Pause: Man Is A Better Friend Than Woman !!!

This have nothing to do with swiftlet farming but interesting articles that will make you smile:

 There is Proof that Men Have Better Friends...( than Women ) 

Friendship among Women: 

A woman didn't come home one night. The next morning she told her husband that she had slept over at a friend's house. The man called his wife's 10 best friends. None of them knew anything about it. 

Friendship among Men: 

A man didn't come home one night. The next morning he told his wife that he had slept over at a friend's house. The woman called her husband's 10 best friends. Eight confirmed that he had slept over, and two said he was still there.


Loud Mouth Parrot:

A  woman went to a pet shop and immediately spotted  a large, beautiful parrot.
The sign on the  cage said $50.00  

"Why  so little?" she asked the pet store  owner.
The owner looked at her and  said,
"Look, I should tell you first that  this bird used to live in a house of  prostitution, and sometimes it says some pretty  vulgar stuff."  The  woman thought about this, but  decided  she  had to have the bird anyway.
She took it  home and hung the bird's cage up in her living  room and waited for it to say something.
The  bird looked around the room, then at her, and  said, "New house, new  madam."  
The  woman was a bit shocked at the implication, but  then thought "that's really not so bad"

When her two teenage daughters returned  from school, the bird saw them and  said,  "New  house, new madam, new girls."

The girls  and the woman were a bit offended but then began  to laugh about the  situation  considering  how and where the parrot had been  raised.

Moments later, the woman's  husband Keith came home from work.
The bird  looked at him and said,  
 

"Hi  Keith."  
 

  

A Dog Nap:

An older, tired-looking dog wandered into my yard.

I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home and was well taken care of.

He calmly came over to me, I gave him a few pats on his head. He then followed me into my house, slowly walked down the hall, curled up in the corner and fell asleep.
An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out.

The next day he was back, greeted me in my yard, walked inside and resumed his spot in the hall and again slept for about an hour. This continued off and on for several weeks.

Curious I pinned a note to his collar: 'I would like to find out who the owner of this wonderful sweet dog is and ask if you are aware that almost every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap.'

The next day he arrived for his nap, with a different note pinned to his collar:
'He lives in a home with non stopping chatting wife, 6 children, 2 under the age of 3 - he's trying to catch up on his sleep.

Can I come with him tomorrow to catch a nap?

The Vanilla Pudding Robbery
This is just too funny not to share. an article which appeared in The Dublin Times bank robbery on March 2.

Once inside the bank shortly after midnight, their efforts at disabling the security system got underway immediately. The robbers, who expected to find one or two large safes filled with cash & valuables, were surprised to see hundreds of smaller safes throughout the bank.

The robbers cracked the first safe's combination, and inside they found only a small bowl of vanilla pudding.

As recorded on the bank's audio tape system, one robber said, 'At least we'll have a bit to eat.'

The robbers opened up a second safe, and it also contained nothing but vanilla pudding. The process continued until all safes were opened.

They did not find one pound sterling, a diamond, or an ounce of gold. Instead, all the safes contained covered little bowls of pudding.

Disappointed, the robbers made a quiet exit, each leaving with nothing more than a queasy, uncomfortably full stomach. The newspaper headline read:

'IRELAND'S LARGEST SPERM BANK ROBBED EARLY THIS MORNING'....

Happy New Year To Everybody !!!

I would like to wish all my blog readers a very Happy New Year.

May the new year, 2011, brings to us more challenges and new ideas on how to populate our BH.

I would like to say thank you for being supportive to my writing.  Remember I am not a Saint or Prophet and I do makes some bad articles.

Hope the good articles have given all of you some knowledge and let us continue learning more new things in 2011.

Keep learning and if you have found any interesting ideas, tested and proven to be effective, let me know.

The only way to progress in this special field is to share with each other.

To end the year I have this interesting story from a friend whose BH is in Yong Peng, Johor.

He used to call and ask for new sounds but today he sound different.

"Pak Harry, after switching to your Superbabyking, my BH now have at least 100 birds.  Before this the moment the external sound stop all of them will rush out.  Today something happenned.  One of the young birds was stuck to the hexagonal tweeter.  My brother climbed up to remove the birds but unfortunately the bird managed to free itself but one leg was left behind.  If you come across a bird with one leg, remember it must be from Yong Peng."

I was glad that the SuperBabyKing works well and I am sure there will be many others who face the same weird problem.

If you think this new sound can be of help call me at 017 755 1318.  You might want to talk to the Yong Peng BH owner first.

I Still Believed That The Birds Flying Path Is Important To Your BH Design !!!

Today I started my day with assembling my two workers and collected all those tools for another revamping of BH venture.

This time was given a job in Semenyih, Negeri 9.

The owner finally decided to go ahead with the revamp works after scrutinizing my visit report done about two weeks ago.

Oh blind me, the affected BH is in the middle of the town and both left, right and the front were houses.

The moment arriving at the BH I went up to the top most floor to take a good look at the surrounding.  While doing that unplugged the water pipe to drain those water stored in one of the two pools.

I was curious on which direction was the birds flying home.

In the mean time there was this newbie who came to visit me with his big bike and wanted to enter a BH.  After a quick showing around he left the BH with a big smile.

"Thank you very much for such a short notice and yet you allow me to come over.  I have a piece of land in Raub, Pahang and wanted to build a BH.  Need you kind help."

The moment he left home my mind was up on the roof top trying to figure out the best method to start the revamp works.

I need to see for myself where those birds are flying home and how many are they?

What I did was to come back at about 6:30 pm and find the answers.

I told myself that I cannot take for granted and the only way to be sure is to get the exact direction.

I stood up on the roof top from 6:30 pm until darkness.

The birds were flying from the front towards the back but currently the entrance hole is facing the opposite direction.

The number of birds were a bit on the low side.  Since the BH owner was with me to learn what I was doing, I hinted to him that it will not be an easy task with such a low number of birds observed today.  What he must do is to be a bit patience.  He need to understand that if the number is low, the house need a longer gestation period.

Now the obvious way to go is to open a brand new entrance hole towards the front.  Well now it will be a big problem with the noise created.

I then remember my JV BH in Bentong Pahang.  It was more or less having the same noise pollution problems.  In fact my bazooka was facing directly towards the Chief Of Police bungalow.

I remember receiving a call from the BH owner asking me to come down to the BH immediately after he received a personal call from the BH association President.  I drove two hours just to shut the sound in total.

We then come out with a practical solution by erecting a kind of wall around the entrance hole and these wall manage to deflect the sound upward.

The design went well and until today no complains received but the number of birds now have reached about 3,000.

My workers have started to pull down a number of walls in the BH and by tomorrow I might want to proceed with those new entrance hole opening.

Those of you who are staying around semenyih or Kajang and would like to pay a short visit let me know.

There is nothing better to learn by visiting a BH.

Call 017 7551318.  There will be a small fee for every person.

Latest On National Guidelines For Malacca and Penang Unesco Heritage Zones !!!

 Found at:
http://www.thesundaily.com/article.cfm?id=55705

GEORGE TOWN (Dec 29, 2010): All of the unregistered swiftlet farms within the George Town Unesco Heritage zone must close and move out by Jan 1 or face enforcement actions, ranging from being fined to having the birds' nests removed.

Local government and traffic management committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow said this is in accordance to the new swiftlets farming guidlines approved by the National Council for Local Government which was chaired by the deputy prime minister.

"The National Council has also decided that all swiftlet farming activities are not allowed within the Unesco Heritage zones in Malacca and George Town," he said in a press conference at his office today.
"This is why the state government has decided that all swiftlet farming activities in the heritage core zone are disallowed," he added.

Chow said so far, there are 129 registered swiftlet farm operators on the island. Out of these, 78 are located within the heritage core zone while it is believed that there are around 32 new or unregistered swiftlet farms within the core zone.

Chow said the 32 new or unregistered swiftlets farms must shut down its operations and relocate elsewhere by Jan 1.

"We will be taking enforcement actions against the new farms and the unregistered farms from Jan 1 onwards," he said.

He added that these farms will be issued notices and compounds of up to RM250 each.

"The next step, we may even take them to court and if they still do not relocate, we will get the assistance from the veterinary department to relocate the birds' nests," he said, adding that the department will be relocating the nests' during certain seasons when the hatchlings have left the nests to minimise harm against the swiftlets.

As for the 78 registered swiftlets farms, Chow said they are given a three-year period starting from Jan 1 next year to relocate.

After the three-year deadline, enforcement action will also be taken against them.

Although they are given a three-year deadline to relocate, the operators are not allowed to play any recordings at the buildings from Jan 1 onwards.

"They must take down the speakers and remove the recordings immediately. The operators who had constructed additional structures must also remove the structures and restore the premises to its original condition within this period," Chow said.

Usefullness In Using Alluminium Plate As Nesting Platform !!!

 I was reading an article about the nesting platform in BHs.

The most common and reasonably  cheap in Malaysia will be those made of wood either Red Meranti or Jati. 

These planks must be free of any smell that are prohibitive to encourage those swiftlet from making their nests.

When wet they must not be easily grow fungus on them.

Over a prolong period of time they must not be easily rot and become soft due to high humidity inside the nesting room.

They must be also hard enough so that during harvesting they are easily chipped off causing these wood pieces to be embedded inside the nests this causing a drop in nest pricing.

One major problems with wood is that they tend to affect the nests color when they start to rot.

What if these platform be substituted with say aluminum plate?

To avoid the wood causing problems on your nests, about 1 mm thick and 5 inches wide.

First we need to cut some grooves on it and later sandwiched on the wood nesting planks.

The use of aluminium plates seems to be quite common in many parts of Indonesia.

Their main advantages are:

1) It can have a much longer life span as compared to normal wood.
2) It will not grow fungus even when it is partially or totally wet.
3) It has no smell to distract those young birds.
3)The surface is cooler as compared to wood and will condense those mist on it which is well like by swiftlet.
4) It will not turn the nests into other color except white.
5) You can make it wider in size this will increase the number of nests per foot run.
6) It can be used to cover those wood surface that are badly attack by fungus.
7) It is light weight and easy to install or remove.
8) The cost per foot run is cheaper then stainless steel.
9) You can actually move the plate once they have been used to a new BH.  This will help to quickly populate your new BH.
10)You can adjust the groove size or distance apart if you wanted to.
11) You can put different color on the plate to attract those swiftlet.  Fatick Marzuki recommend to paint these aluminium plate to either black or blue.  I recommend black, blue, green, pink and colorless.
12) You can also use these plates to test your aroma.  Take three to four plates and spray them with your newly found aroma.  Dry them up and install the plates onto your nesting planks.
13) Once the birds prefer to colonies onto these plates you will have more nest with 180* shape.  They might abandon the idea of building their nest at those 90* and 130* corners.


The only disadvantage, I am not very sure, is the effect of aluminium oxide that tends to build up on the surface of the plates when exposed to air. Normally any metal that are exposed to air will form a kind of oxide layer or skin to prevent any corrosion to the main metal.

So far there is not report of aluminium oxide poisoning.

I recently met a sale person handling aluminium materials.

I wanted to carry out some research on their effectiveness.  I have ordered about 60 pieces of plates 1mmX 125 mm X 2 feet with 5 grooves.

Those who would like to try this new idea can make your order at 017 755 1318.

One piece of 2 feet length is only RM18 per piece.

A Sad Incident In Segamat Johore !!!

A caretaker of a BH in Segamat, Johore was slashed to death on December 26th, 2010.

This was the newspaper cutting reporting about the incident.

Double click on the photo and read for your self.

What If You Use Real Nests As Your Fake Nests !!!!

I was curious about the idea of using a real nest as a fake nests?

About a few month ago I instructed my BH caretaker to install about 4 fake nests that are actually real nests taken from another BH.

The result is nothing new and it simply proved that these new and young birds do occupy old nests if there is no occupants.

These two photos show the outcome.

What the bird did was to build a new layer above the old nest.

You can easily differentiate between the old, yellowish in color and the new nest just above the old is whiter.

Beside a new wall above the old nest they also laid a new nesting seats.

This means that the upper part is totally a new nest.  The birds used the old structure just as a place to start their new house.

Do you think it is appropriate to deploy raw nests as a fake nests?

I think it is not recommended.

One fully formed raw nest is worth 40-50 ringgit a piece.  If you choose a plastic fake nest it will only about 5.00 ringgit.

What is you use those fake nests made of Styrofoam or paper which cost less then 20 sen a piece?

My frank advise is to use plastic recyclable fake nests.

The reason being they are cheap and easily removed after it served to accelerate those birds to say "I do". These fake nests can be recycled for at least 20 to 30 times.

Remember those used plastic fake nests must be first cleaned with toothbrush before being reused.


Styrofoam and paper fake nests will not last long and difficult to recycle.

We need to be practical and cost effective.

At the same time the smell of those fake nests already used are more attractive then those that were new or not used as a nest.

Try using those fake nests and I am sure you will see some beautiful results.

Permatang Pasir BH Progress Was Encouranging !!!

I was back in Sungai Patani, Kedah during the weekend and entered a revamped BH (done by me).

This BH was put back into operation on October 25th 2010 after a revamping job on the nesting planks crossings, additional tweeters, creation of VIP rooms, chandeliers installation, aroma application and change of both the internal and external sounds. The external sound tweeters were totally replaced with a double hons tweeters.

 Prior to this revamp works the nests population was only 100 and it was stagnant for almost 1.5 years. It seem that they only choose one or two corners with tweeters in placed.

The result shown after back into operation for only 2 months was encouraging.

The owner/caretaker was very concerned with the revamped works being undertaken but we showed to him the results on the signs of birds entering and staying.

He was expecting new nests within 2 months but we told him that they needs at least 3-5 months to get started with their nest.  Once those birds started to stays, shown by those new bird shits on new areas, there will be a very strong chances that they will find their mate and build those nests.

The most exciting was in the main hall area where we installed new crossing nesting planks and add about 20 tweeters on each crossing.

The floor below the two crossings, especially below the tweeters were full on those fresh bird shit (whitish).

Inside the two VIP rooms the main areas with lots of bird shits on the floor were below the chandeliers.

There were also signs of birds below those  cluster tweeters.

I was very sure that the number of birds increased was nothing less then 35 couples which is equivalent to about 35%.  Prior to this the number of birds was estimated to be about 100 couples.

We could have improved if initially we have installed those hexagonal tweeters from day one.  The hexagonal tweeter was installed just about three weeks ago after 2 months into operation.

Today change the internal sound to "SuperBabyKing" and the external using the SuperJerantut and NBU.

To improve the BH population I took my supervisor and the owner to perform some tasks:

1) Get more tweeters on the first newly installed nesting plank crossings.

2) To rearrange the tweeters on the second newly installed nesting plank crossings toward the flying path of those birds.

3) To increase the number of tweeters on the second newly installed nesting plank crossings.

4) A new set of amplifiers for both the internal and external to be upgraded.

5) To apply a special aroma every one week for at least 6 months.

6) To install at least 100 fake nests inside the hall area to encourage more young birds to short cut their nest building period.

7) To get ready for a force harvest operation within the next few months.

8) To get the owner to be prepared in implementing the "Conducive Regeneration" technique two months after the forced harvesting.

I am convinced that this BH will have at least 100% increase from 100 to 200 nests within the next 12 months.

Need to prove to the owner that to increase from 100 nests to 200 nests is much easier as compared to getting the first 100 nests from zero.

If you are having a similar situation where your BH nests population become stationary for a year or more, let me have a look and do the needful.

I will not guarantee a 100 % but can provide a kind of assurance that it will start increasing by at least 10% to 30%.

The most important is that you need to have at least 80 - 100 or more nests.

Call Harry at 017 755 1318 now for an appointment.

One Method To Induce Those Young Birds, Self Generated, To Stay Back !!!

Have we ever though of how to induce those young birds generated internally to return and colonise where they were born?

More often then not we are ignorant and assume that those young birds will automatically return and stay back home where they were being born.

This is not true all the time.

I have visited a number of BHs with a stagnant population syndrome.  There was a few with 200 to 400 nests inside however the nest population never increase for almost 2 to 3 years.

The BH owner's concerned was that with 400 nests there will be at least 400X3X2 = 2400 young birds being generated each year but how come the nest number remains 400?

What can be the possible reasons why all of the 2400 never bothered to return home and stay with their parent?

In Batu Pahat, Johor a BH I inspected the owner face the same problem and according to his record it was traced to the moment he started to remove those young birds bird shits on the floor.

"Pak Harry, the nest population stop growing about two years ago.  Before that I do get around 100 to 200 nests growth every 12 months.  Two year ago it suddenly stopped multiplying. The only drastic thing that I did, two years ago, was to start removing those bird shits on the floor."

In Ayer Tawar, Perak I was given a task to detect why a three stories stand alone BH nests population stop growing after 3 years.  The owner indicated that the nest population grew steadily up to about 300 nests.  After about three years, zip, it stop increasing.

After my short visit I realized that the house problem was more towards the floors and walls dryness.

It was something like a dried banana.  The humidifiers were no longer functioning and all the ventilation hole were left opened.

The house was also contaminated with those cockroaches and ants.  The owner have never apply any insecticide to remove these creatures from day one.

After following my recommendations for about 2 months the owner called and said thank you for curing his sick BH.

"Pak Harry those birds are back after I did what you recommended.  Thank you very much."

What other things that can discourage those young birds from flying out and never coming back?

I read a new book in Malay language about how these young birds can easily feel stressed.

Once they do not feel comfortable during their growing period (about 45 to 50 days after hatching) the author indicated that they will not come back home.

What can be the reasons why they do not feel comfortable?

The highest on the list will be frequent visit by human being.  Every time the BH owner enter the house those young birds, especially are about to fly withing a couple more days, will start to jump out and start to find the light.

Those with properly formed wings and able to fly out will say good bye and will no longer returns home.

Those with wings that are still not strong enough will be drop on the floor and it will be a strong chances that they will die on the floor or on the wall.  They will not be able to find their nest and their parent will not be able to feed them and guaranteed after 3 days they will die due to starvation.

So try to minimize your visit to your BH and if you need to try to take all the necessary steps not to disturb those young birds.

One method that can make those birds feel less stressed is to hear those young birds crying for food.

How can you create an condusive environment in your BH where there will be baby birds all the time in house?

The process is called " Conducive Regeneration".

First you need to choose the right month to conduct a force harvest.  The author propose the month of September. You need to harvest all the nest inside your BH in one go.  Remember all of them with and without their content (eggs and babies).

Within two months, October and November, your tenants will complete building their nests and started laying their two eggs in November.

Once they lay their eggs allow them to incubate them for at least one week.

On the following week you need to steal and remove those one week's old eggs on a random basis.  Example if on a row of a nesting plank you have 9 nests all with eggs, you remove the eggs inside the 1,3,5,7 and 9.  The rest you let them be hatched.

Within about 10 days these emptied nests will have a new batch of eggs in them.

So you have a lapse of about 17 days different between those new eggs and incubated.

By early January those untouched eggs will be hatched and will be able to fly within 45 days after hatching.

Those new eggs with 17 days lapsed will be with young babies that are still crying for food all the time.

During this period those about to fly young birds will hear lots of those baby sound and will feel very much at home.  Automatically they will feel less stress and there will be a very strong chances that they will come back to nest inside the same house.

Once they flew away you can quickly harvest those emptied nests.

If you continue the above mentioned method on a continuous basis you will see lots of different in getting your nest population growth.

Remember this is just a idea for you to try out.

I am sure there will be a good success rate but not 100 %.

If you should have a chance to follow this technique and it works please try to inform me so that we can share with others.

Have a good day please !!!

How True It Was On The Bird's Flying Path !!!

"Pak Harry, I need your help to check on a piece of land in Pekan Nenas. Is it suitable for a BH?"

I completed a two days journey to Johore.

My first stop was in Muar, Johor.  I met a newbie who just become a father and was looking forward to meet me to procure a set of sounds for his new BH.

After having a cup of coffee with him I found my way to Batu Pahat.  Another blog reader was waiting for me to inspect his 18 months old BH with only 12 nests.

The cause of failure have something to do with a poor selection of entrance hole type.

You cannot use a monkey house for a top entry entrance hole. I told him.

As usual the internal design was bare with little tweeters and no VIP room.

My next stop was at Pekan Nenas, about 1.5 hours drive from Batu Pahat.

The two friends from Johor Bahru wanted my opinion about a piece of land about 2 km from Pekan Nenas.

I took along my test gadget and managed to draw more then 400 birds within less then 15 minutes.  Told the land owner that there is a very strong chance that the land will be good for his BH.

My only concerned was those high power cable lines just beside it.  The Electro Magnetic fields produce by those high powered cables might distort the swiftlet navigational pattern and they might not be flying closed to them if they can.

When I was about to stop the bird call gadget sound I explained about how to predict where these birds will fly to.

Normally once you stop the test sound, the birds will normally fly home, since it was already 6:30pm.  That will be the flying path, I reaffirmed to him.

He was very observant and choose the direction where the most number of birds were going.

"Pak Harry, I choose that direction".  Pointing his finger towards the west of the location.

I asked him, are you sure?

"Yes Pak Harry. 100 % sure since more then 50% are going that way."

Okay let us walk to your piece of land and reconfirm your selection.

Yes it was very very true that those birds, after more then 20 minutes I switched off the test sound, were flying to the direction chosen by the land owner.

Good, now you have passed the first lesson in determining the flying path direction.  We shall use that direction when we design your dream BH on this piece of land.

He was so happy when I keep telling him how good he was with the selection.

We have a sumptuous sea food dinner and just today he send a thank you message as follows:

Hi Harry,

 

Thank you very much for making the trip down to Pekan Nenas to visit my agri land yesterday. It was very honor to have met up with you. It was a memorable experience and has gained some knowledge by chatting with you. I am very excited the land is suitable for swiftlet farming and cannot wait to get the BH started. However my friend and I will be looking forward to your next visit to view his land probably in two weeks time. We would love to buy you another sumptuous seafood meal and your favourite drinks. Ha..ha..ha…

 

Cheers,

I make my way to Masai to rest for the night because I do have a few new and old projects that needs my attention the next day.  Reached Masai at 10:30pm.

The following day I did a follow up inspection on one BH I revamped.


They looks find and the smell was good I told the owner. 


I changed both the external and internal sound with some latest sound.


"Thank you very much Pak Harry for dropping bye."


After finishing the visit I make my way to a small town call Ulu Tiram.


Two brothers with high hope but with a bid little money in the pocket.


They showed me a piece of 5 acres land and wanted to start a trial BH.


During the bird call test I was surprised to see at least three flock of bird rushing towards the test gadget.


This was the first time to see birds coming over in a flock and not one by one.


"Pak Harry we only have 50K and we want you to help us with a suitable BH.  Please help."


I told them the 50K is a bit too low to have a cement walled BH.  They might need to build themselves using a suitable designed unit.


The second last meeting was back in Masai.


A lady who wanted my help to guide her with her dream BH in Parit Jawa.


The last stop was in Tangkak, Johore.


"Pak Harry I am here with two new sounds that might be of help to your blog readers."


Hmm... not a bad trip.  Every trip you will meet someone new and of course I will be taken to the best dinner in town......


That is a live of a traveling famous Swiftlet Blogger !!!

Visited A Mill To Order Some Nesting Planks !!!

Yesterday visited a mill producing meranti nesting planks and those corner covers.

The mill was in Jenjarum, Banting, Selangor.

Was introduced by a good friend sometime back and this was my third visit.

My first mission was to order about 8,000 feet of nesting plank woods for a BH in Ulu Langat.  My second was to assemble about 20 metric tons of wood for a Vietnamese BH owner.

Due to the rainy season the owner told me that there will a slight problem with the logs availability.  The logs are not being able to be taken out of the forest.

The interesting thing which I learned from the owner was on the various types of meranti.  There are at least three types of meranti.  The meranti bukit is the highest quality while the other two, I can remember their names, are not that red but whitish.

Again the meranti bukit there are two types once it is cut from the log.  The export grade and the local grade.

The export grade will be those cut in the middle of the log while the local grade will the balance.

The export grade will be about 50 percent more expensive than the local grade however it has the best quality to prevent fungus growth in your BH.

I took some time to take a good look at those woods in the storage areas and at the same time visited those machines cutting those corner covers.

I am very glad to have found a mill that can assure me my nesting planks are of the highest quality plus I can be there when they load my goods.

A very valuable experiences and I am sure I can put this visit into my tour package for those visitors.

Try Not To Use The Monkey House To Store Those Water Tank !!!

The sole purpose of your monkey house in your BH is to attract those wild birds entering the house and no other purposes.

During one of my inspection visit, I was shown how a monkey house was used to store those water tank.

To store the water tank the owner put up a floor about 2/3 the size of the monkey house floor.  Only 1/3 was opened for those birds with lots of sharp corners to reach the entrance door into the nesting room. There were two partitions, floor up that simply block the flying path.

I think this should not be encouraged.

A monkey house with a floor and opened only 1/3 plus lots of walls and staircase area will defeat its actual purpose.

I would like to remind all my blog readers that it is not easy to lure these wild birds into your BH even with a proper opening, wide and total, of the monkey house floor.  If you should start blocking their flying path, I can say that you are not helping your self.

Try to locate the water tank to other part of the BH.  The best is at a corner on the top most floor of your BH nesting room.  You can erect a platform to provide the height for the water pressure.

Open the monkey house floor to the maximum and allow those precious birds to fly with ease to your nesting room.

Trust me that by blocking their flying path inside the monkey house you will face a huge problem in populating your BH.

No matter how many thousands of birds are out there, they will ignore your BH if you do not understand their needs and proper flying path into your house.

They might enter your BH just one time and once they discovered that the flying path is too tight, where they might hurt themselves, they will not enter your BH any more.

Treat this article as something that you can learn and make sure you do not make the same mistake.

I am just giving an opinion and you have every reasons to object my comment.

What Is The Ideal Size Of A Monkey House !!!

"Pak Harry, I need your advise about my BH.  After 3 days into operation and only three birds entered.  The rest simply refuse to enter the house.  Please view the pictures attached and advise."

This was a message from a newbie from Sarawak.

He just put his wooden BH into operation but the picture given shows something which makes me feel that the monkey house is just too small.

Firstly we need to understand the basic function of a monkey house and how it can be a useful tool to attract those swiftlet into your BH.

A properly designed monkey house can be a great asset in drawing those birds into the first part of your BH.


First what should be the ideal size and height?

We know that those birds need a 4 meters and 4 meters size area to fly in a smooth circular motion.  So why don't we start with this minimum dimension. This should be the minimum size.  If you have the space make it bigger say 4.5 meters by 4.5 meters!!

What about their height?

There are many advantages to have the hole as high as you can. However when it is too high the birds will tend not to fly down towards the entrance door leading into your nesting room. They are lost up on the ceiling of your monkey house and don't want to fly downward.

You need to choose the right height, not too high but not too low.  I think about 7 to 8 feet above the roof top will be more then enough.

Okay what about the entrance hole(s).  Where should I open the window, how many, what is the ideal size plus where should the window face towards?

Once you have the four walls up an its roofing you need to locate the most appropriate opening(s) to draw those birds into the house.

My first choice will be to face the main entrance hole towards the flying path ( the direction they fly home in the evening).

It will be at the right hand corner to ensure that when they enter the monkey house they can fly in an anticlockwise direction.

The size, for a new BH, should be as big as you can.  I prefer 3.5 feet wide and 4 feet in height.  A wood frame to be put at the perimeter of the hole so that it will easier to mount those external and internal sound tweeters.

You might want to reduce the hole size once the number of birds reaches say 300 nests.  You also need to get ready to install those owl protection gate once attack by those owls.

The entrance hole must not be too closed to the ceiling and the side wall of the monkey house. At high speed those birds flying in might grace the side wall or the roof if it is too closed.

The best is to ensure that they are about 1.5 feet away from the roof and from the wall.

Can there be more then one entrance hole?

I think you should open one more on the opposite wall but diagonally.  By having the second hole diagonally you allows the birds not to fly straight out from one hole to the other.  It also allows the birds entering the second hole to fly in an anticlockwise direction.

The height and distance to the roof and the wall should be similar to the primary entrance hole design.

What about how to install those tweeters?

You might have all sorts of installation but from my point of view try to consider the following way of tweeters installation (see sketch).

 

If you observe carefully there are two small tweeters at the bottom to play the internal sound.  

Why?  I guess you need to ask yourself and find the right answer.

Pandora 3 played at Bidor, Perak

 

Some actions at Bidor, Perak.

The effectiveness of those large size hexagonal tweeters with long range bazookas.

How Big Can Your Hexagonal Tweeter Be!!!

"Pak Harry you told me to use my imagination to fix those long range bazooka so I did just like what you asked me."

This was the answer given to me by a newbie who happened to purchase 4 long range Bazookas for his newly build BH.

Today I was specially invited to view the BH and I accepted the offer.

The moment I stepped out of the door I was stunt looking at the size of the so called hexagonal tweeter.

Oh my god it is one of the largest hexagonal tweeter I have seen in my entire life.

Who gives you the idea?

You Pak Harry.  You told me to use my imagination and I did precisely that.

Pak there is another unit at the front of the BH. Come and see.

Oh no and there it geos another gigantic hexagonal tweeters.  Today I broke the Malaysian Guinness book record to see not one but two gigantic hexagonal tweeters.

Well he was pretty imaginative and the response from those wild birds were not bad at all.

Went inside for a short visit and another surprise was waiting for me.

A 42 inch screen with 16 CCTV frames.

Pak Harry I think I wanted to add another two more cameras.

The BH was on a piece of land used to be a tin mining area.

Lots of vegetable farms, lakes and you can see those hills and mountains around the BH.

The dimension describe was 50 feet by 100 feet and two stories high.

If this BH is filled to the maximum, the owner will have about 400 kilograms of raw nests.

I took a long walk inside the BH and marveled at the things that were installed inside.

The owner told me that he applied nearly everything that he read from my famous blog.

I was asked to put a short report on what I think can be used as their guide to improve the BH and bring more birds inside.

I was honored to be given the responsibility and I am sure there are a few interesting things that I will point out to the owner.

Should I Be Helpful or Just Ignore Them !!!

"Pak Harry this is Audrey of Penang and I wanted to buy your best sound."

Just listening to the voice, a female, I feel very sad on what was troubling my new blog reader.

I was curious and asked he a few important questions:

Where is your BH?
In Nibong Tebal  and a stand alone.

You build yourself of bought from someone?
Bought from some one after he give up, I think.

How long ago and how many nests so far?
When we took over there was no nest but now after one year there is a nest plus a few bird shit spots on the floor.

After one year you only see one nest?
Yes but some new birdshit spots.

Hmm... there must be something wrong because if your BH is empty after two years there must be some big mistakes and I suggest that you find some one to visit your BH and make the necessary modifications.

Buying a sound might help to bring in those birds but they might not stays.

Anyway if you wish to buy my sound, I recommend the NBU and BabyKing.

They are affordable but trust my word that your BH is not in a good shape.  Call a doctor, birdhouse doctor,  to diagnose the possible type of sickness and carry out the modification.

If you cannot find any body to help please call me.

She was pleased with my frank advise and I wish he the very best.

The Semenyih Connection !!!

"Pak Harry, I need your big help.  My good friend ffrom Semenyih is having a huge problem with his new BH.."

Okay before I meet up with your troubled  friend can I know how is your BH at Kajang Utama which I recently revamped?

It doing well Pak and it seems that there was a big group of birds that came in to inspect the BH recently.  I used my CCTV recorder to check and I think my BH now is in a very good condition. Prior to your revamp works there was not a single birds coming in. Now nearly every day I can see some that comes in and a few already stayed.

So that was some conversation made with Mr B before meeting his friend from Semenyih who recently put a BH into operation but not visitor so far.

"Mr P, how did you get your self involved in Swiftlet Farming?" I was curious.

Pak Harry I started by becoming a silent partner in a JV BH purchased in Gambang, Pahang.  What myself and a few friends did was to purchase an old BH with about 300 nests.  We then did some renovation and hola now we have more then 700 nests.

After that I though I can copy exactly the same and started one in Semenyih but not a single birds comes in to stay after more then 3 months.  I just do not understand why.

"So you think by just duplicating you can be assured of those wild birds?"

Then I met this business friend who happened to use your services and he seems to be very happy with your revamp works.  He said that his BH now is like a 6 stars hotel while mine is only a Motel.

Oh yah?  Well he is lucky to have stumbled into me and my blog site.  I never knew him before this but now he seems to know me more then me.  He reads my blog everyday and learned so much from my writing. 

Now let me have a good look at your BH.  We drove to the BH and manage to inspect the building.

Entered the three stories building, a stand alone, with a hardware shop at the ground floor.

As usual the BH seems to be very empty with very little things that will attract those birds to stay, I told him.

The biggest show down will be the heat from the walls.  It seem that the side walls were directly facing the morning and evening sun. The heat insulation materials used by the contractor were not working.  The laser gun temperature sensor indicated a 37*C on the surface.  This can be a big problem during the hot season.

The entrance hole was too big and the shade on the roof was too long.

The Hexagonal tweeters was not properly placed.

The LAL was okay but no a single tweeters on the perimeter.

The tweeters were those square type and there were no external sound tweeters inside the nesting room.

The nesting planks looks solid and good but there were mold/fungus on the ceiling.

The sound, both the internal and external, yek, not the kind of sound that will pull those birds in.

There were just too many rooms and very little flying areas for those birds.

He confessed to me that the house was a DIY and his contractor just follow what he instructed them to do.

After the visit I was asked to submit a proposal to transform the BH.

Looking forward to a new a exciting project in Semenyih......

On The Top Of A New BH In CHAAH !!!

Life as a swiftlet farming blogger does not looks easy.

Lots of travelling lately.

I just came back from Bukit Mertajam and today went down to Chaah Johore.

The owner with two new BHs wanted my opinion on his new hobby.

The first was ready, build by his father, but he wanted my opinion on what seem to be wrong.

His second unit was about 10 minutes drive into a Palm Oil estate on the top of a hill.

During my last Seminar he requested my present to ensure that the BH is ready for launching.

After about 45 minutes inside and outside the BH I listed some of my observations and recommendations.

My biggest concerned was the entrance hole size and the roving area.  They were not the right size for a new BH.

The monkey house seem to be more important to store those water container then allowing the birds to fly freely inside before coming down to the lower floors.

The first BH seem to have the most number of tweeters in Chaah.  1000 internal tweeters in total .

The second BH was deep inside the palm oil estate.

I wonder how will he get the electrical supply to the unit.

The owner make many major mistakes with the LAL and the staircases.

I did my best to ask him to change the location of the monkey house.


Conducted a birdcall test just to make sure.  Not bad.  About 1000 birds responded.

Two BHs With Similar Problems Where The Swiftlet Refuse To Stays !!!

I make my way to Ipoh, Perak with a blog reader who happened to attend a product launching at Subang.

When inside the car I asked him what kind of BH problems he wanted me to inspect.

"Pak Harry, my Dad purchased a BH in Ipoh about 9 months ago with about 12 nests.  Unfortunately after 9 months the number remain the same.  I need your help to inspect the BH and let me know how to improve the number of nests."

After about 2 hours drive I was taken to the affected BH located somewhere which I do not think I know how to get there myself.

From the outside the BH looks okay but there were a number of old and new BHs at the back and at one of its side. The unit at the back seem to be blasting a sound which I am very familiar with.

Hmm .... this is no good, I told myself.

The owner gave me some ideas where the rest of the BHs around his BH and where those bird flew back home in the evening.

Again it was very obvious that the entrance hole was not facing the flight path.

The owner did installed a hexagonal tweeter but it was a bit too far away from the entrance hole and too high.

I was then taken up to view the BH from the inside. 

While walking up the stairs I told myself that there must be some big problems with the entrance hole area and the flying path from the roving into the nesting room.

Well my prediction was perfect.

The size of the roving areas meet the bare minimum, about 12'X12', but the opening from the roving into the nesting was unsuitable.  It was so sharp and if I am the young birds I will quickly fly out.

The next big concern I have was the high percentage of nesting planks being attacked by fungus.  It was more then 20%.

The number of tweeters, as usual, were too little and not installed in a proper location and wrong size.

There was a VIP room at the back but it was not designed properly.  Too wide a door and the door was not at the right position.

One obvious reasons why those birds were not coming in was due to lack of external sound tweeter along the walls to draw them into the BH.

Well I have a tough time to convince the father and I feel as is that I was a conman brought in from no where.

He tried to argue with me on a number of issues and I told him that if he is so smart then why don't he do himself?  Why get me over?

At the end of the day he apologies and requested my recommendations as quickly as possible.

One more sick BH and one more report to write.

 The Side and Back View 

 This is where the birds enter the roving area.

 From Roving into the nesting room, this entrance door is ridiculously too sharp.

Look at the nesting planks?  Can you count how many internal tweeters are there?  How about the number of fake nests?

We should not blame the owner in total but the sifu who designed this BH has no knowledge at all about those swiftlet.  The new owner have nearly blank idea and he though that it was as simple as ABC.

Will make some recommendations and I hope with some twitching those birds will start coming in.