Happy New Year And My Resolutions !!!

Foremost "Happy New Year" to all my blog readers and let us hope this year 2012 will be the most exciting year in your swiftlet farming.

I am looking forward for some exciting activities plus doing some interesting researches on how to get more birds plus accelerating their growth into all those Birdhouses under my care.

My first target will be a new JV birdhouse in Gambang, Pahang.

I was given this special task to modify a one year old BH, two stories, above a three stories shop house.

The owner knew me about three years ago and she have been following the progress of a BH converted by me in Kepong, Selangor.

What she did was to recommend my name to the owner and I was given the task to revamp the BH with minimal cost.

After 2.5 years into operation the nest numbers grew by almost 5 times.

At that some span of time she converted her BH using her "Brother In Law" (BIL) expertise.  It seems that the so called BIL owned one of the most successful BH nearby.

Due to some reason the converted BH can only draw in 10 sets of swiftlet.

She called me to view the house and I recommended what she should do to improve the situation.

"Harry, enough is enough. After waiting for 2,5 years I told my BIL that I wanted to handle the BH myself.  I want you to take over the BH and do exactly or better than what you did with the Kepong BH."

I took it as a nice challenge to revamp another failed BH and perhaps use it as a test centre for some interesting ideas that I have recorded in my diary for 2012.

These are some of those interesting things which I plan to execute this year.

1) Use a high end amplifier to see if the sound generated is better that those low end units.

2) Use a specially prepared enzyme to treat one of the four VIP rooms in this newly revamped BH.

3) To get a special aroma to be canned into a canister and spray periodically for a specific period of time.

4) To use a set of external sounds that were tested to be very effective during birds returning home in the evening.

5) The most effective sound shall be modified with baby sounds and shall be played as my internal sound.

6) The use of "Last Tango" sound system to be implemented to divert more birds into the house.

7) The pond located on the top floor to be used as insect generating pond.

8) The additional area on the second floor to be provided with specialized container to manufacture insects.

The affected BH is currently undergoing revamp operation and by next weeks it will be into operation.

This will be an exiting year to conduct more research and to provide more new ideas to all my blog readers.

If you wish to make a trip to view this BH please call 017 7551318.  There is a small fee levied as professional fee to help you with your BH.

Dual Entries BH In Vietnam Doing Well !!!

Sorry for not writing for the past few weeks.


Today got a few interesting news about a dual entries BH in Vietnam doing well and Ayer Kuning BH have more than 90 new bird shit spots after just 2 months in operation.


First about Vietnam dual entries BH.


I remembered visiting this BH somewhere in Can Gio, about 1.5 hours drive from Ho Chi Minh City.
The owner sponsored my trip and when at site I gave some ideas on how to allocate some partitions to darken the floors.


After into operation for about 6 weeks  the owner send the following report:-

"Dear Sifu Harry,

We've remitted xxx usd to your account for the perfume. Please check and notify me when you received.

For the last three months, i've involved in a project in Korea. I don't have time to take care of my birdhouses. My father and my brother handle them instead. I've just come back last week. Thanks god, our birdhouses is working great. The new birdhouse in Can Gio which using your dual entrance design has more than 100 birds stayed there, after 6 weeks put in operation."

A very favourable result and I hope the second unit which is about to be completed will perform better.

Two days ago I visited the Ayer Kuning, Perak BH after 2 months into operation.

The number of bird shit spots on all the floors was more than 90.

Prior to the revamp works there was nothing.

The most interesting was that the spots were distributed all over with the top floor the highest while the lowest floor was the second highest.

Why did more birds flew down to the lowest floor?

I think this strange phenomena is due to a water pool with a kind of fountain being erected on the lowest floor.

The water might have attract those birds to the lowest floor.

Strange but true.

Using The Same Sound For External And Internal is Working !!!

My latest on the experiment using the same sound for external and internal.


The idea is to choose the best and the most effective sound that attract the most number of birds to your rooftop and your external sound tweeter.


Once you have chosen the sound modify it for your internal sound with lots of baby sounds in it.


Save this as your internal sound copy.


You now have the external sound and a newly created internal sound.


Today I took some trouble to check with one of my student who wanted to volunteer to test the idea.


He is from the town called Raub, Pahang.


His answer was :  "Pak Harry the two sounds are excellent.  I am getting about 20% increase per month."


I am also testing the configuration at my Kepong BH.  


My last visit was very encouraging.


The number of new nests seems to be higher than before.


I am sure those who read my blog is interested to know how and if you need any help please call.


I might want you to carry out some test using the same configuration.


There is a small fee of RM 500 for the two sounds.


You need to regularly monitor the progress of your BH once you start using the new sounds provided.

Somewhere Inside A 500 Square Feet BH In Kucing !!!

On my way back from Gomantong cave I stopped at Kucing, Sarawak, to meet some friends accompanied by one blog reader from Miri, Sarawak.

An old friend from Kucing have been following blog more than 2 years now and he usually will say hello on the phone once a month.

He started his swiftlet farming activities on a low key due to his financial situation. Even with a very tight financially he managed to now owned about three BHs. Two his own and one on a JV basis.

The other was a blog reader hailed from Miri, Sarawak who happened to join my Secret Swiftlet Farming seminar last month.

He is currently working in a company doing some kind of offshore activities and that week he was on leave.

  "Pak Harry I wanted to join you during your Kucing trip and I hope you will allow me to visit any BHs that you will be allowed to enter." I never wanted to disappoint this kind of request but with a small fee.

During the two days stays I was engaged to view two BHs that was pretty new and the birds have started to enter and there were about 5-6 nests in each of them.

Between the two I was fascinated with the second unit.

The first unit and the second were only about 500 square feet in size.  Roughly 20 feet wide by 25 feet long. Very small and compact.

The building have those air vent area on the rooftop which were converted to be the top entry system.

The previous owner managed to maximize the utilization of the room areas but cutting short of the roving area and only the entrance plus nesting room were provided.

It was well one and with the appropriate modification by the second owner the number of bird shits spots on the floor and the walls were encouraging.

I gave my full opinion and listed a few additional things to be done to capitalize on the current observations.

The next day I visited another unit closed by.

The size was the same, 500 square feet, but the designer allocated those roving room thus making the nesting room very small.

The owner of this second unit claimed that he rented the unit as such he tried not to splash too much money into it.

The roof were not properly installed with those nesting planks and he concentrate on the walls.  What he did was to place as many Styrofoam fake nests as possible. He also used those old scaffolding rack to hold those wooden nesting planks. Very innovative but not advisable.

I was very happy to note that those swiftlet occupied the BH and use those fake nests on the walls.

Have a look at these pictures and the lesson here is that you should never discard those walls.  They can be a good place for those birds to build their nests.

We also learned from  this visit report that any building, even as small as 500 square feet, can be converted into a successful BH.

Due to the building size the cost to own a BH, in this case, is below 100,000 ringgit.

There are a few more units empty and abandoned, you might want to own one.  Call me if you are interested to buy one.

We will help you to convert the unit properly for you.

If you need any clarification please email your enquiries to harryswiftlet@yahoo.com or call 6017 7551318

Gomantong Cave: The Exit HoleUsed By Bats !!!

This video clip show you where those bats are flying out from.

The form a column of 2 hours smoke coming out of the chimney.

Avery interesting view that makes neck paint a bit.

Enjoy the view and if you have any questions let me know.

Gomantong Cave Visit: More Pictures !!!

A few more interesting pictures taken during the Gomantong Cave visit.

Enjoy the pictures and if you are interested to join us during our next trip please let me know.

Gomantong Bats Flying From The Top Opening !!!

A beautiful video clip showing a column of bats flying out from an opening on the top of Simud Hitam cave at Gomantong.

They start their daily chores as early as 4:30pm and lasted for almost 2 hours non stop.

The column looks like those chimney smokes that run for miles.

Enjoy the clip and if you interested to join the visit please let me know at harryswiftlet@yahoo.com

Gomantong Cave Field Trip: Wonderful !!

The Gomantong Cave visit was enlightening and with me there were 9 others who tagged along to see the beauty of the big cave.


I went one day earlier to organize the itinerary and on the December 8th my 9 blog readers were in Sandakan main town.


We took about 11/2 hours to reach the cave entrance by a 4X4 wheeler.


From the ticket booth to the cave entrance we need to walk of those wooden walkways passing those thick forest.


Upon reaching the main cave entrance we took a short rest at an opening where two rows of long houses were situated. 


This was the Simud Hitam cave.  Simud hitam produces only black nests.


The Simud Putih, cave that produces white nests, was not accessible due to its distance (four hours to reach the entrance from where we were) and slippery route.


From far the entrance looks more like an opening covered with thick undergrowth as if we will be entering into another hidden world.


Just before stepping into the cave the smell of those rotting bird shit plus bat's guano were very strong.


The cave have those wooden walkways for tourist to walk without dirtying their boots.


The cave was pretty dark and the torchlight we brought were not bright enough.


We were lucky to have those workers inside who provide us with their high powered torchlight.


Inside the cave there were three openings on the roof.  The views of the opening were outstanding.


By 4.00pm those bats started to gather and ready to fly out.


At about 5:00pm they were seen flying out of the top most hole like those smoke billowing from a funnel.  Non stop for more than 1.5 hours.


At the main entrance the bats split into two groups and flew out at the corner of the cave entrance area while those swiftlet (maximus) flew in the middle.


There was a kind of traffic rules applied to both the birds and the bats when they make a shift change everyday.


Have a look as these pictures:

You Cannot Trust Anyone With Your BH

This topic is about your BH which you entrusted to some one whom you thought will not steal your white gold.

The owner of the BH was one of my blog reader and he wanted to share this bad experience with a 10 years old BH.

He was very upset with the BH performance.  After 10 years the number of nest was only 60.

He read my blog and learn some of the techniques that will help to populate his BH.

Yes it did however after his last visit all those nests that he saw started went missing.

He discovered the truth about who the culprit was.  The family which he entrusted the BH to look after.

Read this email and try to be careful with your plan to have someone to look after your BH:

Dear Harry,

 I will inform you about the progress of my BH in Bangil, Indonesia.

On Nov 2011 I visited the BH, and suprised about the result.

I found no Birdnest at all. I suspect that my BH is burglarized.

After checking the wall, floor and roof from inside, i cannot see any damage , everything allright.

But i ordered my worker to go to the roof, and checked there.

the roof is thin concreted. my worker found, that in a small area the concrete is broken.

as he inspected carefully, he found that, he can open small area the roof , enought room for a man to go inside.

Now i realize, why the birdnests never increase for over 10 Years

I bought that house from Mr X (he and his son are the builder of the BH) and i beg him to look after the house.

And they lives in another house beside the BH.

So i suspect, before he sell the house, he already made a back door on the roof. 

I hope this story can help the other BH's owner. so we dont make the same mistakes.

Here i send you the pics.

Thanks

EH

Interesting BH With Styrofoam Boards Strapped Around It !!!

I was inspecting a piece of land in Karak Pahang recently.

The owner wanted to sell at a reasonable price.

My main aim was to build a BH and perhaps plant some trees like gaharu plants on it.

While doing the inspection I was given the opportunity to check my neighbours land with BHs.

One of the two have this special wall designed with foam strapping around it.

There is nothing wrong with it and if the installation helps to reduce the internal temperature then the BH should be doing well.

The issue here is that have the owner take into account the design on the BH overall.

Has he designed as such the internal temperature will be able to stay below 30*C?

This is not common but it is interesting.

The December 3rd 2011: Secrets of Swiftlet Farming Seminar !!!

The Seminar went pretty well with about 15 participants.

I was happy that it went smooth and we managed to cover all the topics plus a trip to a Bird house in Kepong.

Among the many topics covered I put forward the method to choose the right sounds and how to process them. I also covered the ways to assemble them plus the setting of the "Last Tango".

The participants were given the opportunities to question on any matters that they were not sure of.

The end of the talk all were very happy and I was held up until 7:30pm to entertain some discussions with some of my blog readers.

I am satisfied and will continue organising the seminar again and the next one shall be in February or March 2012.

A Busy Week With Very Interesting New Development !!!

During the past two weeks I was a bit busy with a few interesting development taking place.

The best was the BH under my care in Kepong, Selangor. (You will be able to enter this BH if you enrol in my December 3rd, 2011 Seminar)

The sound rotation method suggested in my last article was tested at this BH for about two weeks now and the result so far is superb.

The number of birds staying inside during daytime was more that a few hundreds.

A very good signs and this proved that the sound rotation and those sounds selected were perfect.

Will let the sound runs for the next few months and see if it will last more than 3 months.

I took a lot of time and effort in planning the whole implementation.

Beside the sounds modifications and selection, I did installed the "Last Tango" amplifier and tweeters arrangement.

The other thing that I did was to use a  modified internal sound using the anchor sound with lots of baby sounds in it.

Nearly every other day I will visit the BH and observe the birds activities from the outside, flying in and out of the entrance hole, to ensure that the test was doing alright.

I know exactly what sound was playing during the time of my daily visit.  The birds reaction and flying behaviour when these sounds are played have a tremendous effect to my BH birds population.



Normally if you see 10 birds at the entrance hole flying in at out, playing at the tweeters, there will be about 6-10 fold birds inside i.e 60 -100 birds will be inside.

The birds seems to be behaving like crazy drunken man on the street when an attractive sound is being played. They will be flying straight to those tweeters and wanted to hang and stay on it.

Yesterday a very serious observation was done and corrected.

It seems that a crow was taking advantage of the situation.

This particular crow used a wait and catch tactic to capture the flying swiftlet.

The crow will perched on the corner of the monkey house closed to those external sound tweeters and wait for any of those swiftlet that will take chances.

The moment any of the frenzy swiftlet came near the crow, the crow will catch it for her meal.

From that moment I know that the swiftlet population will be reduced every hour.

I quickly summon my worker to climb up to make the necessary arrangements to stop giving any of those crows the chance to eat my swiftlet.

My conclusion on the use of sound rotation is a thumb up.

It works very well and I would be happy to share my discovery with those of you who wanted to get more birds into their BH.

This type of discovery will be considered sacred and a good secret weapon to many people and they will never share this type of discovery.

There is only one person who will share his discoveries.  That is "Pak Harry".

If you wanted to learn more about this special sound rotation technique please enrol in my Swiftlet Farming Seminar, December 3rd 2011 at Eastin Hotel Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Write to harryswiftlet@yahoo.com for more details on the seminar.

See you at my seminar.

The Sound Rotation Method Is Proven To Be Longer Lasting !!!

I wrote and article about using a kind of sound rotation technique a few weeks back and the feedback received was favourable.

The same technique was tested in my Kepong test BH and I am keeping a very close eyes on the response of those swiftlet in the area.

So far the effectiveness seems to be lasting.

For this particular sound testing I used an anchor sound A and played with two other non anchor sound B and C in the morning (from 7:00am till 1:00pm) while in the evening (1:00pm till 8:00pm) I used the anchor sound with B and D.

I was very happy to observe how those young birds will be flying in an out of the entrance window especially once there is a sound change from B,C and D to my anchor sound.

My recommendation is to line up your sound in the following sequence (the time indicated is for Peninsular Malaysia daylight hours):

Morning:
7:00am : Anchor Sound A
8:00am : Anchor Sound A
9:00am : Sound B
10:00am: Anchor Sound. A
11:00am: Sound C
12:00noon: Anchor sound. A

Evening:
1:00 pm: Sound D
2:00 pm: Sound D
3:00 pm: Anchor sound A
4:00 pm: Sound B
5:00 pm: Sound B
6:00 pm: Anchor sound A
7:00 pm: Anchor sound A

You can see that the morning session has more anchor sound A.

Why do you think I wanted it that way?

Usually it is the early part of the day when there will be lots of young birds that have just starting learning to fly for the first time will usually fly back after leaving the house.  They will usually need some rest on the first day.
While flying back home your chances of pulling them into your BH is higher.

For the evening sequence, you can see that I proposed a new sound D to be placed from 1:00pm till 3:00pm.
Then you should break it with the anchor sound for the next one hour.

After that you put back sound B or C for two consecutive hours to make the birds get ready for the last two hours of your anchor sound.

This will make your anchor sound last longer.

Trust me.......

If you have difficulties to arrange the above sequence or understand what I was trying to teach, please try to attend my December 3rd, 2011 Seminar at Eastin Hotel.

I will try to make sure every participant learn the technique until they know what to do.

There are still lots of empty seats and you should think what will happened to your BH once you apply the above sound rotation technique.

No other "Sifu" will allow you to know about this secret but ...........

Read this email from someone from Indonesia:

thanks a lot sifu harry

i will stop the testing

seems no nests for this few months after the test

btw still risky even though we just play external sounds for 2 hours at morning and 2 hours at evening for internal tweeters?
last time i was think that using that way, birds will encourage to fly through every corner of the house, and seems i was wrong sifu for external i did same way sifu, but the time is 5am-9am, 11am-1pm, 3pm-7pm (anchor sound) here for gmt +7 

and gonna test it for the set of time that u explain in blog

and you was very right, the anchor sound is last longer compare to play it all day long

thanks sifu

I don't really know what this guy does with the sound system at his BH but his last words seems to be what I was waiting for.

A Room Below A Wooden House With Lots Of Serinti !!!

I was very excited to be invited to view a colony of Serinti birds that occupied a section of lower floor of a wooden house.

The person who invited me to evaluate the nests is an old friend who owned a new BH closed to this particular Serinti colony.

"Pak Harry, can you evaluate these two nests and advise me your views?"

This was his exact words when he dropped by my Subang 2 warehouse about a week ago.

"Brother, this two are Serinti's nests and they are not as valuable as compared to swiftlet nests. The amount of saliva is too little (less than 20%) to extract and not feasible to make a honest living."  was my answer.

"What can we do with them if there are more than 500 nests in one location?", he posted this interesting question.

"Well if you are dead serious we can consider doing some kind of cross fostering but let me have a good look at the location first."  my reply to him.

Today I was at the said location and I was pretty excited to be given the opportunity to view the colony.

The strange thing was that these Serinti colony were occupying a wooden house that was elevated above the ground by about 5 feet.

You need to squat down to reach the part that there were occupying and if you are not careful you will hit those floor beams.

I give no time to craw, if I needed to, just to evaluate the situation.

After looking at the nests, mostly empty, and its surrounding I told the newbie to consider taking over the area as a cross fostering research centre.

There were about 300-400 nests that occupied the a part of the wooden house.

My idea were as follows:

1) Rent the whole floor at a small fee for cross fostering purposes.

2) Shut the area with suitable walls made of bricks and cement boards to block the lights.  One small room shall be for the swiftlet and the rest shall be for the Serinti.

3) Consider to hatch swiftlet eggs using an incubator.

4) Once they hatched switch those eggs with swiftlet babies.

5) Each nest can be a breeding cot for two young babies.  If all the 500 nests can successfully crossed fostered with swiftlet, we can generate a total of 1000 swiftlet babies.

6) Out of these 1000 young babies (40-43 days old) the breeder can transfer them to his BH nearby.  This can be a good source to populate his own BH using babies cross fostered by those Serinti birds.

7) I was also keen to apply the translocation method for my Bukit Pelandok BH, I told him.

8) We can even help others who would like the try the translocation technique.  They can book say 50 birds a cycle.

9) We can also use this as the training ground for those who wanted to learn the technique to carry out cross fostering project as long as they have a suitable Serinti colony house closed to their BH(s).

Those who would like to learn more please call 017 755 1318 perhaps by early 2012.

Tentatively the wooden house will be tenanted by next week and the renovation works shall be done within two weeks from today.

There will be a small fee for you to learn this special method of how to cross foster those swiftlet using Serinti birds.

If you have the will there are always some ways.