Only Two Swiftlet BHs In Semporna Town !!!

(Seafest Hotel where an IKS Seminar was held on December 14th 2012)

My favourite past time when I visited any town is to check any swiftlet farming BH in that particular town or row of shops.

Recently when given a chance to visit Semporna Sabah I took a walk from Seafest hotel to Semporna main town areas.

I took less then 10 minutes to reach and spend about 2 hours walking around the small township.

Most interesting were the view of people boarding and unloading those water taxies shuttling people and goods from Semporna to those islands nearby.

The wet market were as usual very wet and the fish displayed looks pretty fresh.

A sizeable tuna was for sale.

Among other think that I have in my mind was to make a count on shop houses converted to swiftlet farm house.

There were at least two units where the top floor were converted.

Both were doing well.  One with top entry while the second was side entry.

This town looks a heaven for swiftlet.

If there are no guidelines to stop people from converting shop houses into BHs I choose this town as one of the best place in Sabah.

Most of these buildings were pretty old and suitable to be converted.

With the recent stringent guidelines I doubt if it is a good idea any more.

Have a look at some pictures that was taken during my walk in Semporna, Sabah.

(A side entry BH in Semporna town)

A top entry BH in the same town.

Wet market 

Water taxies

Loading and unloading taking place

Some coming some going

They do have a supermarket.  Not bad.

My Day On A Dentist Chair !!!

Yesterday visited my Dentist to pull one root that was left when the crown on it broke.

This dentist happened to be my beloved wife.

She was pretty gentle with me and it came out without much pain.

After feeling those numbness on the left side for about 3 hours it came back to its normal condition,

While resting received a number of calls and SMS messages.

One call was from Kuching Sarawak. He wanted to get an external sound from me.

I advised him to go with a set.  One external and the other internal.  These two sounds compliment each other.

Complimenting means it help to secure your new visitors longer inside your BH.

The two sound are similar in its base sound.  However the internal sound has a larger portion of those baby birds sound.

Which means that when the internal sound is played the new visitor will know that the external sound that she heard when she was lured inside your BH is still playing but in between there are these baby sounds.

In this way she will continue enjoying the same sound but intermittently.

This happened when your BH external sound is stopped for the night.

He was new to the subject and after listening to my explanation he agreed in full with my new invention or recommendations.

"Pak Harry I read your blog on a very regular basis nowdays.  Before this I used to read another blog but I think that blog writer was a bit arrogant and I don't like some of his harsh words used. I prefer yours since yours are more like a fatherly person when you write. You create more ideas and at the same time you never criticize others."

I reaffirmed to him that when I started my blog I set some simple objectives.  One of the most crucial is to help newbies like him to minimize doing mistakes and improving their chances of not becoming a failed BH owners.

I do not wish to criticize other since deep in my heart I know they are also trying to help but their methods maybe were not polished or right.

They have different motives and normally they were more towards selling their products.

Later part of the day I called another BH owner also in Kuching, Sarawak.

He was excited all over after knowing that I was on the line calling him.

"Hey Mr S how are you and your BHs?"

"Pak Harry you know something?  After following all your recommendations inclusive of your last Tango sound system my new BH is doing very very well.  I think it will be ready for your next Seminar in Kuching Sarawak."

I was impressed with his words and if he was keen than I am also keen to organize a talk in Kuching town closed to where his BH is located.

So next year 2013 there is a very strong chances that I will be visiting Kuching more often.

Another Very Very Strange Thing That Happened In A BH Located Somewhere In Pahang !!!

It came to me with another surprise.

This time a BH owner called and told me about his unusual experiences when there was an uninvited tenant in his BH.

This tenant have been terrorizing those swiftlet until no swiftlet came close to his BH even with a totally new good sounds played.

Months after month nothing seems to happen and he was getting very upset and rejected.

He could not understand why and what was causing those birds refusing to come and stay.

One day while observing those pictures captured his CCTV he saw the rascal.

It was not a rat or a musang or an owl or cat or squirrel but a "Casper".

What do you mean by "Casper"?  I asked him.

A baby ghost with wings flying around in the BH after 7:00 pm every evening.

You mean something like "Casper" the friendly ghost?

Oh shit !!! This is a very strange story and at first I wanted to laugh but he stopped me.

"Brother I am not joking but after getting a "Bomoh" to remove the "Casper" the birds started to come and stays." he reaffirmed.

"Now I have 100 birds and before that nil".

Hmm now I am beginning to wonder if his story might be true.

Let me see which of those BHs are facing difficulties in birds populating.

Yes I got one candidate and will call the owner to do some work to collect those CCTV clips on all the rooms after 7:00 pm.

I am pretty sure this might be true.

Those of you who are experiencing the same please take a step back and think about your current BH.

I do not want to believe but if my BH is still not filled after all the recommendations being done I would try to check on this.

It Was Due to The Sound Volume !!!

If you have the chance to visit BHs you should try to be observant.

Observant simply means to look out for any new things that will provide you with new ideas on how to get more birds staying in your BH or any BH.

This was what I did when I entered a BH.

I will tell myself see if there is or are new things that were used inside and attract more birds to where they were installed.

Last week when I was in Sabah, I was allowed to visit not less than 5 BHs.

Most of them were sick and new but there was a BH that was doing rather pretty well.

This special BH belongs to a friend who happened to have met me prior to coming out with the BH.

He was very lucky that I responded to his request and I managed to look at the BH design.

Told his to do some modifications to the plans and advise him which direction the entrance hole should be facing.

During construction I was there twice to view its progress.

I was also there when the BH was installed with those nesting planks and tweeters.

The owner was a bit carried away and he came out with many new things that I told him to go ahead.

One of those things that he created himself was this corner fake nests made of styrofoam.

After putting his BH into operation using my sound system plus my selected sounds the BH went pretty well.

During my recent visit I was very happy to see a sizeable number of bird shit spots all over the floors except the lowest floor.

Beside that there was something that he did not noticed.

I took him to the front VIP room on the middle floor with a lot of fresh looking bird shit spots and later pull him to the VIP rooms at the back with quite a bit of bird shit spots however most of them looks like dried up.

I asked him why did that happened?

He was speechless and could not find any answers to my question.

When you see those bird shit spots on the floor like crumbling with no fresh shit on the top you know that those birds have moved to another location.

I gave him a simple clue.  "Can you listen to the internal sound volume?"

I now asked him to walk to the front room and listen to the sound volume and after that return the the back room and listen to sound again.

"Any different?" I asked him.

"Yes Pak Harry the sound volume at the front room was much louder than the sound played at the back room." his answer.

"You mean to say that those birds will move to the louder sounded tweeters?" he asked.

"That is correct."   my frank answer.

He never realized how those birds can be easily moved from one room to the other all because of the volume.

At least that particular visit teaches him something new which will eventually help him to manage his BH in a more proper way.

The other problem about drawing more birds to the lower floor was arrested as well.

A Closer Look At A Wooden BH In Papar !!!

(Wooden BH in Papar about 20 feet X 60 feet and 8 feet high)

I wanted to have a closer look at this wooden BH for quite some time.

My main intention was to review its performance and see if this can be one of the most ideal low cost BH for those low income groups.

While in Kota Kinabalu Sabah, I was given another opportunity to view this 1.5 years old wooden BH located some where near a town called Papar.

The cost to erect one unit of 20 feet wide by 60 feet long by 8 feet high was said to be around RM 60,000 excluding the cost of buying the land and pulling the electricity line to site.

It was elevated using those solid wood to prevent any flooding or attack by wild pigs and so forth.

What I was very concerned about was the temperature inside.

What about the nesting room's humidity and darkness?

After viewing the external and internal I have to say that overall the design was not that bad however it could have been better.

The internal temperature was on the high side.  If I was the fabricator I will install either those heat shield roll on all the side walls and the ceiling.

The internal temperature must not be above 31*C but the thermometer recorder indicated a maximum of 39*C.

I wonder why didn't the fabricator who have been building so many similar type of wooden BH take no notice about this critical issue.

The second point of concern was the darkness inside the nesting room.  It was not to what I would love to have in my BH.  It has to be dark enough where when you stand two feet apart and you could not see each other's face.

In this BH you can still still see each other even if you stand 5 feet apart.

The owner have to do something.  What I recommended was to erect a kind of wall or partition to block the light and at the same time create a VIP room.

The next biggest concern was the external sound tweeters.  They were all located at the entrance and roving areas but what about inside the nesting room?

I explained my reasons why he needed a few kite tweeters playing external sound inside his nesting room.

Most contractors or consultant will ignore the importance by I for one will always advice to BH owners to think about it and perhaps try it out.

I manage to touch about the position of the entrance hole.  I prefer a monkey house however this BH its entrance hole was at one of the wall.

If a monkey house is erected the height would be better and you can actually use the monkey house to your advantage.

You can install a hexagonal tweeter at a higher level, install a few power tweeters on the monkey house walls for Lang Tango sound and the roof can be shorten.

Inside the Monkey house you can easily block the light from polluting your nesting room.

You can also open more than one entrance hole up to four at any one time.

The BH humidity could have been better if the owner should install more water into those plastic pails.

The place where the sound amplifiers were positioned was not very friendly to those swiftlet.

It was too closed to the entrance hole and every time you enter your BH to change the sound volume or sound it will disturb those swiftlet.

There were a few more things that I commented and I hope the owner will make some of my recommendations.

I assured him that if he follow my recommendations the number of birds staying will improve within a few short months.

He got nothing too loose but more to gain.

The First Ever BH I Visited In Semporna, Sabah !!!

It happened to be a two stories BH made of wood and cement boards.

While is Semporna I was tracked by this school teacher who happened to be reading my blog.

He knew that I was coming to his home town and he make every effort to track me up to my hotel.

I have never met him but he was very persistence about getting my attention.

Early morning of December 15th 2012 I was having my breakfast and he called to seek my time.

I told him to come over and within less than 20 minutes he was at the lobby alone.

He joined me for a cup of coffee and started his stories about what is happening to his BH.

"Pak Harry my BH is made of wood and have been in operation for almost 8 months.  So far there were no nests but I think there are a number of birds staying.  I need your help to view what can be the reasons why they refuse to stay and to make nests."

Looking at his expression I think he was not very happy with what was happening and need my second opinion.

He soon took me over and there in front of me a BH made of wood just at the back of his house.

It looks impressive and those birds should like the house.

I entered through a small door and checked his sound system.

Not bad since he was using something like I always preaches.

The external and internal sounds seems to be al right   I believed the internal sound was those of superbabyking while the external was not in my library.  An old sound that I must have left out.

The next move was to inspect the roving areas and the two floors.

The top most was too bright and the number of bird shit on the floor was little and thin.

The second floor looks more promising but it was still quite bright.

Both floors were not very conducive as far as the birds are concerned.

Those bright lights were coming from the roving room just below the monkey house.

"Pak Harry my consultant says it was okay when I asked him."

I thought of telling him that if it was okay then why was he chasing to get me over.

I stressed to him about the special gift that those swiftlet has.  They have the ability to use a kind of echo sounder which allows them to fly in total darkness.

Since they have this special gift they prefer to build their nests in a closed enclosure that is pitched dark.

The rule of the thumb is 2 feet apart and you cannot see each other's face.

Told him precisely how to close the roving areas and open about 3 feet doors floor up.

Another interesting observation was those bird shits spots on the floor.

I wanted to show him where the bird shit spots were on the floor and where the tweeters were on the nesting planks.

It was like look down there is a spot and when you look up there is a tweeter.

"Mr H this row there were 5 bird shit spots and if you count the number of tweeters there are the same numbers.  Why don't you increase the tweeters number to ten?"

He was amused with my request and it make senses.

"If you have five tweeters and all of them have a large spot of bird shit below, why don;t you install ten?"

He never thought about it.

I precisely told him where those new tweeters should be installed.

The next was about external sound tweeters.

"Do you realized that your BH external sounds are only made available at the monkey house areas?"

Well according to him his Sifu told him that you do not need those external sound in the nesting rooms.

The same mistakes and it seems that this short sightedness in common in swiftlet industry.

The best was to install about one or two kite tweeters to lure those birds inside the vip rooms.

I left him with a few advises on what he needed and took a small drink at his house.

Pak Harry I wanted to show you this marketing materials from my Sifu.

I flipped through and I was surprised to see more than 15 pictures out of about 50 were from my blog.

"I think your Sifu is a copycat.  He copied these pictures into his marketing materials and came over to Tawau to bluff every body that he is good."

My frank opinion about your Sifu is that he have many more chapters to finish before teaching you about swiftlet farming.

He should call me and let me tell him some mistakes that he should have avoided.

I understand that he has a group of followers who uses his uncooked knowledge.

I guarantee you that all his followers have the same problems where those birds came but refuse to stay or stays but refuse to build their nests.

Told him that he was lucky to have got me over and pin point those mistakes.

I guaranteed him that if he modified as per my recommendations, a few things,  his BH will be okay.

Just trust my gut feelings I told him.

PS:  This BH owner called me a few months ago and confirmed now his BH has more than 20 nests after less than 3 months after revamping according to my advises.

My Recent Trip To Semporna, Tawau and Papar Sabah !!!

I left for Tawau Sabah on December 13th 2012 and return home via Kota Kinabalu on December 18th 2012.

The trip was mainly to fill some slots at a Seminar on New Business opportunities for Sabah locals organized by IKS (Small and Medium Industries) Sabah.

Upon reaching Tawau I took a one hour taxi ride to Semporna.

By the time I reached Semporna it was pitch dark and frankly I was alone and did not know where to go.

"Pak I drop you here and you need to walk about 50 meters to the reception counter."

I was fined until I stepped out of the taxi.

"You mean I need to use this wooden bridge to find the reception counter? It looks like a floating structure above the sea floor."

It was a new experience when you were booked into a floating hotel in Semporna.

The hotel used to be very famous and well like by tourist who were on their way to Simpadan island.

Dragon Inn Hotel if I am not mistaken.

Checked in and took a bath before hunting for some food to eat.

The next day I was amazed with the floating hotel.  It actually was on stilts above the water surface.  There were more than 100 rooms.

Took my free breakfast and met with the Vice President of IKS Sabah.

She briefed me on the schedule and I was asked to check out to another hotel nearby.

This time the hotel was on land.

After taking some photographs I checked out and walked to the new hotel.  This was where the Seminar was organized.

After checking in I took a walk to Semporna small town.

Wanted to see any new things that can make me to decide to bring my wife over.

Frankly the town looks very old and run down. A bit dirty with many drains clogged with plastics and rubbish.

There were nothing much to see except where the water taxi lands their customers onto the jetty.  Many inhabitants staying on those small islands will come to town to buy their necessities and you can see lots of young boys and girls meeting each other.

I took some close looked at any BHs in Semporna.

There were at least two that I am very sure they converted to BH.

One old building seems to attract lots of Serinti birds flying in and out from various openings that were not closed.

I was fascinated with one favourite window with steel bars which those serinti can fly in and out of it with ease.

Took some pictures and video clips to share with my blog readers.

Bird's Flu Is More Dangerous Than Nitrite !!!

Something that is more dangerous as compared to nitrite.

While we Malaysian are affected by nitrite our neighbour, Indonesia, have more to worry about.

This is because their country have be listed as country with Bird's Flu by WHO.

Out of 359 reported death due to bird flu since 2003, a total of 159 came from Indonesia.

This is more than 44% of the total number of death so far.

This year alone the number of death is about 10.  There might be more that were not reported or not identified.

Read this article :

Found at http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/health/four-year-old-boy-dies-from-bird-flu-in-indonesia/562345

Jakarta. A four-year-old boy has died of bird flu in Indonesia, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday, the 10th fatal case in the country this year.

The boy, from Bogor district in western Java, died on Dec. 6 after a week of high fever.

"He contracted the H5N1 [bird flu] virus from playing with chickens at his home," Rita Kusriastuti, head of animal-borne infectious diseases at the ministry, told AFP.

Health officials said last week they had identified a more virulent strain of the H5N1 virus in the country that has killed hundreds of thousands of ducks in recent weeks.

Indonesia has been hardest-hit by bird flu, with 159 fatalities reported since 2003 out of 359 worldwide, according to World Health Organization figures, which exclude the latest death.Bird flu typically spreads from birds to humans through direct contact, but experts fear it could mutate into a form that is easily transmissible between humans.

While in Semporna, Sabah I was given the opportunity to meet a speaker from Tawau Veterinary Department.

He confirmed that the Chinese authorities have closed its doors on the importation of raw or processed nests from all countries until these exporting countries complied to their new regulations.

Among the many countries Malaysia seems to be the best option to be allowed since they were willing to comply with these new rulings and the efforts shown by the Malaysian authorities were favourable towards achieving their requirements.

They will not be able to import any bird's related products from any country that are listed as not freed bird flu by WHO.

During his speech he stressed that there is a very strong chance that the Malaysian processed bird nests will be able to be accepted by our Chinese Importers before the coming Chinese New Year 2013.

So far there are about 20 licensed Malaysian exporters and two were from Sabah.

These 20 were able to meet those stringent guidelines that were implemented and critical to the Chinese authorities.

Most important were the nitrite level and the traceability issues.

According to him raw nests from Malaysian BH owners must be first processed and its nitrite level reduce to below 30 ppm (part per million).

The only sore point were those nests harvested from Caves.  Due to their high nitrite level (700 - 1000 ppm), common to nests from cave environments, upon processed that nitrite level cannot be reduced to the required level.  One day when there are new technologies in reducing the nitrite level he was very sure the issue will be resolved.

Sabah will loose about 30 to 40 million worth of yearly income from cave nest export unless something is done to reduce those nitrite level.

As for the traceability of raw nests the Sabah authorities were more incline to using GPS coordinates and not RFID or bar code.

Every BH that were license will be provided with the GPS code and the code shall be used to identify their product during processing and packaging.

BH owners in Sabah have little to fear since the issuing of license shall be free of charge.

As long as you comply with the new guidelines you have nothing to worry with the licensing issues.

However if your BH is not in compliance with the new guidelines you have very little choice but to start preparing to move within 24 months effective Jan 1st 2013.

It Changed Hand And Those Lamptoro Trees Are Closing In !!!

A recent photo of a BH in Klang that changed hand and it looks like the new owner gives very little attention to it.

The lamptoro trees that were planted beside the BH is not closing in the BH.

If the tree grew higher than the BH and cover the entrance hole areas the chances for this BH to continue having swiftlet staying is slim.

You can see the insect generation barn in front but I doubt if the barn is being used.

It is a pity when the owner have lot interest to his investment.

Hope to call him to see if he can allow me to take over the operation.

Those who are keen to take over please call 017 7551318

Another Study On Liquid Foundation Effectiveness !!!

There is a new product in the market that I managed to get my hands on it.

This particular product is suppose to help those young swiftlet to use it as their nest foundation.

The product is called "Liquid Foundation" that you need to apply onto those nesting planks.

This product was produced by a laboratory in Indonesia and being marketed by a renowned swiftlet consultant whom I have known for quite some years.

I use to refer to his many books for some of his ideas.

Remember those pictures that shows four eggs with different sizes and shapes?

Those were taken from one of his book.

He must be in the 70s but still active in promoting swiftlet farming.

My plan for 2013 is to start a research on how to apply this product the Malaysian way.

Right now getting about 5 litres and hopefully after getting some results will keep some stock for distribution to those who are keen to participate in the various tests.

To those who are new in swiftlet farming, you will be surprised to note that there are very few liquid aromas or pheromones or enzymes that can be applied to your BH nesting planks.

If you spray those aromas that are meant for your walls and floors onto your nesting planks you will have lots of troubles to get those swiftlet to stay.

So for this new "Liquid Foundation" test I shall firstly order the goods and prepare a list of things to do and to avoid.

If I tried and it works that will be a new dawn in swiftlet farming.

We need more new products that can help to improve your BH nests population and the only way to do this is to help each other.

We need to have a group of BH owners who have the same mind frame to improve the quality of our farming practise.

If we can work hand in hand to improve the industry why not?

Try not to be so secretive on any new findings.

If it works we need to let others share our findings and this will eventually help to reduce the high failure rates.

Will try to keep all of my blog readers posted on the test result.

You will be the first to know if it works.

Those who would like to participate in this trial exercise please write a short note to harryswiftlet@yahoo.com.

After Three Years Into Operation You Better Watch Out !!!

This article is about your BH performance after three years into operations.

Okay let's assume that you have activated your BH for almost one year and the number of birds entering it is good and fined.

You wish that the growth will continue forever until your BH is full to the brim.  Every square inch of those nesting planks were with nests.

There is nothing to worry and you will be complacent (give little attention) and forgot about your responsibilities.

From my personal observations and the many visits into so many BH I think there is a very strange occurrence on the third year onwards.

Once your BH reaches three years or more you will find that the nests growth is no longer like the first three years.

They are either very slow or stagnant.

Let me ask you why suddenly your BH become like dead?

"Pak Harry it was doing fine for the first three years and now dead.  The nest numbers seems to be not moving forward  and I don't understand why those baby birds that were generated refuse to stay."

Just imagine your BH is with say 500 nests at that particular stage.

Every four months, on the average  there will be 1000 (2 young chicks X 500 nests) young birds.

One year there will be 3000 young birds and not a single bird came back home to stay with their parent.

What do you think these 3000 young birds that were hatched and raise inside your BH refuse to return back?

Where is this embedded GPS location thing that those people said about swiftlet? How come they refuse to come home?

(It seems that Jabatan Hidupan Liar of Sabah claimed that when they carry out the so called "Translocation" techniques young swiftlet will return to the BH where they were released).

My answer to you is to analyse what can go wrong inside or outside your BH after 3 years and you never take any effort to look after your BH.

During a number of visits to BHs with this syndrome I found the following to be very true:

1) The BH after exposing to the hot sun got to a stage where the water inside the cement walls dried up.  The BH condition is more like a tree with dried leaf where the water in the trunk were sap dry due to the hot sun. The cement dryness will eventually allows the heat to travel faster from the external walls to the internal wall's surface.

2) Most of the time all those water humidifiers are dead.  The owner tend to ignore the important of replacing or repair all their old gadgets. The BH become so dry and hot. Most of these humidifiers have some kind of shelf life.  Once they reach their shelf life they will be dead automatically.  So you need to be more prepared to replace them.

3) The BH are full of predators usually cockroaches, ants, lizards, rats, beetles and perhaps geckos.  You need to take some time to spray your BH with Fendona or any other suitable insecticides.

4) Most of those external and internal sound tweeters are dead and you know pretty well that when any of those internal sound tweeters are dead the birds tends to move to the other operating one.  If all are dead you can guess what will be their best option, run away to your neighbour's BH.

5) The amplifiers are half operating.  On many cases those amplifiers are half in operation and half are totally dead.  Can you blame those birds?

6) The sound seems to be the same old sounds that were no longer attractive.

7) There was this BH where the owner clean every single bird shit on the floor. Those young birds are very sensitive to their shit being removed.  My advise to this BH owner is to store them inside some kind of buckets on the same floor and the same location when those shits were removed.

8) The BH was too bright and those areas which those birds likes to stay are totally taken up.  The BH owner did not realized the important of darkness in his BH.  Once those safe spots are taken up the young one will not be attracted to come back and stay with their parent.

9) Many of those ventilation holes were broken or those wire mesh corroded and allows those wild birds to start making their nests inside these holes.  Once the majority were filled with those straws or leaves they air flow to air the BH are blocked. With little air flowing in to replenish the oxygen percentage those young birds feel choked. You need to remove these birds and allow more air to enter your BH.

10) The floor are too dry.  My advise is to spray water (not too much) on the walls and the floors (not those planks please) every time you visit your BH. You will be surprised that after you sprayed and moved up to another floor and when you return all those water were gone !!!

My key point here is to make you realise or alert you that be careful when your BH is reaching 3 years old.

The moment they become one you will be facing these common issues that if you ignore them it will make your young birds refuse to return home.

If you think that I am bluffing try to ask your friend who owned BHs which are 3 years old or above.

Be prepared and never let the nests population growth become stagnant.

I remembered visiting at least three BH with the same occurrences and after putting forward my recommendations these BHs came back alive.

One was in Ayer Tawar, Perak, Raub Pahang and the other in Muar, Johor.

If you face the same problem and wanted my professional recommendation please call 017 7551318.