a powerful fan on each floor and blow the house for a couple of days.

Once the charcoal smell is no more there then start to treat the house as if it is newly built.

Apply those new BH aroma, get more fresh bird shits, and the rest.

I hope all my blog reader learn from this big mistake.

There are many other safer ways to clean those fungus (mushroom) but burning charcoal is not recommended.

BM BH From The Beginning Part 1 !!!

THE LOCATION November 12th 2008


FENCED UP

THE NEIGHBOUR

BACKHOE PUSHING A DEAD TREE DOWN

IT WAS DOWNED

CLEARED THE LAND

LEVELLING

CHANGED THE DIGGER

GETTING THE HOLE READY

GUIDE WOOD PLATE

STARTED DIGGING

DUGGED AND READY 8 IN TOTAL

THE RIGHT SIZE 4.5' X 4.5'

STEEL FRAME FORMWORKS

CEMENT TRUCK READY TO POUR

NESTING PLANK RED MERANTI

PORTLAND CEMENT

RIVER SAND

VENTILATION HOLES PIPES

STEEL BARS

LOW DENSITY BRICKS 2'X1'X8"

DOORS FOR THE BH

PREPARING SOIL FOR GROUND FLOOR

LAYING OF BRICKS

BRICKS WORKS READY

LEVELED AND COVERED WITH SAND LAYER

POURING THE READY MIXED CEMENT

GET THE LEVEL RIGHT

WAITING FOR HARDENING

THE 1ST FLOOR WALLS BEGINS

MANGKUANG WATER RESERVOIR NEARBY

THIS IS WHERE THOSE SWIFTLETS STOP BEFORE

GOING HOME