More Strange Observations That Will Surprise Many BH Owners !!!

There are those happenings that will make your brain spins and yet you could not find the right answers.

I have many experiences that I classify as weird and strange.

I was at this particular BH yesterday and the owner keep saying that during the past few weeks those birds were flying high up above his BH and none wanted to fly down.

I keep telling myself that he must be wrong.  If the sound used is proper they will surely came down.

This is when I too got trap by their strange behaviours.

I removed the old sound and started to insert those new sounds, one after another, to check if it was true.

I got with me about 15 best sounds and I was very sure that they will come down.

The first sound went out without any reaction.

The second was the same with no reaction.

The third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and e.t.c , nothing happened.

This is weird and I could not understand the reasons why.

The only two sounds that have some reactions were the Super 208 and Kpop.

Their reaction was not the kind that I usually got but a few will hang onto the hexagonal tweeter for a few short minutes but later move away without saying good bye.

The point here is "what is happening and why do they behave as such?"

Very rare they behave as such.

When the owner asked my opinion I told him my guess:

This time of the year is the raising of babies period.  These birds are matured birds and they have their nests with babies at home.  When this period happened these swiftlet give very little reaction to any of those good sounds.

Maybe at the same time the percentage of your birds that are not yet found their partner are not many.

The birds reaction was very little and in the end I ended using the Super 208 as the final new sound for the BH.

I told the owner to keep looking at their reaction and if they are still no reaction we need to find a new sound.

Very strange and no one knows the actual reason.

A Weird Thing That Happened In A BH !!!

I wanted to visit this BH at Parit Buntar, Perak for some time now.

The owner was not satisfied with the number of birds residing in his BH and wanted some input on what he can do.

Since I was in Taiping, Perak about 30 minutes away I decided to drop by and meet him at his BH.

He was busy with his phone talking to his clients and I took the opportunity to enter the BH and see if there was any improvements on the nests and the floor (bird shit).

The first place that I usually will explore first was the monkey house areas.

To know if those birds are entering or not is to look at the four walls of it.

Usually if there are lots of birds entering the walls will be full of territorial shit markings.  Those swiftlet will make every attempt to throw their shit onto the wall to mark it as a place they have entered and explored.

The larger the numbers the better condition is your BH.

The other thing to observe is the accumulation of shit below those external sound tweeters. They will usually hang on those external sound tweeters and shit a few drops onto the floor.  If they like the sound they will stay until the sound is off.

This was where a weird thing happened.

After looking at the four monkey house walls I saw something on the wall closed to an external sound tweeter.

It looks like a dead bird.

Upon scrutinizing I think she must be dead for almost a week or two.  The carcass seems to have some mould or fungus on it.

She was about two inches away from the tweeter and on the wall.

The wall was smooth and there is no way that her leg was caught on any thing.  The owner touched it and gently remove her body.  There was no sign of her leg being caught in any crevices or strings or holes.

She was dead and must be for some reason.

It could be the external sound played on the tweeter.  But it does not make any sense since it will be off by 8:00 pm.

If she stays there on the same spot for three days or so without getting food she will be dead.

Maybe she was injured and she could no longer fly.  This might be a great possibility and I pity her.

Maybe she was too old to fly and chose to die beside the tweeter? The sound must be so good so much so she chose to die beside it.

This is a strange event and I just wanted to share with all my blog readers.

There are more weird stuff and you will be surprise to count the number of weird things happening in your BH.

Remember everything that happened have some reasons and it will be nice if you can learn and understand why those weird thing happened.

Open you eyes and your mind and try to figure out those reasons when you come across some strange phenomena in your BH.

If you are not sure send the story to me plus some photos and I might give you my ideas on why those birds are behaving in such.

Have a good and productive day ahead.

I shall be travelling to Semporna Sabah on 13th - 16th December and 16-18 in Kota Kinabalu.

If you wish to meet me please let me know.  So far two person have book me for a cup of coffee.

I can be contacted at 017 7551318

BH Inspection In Taiping, Perak !!!

I met a new BH owner at Taiping Perak yesterday and he told me that he was looking forward to meet me for many months now.

His interesting story was like this.

He bought a two stories shop house in Taiping, Perak and it comes with a BH with about 30 nests. The lower floor was on a long term rental contract and the top floor was a BH.

This new owner was not sure what he make up or do with the BH but when he started reading my blog he could not wait for the day to meet me.

"Pak Harry frankly I bought this shop house because it was pretty cheap plus a long term tenant downstairs. I have no idea about swiftlet farming and your blog have been inspiring.  The day after starting reading your blog I told myself that I need to meet the author in person.  Today I have the opportunity and thank you for being so generous."

"You share nearly everything and your ideas are different from the rest who owned BHs."

I gave him a long smile and told the history of how I started my blog.

All in all I wanted to share my findings and discoveries.

The industry have been kept so very secret and due to that many newbies find that they could not make it even after a few years.

We need to break that attitude and the way to go is to open it up with as many information as possible on the net.

I urge more people to copy my method and share all the discoveries that they have gone through.  By doing this we might find the answers on how to be a successful swiftlet farmers.

If you start writing your own blog try to be as humble as you can and never criticise others.  Set your objective plus what you wanted to achieve and stick to that as your guidelines.

From my experience as a blogger, once you start to criticise others and try to be the champion you will usually get some followers in the beginning but later they will shy away from not only your blog but also you.

I took some time to view his birdhouse and told him some bad and good things about it.

1) His BH external sound was not working. The previous owner seems to have cut the cable  connecting the amplifier.

2) The entrance hole area was not well designed to lure more birds into his BH.

3) The nests (30 nests) seems to be too dry and upon checking there was no water from those taps.  The humidifiers were not running too.

4) Nearly half of those internal sound tweeters were not working.  All those 30 nests were located closed to a few tweeters that were still in operation.

5) The nesting rooms were opened type without any partitions.  They were a bit too bright.

6) The good news was that the nesting planks were clean and free from fungus.  This might be due to the water supply and malfunction humidifiers.

7) The number of fake nests were too little.  50% of the installed fake nests were occupied.

8) The numbers of internal sound tweeters were about 50 and that was a bit too little. I don't fancy those square tweeters, I prefer those rectangular type 2"x 5".

9) The nesting planks could be provided with a number of crossings.

10) He should have installed a few kite tweeters inside the nesting rooms.

11) The BH smell could have been improved by spraying those Mutiara Aroma.


He was keen in using those insect generator and I told him I will try to come out with something if I was given the opportunity to revamp the BH.

I need to come out with a proper report on the actual status of his BH and perhaps come out with a number of ideas of what can be done to bring more birds into this BH.

He was lucky to have discovered my blog.

You Should Try To Follow This Advise If You Happen To Be In Kuala Lumpur !!!

Just for a few short minutes you will be able to learn so many new things !!!

If you happened to be visiting Kuala Lumpur, either on transits,  for a seminar, courses, departmental meeting or etc try to allocate some time to meet Pak Harry.

You know why?

Because Pak Harry is someone who is free to give his time to listen to your BH problems and give his opinion.

Just one time and you will want more from him.

I have two good examples.

One was from Kota Kinabalu and the other was from Bagan Serai.

The first person came down solely to meet me while the second was on her way back from Singapore to Bagan Serai.

She wanted to meet me for quite some time but never get a chance until recently.

What she wanted was those Super Pheromone, a good sound and an insect generating powder.

I assembled for her and told her how to apply them to the best of my knowledge.

In the meantime after listening to her swiftlet farming history, I was willing to tell her what I think was wrong with it.

After one year only 3 nests.

Just read the first and than the second email messages just after they came down to meet Pak Harry:

1st Email:

Hello Pak Harry,

I would like to thank you personally for making my trips taking me around visiting the populated BH at Kepong and Hulu Langat recently so meaningful.

I will try to apply the knowledge and method I gained in preparing the insect generating powder from you. I will apply those to my BH during next visit to my BH this weekend.

Even though the visit was short but i considered myself very lucky as the result of these most treasure able experienced that will never last for the benefit of my BH.

You are wonderful, enthusiastic and special gifted person that could talked never ending stories or discussion about swiftlet farming.

I will urge and suggest to the newbies to contact and learn from the right mentor (sifu), i.e. YOU, Pak Harry.
Once again, Thanks.
Regards,
Mr P (Kota Kinabalu)



2nd Email:

Hi Harry,

I am Chris from Bagan Serai, Perak working in Singapore.

We met at Sheraton Hotel.

Nice meeting you and you are great. Ready give a lots of tips.

 

Just need to ask you. Do I need to wash those new fake nest before installing it.

Where should I install it. at the 90 degree corner, right?

 

Thanks for everything. Hope to see you again.

Try not to miss every opportunity in learning something from someone who have this weird method of preaching the right methods to be a swiftlet farmer.

Something That Might Be Useful: The Stop & Go !!!

To me this is something the opposite of what I was expecting.

This BH owner was more surprised than me.

I was trying to help this newbie with his BH with 200 birds but with only 10 nests.

After asking him a few questions I think the reason why the number of nests was too low might be because he operated his external sound for 24 hours.

Yes he admitted to me that he learned it from his friend in Dungun, Trengganu.

Hmm I told him to try running the external sound up to 9:00 pm and see what happened.

He went home and followed my advise.

After about one month plus he was not happy with the shrinking number of birds returning home every night.

It went down to less than 150 birds.

What he did was natural.  Yes put back those external sound back to 24 hours.

After about two - three weeks the total number of birds jump up to 300 plus.

Beside the jumped number of birds reported home the number of markings seems to increase.

I was not in any position to suggest what was actually happening with his BH.

His opinion was like this:

"Pak Harry I think the rough noise produced by the external sound I used might be the sound of a colony's leader.  When these swiftlet listen to his voice they feel safe and comfortable. That might be the reason why the number jumped up by nearly 100%."

He might be right and I told him to continue monitoring both the total number of birds and nests on a regular basis.

If you look at this special incident you might want to look at the bright side.

The decision to stop the sound at 9:00 pm for about two weeks and after put it back to 24 hours might be something that we should adopt.

Just imagine that every time we do this the number will increase 100%.

If we do three times a year you might eventually experience nests increase by 300% or more?

I would like to try this out.

Those who wanted to try please contact me.

Let us research this technique and share the result.

The result indicated is superior to doing those force harvest.

Force harvest can only allow an increment of around 30%.  Once particular person who followed my advise manage to get 75% the maximum.

If this new technique can get better result why not we use the sound stop and go system.

I will continue to talk with the guy who happened to try this technique and let us go deeper into it.

We need to come out with a proper explanation why suddenly the birds increased to such a high level.

Just Because Of Those Insect Generation System Or Something Else ???

I have been doing a few little things here and there.

Among all the things that I have been doing I love to sit and watch the behaviour pattern of those swiftlet flying above and around my Kepong BH.

The BH is very closed to my home, about 15 minutes drive, and I will make every excuse to drive there and sit in the car watching those birds behaviours.

While sitting in the car watching I will have some snack and drinks to quench my thirst.

One of the many things that I observed are the followings:

1) Those birds will usually comes either single, double or in a group.

2) Those that come single or doubles are usually the mother of farther that brings in food for those young chicks inside the BH. They will fly straight into the BH and within less than a few seconds (30 to 60 seconds) they will fly out at a very high speed.  It was as if they have just released those heavy staff inside their body and now it the time to rush to somewhere to fetch more food home.

3) The group visitors are very interesting.  They come in a group because I think they hunt food together.  Once the leader for the food source the rest will join the catching.  When they came near to my Kepong BH I can safely says that all, one by one, will start to find where those insects are coming from.  Once the leader found it the rest will follow his action.  All will enter the entrance hole.  Some will quickly fly our but some will not.  This is where you need to find ways to lure them not only inside the monkey house bit also into the nesting room.

4) The amount of insect that flew out of the entrance hole seems to be not the same volume.  Some time more and sometime not so many.  My gauging tool is by looking at the number of Martin birds flying around or closed to the entrance hole.  The more they are the higher I think those insects are flying outside.  This is where the fun begins.  Where these Martin start crowing the entrance area those swiftlet will also join in the insect catching.  The large crowd actually attract those swiftlet to fly towards the entrance hole.  The Martins will fly outside while those swiftlet will quickly enter the monkey house room.

5) There were a number of individual swiftlet that were more attracted to the sound than the insects.  You can see how they start to peck those tweeters on the entrance window's perimeter.  The affected swiftlet will fly towards the tweeters cling on them peck on it and repeats the cycle on and on.

6)The best will be during a heavy shower (rain).  They usually will come to the entrance hole more frequent and lots of them in numbers.  It is as if those insects love to fly out of the monkey house before or just after rain fall.

7) Late evening is something else.  Those birds that are staying inside will have no problem in entering the entrance hole and go straight inside.  However those new birds that are not familiar with the BH will actually fly in and out of the entrance hole and some will be pecking those tweeters over and over again.  Many will eventually enter the BH and stay in (I suspected).

If you think that I might be wrong please carry out your own observation.

What we need to do is to learn more about their behaviour pattern.

The more we learn about how they are attracted to our entrance hole area the better will be our chances to harvest them inside.

It is very nice to carry out these observations.

If that BH is yours you will feel very happy, little stress and you know damn well that they are helping your next harvesting operation.

Best of luck to all of you out there.

My Latest Article On Super Pheromone Blogspot !!!

Just wanted to inform you all about my latest article on super pheromone posted at http://superpheromne.blogspot.com

Let me give you some idea how to chose the right spots to spray those Pheromone.

Before you start spraying the product you need to stop and think about the followings:

1) The Pheromone is pretty costly.  If you divide its cost to the number of spray you can get per canister you might get a figure like RM 1.00 per spray.  So every time you squeeze the nozzle head it will cost you a ringgit.  Therefore you need to think and plan where you should spray the liquid.

2) If you wanted the spray to be effective, you must firstly check if there are any birds that comes in and out of your BH.  If there is none than it is worthless.  The Pheromone will not be effective if there are no birds entering your BH.  Try to lure those birds first by changing your external sound and so on.

3) Chose the area where you stand a higher chance to get results.  If there are birds entering your BH, you need to check where are their favourite spots.  You can easily determined where they preferred by checking where are their bird shit on the floor.  These birds will usually shit twice a night.

4) Once you have confirmed the bird shit spots try to check is it below a tweeter? If it is that you need to think of where you should spray around this particular tweeter.

5) If I were you I will try to come out with every thing that I can to ensure that this particular couple that were staying at that selected spot to be your tenant by hooks or by crooks. I will install at least one fake nest on the left or the right of this particular tweeter.  The fake nest shall be at least 1.5" to 2" away in the middle of the nesting plank.

6) Once the fake nest is in place I will now choose to spray first on the fake nest, one on the outer skin of the fake nest and one inside the fake nest.

7) My next two spots will be on the plank just above the tweeter.

8) If the tweeter happened to be at the cluster location, I will do the following:

    a) I will arrange to install two fake nests to the left and right of the tweeter as per this picture.

    b) I will spray on both fake nests, the joint where the 45* corners meets and above the tweeter.

9) If the bird shit spot is below a cluster tweeter and you know that all the four tweeters are with birds, you need to be a bit more aggressive.  You need to do the same as item 8) on all the tweeters.  My advise is to use those aluminium fake nests that gives you two sides.

I hope the above is useful to all.  Best of luck to those who have bought the Pheromone.

Those who have never tried using the Pheromone please give you BH a chance.

Call Harry at 017 7551318 for a canister.

Just Think About How Male Birds Start Making Their Nest?

I was looking through an article about birds and came across how weaver birds took so much trouble to start building their nest.

Make objective is to attract a female bird to be his life partner.

Have a look at this marvellous video clip:



The lesson from this nest making exercise is to focus on the purpose of building a nest.

I think the same applies to swiftlet birds.

The male will start the building operation and after reaching a level that is appropriate he will invite his partner to check for her approval.

Only if she approved he will be able to continue plus at the same time make love to her.

Remember once copulation is successful she has eight days to lay the first egg.

The second will be either on the ninth or tenth day.

A Doctor Who Have Some Advise On Lynas !!!

I wrote an article about the possibility of radioactive contamination if any from Lynas Plant in Gebeng about a few months ago.

I still believed that some political parties are trying to scare many Kuantan folks about it and I believed that if it is true our government will not approve their operation permit.

It does not make any sense but it is sensational politically.

Remember I am not a politician but swiftlet farming enthusiast.

Let us read a bit more from this article obtained from BERNAMA dated: November 5th 2012:-

Found at: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=%2F2012%2F11%2F5%2Fnation%2F20121105133859&sec=nation#.UJtMsJkCwZ4.facebook

KUANTAN: A prominent Pahang doctor has rubbished concerted "lies" spread by the Opposition among local residents on radioactive concerns from the recently completed RM2.5bil Lynas rare earth plant here, saying that the anti-Lynas campaign was purely politically motivated to win votes in the coming general election.

Datuk Dr Looi Hoong Wah, a consultant physician with 40 years of interest in nuclear medicine and particle physics, said the anti-Lynas activists had been brainwashing the people here for the last two years despite the fact that there would be "absolutely no radiation waste or any toxic waste whatever" from the plant.

Lynas' safety was verified by six independent bodies, including the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the world's highest authority for atomic energy.

"The substance they bring in is just nothing but rare earth oil containing a tiny bit of weak radioactive thorium 232.

“That is an extremely weak sort of radioactive substance and it has a very long life of tens of billions of years.

"And all this anti-Lynas people say...oh our great-great grandchildren are going to suffer for 14 billion years. This is absolutely rubbish," he said. Dr Looi said if one were to look at the half-life of radioactive material (the time required for a quantity to fall to half its value), the longer the half-life, the less dangerous it would be.

"For instance, if half of a house is burned down in 14 billion years, will it cause any problem? No, it won't cause any problem because there is only a tiny fire, whereas if it is burned down in 40 minutes, then a lot of people will get killed or injured.

"The same thing with lead, the one we use in our car batteries. It has a long half-life as well of 19 billion years. “Because it has such a long half life, it is practically non-radioactive when you use it in your cars. So thorium is very weak radioactively," he said

Asked how he got interested in nuclear science and particle physics, Dr Looi said he developed an interest when he was a medical student in Manchester about 40 years ago as one of his tutors was a nuclear physicist.

He said he had put thorium in his hand without any side-effects till today because thorium, when released outside connected with electrons to produce helium gas, just like the one used to fill balloons, which was completely harmless. Dr Looi reckoned that it was purely for political reasons that the Opposition was trying to work everybody up about the Lynas plant in Gebeng.

"The thorium 232 or decay products produce only a tiny bit of electron, which is electricity.

“It doesn't cause any problem. You find that Lynas' radiation, once you are outside of the boundaries of the plant, the radiation is zero.

“There is no instrument on this earth which is sensitive enough to pick it up," he said.

Dr Looi said the disinformation on the Lynas bordered on ridiculous assertions because even in a human body there was radioactivity as well due to potassium, which doctors give to patients to control the intake of salt in hypertension and other cases.

"Even in our body, we have about 4,400 becquerel (Bq) whereas the Lynas waste and ore contain less than 6 Bq per gram.

“This is already 124 times more than the Lynas worst case scenario. So why complain about a Lynas plant in Gebeng here where there are 124 Lynas plants in your body producing radioactivity?" he added.

Asked on the effects on workers, he said what they could possibly get was only less than 20 percent of the permitted dosage. Dr Looi also quoted Dr Nick Tsurikov, the international radiation specialist, as saying that there was no radiation risk whatsoever as far as the Lynas plant was concerned.

He also said that opposition to the plant should take into account that more than 1,000 quality jobs were at stake and these are people with families for them to put food on the table.

"Once you have a rare earth plant around, (other) companies will come, like Siemens (which) is planning to come in and make use of the rare earth. They will produce thousands more jobs because of the spill-over effects," he said.

Dr Looi appealed to non-governmental organisations and the Opposition to "wake up" and realise that the Lynas plant would be of great benefit to the country.

"You can brainwash people for some time but you can't brainwash them forever," he said. - Bernama

Super Pheromone Dedicated Blogspot !!!

I am taking new challenge in starting another blog page dedicated only on my Super Pheromone aroma.

My main purpose is to gather as many pictures on the effectiveness of this product and share with those who are not convinced that it can work.

Please click on to this blogspot:  http://superpheromone.blogspot.com

If you have any comments or pictures of the effectiveness after applying this super charged hormone please email your comment and pictures to

harryswiftlet@yahoo.com

Remember you contribution and help will be very useful to help the industry.

We need to find the right type of aroma to lure more birds into our BH and this Super Pheromone is looking good as one of your option.

Those who have not tried and wanted to try please call 017 7551318.

Special offer for the first 10 person however he need to promise to send to me photos of any signs after you spray it on the nesting planks.

Call now if you wanted at a special price.

This Email From Ho Chi Ming City Is Interesting !!!

This email was send to me by a newbie who have never stop learning all those things that I have blogged:

Hi Harry,

I'm N from Hochiminh city, Vietnam. I met you 3 times with my friends and my husband ( 3 Vietnamese couple met you first time in August 2009). 

I have an one year operating BH and i follow most of your ideas. I think you are amazing professional and smart. I admire you. I read your blog every day. 

My BH sketch was advised by you, i used your zic zac LAL even though my Vietnamese sifu thought that i'm crazy. He thinks swiftlets can not find the way down with that LAL but he was wrong. 

I protected my decision because i definitely believe you. You're right. It worked very well. My birds stay most of 4 floors, except 3th floor quite little. 

I added 4 VIP room ( one in 4th floor, 2 in two sides of 3th floor and 1 in second floor) but only the one in 4th floor works well even though it's hottest because it's in highest floor. 

I don't know the reason why. Maybe because the good VIP room i opened door tin the middle, the rests i opened in left or right. 

What's about your opinion?

Firstly, last year i followed my Vietnamese sifu and used his plank ( that combined by wood and plastic). 

I install also many fake nests. At the begining, it's OK, There were about 40 couples stay in first 5months. 

But i recognized that they just made in fake nests. They couldn't make real nest because of slippery planks. 

My birds made a little and fly away. I had to decide to change all my planks by wood plank and stones. 

I finished my works in the end of May. 

After 4 months, now my BH is potential. There were about 20 real nests and 40 fake nests last month when i inspected. the best location are VIProom in 4th floor, first floor and second floor ( outside VIP room) . 

I'm very happy except some problems like some leaks or not good humidifier system. But yesterday i saw 2 snake skin in my BH. It means there are at least 2 snakes in my BH. 

What i have to do now Harry? Can you give me some advices? I wait for your opinion.

Best regard,

I rememberred when she came with her husbands and four others.  They engaged me for a one say session to learn in details about swiftlet farming.

The went back and started on their own and she seems to be very happy with what happened now.

How ever there are still many unknown things that happened that she don't know what to do.

I quickly replied to her so that it will comfort her with those problems in hand.

My gentle reply to her:

After digesting your problems I think these comments might be useful:

1) I am glad that you have been reading my blog and incorporate many of my ideas that were written.

2) Remember all my ideas are for you to try and not all will be good at every locations.  There can be some that are applicable at one location but not at other locations.

3) The possible reason why they are not occupying the 3rd floor can be due to the location of the LAL.  If you want my comment try to sketch the floor plan of your 4th floor so that I can see the LAL positioning and the partitions that you need to guide the bird to fly into the 4th floor.

4) One other possible reason is the morning light.  I think your entrance hole is facing the west.  If your entrance hole faces west the morning light will be a bit late to guide those birds out.  When this environment occur your birds will tend to stay closed to the floor that brings in more light and near to the entrance areas. You will have some difficulties to pull them to the VIP rooms especially the lower floors.

5) The fake nests seems to be very attractive to those birds.  Remember these fake nests are to be removed or relocate to other floors when they have been used more than two cycles.

6) If you found those snake skins I think they are inside your BH.  You need to try to find them and catch or kill them.  They normally hide behind those tweeters on the ceiling. You might want to sprinkle those yellow sulphur materials around your BH.  Snake don't like sulphur.

7) Yes if the nesting planks are too slippery or have lots of fungus those birds will not like them.  Need to monitor the fungus or replace the plastic to real wood.

8) The positioning of the door of your VIP room is linked more to the flying path.  If you have the flying path right you put it at the right. If otherwise use the left.  However to be on the safe side put it in the middle.

I hope the above comments made are good enough however I think you should not think of coming to KL again to refresh your ideas on how to get more birds into your BH.

Come down for a two days break and learn more from me.  There are a number of new ideas that I have created and maybe you can get them installed in your BH.

The best would be:

1) The use of Kite tweeters.

2) The last tango sound system.

3) Insect generating system.

4) The Mutiara aroma formulation.

5) The use of Super Pheromone.

Come to KL and join the fun and learn more new things.

Harry

You Can Rent And Try Using Those Insect Generators !!!

If you are very new in swiftlet farming and wanted to find as many ways as possible to populate your BH, please come forward to try out those insect generating system.

You can either buy at least two sets or rent them for a small fee for at least six months.

Before you try one my sincere advise is to come to Kuala Lumpur and let me show you some interesting installations that I have started and in operations.

It might give a faulty smell a bit but the outcome from installing such thing will be something that you should look at.

One BH owner called me two days ago telling me something that he think was unusual.

His BH is currently with a number of insect generating racks located on the ground floor.

About four months ago he bought some raw nests from a friend and now he harvested his own raw nests.

"Pak Harry something very unusual.  The raw nests I harvested from from my BH is nearly twice as big as the one I bought about 4 months ago. Do you think is it because of the insect generating system? Not only they are larger but thicker and heavier."

My answer to him was it might be the reason.

Due to the supply of food his BH residents are larger in size thus the will usually need to have a larger sized nests.

I might want to add here that if your swiftlet are healthy and large in size they will usually produce more saliva.

Their saliva might be thick thus the nests they construct will be larger and thicker too.

Due to their surface area they might hold more water in them.

This led to a heavier weight per nest.

The point here is that he keep his insect generation system in operation.

He monitored the nests progress and he is now a strong believer in insect generating system.

Though his BH was not located at the most ideal location but he feels that the insect generator is the key to get more birds in his area to come over and stay with him rather than his neighbours.

About Two Months And Not Many Birds Entering His BH !!!

Just finished talking of a young man who wanted some sounds for his father's newly launched BH.

"Pak Harry I was asked to call you about buying BH sounds.  Do you have them?"

This is something very common where BH owners who thought that building a BH is simple and they took no precautions when making the decision.

After one to two months they then realized that their BH is not performing to their very high expectations.

The worst thing that happened was when they leave everything to their so called "Consultant".

I told the young boy that there might be more to what he or his dad think.

My advise to him was to get someone that is well verse with BHs to come and inspect.

Let him do the necessary investigation and see if he can come out with the right recommendations.

It might not be the sound but there are 1001 more things that are not right with the BH, I told him.

Since he was from Sibu, Sarawak I got a personal friend who happened to be my student who now owned a  number of successful BHs in Sibu.

He is a Doctor and I am sure you can depend on him.

To those who are new to this swiftlet farming industry please be a bit more sensitive on what you should do to be a successful BH owner.

Try to learn as much as you can by attending seminars, courses and read as much as you can about swiftlet farming.

I am sure attending my seminars will be useful.

On the same issue I have a talk with a friend of mine in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah today.

He once organized some seminar for me to deliver in KK and during the same time managed to get me to help a few of his friends to build BHs in Sabah.

I was on the phone asking him to help another newbie searching for some nesting planks.

"Pak Harry when are you coming to KK again.  I got a very good news for you.  My BH on the hill slope which you help to design and decorate inside is doing well.  Last few month the nests number suddenly surged to 20 nests with lots more markings inside."

He sound so excited and I told him to continue monitoring the BH and make sure its sound are running on a continuous basis.

What about the other BH in Beaufort?

"That one is better still.  The number now is above 50 nests and a lot of birds are coming in to stay.  I estimated about 300 birds now."

This was the BH whose owner fell down the LAL during its early construction stages.

I remember the story that immediately after he recovered from a two days coma he wanted nothing else but to listen to my external sound:

 "Can I listen to the Marvellous Cloud sound?".

I am very happy with the two BHs in Sabah.

I hope on my December 14-16th to KK I will be given a chance to visit both units.

Both BH owners were very proud and did mentioned thank you Pak Harry.

The Effect Of Having Insect Generator In your BH !!!

I have to admit that it is very difficult to change the mindset of new BH owners to adopt something new.

The is more true when you are trying to ask them to do something that is classified as ridiculous and unheard before.

"This Pak Harry is getting out of hand.  He is crazy with those insect generation and I am not surprised that he is trying to sell his insect generating powder."

Well you might have that stored in your head but let me tell you this.

Please buy these insect powder from someone else but try to adopt this unique system for at least 6-10 months.

I have tried it and you will see what happen after you watch these two video clips.

I was at the Kepong BH yesterday and I was amazed with the activities happening around the entrance hole.

There were at least 20 martins that were having a fun time catching those small insects.

Those insect came from an insect generator system that I installed inside this BH monkey house.

I activated about three bags of insect generating powder and they are currently filled with those maggots producing new generation of insects that will fly out to mate.

Once they are out of the entrance window they will be harvested by those martins and swiftlet.

The moment there is an eating frenzy shown by those martins the swiftlet flying by will join the fun.









 This is when they will be closed to those external sound tweeters.

Since swiftlet can understand and attracted to those external sounds they will move into your monkey house.

They will now either start catching those insects or get closer to those external sound tweeters.

Some will eventually enter your nesting rooms.

This is where you will have a very strong chance to have a new tenant if your BH conditions are proper and attractive.

You will be surprised if I guarantee you that once this frenzy eating phenomena occurred you will stand a chance of increasing your nests number by at least 30-35%.

Try to proof that I am wrong.

This new concept might be new to us in Malaysia but they are being used extensively in our neighbouring countries.

If you wish to get to know more about this new idea please let me know or come to KL and let me be your tour to show you how the system is used and activated.

Try to learn and implement new ideas and if you do them correctly I am sure your will get faster results with your new BH.

Call harry at 0177551318 or write to my email harryswiftlet@yahoo.com

(Increase in activities with more swiftlet joining the hunting)

Every Good External Sound Should Have A Compatible Good Internal Sound !!!

I might sound crazy but this is what I strongly believed in:

"Every good external sound should have a compatible internal sound."

You might think that I must be mad or crazy but from what I have tested and doing research on this particular issue I think I am not.

Imagine you are the bird that passed by a BH with this unique sound that you cannot resist.

You came towards the BH and start searching for the source of this particular sound.

You found it and followed into the BH nesting room.

You stayed there to enjoy the soothing or listening to that beautiful mating call sound and you are carried away till after 8:00pm.

At 8:00 pm the sound suddenly stopped and the new sound on those tweeters are now a new sound that is not familiar to your ear.

I am sure you will get a bit pissed off and will find your way out of the BH to rush home.

However if the internal sound is almost the same as the external sound except it has more of those baby sound I am sure you will not be rushing out at 8:00 pm.

This is why I think the internal sound of your BH must be closed or compatible to your external sound just before the external sound is switched off.

I have carried out some research on this matter and what I did was to develop an internal sound to every good external sound.

What you need is to use a suitable sound editor software and you download the selected external sound that you are fond of.

Listen to the sound and find out if there are any where along the line there are any baby sound.

Once you have located this portion copy and start pasting onto the sound so that these baby sound are longer than it was.

If you practise doing this for some time you will eventually be able to make the sound to be your internal sound.

Once that is done you can try to run the external sound together with the new internal sound you have generated.

Try it and I am sure you will find something interesting which you have never given any thought before.

Only Pak Harry will tell you to learn something new.

If you need more advise please call 017 7551318

If You Are Very New In Swiftlet Farming !!!

I am of the opinion that if you are very new in swiftlet farming you must never jump into building your own BH without a clear knowledge of what you are going into.

There will be lots of challenges ahead and if you are not ready to face the challenges you might have some mental breakdown.

Good example:

There was this person who converted his shop house into a BH. Since his wife was his financial controller all the money spend were given the nod from his wife.

When his BH did not show any result he was on a war path with his wife.

Due to that they are now sleeping on the a different bed.

No love life and stressed forever.

The lesson from this story might be:

1) Try to make sure that your decision is right and you have mastered the knowledge in swiftlet farming.

2) Try not to allow your wife to be your financial controller.  He he he....

Well if you have read the above I think you can now put your mind together and focus on how you can be a successful swiftlet farmer.

First gather as much knowledge as possible.  Meet the right person who will give you the right advise.

Then attend a few seminars that are easily available in the market.  Make sure you attend those seminars that will help you to acquire knowledge but not to be lured to buying unnecessary things. Should try to attend Pak Harry's Swiftlet farming seminar held once every two months.

Try to find the chances or ways to visit as many BHs as possible.  Not one or two, maybe 10 and see the bad and good design.

Once you have a good look at the good and the bad design BHs sketch and discuss with your sifu.

When you wanted to start a BH try to get some one who is knowledgeable to be a part of your team.  Get him to be your advisor.  Pay him to be at site at frequent as you can.

When you build a new BH make sure your BH is accompanied with proper drawings.  Don't depend on hand sketches.

Make sure your contractor know exactly where those LAL are to be located from the first floor to the last floor.  Never make any mistake on this LAL issue.

The entrance hole design must be perfect.  If you choose the wrong design your BH will be doom.  Trust me on this.

While you BH is under construction you need to start looking as starting your sound library.  Get the list of sounds that will be suitable for your external and internal sounds.  Don't gamble on this.  Spend some money and get the best sounds.

Your BH must be properly treated before putting it to full operation.  Try to spray some kind of aroma on the walls to mask those cement smell.

Once ready you need to ensure that all those piping for humidifiers and wet floor are working to your specification.  Make sure no water leaks anywhere along the piping.

Run your BH for about a few days and enter it for another last inspection.

After that try not to enter your BH too often.  Use those remote CCTV cameras to observe the BH.

For more details contact 017 7551318

Full Cup Silicone Fake Nest Recycled !!!

Another set of pictures taken inside one of those BHs that uses soft silicone fake nests to lure more birds to quickly stay inside.

I fully recommend that if you wanted to quickly populate your BH try to install about 100 fake nests at least on every floor of your BH.

If you can try to get 50 of the 180* and 50 of the 90* shape.

Try to install these fake nests inside your VIP rooms.  The best place to install them is those areas that you know the birds will enter and feel safe to start their nest making.

Preferred location will be closed to those internal sound playing tweeters about 1.5 inches away to the left of right.

Once they are in place I would recommend that you spray those "Super Pheromone" on the outside and the inside.

Once those birds are lured inside your VIP room, the first thing they do they will start adopting these fake nest like on the instant basis.

Within the next couple of weeks you will be able to see some of these fake nest will start having a kind of marking on the nest perimeter.

Of your BH is running properly without any disturbances they will quickly lay their eggs.  Once laid they become your permanent tenant until they die.

The rule of the thumb is that if you install 100 about 20-30 percent will be occupied within a few short months.

If you apply those supper pheromone on every trip on all those empty fake nests you might increase the percentage to about 50-60%.

Try this technique and you will see faster result as compared to doing nothing.

Once these nests are occupied and used for about 2 breeding cycle, you need to remove them and move it to a new location.

The best is at another floor or another BH.

The reason being if you install on the same floor the original tenant might find them and reused the fake nest.

I have seen many types of method to quickly populate a new BH and I think the proper use of fake nests is one of the best method.

Remember fake nests are not going to be used for a long time.  The moment you have about 200-300 nests in total, you can totally remove all of them.  This will forced those tenant of yours to build their nests on the nesting planks.

By doing so you will have a complete finished bird nests.

If you need any further questions about fake nests proper usage please let me know.

Call 0177551318

Why Cemara Fake Nests Are Not Attractive In Malaysia !!!

The result so far, using those fake nests made of Casuarina (pine) tree leaves, have not been encouraging.

I might have some explanations to put forward however I will continue using them until I am totally convinced that they are not giving any positive results to my effort.

You see I love to try new things that can help those new BH to be populated as fast as it can be. If they work well I will promote them as an essential tool.  However if they don't work I would like to know why?

One day during my dinner time with a newbie in Dungun he posted to me about the use of this special fake nest made of casuarina tree leaves.

My answer to him why not?

So there goes a new idea over a dinner table get moving.

We started by ordering about 200 pieces each and continue to communicate about our experiences when using them.

After more than six months we have experienced the same results.  Not one being occupied by those swiftlet.

What be the possible reasons for this failure?

I have the following theories:

1) The smell of these fake nests are a bit too heavy.  They are like those pine leaves rotting.  This might be the main reason why they do not attract our local species.

2) Most of our birds over here are from nearby BH and there are non from those foster parents.  In Indonesia cross fostering, where serinti birds were used to breed swiftlet birds by changing of eggs, are very common.  These young fostered swiftlet are used to serinti nests smell.  Do you know what materials do serinti birds used to construct their nests? The answer is pine tree leaves.

3) The used of casuarina fake nest inside a BH with humidifier seems to be a bad combination.  The wet mist tend to easily wet the fake nests and once wet those fungus will quickly grow on them.  These fungus might be another reason why those birds are avoiding these fake nests. Maybe we need to spray with those fungus spray first before installation.

I would conclude that the fake nests is not very attractive to those birds in Malaysia but okay in Indonesia or any country where there are a lot of crossed fostering activities.

If you wanted to try please go ahead but try to see if my above discoveries are true.

I will continue testing and if there are any positive result I will report on this blog.

Remember I have no intention of discouraging all you guy to try using the fake nests but you need to know the reason why it is not attracting any birds so far.

They tend to grow lots of fungus.