I was in Sabah two weeks ago and was invited by a group of newbies who wanted to learn about swiftlet farming.
The 4 days trip was mainly to inspect a number of lands that were purchased many years ago for swiftlet farming.
The owner of these lands seems to have in mind to have as many BHs as possible however have yet to erect one until today.
After two days of looking at his land bank I took one day off to visit this 3 years old BH located in Kinarut.
The BH owner wanted my help to install a mist pump system.
He learned from a friend who owned a BH in Kota Belud, Sabah that the mist pump can help to double his BH nests count.
I was asked to carry a set of the mist pump along and help him with the installation.
Managed to finish the installation within a few short hours and tested all the nozzles.
What makes me feel very happy about this Kinarut BH are the followings:
1) The BH was erected on a hill about 3 years ago. I came to test the location and I remember the number of birds that responded to "Duress" sound was only about 20.
2) The bird count was a bit on the low side however the owner insisted to go ahead since he already purchased the land. His three other partners also insisted that he should proceed with it.
3) After proceeding with the initial two stories he asked my opinion of adding one one floor. He proceeded since he was using a top entry lift shaft design.
4) The bh have many interesting and unique gadgets which was invented my me. One of them was those kite tweeters. I can see at least 2 pieces in every VIP room.
5) He installed many internal sound tweeters. And with it he needed to install additional amplifiers to support the tweeters. Each floor has its own amplifier for internal sound.
6) During the initial stages he install lots of fake nests made from polyfoam. The birds responded well and nearly 90* were occupying the fake nests. Once the number of birds hit 400 nests he removed most of these fake nests.
7) After 3 years the number of nests now hit 1000 nests. He claimed that he can no longer count them. Every month he is harvesting about 2-3 kg a month.
8) He wanted to increase the nest numbers and I told him to wet the floor. This is how to lure those young birds that were raised in his house to return to the spot where they were hatched. This was the main reason why he instructed me to bring a long a set of mist pump.
9) He claimed that he saw a similar system being installed in a BH in Kota Belut and the owner confirmed its effectiveness.
10) My opinion is the same. The mist pump if properly installed and run about 4-6 times a day will help to wet the BH floor and at the same time encourage those young birds to return after taking their first flight.
After the unit number one, install only on the middle floor where the number of nests was the highest, he already told me to bring one more unit during my next trip to KK. He wanted to install another unit on the top floor.
The number of nests exceeding 1000 nests withing 3 years is a very good result in Malaysia.
I told him that to get 500 within 3 years in Peninsular will not be easy to achieve.
The good new was that there were a few more BHs that I was engaged in Sabah is hitting the same number of nests after 3 years.
A very fascinating place to own a BH.
Come to Sabah and you will see this result.
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