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.

Sometime people tend to be carried away with swiftlet farming.

This happened in Kuantan Pahang recently.

Converting an expensive bungalow into swiftlet farming is one of them:

Found at:  http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/11/21/nation/9945506&sec=nation

Posh bungalow used for swiftlet farming angers neighbourhood

By ONG HAN SEAN
hansean@thestar.com.my

Looking for answers: Residents protesting in front of the bungalow which had been converted into a swiftlet farm in Lorong Seri Kemunting 22, Kuantan.

KUANTAN: At a glance, a posh three-storey bungalow in Lorong Seri Kemunting 22 here seems to be the home of a wealthy family.

Its “residents”, however, are swiftlets. And the angry neighbourhood wants some answers.

Resident T. Separamaniam, 65, said he had lodged numerous complaints with the Kuantan Municipal Council, but to date, MPK had yet to respond.

“This bungalow had been turned into a ‘swiftlet farm’ about a year ago.

“Since then, the noise emitted from it to attract swiftlets has been a constant annoyance to us,” he said after staging a protest in front of the bungalow with his neighbours.

Separamaniam, who has been living in the neighbourhood for more than 20 years, said bird droppings were also a problem.

Another resident Teoh Yew Peng, 30, said another house in the area had also been converted into a “swiftlet farm”.

“In fact, the row of shophouses behind our homes are all swiftlet farms.

“They have been in operation for six to seven years,” he said, adding that the noise was a distraction to students at a school nearby.

Kuantan PKR service centre executive director Sim Chon Siang said: “I will contact MPK to find out whether this ‘conversion’ is legal.”

Just A Small Joke !!!

A young man went to his father one day to tell him that


He wanted to get married.

His father was happy for him. He asked his son who the


Girl was, and he told him that it was Samantha, a girl 


from The neighbourhood.

With a sad face the old man said to his son,


''I'm sorry to say this son but I have to. The    


Girl you want to marry is your sister, but please don't tell 


your  mother.''

The young man again brought three more names to his


Father but ended up frustrated because the response 


was Still the same.

So he decides to go to his mother.


''Mom I want to get married but all the girls that


I love, dad said they are my sisters and I mustn't tell 


you.''

His mother smiling said to him,


''Don't worry my son, you can marry any of


Those girls.  You're not his son."

Growing Of Limbs In The Lab !!!

This is indeed the most exciting discovery of all time.

A biotech company that can grow any missing part of human body.

Please click on this link:


Biotech Company That Produces Body Parts.


If people can go to this length to improve the health sector how about swiftlet farming?

An Innovative Cross Fostering Project In Selangor !!!

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 300 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 200-300 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 300 nests can successfully crossed fostered with swiftlet, we can generate a total of 600 swiftlet babies.

6) Out of these 600 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.

For A Larger Size Fruit Flies Use Pisang Nangka (Banana) As Your Bait !!!

Today I received an email from one of my blog reader asking about where to buy or get those fruit flies seeds.


Hi Pak Harry

Where to get fruit fly seeds?

Prize? etc

Please advise 

Regards 

Mr.S

This guy must be a beginner and most probably wanted to learn more on how to start his insect barn project.


He is not the only one who are looking at this direction.  There were at least 3-4 more people who contacted me to learn more about insect generating system,.

My answer to him was to search the answer in my blog.

I used to create those insects using those insect generating powder.  However it was too expansive. After getting more into it I switched to using those riped pineapples (fruits).

My opinion is that using those ripe pineapples is the cheapest and the easiest.

All you need to do is to collect from those ripe fruit from those sellers from a  wet market for 50 cent or lower each (over riped please). Try with 5 pineapples.

Usually over riped pineapples are thrown away into those waste bins. Maybe you can get free of charged.

Cut them into small pieces (1 inch ring) and put them into one tray or container. Put some water to wet the cut pineapples. Make sure the water does not sink the cut pineapples.

Get a packet of yeast and sprinkle on it. Yeast is commonly used in break making.  A packet is about 1 ringgit.

Put the prepared tray in your yard or a barn outside your BH or your own house.  Make sure it is covered from those rain water.

Once done try to inspect the tray on a regular basis.

You will be surprised what will happen within one day.  


You will see lots of fruit flies coming all over the place to have a sip of those pineapple juices.

They will come to eat the pineapple juice (pineapple wine) and at the same time will lay some hundred eggs on the pineapple.

Once those eggs are laid, it will be turned into maggots and will gorge itself until they are about 12 days old.

Once fat enough they will start to climb the wall of the container to find a place to transform into pupa.

These pupa will be where the insect will be hatched.

Once transformed a new set of fruit flies will be ready for you to provide a new set of pineapple juice to multiply.

If you wanted to start a grand scale insect generating barn you might want to select a larger sized fruit flies.

My suggestion is to use Pisang Nangka (banana) as your bait.

It seems that pisang nangka have a special smell that will attract many large sized fruit flies to be your host.

Try and see if I am right.

Please write to me to inform about this new finding about getting larger sized fruit flies specie.

I can be contacted at harryswiftlet@yahoo.com


If you wish to learn on the proper technique to prepare the insect food to be used inside your insect barn please write to me.

What Would You Do If Your Are In This Position ?

A very interesting message and I think I have a good answers:

Hi Harry,

i have complete my BH (RM250,000). i get my advise from my friend that are owning a BH in the same town to build the 2-storey 72 X 24 feet concrete BH. he introduce to me a consultant that will cost RM 20,000.

He provide:

installation of external and internal sound with no backup duirng a blackout.

visit every month to change any sound if bad result of swiftlet. i saw him using your 'superbabyking'. is it out-dated?

Does the price is fair?

Mr L.

This looks very familiar and something common which one day you will be facing yourself.

My question is not the fairness of the price but how long will you be dependent on him?

Twenty thousand ringgit is a lot of money to a layman.

But if you pay him that amount and every time there is a problem inside your BH you need to call him.

He will continuously send his bills unless you are independent.

My answer to Mr L was, why don't he use the 20K to learn as much as he can and master the BH sound techniques.

He can use the money to learn as much as he can about those swiftlet and the type of sounds should be used in his BH(s) and do his own selection of his BH tweeters, amplifiers, cables, auto changer, a range of good sounds and so forth.

He might be also able to learn how to install those tweeters himself.  Wired them to his fancy and I am sure he will be able to be independent once he mastered those technique.

My offer to him was to consider using getting someone who will be willing to help him to master the skill and after that he can be on his own.

If he keep using those consultant he will never be able to be an independent person.

Those of you who face a similar situation please write to me and I am prepared to come out with a proper programs to teach, on a person to person basis, on how to install a proper sound system plus the selection of gadgets.

Give yourself a chance to learn and not to waste those money to a third party with little benefits from it.

Write to harryswiftlet@yahoo.com and I will be happy to be your host.

Instant Results when someone tried the Idea about Modifying the External sound to be internal sound !!!

READ THE LATEST ON A TEST CONDUCTED IN RAUB, PAHANG YESTERDAY.

Sometime when you are thinking of new ways to improve your BH nests population, you will be surprised to hear what other people's ideas.

I was on my way from Kuala Krai to Kuala Lumpur, about 3 weeks ago.

Suddenly my mobile phone rang.

"Yes sir what can I do for you today?" I asked the caller.

"Pak Harry since you are very fond of sharing your ideas and new discoveries, I wanted to share this special advise from my Sifu.  He told me that one of the best way to quickly populate my BH is to find that particular external sound that will make those birds become crazy and will cling to the external sound tweeters at the entrance hole."

"Once that is done modify that same sound to include a higher percentage of those baby sounds, say 60:40 ratio.  60% baby and 40% the selected sound."

Hmm..... I have a good feeling that this might be a very special and interesting formula.

I have not tried the technique but I thing we should consider trying this interesting technique.

To those who know how to use those sound editor's software please try do the needful and perhaps provide some indication if this idea is right.

However those who are not that computer literate you might want to try a set.

I have a set of sound, external and internal, using one of my latest sound call super Pukau 1.

Since it will a trial, you only need to pay RM500 for the set of sound plus postage and 2 thumb drives of RM50.

Total cost is RM550 and I am sure this latest idea will improve your BH nests population.

All you need to do is to remit RM550 into Cimb Bank 14300000226109 awesome swift enterprise and let me know where to send the set to.

I will place suitable labels on the thumb drives.

Latest:


I send a set of super Pukau1(External) and Pukau3 (internal) to a newbie in Raub.


After using it these were his SMS messages:


"Hi Pak Harry, tested your sound, many birds, they all get crazy bang on the wall boom, boom, boom."


I asked him the actual sounds he was using:


"Pukau 1 and Pukau3" was his answer.


"Are they pecking the tweeters at the entrance hole?" I asked.


Yes Pak Harry, was his answer.


I replied:


"I know about it but I just wanted you to try out.  Please read my article dated Nov 8th, 2011"


"Okay will read tonight." was his answer.


On the next day, November 11th, 2011, early in the morning,  I gave him a call:


"Morning Mr Philip,  how was the birds reaction to the new set of sounds?"


"Very good Pak Harry and they are still effective this morning.  I used your Blackcloud before this but now your Pukau 1 as the external and Pukau 3 as internal.
Roughly there were more than 200 birds that came and play and many stayed in the BH.
I think you are very right on the idea of modifying those sounds into internal sound Pak Harry.
Thank you for allowing me to try it out."

China Lifted EBN import from Malaysia !!!

Something that was expected.

The Chinese have lifted the ban on edible bird nests originated from Malaysia.

I was asked about the issue during my last talk in KK, Sabah.

"Pak Harry what is your opinion on the current ban on edible bird nests by China?"

My answer was simple.  "It just a glitch and it will be resolved soon.  The matter is something like those gold prices.  It was going upward but suddenly crashed.  But you know that gold is a very stable precious metal.  Once the glitch is over it will rally back up."

"Just wait until the end of the year, I am sure the Malaysian Government and our Swiftlet Associations will not sit still." I replied.

Yesterday this was reported in the Star newspaper:

Found at: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/11/9/nation/9864398&sec=nation

Wednesday November 9, 2011

China to lift ban on Malaysian bird’s nest products

By CHOW HOW BAN
hbchow@thestar.com.my

BEIJING: China recognises the presence of natural nitrite in bird's nest and will lift the import ban on the products from Malaysia after determining a permissible level, Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said.

He said the Chinese authorities understood that the presence of nitrite was a natural occurrence when swiflets were raised.

“We reached a very important consensus today after we explained to them why there is natural nitrite in our bird's nest.

“We agreed that there should be no nitrite additive in Malaysian bird's nest exports to China during the production process.

“But the Chinese authorities will allow the presence of natural nitrite in the product,” he said after meeting Chinese health officials here yesterday.

Liow said both sides had set up a working committee comprising food specialists and experts with immediate effect, to determine the permissible level of nitrite in bird's nest products.

The committee will be headed by the ministry's food safety and quality division senior director Noraini Mohd Othman and two Chinese officials from relevant agencies.

“The committee started work today and Noraini will stay in China to discuss how we will work out the details and the timetable for nitrite standards,” Liow added.

He had led a delegation of officials and bird's nest exporters to China to discuss the issue with the Chinese authorities following reports of fake Malaysian bird's nest.

Federation of Malaysia Bird's Nest Associations president Datuk Paduka Beh Heng Seong said Malaysian bird's nest exporters would adhere to the nitrite standards as long as the permissible level was reasonable.

“We have assured the Chinese authorities that we will further improve the quality of our products and restore Chinese consumers' confidence in Malaysian bird's nest,” he said.

Technically Speaking, Using The Same Sound Might Be A Good Idea !!!

Sometime when you are thinking of new ways to improve your BH nests population, you will be surprised to hear what other people's ideas.

I was on my way from Kuala Krai to Kuala Lumpur, about 3 weeks ago.

Suddenly my mobile phone rang.

"Yes sir what can I do for you today?" I asked the caller.

"Pak Harry since you are very fond of sharing your ideas and new discoveries, I wanted to share this special advise from my Sifu.  He told me that one of the best way to quickly populate my BH is to find that particular external sound that will make those birds become crazy and will cling to the external sound tweeters at the entrance hole."

"Once that is done modify that same sound to include a higher percentage of those baby sounds, say 60:40 ratio.  60% baby and 40% the selected sound."

Hmm..... I have a good feeling that this might be a very special and interesting formula.

I have not tried the technique but I thing we should consider trying this interesting technique.

To those who know how to use those sound editor's software please try do the needful and perhaps provide some indication if this idea is right.

However those who are not that computer literate you might want to try a set.

I have a set of sound, external and internal, using one of my latest sound call super Pukau 1.

Since it will a trial, you only need to pay RM500 for the set of sound plus postage and 2 thumb drives of RM50.

Total cost is RM550 and I am sure this latest idea will improve your BH nests population.

All you need to do is to remit RM550 into Cimb Bank 14300000226109 awesome swift enterprise and let me know where to send the set to.

I will place suitable labels on the thumb drives.

Latest:


I send a set of super Pukau1(External) and Pukau3 (internal) to a newbie in Raub.


After using it these were his SMS messages:


"Hi Pak Harry, tested your sound, many birds, they all get crazy bang on the wall boom, boom, boom."


I asked him the actual sounds he was using:


"Pukau 1 and Pukau3" was his answer.


"Are they pecking the tweeters at the entrance hole?" I asked.


Yes Pak Harry, was his answer.


I replied:


"I know about it but I just wanted you to try out.  Please read my article dated Nov 8th, 2011"


"Okay will read tonight." was his answer.


On the next day, November 11th, 2011, I gave him a call:


"Morning Mr Philip,  how was the birds reaction to the new set of sounds?"
Very good Pak Harry and they are still effective this morning.  I used those Blackcloud before this but now your Pukau 1 as the external and Pukau 3 as internal.
Roughly there were more than 200 birds that came and play and many stayed in the BH.
I think you are very right on the idea of modifying those sounds into internal sound Pak Harry.
Thank you for allowing me to try it out.

Confession By A JPDP Officer !!!

"I would like to make a small confession.  I do owned a BH in Sabah."

This was something that every attendee of Seminar title: The Secrets of Swiftlet Farming organized by Sarang Putri Birdnest Industry recently.

A Secret was revealed during this seminar.

I was invited as one of the Seminar speakers.

The seminar was attended by at least 50 enthusiasts and was a very successful seminar.

There were two more invited speakers that highlights on the rules and regulations on swiftlet industries in Sabah plus an Agro Bank officer who talks about the availability of funding for swiftlet farming.

I was given the who morning to present my 5 papers while in the evening the floor was given to Jabatan Hutan and Perhilitan and Agro Bank.

Once finished we have a session called Swiflet Talk Show.

The four of us inclusive of Swiftlet Putri's Director, Agro Bank Officer, JPDP officer and myself were required to answer any question posted by the participants.

There were many who asked all sort of questions.

Mostly to myself, Silvester and the Agro bank officer.

Among the many were questions about Translocation.

The person who seems to know most about Translocation was Mr Silvester.

That was when he make his confession.

"I do owned a BH"

He used the BH to conduct his research on Translocation technique.  Prior to this he was not very sure that it will work.

Only after trying out himself and proved that the technique works, that he open his mouth promoting the technique to others.

"I did it because I need to feel confident that it works in my own BH."

Now it seems that his BH is progressing very well and I hope the Translocation technique will become more popular in all BHs in Sabah.

I think this should be an example to those who are giving talks on swiftlet farming.

They should first have their own BH and try out some of those new techniques.

Swiftlet Have The Ability To Trace Where They Take Their First Flight !!!

According to Mr Silvester of Jabatan Perhutanan dan Perhilitan Sabah (JPDP), swiftlet have the ability to trace where they were first released or take their first flight.

It is something that will be embedded inside the bird's DNA.

Once released into the BH and take their first flight these swiftlet will be able to recognize their place as their home.

In Sabah it is becoming very common where BH owners, working with JPDP, have a higher successful rate when they use a special technique called "Translocation".

This translocation technique is described as when you released those young birds inside your BH.

These young birds can either be from another BHs, Caves or you breed them by hatching them from swiftlet eggs.

Once these birds reached about 40 days old, you can transfer them into your BH, make sure you create a special room for them, feed them and later allow them to fly out of your BH.  Make sure they fly out using your exit or entrance hole.

Usually young birds will be able to take their first flight on their 45th days after hatching.

So when they are 40 days old you need to keep them in a special room inside your BH and you need to feed them for at least 3 more days.

They will usually stop eating on the 43rd day to reduce their weight and practise using their wings for their first flight on the 45th day.

If you can look after them for these three days, you will have a very good chance to populate your BH with ease.

Once they take their first flight, they will usually inspect the BH where they take their first flight and use to trace the BH back by the end of the day.

The birds seems to be able to embed the BH position in their brain and will later locate this BH by the end of the day, according to Silvester.

No wonder why the success rate in Sabah is higher than other state.

The good news is that his department do train Sabahan BH owners on how to carry out the Translocation technique plus how to feed those young birds obtained from the Department.

Each young bird is sold at about RM5 and the maximum number will be 200 birds per registered BH owner.

Where do you thing these young birds comes from?

I understand they are from those Caves.

If you need to know more about the Translocation technique kindly visit JPDP in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

You need to attend a special seminar on how to release those young birds, conducted by JPDP.

I would say that this interesting idea is something that will help the industry plus minimize the failure rate.

Remember there is no quick short cut but if your BH is well designed and proper micro habitats there is a very strong chance that this technique will work.

I can only say "Syabas" to JPDP.

If you released say 200 birds per cycle and say 20-30% will return to your BH, you will have at least 40 -60 birds back home.

Remember not all of these birds will be able to survive and find their way home.  Some might be eaten by their predators.

If you continue doing this for at least three years, you can easily have about 480 -720 birds in your BH.

Hmm ... this is not bad as compared to not a single bird.

To those who are not from Sabah, I believed you can still attend these course and learn how to breed young birds yourself and released them as per the required ways.

Gomantong Cave Visit In December 2011 !!!

A visit to Gomantong Cave in Sabah will be like a Muslim visiting Mecca to perform their Haj, once in their life time.

Yes if you are in swiftlet farming business, a one time visit to Gomantong Cave, will cap you as true swiftlet farmer.

This was said to be the cave that started it all. It was here in the 13th and 14th century the swiftlet nests were taken by the Chinese back to their country to feed their Emperor.

The cave is huge and charming.

It has a ceiling height of more than 130 feet with two sections the "Simud Putih" and the "Simud Hitam".

Simud hitam hold those black coloured swiftlet nests while the Simud putih holds white coloured swiftlet nests.

I plan to visit this cave in December 2011 and it will a great pleasure to have as many swiftlet farmer to join my trip.

The exact date will be advised by the organiser who happened to have the right to collect those swiftlet nests in the cave.

It will coincide with the December harvesting operation.

Those who would like to join the visit please SMS your name and email address to 017 755 1318.

The number of visitors shall be subjected to the limit set by the organizer.

The full fee shall be advised once confirmed.

Low Cost BH Using Cement Boards And Wood !!!

How can you minimize your investment to own a BH on your piece of land but not sure if those birds will come and stays?

The answer is found in Sabah.

During my recent visit to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, I was given the opportunity to visit an elevated BH, about 20 feet by 40 feet, using cement board and wood.

I was impressed with the owner's innovation but I told them to be careful with the heat, darkness and termites.

It seems that there are at least 50-60 units build using the same techniques in Sandakan, Sabah that proved to be working well.  Some produced about 3-5 kg a month.

The cost to have a unit up is only about RM55,000 excluding the cost of the land.

The price looks very affordable and there is no reason why a low income person is not able to have one unit at the back of their house.

Their main disadvantages will be:

* The heat from the sun.
The owner need to ensure that proper measures are taken to reduce the temperature inside the BH.
My recommendation is to use those insulation materials example bubble sheet to cover the walls and the ceiling areas.
The roof above the ceiling must be slightly higher to allow cool air to push those hot air out.
Try to consider using some kind of sun shade like those orchid farm black mats to prevent direct sunlight hitting the external walls.
 A temperature sensor should be installed to monitor the heat inside the house.  Their recordings to be closely monitored and corrective actions to be taken.

* The room darkness.
You need to make sure that the nesting rooms are dark enough to attract those swiftlet to stay.
Too bright will make them scared to stay.
Make sure proper walls to prevent those light are properly erected.
Those walls that are affected by those light must be painted black with water soluble odourless paint.

* The attack from termites.
You need to make proper measures to prevent those termites from attacking the wood used in the BH.
The most appropriate is to use suitable poison traps to lure those termite to harvest and bring the bait home to feed their colony especially their Queen.
The cement legs should be covered with zinc skirts to prevent any predators from crawling up into the BH.

The advantages will be as follows:

*Affordable Price Tag.
The cost to own one unit is below RM60,000 excluding the land.
This is an affordable choice which many average salaried person can cough out or take a personal loan.
As such any person staying in a Kampong with extra land at the back of their house can own a BH.
More people will share the gift of god product or business.

*Trial BH.
If you are not sure if there will be adequate birds to populate your high investments, you can use this as a trial BH.
The success of this trial BH will determine your next steps to move forward with your big plan or to stop if the trial unit is not doing well.

*Learning Centre.
To those who are new and have not mastered the swiftlet farming technology, this low cost BH can be your training centre.
You can learn and apply all those techniques that you have acquired from your researches.

* Mobility.
In the event the trial unit does not works well you can dismantle and move the house to another piece of land.
If you plan to move the BH you need to carry out some sort of preparation for mobilization.  Try to use those screws that can be easily dismantle without damaging the wood or cement boards.

* Spread your investment.
People says that it is better to dispersed your investment into more than one basket.
A good example: if you have 300K to own a three stories BH, you now can own at least four BHs at different locations that will give you a better chances of success.

If you wanted to know more please let me know.  Call 017 7551318

Another Incident Of 40% Nests Increase After A BH Being Burglarized !!!

While in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, I received a frantic call from a Vietnamese lady with her husband who were in KL wanting to see me.

I cut short my stay in Sabah and rushed home to make sure the two Vietnamese got what they came for.

"Pak Harry, we would like to meet you and purchase some items for our BH in Vietnam."

Managed to meet them in Kuala Lumpur City centre, somewhere at Komplek Kota Raya KL, and try to make sure that they get what they came for.

It was during the short meeting with them they asked me why their BH nests increased by 40% after a burglar entered their BH.

"Pak Harry my BH was burglarised this year in March.  Before the burglary the number of nests was only 172 but within 2 months the number increased to 242 nests."

"How come the number increased so much?"

From 172 nests to 242 nests, up by 70 nests or 40% increment.

What I told them that there is no logical explanation but I was told that once they loose their nest (plus egg and babies) they will move to another BH.

During that few nights stay they must have make some requests for some kind of help from their neighbours to restart their building of new nests.

The increment is very common and very similar to those BH that went through a "Forced Harvest" exercise.

My advise to them was to consider implementing a kind of force harvest once a year and the best timing would be during the end or early breeding season.

In this way there will be a minimum damage to those young chicks.

After answering all their questions I was happy to see them off back to Vietnam.

They planed to attend my December Swiftlet Farming Seminar and join a tour on Swiftlet BHs Visits.

You can meet them if you enroll in the December 3rd swiftlet farming seminar.

I Was In Kota Kinabalu, For A Seminar With 50 attendee !!!

Last week was a very hectic and tiring experience with a sad incident where my brother died after falling from an LAL of a BH.

I was very sad that he did not regain conciousness till the end.

It was a very tragic incident and I got to live with it.

I was in Kuala Lumpur when the BH owner called me to inform me that my brother fell from his BH while carrying out some repair works.

I rushed back and he was in the ICU unconscious. There were about 25 stitches on his head, blue black of his neck, shoulder and the side.

Looking at his conditions I told myself to expect the worst.

By Friday his heart stop beating and that was the day that I lost him forever.

It was a very very sad event but I told myself that he is now in heaven with very little things to worry anymore.

The next day I took my flight to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah for a pre arranged seminar organized by Putri Swiftlet.

The seminar was well attended with at least 50 attendee.

I was given the whole morning and were joined by Jabatan Hutan and Perhilitan and Agro Bank representatives.

It went well and I was happy that those who attended gain all the knowledge that they needed to be a successful swiftlet farmer.