Testing My 20 Sounds in One Sound Medley !!!

I was so tempted to test this beautiful idea of putting 20 or more sounds into one thumb drive.

After a very hard thinking I decided to perform the cut and paste. What I did was to compile all the good sounds that are in my collection and select about 3 minutes of the best part. Then arrange in a sequence so that the sound will be continuous and attractive.

Today tested the sound at Kepong KIP BH. Stayed for about 30 minutes to observe the birds reaction.

Not bad. The result was unusual but I better give them sometime to settle down.

I will be visiting the BH regularly to observe the reaction of those birds in the air especially around the BH entrance hole.

If this special sound is good I would like to make it available to all my blog readers.

Those who are excited to see the action at your BH, I have this special offer.

The first 10 readers will get the sound to test at a fraction of the value. First come first serve basis......

All you need to pay is only 150RM and it is yours.

If the sound's effectiveness is good it will be sold at 600 RM

Make you choice and I am sure you will enjoy seeing those birds coming into your BH...

Fully recommended to be one of your collection........

Contact 017 755 1318 for more details.....

The Don't and Do's During Breeding Season !!!

Hey guys have you all been doing some observation on the number of birds above your rooftop or near the entrance hole of your or your neighbor's BHs?

These few weeks there are a huge crowd and to me this is due to a new batch of young birds coming out of their nests and soon the breeding season will begins. Yes once all those young birds are out their mothers will be bitchy and starts to wanting to lay their next batch of eggs (two eggs only).

While the mother wanted to start a new cycle the father with be busy cleaning or preparing the nest. This is the best time to do your nest harvesting. Remove all old nests and let new ones be built on the same spot.

The male will look forward for a sexually active period of copulation. Once the nests were repaired or rebuild the male will invite the female birds to inspect. Once accepted they couple will start the copulation for at least 8 days. On the eight day the after the first copulation the female will lay her first egg. The second should be laid within the next two days.

Those newly matured birds will start to pair off and maybe looking for a place to call their home for their lifetime.

Those who are experienced enough will be smiling and will perhaps knows what they should do.

To those who are new you need to get into the action.

All in all you need to do whatever it is to get those young birds over into your new BH.

I suggest the followings:

1) Harvest all those old nests that were used in the previous breeding cycle. Make sure you leave some markings to allow the previous tenant to come back to nest on the same spot.

2) You might want to cover those 90* corners that were used by those birds for the past two breeding cycle with corner covers.

3) If your BH have more then 200 nests, you might want to install corner covers to all 90* corners. Harvest the nests leaving a small makings on the nesting planks, for your birds identification purposed, and place those corner covers on the top of it. Yes cover all 90* corners in your BH if you happened to already secured 200 nests or above.

4) If those humidifiers are not working or spoilt get new ones and replace them. Make sure your BH have the right humidity.

5) Change the sound to something new. My best recommendation is to use the latest sound available in the market. I do have something that is new called 20in1Medley. This sound is a combination of 20 sounds into one thumb drive. Each sound is about 3 minutes.

6) With this new sound you might want to increase the volume a bit but not too much. This will allow a larger coverage to lure those young birds to your BH.

6A) I suggest that you extend the external sound operation time slightly longer say add 30 more minutes. Who knows there are some who will come back home late or those who love to fly in and out of your neighbor's BH might come over.

6B) What about the internal sound? My recommendation is to switch to mating sound. If you BH population is below 200 nests use only mating (BabyKing) sound until the number (200) is reached. However if you have 200 nests or more use the mating sound for one month and once the breeding season is up switch to colony sound.

7) Those who have not install any hexagonal tweeter, you better do. Hexagonal tweeters, if properly used, will make a lot of different to your new BH. Use the tweeter at the appropriate time only.

8) Maybe you might want to get new or fresh bird shits into the house. Make the house smell better to those birds. Place them into plastic containers and locate them at the corners of the BH.

9) Those who have yet to construct those VIP rooms, please do so now. You can finish them within 3 days and I guarantee that the birds will flock into this room. Remember you need to follow all my advises like how many tweeters, how many fake nests, how many soundless humidifiers, those external sound tweeters, and make sure the room is filled with those fresh bird shit to the max.

The things that you must try to avoid:

1) Make sure you choose the right external sound. Do not play those DURESS sound.

2) Never play colony sound during breeding season. The birds are mating so using colony is not the right mix. I recommend the use of mating sound (BabyKing).

3) Try not to enter the BH at all if you can. If you need to do any renovation you should try to choose the right timing, say during dry season from 9am till 4:30pm. If you carry out your operation during this time of the year, you might come heads on with those young birds. They will be scared and brand your BH as not save.

4) If you can lock the house for 0ne solid month and do not enter the house until those birds have laid their two eggs (remember 2 eggs). Once they have laid the two eggs they will become your permanent tenant.

If you need any advise or helps before carry out any revamp works, you might want to have a second opinion. Call 017 755 1318.

BH Aroma: Bitter Gourd Creeper Plant !!!

Something weired that I stumbled upon when meeting a newbie in Swiftlet Farming.

I was having a meeting with one of my friend who specializes in heat insulation technologies using cellulose materials.

While having a meeting with him one his client stop by and happened to wanting to construct a BH on his agricultural land in Taiping, Perak.

I was suprised with what he brought along to show us what he picked up during one of trip to a BH.

"Pak Harry, I recently visited a BH and saw this owner who hangs these plant in his BH. It become something like a curtain along the BH internal walls. Try to have a look what plant it is and it seem that this idea came from Indonesia. The smell from the plant seem to attract those swiftlet."



I took a good look at the creeper and found a ripe fruit on it. It looks very much like a wild bitter gourd plant.

Hmm....this so called BH aroma is something I have never heard before.

I am not sure how effective it can be but those who wanted to try please do so...

If it works please inform me at harryswiftlet@yahoo.com

Nothing wrong to try .....

How Many Tweeters You Should Install If You Want People To Say That You Are Crazy ???

Last week I received a number of enquiries about tweeters from a few blog readers.

Most of the enquiries were about How Many Tweeters should they install in their nesting rooms.

Among all the enquiries, I love this fellow who happened to operated his stand alone BH.

His trouble was even with 200 tweeters per floor for a 40' X 80'x 2 floors was still not enough.

According to him he found that those young birds were actually fighting with each other trying to secure those tweeters. He observed via his CCTV cameras.

"Hi Harry, i am Mr.V from Kuantan...

I got one question to ask. Is 1000 tweeters function in a 2 storey birdhouse, will it be too much?'

For your information I owned a birdhouse that operates for almost 3 years now. The space that I installed with tweeters will have a minimum of 1 to 4 nests near it.

In the beginning I only installed 50 tweeters/floor. Then I increased to 100 tweeters/floor and finally today I have 200 tweeters/floor. From my observation all the spacec closed to every tweeter will have at least 1 nest or more.

Most interesting was that even at bright areas with tweeters the birds still build their nests. I think the room darkness is not that crucial but those tweeters are more important.

I also observed something very interesting through my CCTV cameras. Those birds seem to fight for those spaces that are near to tweeters. This might be young birds trying to sought for a place to build their nests but being chased away by old tenants.

Maybe I should increase the number of tweeters so that more young birds will have the space to build their nest.

My idea now is to increase the tweeters numbers to 500 per floor. So total for two floors will be 1000.

Is this too much?

Your comment please. Thank you in advance."

My reply to him was there is nothing wrong with the idea. The more the tweeters the more birds will have space to construct their nest at.

The only thing was to keep the matter to himself and not to tell any other soul. If they know that they will think that he is crazy.

The lesson here is the usefulness of tweeters.

They are very important in your new BH and if you can install as many as you can but make sure you have enough amplifiers to support all of them.

I forgot to mentioned about the sound he was using. He confirmed that the two external sounds he is using now are Black Cloud and Farbulous Medley while the internal sound was the BabyKing. I was not surprised......

Have a good day......

If you wish to have the same result maybe you should get a copy each of the three sounds (Black Cloud, Farbulous Medley and BabyKing). Call 017 755 1318 for more details on the sounds...

Changing of Those Sounds Might Be The Best Answer But .....

Today sat down with a BH owner and his dear wife.

At the same time received an email about purchasing some good sounds.

Let me start with the young couple who met me somewhere in Petaling Jaya, The Curve.

He started with how he got started and after three years he only managed to own 30 nests. Hmm not bad but a bit too low I told him.

When I said not bad, I was comparing his with those with only have 3 nests after three years.

Oh yes I confirmed with him that his total numbers was a bit on the low side.

"Harry what should be the number?"

My answer was it depend on the location. Normally you should look at about 100 a year plus minus 20 - 30%.

"Okay can I buy those sounds from you and can you guarantee that my nests population will shortly increased?"

Wow what a request. He wanted me to guarantees that there will be more nests after changing to my set of sounds.

There is no such things as guarantees but if you explained a bit more about your BH maybe I might be able to...

He sketched his BH configurations and some indications where those tweeters are located. He swear to god that the BH is very dark and the humidity was within range.

My simple conclusion to them was: If after three years the number of nests were not or no longer increasing, you have some serious problems. You need to get someone experienced to visit your BH and perhaps submit his findings.

I told him that it is very difficult for you to pin point the problems but once you bring in a third party who have entered many BHs plus revamping a good number of BHs, he will be able to more or less determine the probable cause. You follow his recommendations and do up the BH.

You need to make sure that the coonsultant submitted his recommendation in black and white.

Once you have completed the revamp you can now apply those new sounds.

If you do not make any changes, especially after three long years, the birds will enter your BH but the chances for them to stay will be minimum.

They got my message and I hope they will find a suitable person to perform the inspection.

The second person who also have similar problem with his BH sound was from Sabah.

Read this and you will realiased how unprofessional some BH consultants are:

"Dear Harry,

Thanks for the reply.

My current sounds (internal & external) were selected by the builder of the BH. He glued the pen drives to the sound player.

I don't think he wants me to change the sound, or at least want me to give him the business of changing the sounds....

He also seldom if ever come around to check the status of the BH, though he promised he would BEFORE the payment for the BH.


Though there are some nests... but it is kind of slow... and I think perhaps it is time to change the sounds since they have been playing for almost 2 yrs already.

Another "Elephant Glue Syndrome". I remembered writing something about this story before. It must be by the same consultant.

Read this string: http://swiftletfarming.blogspot.com/2009/10/if-you-want-to-increase-those-nests.html

It is sad but those who read this article please be careful when your consultant wanted to glue the thumb drive onto your amplifiers/players.

He is either scared that you will steal his sound or he thinks that you will jeopardise his technology or he is shrewed/cunning/unprofessional/he do not trust you.

So I hope this article is good for you to learn something .......

(Note: If you are in the same boat with the above, you can call this number (017 755 1318) and ask him to carry out the inspection. You are 100% assured of a full report from him just after the inspection (rought) plus a full report within one week.)

How About Running 20 Good Sounds Or More In 1 Hour???

I love to listen to ideas that I have never thought before.

Yesterday while collecting the door keys for a sick BH in Ayer Itam, Penang, I set down with one of blog reader who volunteered to drive me around.

I asked him, "Okay what is new?"

Well Harry I met someone who came to Penang for a family holiday from Johore.

When he knew that I am a swiftlet farmer, he keep talking about everybody that he knows, those failed BHs, bla bla bla ....The most interesting that he relayed to me was about this very popular author hailed from JB.

This author wrote some books in Mandarin on swiftlet farming.

According to this guy the key success of this author was his special sounds.

He in actual fact collect about 20 good sounds and put them together in one marathon relay of 1 to 2 hours.

It works and guaranteed to produce 100 nests a year......

So what is your opinion Harry?

Hmm.... let me digest and think carefully before jumping into any conclusion.

The idea of putting more then one good sound into one is nothing new, I told him. I have been creating sound which I named it as Medley. Most common is when I visit any BH to conduct bird sound tests.

Good example last week I was in Bumbong Lima where I was engaged by a BH owner who wanted to purchase the best sounds from my collection. I did the test and after confirming about 5 good sounds the owner bought the 5 and I volunteered to prepare a medley using the five sounds.

So far the concept works very well and I am sure if you put 20 good sounds into one will work.

The only setback will be if one or two or more are not a good sound what will happen during that particular period?

Yes those birds will chow and you have a gap there.

My suggestion is to firstly locate the effective sounds, say 20, for that particular location and you then put them into one. In this way all the sounds will draw those birds into your BH all the time.

Maybe you should use it only during the peak hours?

Hmmm.... sound very interesting and I think you know what I am thinking.....

Well I hope the above article do open up you mind and if you need any help to get the best sounds for your BH or a 1 hour pack sounds please let me know.

The cost to engage me to be at your BH location is affordable.......

(Note: The 20 sounds in one will be available within the next few days. Those who are keen to own the sound please place your order as soon as you can. The cost will be 500 rm only. SMS you contact number to 017 755 1318).

Cabinet To Discuss Swiftlet Farming Soon !!!

Cabinet to look into bird’s nest guideline


Found at: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/2/19/nation/5705583&sec=nation


KUALA LUMPUR: The Swiftlet Industry Guideline, expected to be presented to the Cabinet next week, will give the industry a much-needed framework to operate in a sustainable manner.

The guideline, if accepted, will put Malaysia ahead of leading bird’s nest producers like Indonesia and Thailand.

“It will be the first swiftlet industry guideline in the world,” said Veterinary Services Department director-general Datuk Dr Abdul Aziz Jamaluddin.

The swiftlet industry is worth RM1.5bil annually.

The guideline, he added, would provide the framework to supervise the industry in a holistic way, including in terms of licensing, sampling, production and export of swiftlet bird’s nest abroad, particularly to China.

Dr Aziz said the guideline had the full support of the Health, Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry, and the Housing and Local Government ministries.

The speed at which the industry grew over the last few years has resulted in a major dilemma over the licensing of swiftlet-rearing premises in shophouses, due to the health risk, smell and noise.

Federation of Swiftlet Nest Merchants Association chairman Datuk Beh Heng Seong said the guideline would resolve the problem as owners of premises would have to agree with the conditions if they wanted to remain in business.

“It will become a standard for all local authorities,” he said.

Malaysia has about 50,000 swiftlet premises producing over 12 tonnes of bird’s nest monthly.

One kilogram of bird’s nest can fetch RM4,000. – Bernama

It Will Be Very Hot And Most BHs Will Face Heating Problems !!!

Hot weather is on the way.

According to recent report the heat wave will prevail until the end of next month.

In this extreme weather it will be very wise to take some precautions to ensure that your BH will not heat up until your tenant move out.

The best thing to do now is to upgrade your cooling techniques.

The use of additional humidifiers is something you should consider.

Heating up will start as early as 9 am and will continue till 9pm. It will be advisable to use those thermo hygro sensor to operate the humidifiers.

Other technique such as using those air coolers might be something to think about.

I would recommend the covering of those walls facing direct sunlight with any kind of shades. You may want to consider to use those orchid netting (90% shade) or perhaps those signboard with plastic cover or bamboo mat or shade.

Don't let your BH internal temperature exceed 30*C for too long. If it continues then you may loose your precious swiftlets......

New BH In Bumbung Lima, Kepala Batas, Seberang Prai !!!

On the morning of the 2nd day of CNY I was asked to drop by at Bumbong Lima Kepala Batas, Seberang Prai for external sound selection.

The owner, an ex Pilot with Royal Malaysian Airforce, have be toying with the idea of having his owned BH for almost 5 years.

While gathering information on how to be a successful BH owner he accounted the same problems when most of his good friends who already owned BHs told his not to be involved in swiftlet farming.

"Harry nearly all of them gave me the advise not to get involve with this business. You will fail miserably and better for you to go into other businesses. The irony was that most of them have BHs above their shop houses and are doing well. Some are expanding with new BHs into their collection. Why do they behave like that most of the time?"

Well Mr Pilot, this is life. Most of them are too greedy with making their own fortune and they do not wish to have their friend tagging along. If they encourage you they feel obligated to lend your their ears and provide advises. These informations are considered as their top secrets information. Why should they share with you?

Swiftlet farming are still very confidential and not many are willing to share their knowledge with even their own relatives.

"Anyway Harry, I was very grateful to stumble upon your Blog. I learned so much and with your many advises on the blog I have decided to put in all my saving to this BH. Now I need those suitable sounds that you have in your collection."

I was very glad that my blog inspired him to materialise his one and only dream. I keep telling him that there will be many obstacles in front but if he follows those guidelines the chances to fail will be very little.

After testing a number of external sounds and inspected the house internally, we decided to try five of the tested sounds:

1) Tongkat Ali
2) Payton 4
3) Extreme 4 and
4) Thunderstorm 1
5) Medley of all the above.

For internal sound I asked him to use the BabyKing until such time the number of nests reaches 200.

My frank advise to him is to closely monitor his BH for the next six to seven months. If the effectiveness of the sound is no longer good change the sound.

It will be better if he uses two amplifiers for the externals sounds. Once for the medley and the other for the rush hour sound.

Best of luck to MrPilot and hopefully his brand new BH will have lots of birds sooner then his neighbor. Look at the last picture and the neighbor's BH is about par 3 away from his house.

Largest Swifltlet Nest Outlet In Sungai Patani !!!

If you happened to visit Sungai Patani you must visit this swiftlet nest shop located somewhere at Jalan Sekerat, Pekan Lama.

The outlet belongs to the King of Swiflet farmers of Malaysia, Dato Beh.

I was in SP and took some pictures to indicate how big the shop was.

The front was the showroom while the back were BHs four stories high and about 20 shop houses of 20' X 70'. In the vicinity there are at least another 50 more shop houses specially erected for swiftlet farming.

The area now become the highest density of BHs in the state of Kedah or perhaps Malaysia.

Bernama: The Goverment Allocation of 5 Million For Swiftlet Farming !!!

RM5 Million Allocation For Swiftlet Bird Farming

Found at: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsgeneral.php?id=475278

PUTRAJAYA, Feb 11 (Bernama) -- The government has provided a grant of RM5 million this year to help the poor to venture into swiftlet farming.

Director-general of Veterinary Services Datuk Dr Abdul Aziz Jamaluddin said those who were eligible would be identified from the application through the respective state Veterinary Department, and the decision on the selection of the candidates would be known within two months.

Besides financial assistance, they would also be given courses on farming the Swiftlets before starting the business, he told reporters here Thursday.

Dr Abdul Aziz said although the number was relatively small, it was a starting point and additional provision would be requested if the programme proved to be successful.

He said the government had provided a RM200 million loan through the Agro Bank for those who wanted to venture into the business on a moderate or big scale but the project would have to wait for the approval from the Finance Ministry.

-- BERNAMA

How Do You Catch Those Bats !!!

A very interesting topics and I am sure some of you have a similar situation.

Yes you have these bats staying in your BH and they are nuisance to your precious tenants.

I was in Kemaman, Trengganu and having those mushroom soup with some friends.

One of them asked me:

"Pak Harry I have something interesting to talk about. This have something to do with those bats. I have lots of them but have capture and removed them."

Hmm very interesting.....

What seem to be the problem when you have those bats around or inside your BH?

First they disturb the swiftlet especially in the morning and late evening. Yes during change of shift. Bats fly out in the evening and return home in the morning while those swiftlet fly out in the morning and return in the evening. During this change of shift the two clashes and those bats have the habits of chasing after the swiftlet.

The second is that their shit smell seems to bother the swiftlet a bit. Where ever they stays the swiftlet will not go near the areas.

When their colony grows they tend to chase the swiftlet away and a big nuisance to your BH.

They also carry with them a bug or lice on their body. This is no good if their bugs cross over to our swiftlet. Sometime those bugs and lice's do carry diseases that will make your birds sick. Worst if they transfer to human.

The best is to keep these bats away.

How to do that?

Well this was something that was proven and you should try using it.

What this friend of mine recommended was to hang a net, fish netting and a ripe sickle of bananas at the back of the net. The location of the net and the banana must be somewhere near to the entrance hole but try not to be too closed. Those swiftlet might entangled with the net if too closed to their flying path. (Be careful to select the right location).

In the meantime if U have bats staying inside your BH, catch them during the day time. If you locate their hiding spots, you need to remove all their leftovers and smear the place with ammonium bicarbonate powder. Wet the powder and paste onto those spots that those bats are residing.

You should also catch them using those fist net with handle.

Remove all of them regularly and make sure your BH is free from this nuisance....

Water Pond, Mist Sprays On the Rooftop or Water Flow from a Hose !!!

These days due to the unpredictable weather most often then not we have a very hot days.

When the weather is hot, you can imagine the effects of your BH.

There will be some effect on your birds population too.

I was talking to someone who always exchanged information and he was pretty sure that water can make a lot of impact to those birds.

He called asking for my advise on how to waterproof a water pond which he wanted to construct on his BH rooftop.

What he was looking for was those materials that are used by fibre glass manufacturer to build fiberglass boat or containers.

I asked him why was he so adamant in having those water ponds since there is a very great chance of water leaking to the lower floors.

His answer was very simple:

"Due to the hot weather, water on the rooftop will do play a significant roles in attracting those wild birds to your house. I have just visited a BH who accumulate about 2000 nests within two short years and growing. This guy have those water on the top of his BH. Other in the areas are not doing as good as him. All in all he placed water pond on the top roof."

Well I recalled my visit to Kedah sometime back.

This BH owner do installed a nice pool on his rooftop and he circulate the water by using a pipe standing about 7 feet from the pool's floor. During my visit I saw those birds coming over to drink those water while flapping their wings like those humming birds.

In Kemaman, Trenggannu, I have a nice talk with a Bonsai enthusiast. He was using those water mist sprays activated at certain time of the day.

What he observed was that every time the mist sprays starts its operation those swiftlet will be there to enjoy the cool mist.

It seem that they do will start to flock to his spray a few moment before the spray even started. They know the precise time that the timer was set.

I was not surprise since they are pretty smart, I told the person.

The lesson here is that water, either pond or mist spray, do attract these wild birds.

If you wish to deploy them, you need to be very careful on the possibilities of water seeping into your BH.

If you can get a proper contractor who have the technology to prevent any water seeping into your BH, go ahead and have some water pool on the rooftop or around your BH.

Should You Use Those Hexagonal Tweeters?

Everyday there will be someone who will call and wanted to know something which will clear his mind.

Most of the time I know I wrote sometime ago but these people do not know where to find them.

"Pak Harry, should I use those hexagonal tweeters and what are their benefits?"

Frankly hexagonal tweeters do play a very important role to attract as many birds as possible to your rooftop presumably just above your BH entrance hole.

Let us analyse a normal BH without those hexagonal tweeters.

If you choose the dog kennel type you will probably have one entrance hole with three to four tweeters facing to one direction. What happened if those birds are flying at the back of your dog kennel house?

Then your friend who opt for the roof top opening. The tweeters can only be placed on those entrance hole's walls and will be facing upward. That means you can only draw those birds that pass just above your entrance opening areas. What if they never pass about it?

This is where hexagonal tweeters plays a very good part in attracting all the birds that fly around your BH say within a distant of 5 kilometers radius.

Hexagonal tweeters are made up of about 5 small rectangular tweeters (2"X5") and are being arranged as such at any one time the sound played will able to catch a 360 degrees angle.

If you install on both the dog kennel or top entry both will benefit from it.

The only setback is that you will very have complains from your neighbors.

To me I use my head as how to minimise any possible disturbances. The best is to only use this tweeters at the right time of the day. You need to know when those birds are actives and when they are not.

Do you homework and investigate when you should use the tweeters.

If you are not sure or do not have any answer call 017 755 1318

Latest On The Effectiveness of "Black Cloud" In Kuching

Well today is my rest day and most of the time at home doing some reports for a couple of guys whose birdhouses I visited.

While busy with my reporting received this SMS from Kuching Sarawak:

"Pak Harry, I am Mr.N from Kuching. I attended your monthly talk on Jan 7th 2010 at KL Sentral. Firstly I would like to thank you for the free sound "Special 2010".

I have been using your "Black Cloud" for almost 3.5 months now, playing from 4 pm till 8pm. Its outcome is very good especially the first few weeks. The birds really got attracted to my BH and Frenzy inside the BH especially on those tweeters. Now although birds in the air may not be as many as the first time the outcome is still satisfactory as I observed that new birds (althought not as many as before) are still being attracted/recruited regulary into my BH. Overall BC is still a choice sound. That is my feedback to you on the BC. Thanks and best regards.

Mr N"

Hmm .... not that bad and I am happy for him.

The important thing is that the BC is still effective even after 3.5 months. Every day there will be new young birds attracted to enter the house.

This special sound is still available to all my blog readers........

Call 017 755 1318 or email your request to harryswiftlet@yahoo.com

Today Will Be Conducting Some Research On FH !!!

The last three days I was travelling around from one side of the coast to the opposite site.

Started my journey to Sungai Besar Selangor and up to Sabak Bernam on the first day.

Well while talking to the plank supplier in Sungai Besar, received a very encouranging call from my Sungai Patani BH caretaker.

"Harry just wanted to tell you that the new BH that you have just activated in SP were active with about 10 birds inside. I entered to inspect the humidifiers and sound and found them flying around mainly in the VIP room."

I told him not to disturb the place and let those new young birds get used to the new place. After putting down the phone called the owner to advise the situation and he kept praising his God. He should praise me too !!!

Well I told myself that those sounds and the VIP room are working. Just can't wait to know how many bird shit spots on the floor.

After arranging those nesting planks with the supplier went to visit the working site to ensure those contract workers carry out my instructions. The walls were under constructions and the dark paint coat were done.

After finishing at Sabak proceeded to Tanjung Malim. My contractor from the same town was finishing another BH in Kerling. The top entry hole was my main concerned. Gave the necessary instructions and make my way to Kemaman Trengganu.

Well there was another phone call and this time it was from the Local Council of Sabak Bernam.

"Harry this is Mr.H and I am from the Sabak Bernam local council. The council is arranging for a visit to Balik Papan, Indonesia to view those BHs. We would like to invite you to join the group."

I told him that I would love to be in the tour but I need to see if I can find my about to be expired passport. He will be sending the official invitation and I will decide once receiving the letter.
It was a long journey and I promised a guy there to help in giving him the necessary advise on his maiden BH at one of shop house.

I told him to get the house up before March 31st, 2010. This was the date indicated by the President of swiftlet association Selangor where no more BH will be allowed to be constructed in any town.

The inspection was done and with a number of tips provided I headed home on the following day.

While on the way back to Kuala Lumpur, I have decided to test the use of FH (Force Harvest) on one of the BH under my care.

The owner have for some time pushing me to carry out the FH but it was not ready until now.

The idea is to carry out the FH just before the CNY and since the shop will be out of bound for at least two weeks, I will not be able to enter the BH for some time.

First I need to mark the locations of all the nests. I will harvest all of them and those with babies will be provided with fake nests.

Let see what happen after the two months.

Which Part Of Your BH the LAL Should Be Located???

If your BH is more then two stories high you have to open a hole somewhere on the upper floor to draw those birds to the lower floors.

This widow or opening we termed it as "Lubang Antara Lantai" or LAL.

The size varies but the most important point is where should you locate the hole?

I have inspected many BHs and more often then not I find that most BH owners or their consultants have very little clues where these LAL should be located.

It is more like a trial and error is taking place.

Every BH that have no tenants on the lowest floor have to be the LAL to be blamed.

It will normally due to wrong location, wrong sizing and event they are rightly placed and reasonable sized nothing was provided to lure those birds downstairs.

Let me give some ideas about LAL:

1) Basically LAL served as the entrance hole from one floor to the other. If the highest floor depend very much on the entrance hole of the building, the second and the lower floors will depend greatly on the LAL.

2) Using staircases in shophouses as LAL can sometime be wrong. If the consultant knows what he is doing I would say alright but more often these consultants have very little clues on how to optimise the flying pattern in the house. At the end of the day the lower floors will be empty.

3) If this LAL is wrongly located, those birds will never know how to move downstairs. You need to make sure that these LAL are located correctly where those swiftlets are flying in from the roving room to the nesting room. Remember you need to be very precise and you cannot do a trial and error. The trick here is to ensure that every birds that flew entering the nesting room from the roving area will pass above the LAL.

4) The size of an LAL need to at least as big as the entrance hole on those wall. If you have an entrance hole of 2.5 feet by 3 feet then you should use the same dimension as the minimum size of your LAL. If I were you I will increase the size to something larger like 4 feet by 6 feet.

5) If you have the opening done, will those birds fly downstairs? Er er....nope. They will not fly downstairs unless you pull them down using those external sound. Yes you need to install at least three external sound tweeters around the hole perimeter playing the same sound that your are playing on the entrance hole up on the roof.

6) What else should be done? The next important things to do is to have the VIP room ready to lure those young birds to stay. Yes decorate the VIP room(s) with all those goodies that are proven to be very attractive to these swiftlets.

If you are not sure and cannot figure out the above explaination don't be stupid. Just pick up your mobile phole and call 017 755 1318 for more information.

Your action will surely helps you to make the right decision.

Remember making stupid mistakes are costly in swiftlet farming......

Study Group From UM !!!

........................................................


An interesting group of UM student who wanted to conduct special research on swiftlet farming.

I will be helping them with their investigation and those who are keen to give a helping hand let me know.

This was the introduction email received:

Dear Sir,
Permission for Obtaining Information

With reference to the above matter, I, Tan SS, and my fellow group
members, students of degree in Estate Management from faculty of the Built
Environment, University of Malaya sincerely would like to obtain some
information needed in producing a valuation report as well as a business
proposal report on agro based project: bird nest investment.

2. As parts of essential references in working out the foresaid
reports, we will be most appreciate if your corporation could provide us
with following documents or information pertaining to the foresaid research
on swiftlet farming and bird nest.

Photocopy of documents/information required:

· The essential components of a successful farm
· The legal aspect of swiftlet farming (eg: what is the planning
procedure/application in constructing a swiftlet farm, the license or permit and etc.)
· The swiftlet farm design (building plan and etc.)
· The cost to construct a swiftlet farm
· The equipments needed and also its price
· The supply and demand of swiftlet farming and bird nest in
Malaysia
· A recommendation on the potential site to start a swiftlet farm

We shall duly apply the documents and information merely for academic
purposes.

3. We will greatly appreciate if an appointment can be arranged so
that an interview with sir can be carried out for our better understanding
in building and managing swiftlet farm. For easy reference, enclosed with
this letter is letter of consent issued by our learning institution,
University of Malaya.

We look forward for your cooperation and assistance with our highest
appreciation.

This is where those swiftlets association can play their part.

My condition was simple. I would like to have a copy of their findings so that I can share with my blog readers.

Please Proof Me Wrong !!!

Another interesting message about how to increase the nests population in a 1 year and two months old BH.

"Pak Harry I have been operating my BH for almost 1 year two months and the number I got so far was 59 nests. How can I get the number increase. Please help?"


Hmm.... I thought to myself how to challange this person to a duel.

Proof Me Wrong.

Well what I did was to challange him to carry out a force harvest technique.

Once he have done that shut the BH for three months and come back to count the new number of nests in his BH.

I told him that there should be an increase of above 12 nests or perhaps more.

I told him to take the challange and proof that my theory is wrong.

He reply was "Thank you very much for being so honest and happy chinese new year"

I shall wait for his outcome and I am pretty sure that I will win......

What Will be The Most Important !!!

I was on the phone today about the use of proper sound.

"Pak Harry what do you think the most important in a newly launched BH?"

Well among the many things that you must be properly prepared is in the selection of external and internal sounds.

If you choose a poor or a wrong sound, you will receive no visitors and your house will remain empty even if your BH is in a tip top conditions, internally. One of the biggest mistake makes by many is the allocation of fund to acquire high quality and attractive sounds.

After spending 350,000 ringgit for the building structure, those nesting planks and sound system and stingy in buying the right sounds to me is stupid. How much is a very good sound? Will it cost you an arm or a leg?

Think about it carefully and spend wisely. Spending on those good sounds are one of the best decision you have ever made. Remember you need a set of at least 5 external and two for the internal for a BH with one entrance hole. If more entrances I will get double the number.

I will go for as many at 20 externals and maybe 5 for the internal.

Buy them from some one that reliable and trust worthy.

He is someone who will never sell those Duress sound or sound with duress sound on the background.

Perhaps you should ask his favor to come over to your BH and test all his top 20 sounds in his collection.

You and him choose the one that shows the most number of birds coming overhead and enter the entrance hole.

It will be the most effective method in selecting your set of sounds and he uses your amplifiers and your tweeters installed.

Getting from some one on the street or buying from those shops will not give your the right results that you wanted. Trust me !!!

Call 017 755 1318 if you have any requirements for the best sound for your collection.

Two Set Of Containerised BHs In The Making !!!

There are two firmed orders, one in Taiping and one in Guar Chempedak, for my research works in the conversion of containerised BHs.

I planned to conduct the following tests/researches on Containarised BHs:

1) The use of cellulose heat insulation techniques on the walls of the cabin enclosed with a layer of heat shield and a cemboard.

2) The top layer will be mainly used as the roving areas while the bottom cabin is where the birds should be nesting.

3) There will be two types of entrance holes. One will be towards the front and the other towards the side of a dog kennel extension above the top cabins.

4) The openings on the top cabins inside the dog kennel shall be located at the right hand side to minimise the light entry into the cabin plus allowing the birds to have a smooth flying path.

5) At the front section of the top most cabins there will be a wall to prevent those lights from the entry hole comtaminating the nesting areas.

6) There will be an "LAL" immediately after the partition wall, about 3 feet by 4 feet, to draw those birds to the lower cabins.

7) The lowest cabin will have one VIP room that will be the most attractive admosphere with those internal sound (loudest), lots of tweeters, double stacked nesting planks, fake nests, aromas and etc.

8) There will be a number of soundless humidifiers on both floors but more will be in the VIP room.

9) I think the use of hexagonal tweeter will help in drawing those birds to the cabins.

10) I am going to use a minimum of three amplifiers to operate the internal and external sounds.

11) The data room shall be constructed below the cabins. (the cabin will be mounted on 8 feet cement blocks)

12) To prevent direct sunlight onto the external surface of the cabin, a suitable heat resistant paint shall be used and perhaps a plastic mesh will cover the cabin.

13) I planned to open two entrance holes. One facing the direction of the flight path home and one the opposite. I wanted to proof my point that the one facing the flight hole will increase the nest population at a much faster rate.

14) There will be a minimum of 8 containers filled with fresh birdshit droppings in the house.

Hope the tests based on the above will give lots of positive results.

Need to scrutinize the total cost. My estimated price to have this cabin's BHs shall be below 100K perhaps 80K to 60K.

If this materialised then I would say that this will be the best option to those who have a piece of land at the back of their Kampung house to start one.

Those who have bigger pieces of land, using this technique will help in testing the viability. If there is no birds moving in we can move the cabin to another location by dismentaling the unit piece by piece.

A Couple of BHs Under Renovation And .....

Today my youngest son from Melbourne returned home after three years. He wanted to get his PR thus returning home will disqualify his application. Now with his PR in place he can come back more often.

Fetched him from the airport and upon arrival in KL took him for Roti Chanai at KLGCC. The best roti chanai in Kuala Lumpur, according to my wife.

After three hours with him went to Tanjong Malim to deliver a set of keys to Ah Leck whom I have decided to help me with a new BH renovation works.

The owner of Kerling BH have finally decided to appoint me to revamp a BH just beside the other unit which I have just completed.

My idea was to open the top roof so that this new unit will be targeting those birds that are familiar with top entry while the next door was for side entry.

After completing the 1 hour journey I drove to Bukit Tinggi Klang to catch up with my Indonesian workers who was appointed to convert two units of shop houses belonging to Mr.G.

They were finishing the first unit which I have decided to use the top entry type and once that is done I wanted them to start the other unit just beside using the side entry.

I have decided to use the double stacking system for those nesting planks and they looks pretty well done. This method will double those nesting areas. This will be one of my signatures in any BH that were given to me to renovate or build.







The wood received was not very pretty. There were many that have a kind of mould growing. I have decided to sort those affected for replacement.

After a gruelling three hours drove back to Kepong KIP BH to review how the new set of external sound was performing.



What I did was to closely monitor the effectiveness of those new sounds once every two days.

I parked my car about 50 meters away from the BH (shophouse) and observe the flying pattern of those swiftlet.

Well today due to very good weather (it rained for a few minutes before I arrived), the sound played seem to performed pretty well. Nearly all those birds in the vicinity keep attacking those external tweeters and many will fly inside the house.

I was very satisfied and if this pattern continues I am sure there will be some who will decide to be a permanent tenant.

Will try not to enter the Kepong BH for at least three weeks and then maybe will perform the force harvest.

Those of your who would like to enter this BH let me know. If you are keen you might like to perform the force harvest with me. Let me teach you how to get those birds multiply by at least 20 - 30 %.

There will be some fee to enter the BH.

Call 017 755 1318.......

Soundless Humidifier: How To Get The Humidity That You Really Wanted

Pak Harry is there a proper time table to set the soundless humidifier running so that my BH is always with 85%RH or higher?

This was the latest email from one of blog reader.

Before I answered his question I wrote to him the following:

Mr H,

Before U think about getting a time table U need to know these few things:

1) The maximum number of hours U should run the humidifiers per day should not be more the 12 hours. If U run them continuously they will fail to operate due to overheating and shelf life. So think about this carefully about this issue.

2) The best approach is to use more then two units so that you can run the units alternately. For example if you deploy six units, three should be during even hours and the other three on odd hours. So at any one time three units will be running as if continuously.

3) I recommend that you use the timer properly so that the floor around the humidifier is always wet. Not with too much of water until they flooded your BH but some thin layer as if the floor was just mopped a few minutes ago.

4) Try to shut all the ventilation holes except may be two. The ventilation holes if all being opened will cause your humidity to be low. The outside air is always about 63%RH. If you allow them to enter then no matter how many humidifiers you operate it will give very little effect to the internal humidity. Use you common sense.

5) If you use exhaust fans or air suction fan, be care full. The moment they operate they will throw away your high humidity air and the outside air with 63%rh will replace the vacuum created. So think carefully when you switch those fans on????

If you follow the above I can assure U that your humidity will be always above 90%RH.

Best of luck to you

Harry

Light Weight Bricks Making Machine !!!

I was given the opportunity to meet a manufacturer of a simple machine that can produce the right mixture of cement, sand and a special foam to making those lite bricks.

These bricks will be very suitable for stand alone BHs or use in shop house as those walls.

The best is to shape the brick into 2 feet long by 8 inches width and 6 inches thick.

You can increase or decrease the size to your preferred sizes.

What I know is that once cured the brick will be very strong and lite. If you drop the brick into a pail of water it will float.

The cost of materials per brick will be about RM 1 for a 4 inches thick and RM 1.5 for the 6 inches thick plus labor, petrol and machine depreciation.

If you purchase these bricks from any hard ware shop it will be about RM 4.50 for a 4 inches thick or RM 6 for the 6 inches thick.

One drum of 146 liters foam will cost about RM1,900. Per drum you can produce about 50,000 bricks (subject to the ratio mixture)

The machine cost was said to be only RM 25,000 ex Kuala Lumpur. The technology transfer in applying the right mix will be another 12,000 for 60 hours of coaching at site (excluding meal, ticket and lodging)

To those who plan to build a multiple units of stand alone BHs, this will be one of the best option is reducing the unit cost of the building.

Yes you manufacture the bricks yourself at site. The properly cure the bricks you need to give at least 12 to 18 days.

It is not a rocket science but simple and effective if you think deeper about it.

If you interested to purchase the unit please call 017 755 1318

Research On Recycled 40 Footer Containers BH !!!

Today received a call from someone who might be of great help to the swiftlet industry.

His is one of my blog reader and happened to be involved in a business of providing insulation for factories and home.

We spoke about the use of his cooling techniques before but not until when I visited a BH made of recycled shipping containers.

He wanted me to meet a couple of suppliers of those old unused cabins and he will use his heat insulation techniques to lower the inside temperature.

Those of you who are keen to have a BH made of recycle cabins, please call me at 017 755 1318 so that I can arrange to conduct bird call test and flying path inspection.

I am hopeful that the total cost will be around 60K but will advise the actual cost once I meet the relevant people tommorrow. I am pretty confident that it will be below not above 100K.

If you wish to pay a visit to see BHs made of recycle containers please call
017 7551318. There will be a small fee for each visit. The first will be on February 14th, 2010 in Kampung Bujang, Merbok.

Just Compare the Two BHs. Which Unit is a Mushroom Farm and which one is a BH?

Ah Meng





Harry's





I might be a bit hard on the deceased Ah Meng. For the sake of swiftlet community please compare the two and ask yourself which one is a BH and which one is not?

I believed a swiftlet house should be properly done and those tweeters and fake nests installed with precision.

Look at how many and where Ah Meng install his tweeters. If you are the birds there is no chance of cligging to any of the tweeters.

Harry's tweeters installation can allow those lovely birds to cling onto any of those tweeters and make love thru the night.

If after making love they want to start making their nest they can choose either just above the tweeter or the 90* angle or the fake nest just the other side.

Use your common sense and make sure you let those birds gets whatever they want. What we want is for them to stay in our new BH !!!

Somewhere On The Pearl of the East Island (Penang) !!!

Managed to capture a number of photos when visiting a failed BH on Penang Island.

After more then 2 years only three nests.

The owner indicated that he was highly recommended to use a consultant named "Ah Meng" hailed from Sungai Patani, Kedah. Hmm .... sound very familiar. That is where my own home town.

Claimed to be on the panel of Dato Beh.

"Harry how come after using a very high calibre consultant, I can only get three nests after being in operation for more then 2 years?"

Well you cannot blame anybody but yourself. Your consultant must be very busy and got so much renovation works in hand and cannot give any attention to you.

You should have learn how to be a successful swiftlet farmer. May be now you can enroll to my monthly seminar.

I am glad that Ah Meng has recently passed away. If not he will have a trail of unseccessful BH owners all over the country. ( Meng sorry for saying that. May you rest in peace. Anyway your renovation seem to not attract enought birds inside.)

My post mortem on Ah Meng's workman ship are as follows:

1) He lacks professional knowledge about swiftlet's behaviours. He depend so much on his trials and errors and never attend any seminars. Main reason, he was cannot talk or understand English (according to this BH owner).

2) He never let the owner learn anything and every questioned asked was never answered or prefessional explained.

3) He was a very insecured person. He place very high emphasis on keeping the house safe from burgulars more then getting as many nest as possible. The entrance window steel door railings were larger then my hand.

4) He was a bit lazy in taking down all those walls inside the BH. These walls seem to give lots of turning for those birds. Some of the rooms were lesser then 10 feet X 10 feet size. Note: Swiftlet need a minimum of 12 feet by 12 feet room size.

5) His selection of the entrance hole was not right. He choose the middle away from those water pond. He should consider opening the entrance hole as close as possible to the water pond.

6) He uses more then one type of tweeter at the opening. This makes some of the tweeters loose their effectiveness.

7) He have no idea of waterproof tweeters. All his tweeters were located below the zinc roof extension. There was not a single tweeter on those walls where the birds enter the top opening.

8) The zinc extension blocked the bird's flying path and prevent the external sound to be more effective. It should have been removed in total.

9) All the three nests were on the upper floor. Not a single bird shit spot were located on the lower floor. My conclusion was that the birds were never awared that there is another floor made for them. Ah Meng did nothing to lure those birds to the lower floor.

10) I am amused at the way the internal tweeters were arranged. Due to very shallow knowledge on various functions of every tweeter, Ah Meng only thought that the tweeter only function is to play those sound. He forgot that tweeter can also be the prefer place where those wild birds love to latch to. The tweeter also provide some warm at night.

11) The number of tweeter were very few, not more then 20 per floor. This shows how little knowledge Ah Meng was. I normally will insert not less then 120 tweeters per floor. The more the marrier.

12) As usual Ah Meng uses those chicken coop humidifiers. He let the humidifier runs continuously and causing lots of fungus growing on nearly all those nesting planks. I hate to see this type of contamination. Who is going to do the cleaning up?

13) All the ventillation holes were left opened and you can safely said that the internal temperature and humidity was nearly the same as the outside air.

14) The owner indicated that he has been running with the same internal and external sound since launching. Never know how to replace both sound.

15) The internal sound used was a colony sound. I think that was not a right choice.

Hmm..... there were so many other things that I am keeping to myself but Ah Meng why must you make so many mistakes and cause so much miseries to all these hopeful people?

Well I am sad but the above descriptions are common to almost all those BHs that failed to produce results.

What I know was that the owner loose so much money, loose his personal esteem, don't dare to talk about his BH to any one, quarrel with his wife nearly every day, loose lots of sleep and hairs, libedo cannot work and sex life is down the drain.

Ah Meng can you tell me why you should do this?