Harry I Found A Bird Died Clingging to the BH Wall !!!

What can be more interesting when you enter your BH and found a bird died on the wall.

This morning have a cup of coffee with one of my blog reader. He wanted to purchase a few units of the soundless humidifiers.

I was very generous to allocate some of my precious time just for him. I know he wanted to chat a few interesting things about his new BH in Rompin, N9 and at the same time dig some information about swiftlet farming.

He was very lucky because I kind of like his company.

Well we have the following to talk about:

1) Why I found a bird died hanging on the wall of my new BH?

He found one bird died literary stuck to the wall. What do you think happened Harry?

My guess was that the bird must have her claw stuck to something on the wall. Once they cannot untie themselves they will die. Die of starvation and dehydration. Birds needs to eat and drink regularly. If they did not eat for two to three days they will die.

I mentioned to him about a similar incident in one of the BH in Kepond where the baby bird got her leg stuck to the nest. The nest must have been very brittle, lack of humidity, and broken. The bird's leg got stuck to it and she died hanging to the nest.

2) Sharp objects in your BH, be careful.

If you enter your BH you need to check for any type of sharp objects that might hurt these precious birds.

These sharp objects can be sharp nails, staple gun bullets, those condenser pins on your tweeter's base, the tweeter connectors and etc.

Our precious bird cannot effort to be injured. If these sharp objects should piece their body or more often their wings they will not be able to survive. Injury will let to death in animal world. Very rare they can survive due to the fierce competition in searching for food and mate. Once you are handicap you are doomed.

Try to remove or cover these sharp objects.

3) Do not spray those corrosive aromas liquid onto your tweeters.

Most of those aromas that you apply to the nesting planks are corrosive. They are salts and can be a good electrolyte.

If you happened to spray onto your tweeters some might get attached to the electrical parts where the current from your amplifiers flow through.

Within less then one week the part will be corroded and snapped thus will cause the tweeter to dysfunction.

If you think that I am telling a lie, just try to spray on your tweeter (at the back portion). See if what I am telling you is wrong.

4) What Do You Think Are The Best Aromas For Your New BH?

This question always pops out during most of my discussion with people in the industry.

My frank, very frank answer is you close your eyes and imagine that you are a young birds just hatched from the egg. Remember you are in a BH with 1000 or more nests on the same floor.

What do you think the smell of this house? Where are they coming from?

Yes the answer is simple. By natural the aroma that will make the birds feel at home is to smell those things that are on the floor. Good example:

a) Bird shits rotting

This will be the most abundant in any successful BH. Both the parent and those young chicks will excrete their shit onto the floor and within very short hours they will start to rod and expel lots of ammonia.

b) There will be some eggs that fell down from the thousand nests.

Eggs will be the second type of smell that will provide their decaying aromas. Remember not chicken or duck or ostrich but swiftlet eggs please.

c) Dead baby birds.

How many times that you enter a BH and found young birds sprawled on the floor? Most of them will die and rot. The smell from their body decomposing might also be a good aroma for your new BH.

d) Bird nests.

You will be surprise that bird nest do fall down if the house is too wet or too dry. Once they touches the floor and if the floor is wet they will also produce a kind of awful smell that will form a part of the BH aroma.

So this will be something that you can consider. My suggestion is to allocate those broken nests from your own BH or buy from a BH owner and soak them. You blend them up and ferment for a few days. Once they begin to smell bad take them into your BH.


Okay now please open your eyes.....So you now begin to understand the best aromas for your BH.

If you think I am wrong please let me know.......

Recycled Nesting Planks Do Attract Young Birds !!!

While visiting one of those birdhouses, I saw this piece of plank nailed to the nesting plank.

I asked the owner what was this special outfit was all about.

His answer proved my old theory that if you recycle or transfer those nesting planks from your old BH to a new house the plank will be the chosen spot.

The plank must be with those nest markings.

The owner took a section of his nesting plank, about 10 inches long, with marking and screwed onto the nesting plank.

Within less then 3 weeks the young birds started to use the marking.

This was one of my many theories which I have been saying for quite some time.

If you have the opportunity to get those old nesting planks with nest marking use them. This is my sincere advise and I proof to you that it works.

Less Then Five Days In Operation, More Then 20 Fresh BS Spots !!!

The Kerling, Selangor BH was reactivated on the evening of Friday Jan 8th, 2010.

Prior to my involvement the BH was very sick with only two nests after more then 2 years in operations.

I remembered receiving a call by one of the owner's sibling, last December, asking me to drop by. He came to know about me after reading my blog.

I came over and was asked to diagnose the possible reasons why the house was not performing to their expectation.

As usual the list of wrong things were very long and I put forward to the sibling one by one.

Less then one week received a follow up call asking me to provide the cost to turn around the BH.

Well I plucked a figure from the sky and told them how much it will cost them.

What they did was right. They did not bargained and asked me to proceed.

Myself plus two helpers took about 18 days to revamp the house. I told the owner that the new house will be my "Masterpiece".

I created a VIP room, the Bubu entrance hole and those specialised sound arrangements.

I also make sure the VIP room were filled with those special aromas plus four soundless humidifiers.

After only five days in operation I dropped by to install those timers for the humidifiers.

I was very suprised with the number of birdshit spots on the floor. There were not less then 20. Most of the spots (over 14) were in the VIP room. This was what I predicted. I felt relieved and things are as per my expectations.

Immediately called the sibling and showned him the five days results. He was very happy and I think wanted me to consider expanding my service to the other unit beside it.

Facinating and I think this "Masterpiece" will have her new nests very soon.

I need to keep the momentum going and make sure those birds keep entering the BH continuosly.

The birdshits need to be stirred and the fresh supply of those aromas are applied regularly.

The "Tongkat Ali" external sound seem to be doing a good job with this project.

Every visit in the evening I can see a number of those birds sticking onto those walls closed to the external tweeters.

The most crucial was my arrangement in the used of those amplifiers played at different time slots and multiple sounds.

Have a look at these birdshit (BS) spots pictures:














If you have a sick BH and wanted to turn around please call 017 755 1318. No guarantees but let me try to help.

My Postponed Talks In Penang !!!

My apology for not able to conduct the Seminar tomorrow.

I managed to inform all except a few that I cannot retract their contact numbers.

Please be advised about it and those who have paid please contact 017 7551318 for immediate refund.

The next scheduled Seminar will be after the Chinese New Year.

My reason for postponement was due to something very important that I need to attend in KL on the same day.

I was already in Penang but need to rush back due to this unforeseen circumstances.

I will make up to those who have registered.

So very sorry and please accept my apologies......

Four High Rise Stand Alone BHs In Setiawan Outskirt For Sale !!!

I was away in Setiawan last weekend inspecting a couple of high rise stand alone BHs for sale.

A very interesting piece of assets up for sale at very low prices, at about rm 30 rm per square foot.

The owner have moved to another state and wanted these four huge empty BHs for sale.

Managed to inspect a few and they looks fined.

Have a look at these pictures and if you are interested to purchase them please let me know:

Unit No 1:



Size: 75 feet by 125 feet and 5 stories high

For Sale : 1.1 million

Title: On Malay reserved land about 3 acres.

With nesting planks but without sound system.

Electricity need to be reconnected.

Requires minor renovations before the unit can be put into operation.

Unit number 2:



Size: 38 feet by 125 feet. 4 stories high.

Ideally located, outskirt of Setiawan towards Ayer Tawar.

For Sale: 1.1 million

Status : Ready to operated. Minor touched up needed. The nesting planks and tweeters wiring are in place.

Land Status: Freehold but the owner need to arrange to split and get a title.

Unit Number 3:



Size: 38 feet by 125 feet, four stories.

For sale: 1.5 million ringgit.

Land size: 3 acres

Land Title: Freehold.

Status: Need to arrange for electrical connection before putting it back into operation. Need to install tweeters back.

Unit number 4:



Size: 38 feet by 125 feet five stories high

For sale: 1.4 million ringgit.

Land Area: 3 acres leased 99 year, matured in 2099.

Status: Also ready for operation with electricity.

If you are keen to purchase these four units please call 017 755 1318.

Internal pictures of one of the BH which I entered recently:

A Trip To Sabak Bernam With George !!!

Sorry folks for not taking some time to write some new articles.

I was with Mr George, the President of Sabah Birdhouse Owners Associations and took him to see a couple of interesting places in Selangor and Perak.

George is from Sabak Bernam and currently choose Kota Kinabalu as his new home.

He got involved in swiftlet farming about two years ago and currently owned at least 10 BHs. Some were on JV basis.

He activated the SWIFTIN (the association) in KK and invited me over for a one day seminar.

That was last year with 75 attendees. I was very proud to be elected to be one of the association's "advisor".

During my time with him this weekend took some time to discuss about the next swiftlet talks. He has set a date, March 13, 2010, as the next round of talk. Prior to that I proposed to train two of the Association Staff to be BH maintenance and trouble shooting staff.

I need at least three days to get them to follow some guidelines on what to do during every visit to those BHs that need professional inspection and maintenance. The two will be able to assist all Association members in ensuring a healthy BH in operations.

Each visit will cost a small fee that will be decided by the Association.

I am very glad that he accepted my suggestion.

While in Sabak, I was taken to evaluate the possibility of converting two units of a newly built shop houses.

I was also given the opportunity to visit a newly converted BH which I think will fail. The owner spend more then 20K as consultancy fee and what they did were humiliation to be called a "consultant".

The room were so bright, the walls were not insulated, the ventilation hole were too many and large, the entrance hole and the LAL not at the right place and many more.

I begin to wonder how can they be so mean to these ignorant investors.

They should at least try to make it work but not just to put some false hopes to these poor guys.

What a shame......

Looking at the level of workmanship I think the contractor/consultant seem to have very little scientific knowledge. They can only base on luck !!!!

Just imagine if 95% of all these contractors/consultant are like them, the swiftlet industries will be doom....

Swiftlet Talks On Jan 9th, 2010 at Quill 7, KL Sentral !!!

There were 18 participants and the conference room was superb.

The only problem that I accountered was no aircond on Sartuday.

Decided to move the seminar location to another suitable place nearby KL Sentral.

Most probably Sentral Hotel nearby.

Next monthly talks in KL will be on Sartuday February 6th, 2010

Take note on the date and these will be some of the possible topics to cover:

1) Common mistakes in a failed Birdhouse.

2) How to turn around your failed BHs.

3) Incubation of Swiftlet Eggs.

4) How to Improve Your BH nest qualities.

5) Gadgets That Can Help To Improve Your BHs.

6) Improve Your Nest Population By "TRANSLOCATION".

7) How To Improve the Quality of Of BH nests.

8) Proper Use Of Internal Sounds In Your BH.

9) The Perfect Ways Of Selecting the best sound for your BHs.

10) Which Aromas Will Fit Your New and Old BHs?

11) Fakes Nests: The Various Types and How To Use them ?

And Many more.......

If you think that you wish to attend the comming swiftlet talk, choose one of the above title and let me start preparing the powerpoint presentation.

Remember the next monthly talk will be of Sartuday February 6th, 2010

These are some of the pictures taken during the latest swiftlet talks at QUILL 7, KL Sentral

Completed a BH "Makeover" In Kerling !!!!

Today I finally completed a sick bird house turn around works.

The unit belongs to a family who wrongly engaged a "consultant" with no idea about swiftlet farming.

The first time I entered the BH, I feel terrible. What a scam, I told the owner.

The room was too bright, the nesting planks were wrongly installed and the gap with the ceiling were unbelievable.

The "consultant" or the contractor who carried out the renovation job know very little of not F***** ideas about swiftlet farming.

That was why after 2 years only two nests in the whole house.

But something strange caught my eyes.

The number of bird shits thrown on the walls in the roving areas were plentiful. There were thousand of them.

If they thrown those shits that means they entered the house.

How come they refuse to stay?

Well well well.....

Read the above and that can be the answers.

I am glad that the makeover is over with and now can focus on some other interesting projects in SP, Kota Tinggi and Teluk Intan.

The Kerling Makeover can be considered my "Masterpiece". I put every possible latest gadgets in the house, the VIP room with all those goodies installed.

If you wish to visit thise BH let me know. I will be looking after the BH for at least 6-8 months before I surrender to the owner.

Every project to me is a new experience and become my research center.

Each experience will help to understand more about this special creature which spit precious saliva.

George of KK will be in town this weekend and he wanted me to visit a row of shop houses in Kuala Selangor for possible conversion.......

Quran Recital Sound !!!

To all my Muslim friends who read my blog and have BHs to populate, you should try to install any type of mp3 player with Quran recital. Try to chose the right volume, not too loud but also not too low.

Currently I have with me four types of Quran recitals as follows:


a)Surah AlKafi
b)Surah AlMuk
c)Surah AlWaqiah
d)Surah AlAmbiyak

Each is for sale at RM 50 only via email.

A BH owner in Melaka have started using these recital sounds and he sweared to God that the number of new tenants or birdshits spots in his newly constructed BH increases.

I remembered meeting an old friend while I was at Low Yat shopping center at Jalan Bukit Bintang a few months ago.

After briefing what I am into he asked me if I know a Company (HPA) that distribute packed coffee call Radix.

Well according to him, Radix have gone into Chicken outlets, similar to KFC, but their chickens are fed with food without any chemical or hormone injection. They were raised using non chemicals food bio friendly.

One of the biggest problem with chicken rearing was their death rates. The number of chickens dead can be a big disaster.

What the owner installed was nothing more then those Quranic recital. The birds not only were not disturbed but their death rate were trememdously reduced.

Hmm ..... this was where the idea of using Quran recital in BHs comes into being.

I do not encourange non muslim to go for this but if you are then please try this new findings.

I will be calling the Melaka BH owner very often to check his BH population status....

Remember we are here to find every possible methods to increase those nests in our BH. If this method works why not trying it out?

Kota Tinggi Swiftlet Farming Skyline

Last week while visiting Kota Tinggi Johor I saw some interesting progress of the BH condominium and an extension works on an existing BH.

The Condominium BH looks pretty well done and the color now is white.

You can see the entrance holes for each unit.

There were at least 80 units facing the front and maybe more at the back.

I was told that each was with strata title and the value for each is as least 150K.



My concern is how to populate the many units evenly.

Those who are on the top will be better off then those at the bottom.

The only way to win in this swiftlet game I believed will be how good the owner convert the BH into a 5-6 stars hotel and play the most attractive sound.

If he failed, I think he need to wait until more units are occupied and generate more young birds for their neighbors.

One other activities in town was this extension works on an existing BH.

The owner decided to increase the nesting areas at the back portion of the BH.

The quickest way was to use steel structures. Look at the crane lifting one of the side H-beam.




If he is not careful and choose the wrong timing to complete the works, there will be many young birds will not return home.

One other thing that you must take precautions is not to block or shut the old entrance hole. The moment the birds cannot find the hole they will be flying outside and refuse or don't know where to enter.

A carefull planning is a must.....

Brain Cancer And Cell Phone Usage !!!

If you are a mobile phone user you should listern to this report from Fox News.

http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/m/27614081/can-you-hear-me-now.htm

The World Health Organisation have recently completed a US30 million report on the issue and claimed that the microwave emission from the cell phone do increase the number of users having brain cancer.

The over exposure to those microwave emission from the cell phone tend to effect the your body cell's DNA and will cause the cell difficulties in repairing themself.

Minimise direct contact with your head and take the necessary precautions.

Limit your usage to the minimum.

Do not let your young kids to carry a mobile phone at too tender age.

Do not place your mobile phone in the same room where you sleep.

Use those ear plugs when you wanted to have a long chat.

At home try to use the fixed line whenever you can.

Switch from one ear to another if you are on a long conversation.

If you can try not to attach the cell phone on your hip. Try to place them on the car seat when you are driving. A very long exposure to the emission will cause some kind of damage to your hip bone porosity and most likely will break easily.

His best advise was:

The mobile phone is here to stay. What you should do is to take precaution. Remember that they do emit those microwave emission and it is up to you to minimise the level of exposure it.

Why Humidity Is So Important In Your BH !!!!

Not many of us, who own BHs, will be bothered to ask our so call "Consultant" about the relevant of the BH humidity.

We tend to take it for granted. It must be 85% - 90% RH.

What the "Consultant" says will be like those words from the Prophets.

Well if you want to test how good is your "Consultant" you do this. Pick up your mobile phone and call your dear "Consultant".

As him : Why must the humidity be 85% - 95% RH?.

Some will tell you that that is the rule of the thumb and some might ask you not to ask too many questions.

The best answer that he might give to your question will be the effect of those water droplets in the air to make the nest stronger and not brittle.

Brittle nests will easily be broken and if those young birds cling on them will fall and die if their wings are not yet formed.

The next answer might be : The nest will be nicer in its shape. Smoother and rounded in shape. With too little water in the BH they will be wavy in form thus dropping the sale value.

To me that is not good enough.

The most important answer that he should give you is more towards the important of the proper humidity towards hatching of those precious eggs.

Before the birds decide to stay and build their nest in your new BH, they will check everything that will be ideal for them to start a family. One of the important thing in their list will be the proper humidity.

There is no use to lay their eggs and once hatched their babies are sick or distorted or deformed or crippled.

The ideal temperature and humidity to hatch eggs are said to be at 101*F (Still Air Technique) and about 60-75%RH. To be exact the humidity must be 60%RH for the first part of the incubation period and 70%-75% when the eggs are about to hatch.

What happen to the eggs/hatchling if the humidity is too low?

When your BH experience too low a humidity it will results in excessive evaporation, causing chicks to stick to the shell, remain in the pipped shells, and sometimes hatch crippled.

If you happened to use incubator to hatch the eggs, you do need to provide some container to store warm water to help in increasing the humidity.

There you go. Now you have a better idea on why Humidity is so important in your BH.

But why must it be 85% and above?

That will be something that you need to do some research.

Coming back to your "Consultant", if he do not know the right answers or gives you wrong answers, what should you do next? My advise is to terminate his service and find a new and more intelligent person. Maybe you should become your own "Consultant".

Rusty Pails Of Iron Scraps In A BH At Pekan Nenas !!!

Sorry for not writing during the weekend. Travelling and make more new discoveries.....................

I was in Kota Tinggi,Johor then to Pekan Nenas, Johor and on the way home stop at Melaka.

In Kota Tinggi visited my good friend who was pretty busy with his Sedili Kecil Eco Park project. The Johor State approved swiftlet ecopark, 64 units of fours stories swiftlet BHs, was on schedule and one row of 15 units was about to be completed.

Most of the units were sold to his friends but there are a few that are available for public. Price around 800,000 rm for the old phase. New phase will be above 1 million ringgit.

Among the topics were talked was about a number of BHs he left stranded in Setiawan. They were well constructed and he is letting it go at below market price.
Four huge units and I planned to take a good look next week when I make my trip to Setiawan.

The next task was to meet two blog readers who wanted me to advise on the conversion of two units of shop houses in Sri Saujana town ship. They recently purchased the two units, side by side, and currently the upper floors were left unoccupied.

Took a good look at the two and told them what they should do. The best method to get the two units be quickly populated is to use the double entrance system. One unit will be the side entry while the other should go for top entry. Will spend some time to recommend the best configurations and will email to them soon.

Then I make my way down to Pekan Nenas, Johor. It was raining heavily and I took about 1.5 hours to be in Pekan Nenas from Kota Tinggi.



The owner indicated that his BH, on an agricultural land, have difficulties in drawing any birds to the entrance hole. The strange thing was that all the good sounds that were very effective in another BH seem to give very little reaction to this new BH.

I took at good look at the new BH and strange enough there were a few spots of bird shits on the floor.

Hmm the BH do have some tenants but not many yet. The house was too dry and the house cement smell were still heavy. I told him to increase the supply of fresh bird shits and ammonia powder.

The installation of soundless humidifiers might solved his dryness problems. Six to 8 units per floor will increase the humidity level to within 85%RH.

One strange thing that I discovered was a number of pails of rusty iron scraps. I told him what was it for? Well he was given the advise to place these rusty irons during his trip to Madura, Indonesia.





Hmm..... very interesting technique and I have never come across such an idea.

The rusts (iron oxide) gives a kind of smell that attract birds to stay, according to him.

He also installed a few pails of salt water. I wrote an article on the important of salt to these birds but never thought of placing a few containers of their water in the BH. This guy did. A very interesting findings.

Please read this old article about salt: http://swiftletfarming.blogspot.com/2009/12/af-will-require-some-salts-in-their.html

The next day on the way back to KL stop at Melaka, the historical city. I was asked to visit a BH which was recently launched about 4 months back.

The owner seem to be very excited over the number of tenants that he received so far and he seem to install something more then I expected.

I entered his BH and found something that I have never seen.

The moment I entered the ground floor, there was this Quran Reading sound that a small salt lamp on the floor. The best thing was that there were a couple of birds flying on this ground floor.

Hmm .... I asked him who gives him all these new ideas? Pak Harry, who else? It was you. Remember the other day when I called you and complained that the ground floor was empty and no birds. Now you can see that they have moved down.

Not a bad advise after all. It works.

About the Quran reading sound, it was something that was never done before but I told him to monitor the effect. If the sound works then it will be our latest discovery.

I was given the sample of the sound they used and will share with those who are keen to try. What you need is to install an additional tweeter and an amplifier. Place the tweeter at the middle of the lowest floor.

I was very fascinated with the whole ideas but told them to monitor the effects closely. Try not to go overboard and chase those birds away. Make sure the sound volume low but play at a specific time. Stop all sound in the evening when they are returning home.

My assumption was that if they like this additional sound they might bring other birds to come over and populate the BH. This new background sound might also minimise the young birds from flying to another BH with no Quran sound. Once they are familiar with the soothing sound of the Quran, they might feel that only those with the Quran sound is peaceful and safe.....