Lenggong BH is Doing Just Fined But .....!!!

(More birds were seen visiting the BH everyday since after my revamp)

Remember the Lenggong BH which was revamped a few weeks ago?

The owner called and wanted me to know that this morning he received a call from his rubber tapper's friend who happened to pass the BH everyday.

What the rubber tapper said was that the number of birds seen above the BH is getting better as compared to before.

It has be occurring everyday now but there was a slight problem.

Due to heavy thunderstorm and rain the sound seems to be dead.

I did not installed the auto starter due to a wrong model.

The unit that I brought during the revamp operation was for a single phase system while the BH was running on 3 phases.

The gadget was recently changed and I have not managed to get over to change.

I requested the BH owner not to change the BH locks since I planned to bring the gadget next week.

He sound very happy after receiving the call from the rubber tapper.

Most important according to him as the number of birds playing above the BH roof top.

Plenty of them and no more like before.

I wish I could install the auto starter much earlier.

Something special that I did at this BH was the installation of two hexagonal tweeter.

One just above the main entrance hole about 2 feet above the monkey house roof while the second was taller about 12 feet high.

The taller tweeters were with KPOP while the lower tweeters was playing SuperVac.

This unique arrangements might be why there were plenty of birds playing above and entering the BH.

I hope the owner will quickly arrange to reactivate the power supply.

He will be driving up tomorrow to do the needful.

Latest:

Received this SMS from the owner today:

"Ada 5 nests baru.  Looks positive"

Translation:  "Got 5 new nests.  Looks positive"

Yeh he has five nests after more than 1.5 years into operation and I took only 3 weeks to get 5 new nests.

I am simply too good to be true.

Call me at 017 7551318 for the impossible !!!!

My Views About Rantau BH !!!

I took some time to inspect the Rantau BH.

This BH was revamped about one month ago and showing some progress.

While doing some sound testing a BH owner who owned a BH just at the back wanted some advise about his BH.

He could not allow me to enter his BH since the keys were not with him but the developer.

"I have a contract signed with the developer and the contract was 1.5 years (18 months)" he said.

Since I could not inspect his BH I laid down a few important ideas that he might want to consider.

1) He need to check about his contract period with the developer.  If already due he should arrange to collect his BH keys and allow me to check what can be done to improve the BH.

2) One very important observation made on all the 27 BHs was that they used those top entry system,.  My recommendation to him was to look into installing a monkey house box above the top entry hole.  Those young birds prefer the monkey house entry type more as compared to roof opening.

3) He need to increase the number of internal and external sound tweeters inside his BH.  From my experience revamping the current BH I think they are not adequate.

4) Beside tweeters I told him about the important of installing those fake nests.  Currently the developer have very little liking to fake nest.  They never install any.

5) He need to change his old sounds and most important is the internal sound.  I think the internal sound used is similar to the revamped BH.  They are not suitable to bring in more birds to stay at night.

6) My recommendation include the planting of those figs tress on the excess land around his BH.  Those open areas around the lake looks promising.

7) He need some one with lots of experience to manage his BH until the nest population are above 1000 nests.  Once this is achieved he will have lesser problems to populate the entire house.


After listening to all these ideas he told me that he will check his contract terms and will arrange to invite me to take a closer look what is wrong with his BH.

I hope he will call me soon.

Those Figs Trees Planted At Kapar BH Are Doing Well !!!

(Insect generating Figs Tree Growing well)

I have planted six figs trees around Kapar BH and all are doing well.

I took the initiative without any help from the owner.

I told myself that the only way to proof that my theory that Figs trees will help to generate those insects is to plant them around BHs.

Now nearly all BHs that engaged me to revamp them plus with lots of extra land around it will have a few of these figs trees.

One of the first was at Jenjarom, Dengkil Selangor.

I will air layered them using a 10 foot high tree planted a few years ago and once they start to root out will cut and transfer them straight onto the ground.

So far there are a number of BHs benefited from this idea.

Beside Jenjarom BH there is one more at Kapar, Kuala Selangor.

At first I planted one but after a few short months I increased the number to a total of six.

All six looks well and I upgraded their footing with those red bricks and the fenders.

The bricks help to prevent water from flowing out during watering.

My main problem will be those wild macaque monkeys.  It seems that they have been a great nuisance to the land owners around this BH.

What I plan to do during my next visit is to bring some fertilizer that are used to help in plant growth.

I believed within a few years (3 years at least) these figs trees will start to fruit and will help to bring in those insects if needed.

A few more will be good for this BH.

Will plant at least three more in the next few weeks.

(How it looks like when I first planted)

(Now after 2 months)

(Young shoot coming out and showing good sign)

(Another branch with a young shoot too)

Once they start fruiting they will look something like these pics:

(See those insects on the fruits?)

(The fruits once ripe will turned black)

(The fruits will grow all over the branches)

The figs fruits will be all over those branches and each fruit will produce at least 50 figs warps.

Just imagine if there are 10,000 fruits.

The moment those figs warps are released they will surround the tree canopy and will attract those swiftlet to eat them.

A very useful method on how to attract those swiftlet to visit the BH by supplying them with food.

Latest Progress On Bird Count Gadget Installed At Kapar BH !!!

After three months the nests numbers are growing steadily after my revamp works.

This can be seen from the outside of the BH (data room).

What happened at this Kapar BH is what should be done in all BHs.

I tried using this counter machine and it shows an outstanding results.

During the first week the figures on the screen pops out like this:

(Screen as at May 31st 2014)

Average per day on week 31st May 2014 was 158 birds.

After three months the figures increased to this:

(Screen as at August 8th 2014)

This week the week of 8th August the daily average number of birds entering per day was 343 birds.

This is an increase of about 342% within 101 days or three months and 9 days.

Most of the daily numbers were above 200 except on Monday August 4th 2014 showing 9 below 200 i.e 191.

The gadget help me with the daily counting and every Saturday after 8:30 pm the owner or his wife need to snap a photo on the screen.

It might be a bit tedious to continuously monitoring the progress but this give the BH owner a very good picture on what is happening with his BH.

Most BH owners, who use the conventional method, will only know of any progress by visiting their BH and carry out the nest number counting but this gadget gives the owner via the number of birds that entered his BH every day.

It might cost a fair bit but I think it is worth the money spend.

Will try to report on the progress of the growth every three months.

My new target now is to push all the daily numbers to be above 250 birds per day.

Give me about two months from now.

This BH is under my close observation and during my weekly visit I will be doing the followings:

1) Inspection on the sounds on each floor. Some time the internal sounds are dead with no specific reason.

2) I will carry out NKS (Nest Kick Start) operation on any new spot that shows signs of new tenants.

3) I will continue the application of Super Pheromone 2X concentration on all those fake nests with no tenant. My main reason is to make the fake nest more attractive to the birds when they fly in complete darkness.

4) Check on the insect generating system using Lukut (broken rice) on the top floor below the monkey house. Installed about 20 containers of the broken rice and now showing a lot of insects flying in and out of the containers.

5)  Water those young Figs trees.  So far 6 trees are planted and all are doing well.  Recently installed those brick curbs to allow water to be trap at the truck.  Need to apply fertilizer too.

6) When required the external sounds are changed.

7) Check on all the humidifiers on each floor.

So far so good and I am sure the owner realized that those activities were not included in the revamp scope of works.

I am doing this on my own initiative to see what more should be done to quickly improve the nests numbers after every revamp operations.

One of my plan is to conduct a force harvest soon.

If you owned a BH and is not doing well please call me at 017 7551318.

Found Figs Tree With Edible Fruits !!!

(The Figs tree with two ripe fruit)

Remember the cleared land around the Bujang BH?

The other day while searching for a few more tree to be transported to the BH I stumbled onto these Figs Trees whose fruits can be eaten fresh from the trees.

I was absolutely fascinated with the new found tree.

It happened that there were a few with young fruits and ripe one.

I have been searching for it for some time and now finally discovered it closed to my house.

I planned to plant at least three of them and once they grow to a certain height I can air layered them for replanting.

Those of you who wanted to buy one for your own consumption please call me at 017 7551318.

Bullet Tweeter Attraction Showing Interesting Result !!!

(The use of Bullet Tweeter and three fake nests)

It was nothing so surprising to me.

Remember my idea of installing those titanium bullet tweeter plus three fake nests above them?

I entered the BH with the four sets a few days ago and I was pleased to see at least one bird that was very attracted to the bullet tweeter.

She seems to be flying from one fake nest to the other.

Among the four she love only one.

This is a good sign and I am sure once she settle on this tweeter the next will be choosing one of the other three tweeters.

Let us hope that within the next few weeks all the four will be with tenant(s).

If all the fake nests installed are occupied a total of 12 new nests will be created by this new idea.

Let's us look at 60% of the 12 pieces or 7 out of 12 will be a good result to me.

If all are taken I would recommend to all to use this special technique.

Will keep doing the observations and let all of you know the outcome.

A Very Unusual Response To Pukau Sound !!!

I noticed something unusual during my inspection of a few BHs in Sungai Patani, Segantang Garam, Kampung Bujang and Bumbung Lima Butterworth.

This weird behaviour happened during the first week of August 2014.


It seems that they seems to gather in large numbers when the Pukau external sound is played.


I am not sure what is causing this rare over crowding but you can easily say that they are obsessed with the sound.

This have something to do with their breeding cycle.

I have this gut feel that they will shortly start their breeding cycle.


They will fly all over the BH and many will try to find any hole to enter.


At Segantang Garam the nearby residential house experience swiftlet entering the main hall.


The owner said that they seems to fly all over the place and entered his house regularly.


He confirmed that during later part of the evening the number will be three to four times bigger.

At Kepala Batas closed to Bumbong Lima bridge the same thing was observed on a number of BH with their external sound in full blast.

I happened to be visiting a BH and the moment I changed the external sound to Pukau they came in big numbers.


Have a look at these video clips and look positively:

After Almost 5 Years With Only 50 Nests !!!

(This article refer to this BH in Kota Bahru Kelantan)

He keep asking the same question more than 5 times.

"Pak Harry is my BH okay? Is it a sick BH?" this question was from a blog reader.

I was pretty hungry and about to park my car in Sungai Patani and my mobile phone rang.

The man who answer was apologetic.

"Pak Harry can I have your time to talk about my BH?" his first word.

I replied okay and I think that was the beginning of nearly 30 minutes non stop barrage of questions.

He stumbled upon my blog and have been reading ever since.

He explained about his BH which is about 40 feet by 35 feet by 4 stories.

It was initially designed to be 30 feet by 70 feet by 4 stories but last minute changed it to the current size.

So far he harvested about 30-40 nests and his main query was that is his BH doing okay?

I explained to him that it is best that he invite me to fly down to Kota Baru Kelantan and let me make my observations.

As far as I can hear the total number of nests of about 50 is not a good figure.

I stressed about Kelantan and state with lots of birds and to have only 50 nests after 4 years is not a very good sign.

"I think your BH might be too bright and those birds are reluctant to become your permanent tenant" I told him.

No my BH is dark and I have a BH contractor who confirmed that, he argued with me.

How do you judge darkness for a BH nesting room? He asked.

I told him to get someone to stand about two feet away and you cannot see his face.

Wow that dark ka?  I don't think it is that very dark.  He replied.

This seems to be the basic and if you cannot get to this level of darkness your BH have a very strong chance of not doing well.

After going around and around I told him that my best advice for him is to get someone who have the expertise to inspect a BH and get him to write down all the wrong things inside.

Once that is done follow the recommendations and wait for the result.

I would say that within a few short months the nests number can be increase by 100 percent.

He promised to call me back once he have made his final decision.

Segamat Shoplot BH Owner Keen To Activate His Sick BH !!!

(This BH need my special attention)

You can tell yourself that the owner is keen once he started to ask you a lot about your list of materials  for his BH.

This was what happened after one week since I email the visit report to this Segamat BH owner.

Frankly he is at a crossroad.

His BH is not showing any progress even after carrying out minor modifications prior to my site visit.

The only direction left for him to consider now is to let me and my workers come over to carry out all those things listed in my visit report.

The first thing I told him to do was to activate his roof top by installing not one hexagonal tweeter but two.

One with the last tango sound playing timing and the second to be played during the day time.

The next thing is to reduce the light entering the nesting room and at the same time provide guide wall to force those birds to fly above the LAL.

The lower floor were not populated that much and it was due to the wrong location where the LAL was opened.

The nesting planks need to be properly cleaned and additional wood crossings to be installed.

I will clean all the affected planks and apply with a layer of 2X Super Pheromone liquid.

I proposed to him to install at least 150 internal sound tweeters on each floor.  Currently I think he has about 30 pieces.

To lure those birds from the top entry area into the nesting rooms needs proper planning.

I proposed to him to increase the number of external sound playing tweeters along the flying path into the nesting rooms.

Put it on the plank rather than on the walls, I told him.

The old amplifiers will be upgraded to a new more powerful units.

The humidifiers will be activated using Nikkodo auto sensor gadgets.

There will be a lot of fake nests to attract those new visitors when they entered the nesting rooms.

I will be responsible in choosing two external sounds that will activate his BH.

I hope within six months or so his nest numbers will double.

It usually give this result and I am sure if he followed my recommendations he might get more nests inside his BH.

Segamat BH Turn Around Is Confirmed !!!

This will be my next job after the Kg Bujang BH.

The owner confirmed for me to proceed to day and I told him to give me some time to get the necessary equipment together plus my workers.

His confirmation was something like this:

"Hello Pak Harry, the final sum is a deal.  Please come and turn around my BH" his whatsapp message received today.

I am looking forward for this new and challenging job.

I need about 6 days to complete the job and I hope to be able to start soon.

Kuala Trengganu BH Two Weeks After My Visit !!!

(This was the BH that recuperated after my visit.)

During my visit o Felda Belara Kuala Trengganu, I squeezed some time to inspect a BH at Kuala Trengganu town area.

The owner is a retired teacher and used to be a discipline officer in a renowned school.

Initially he was reluctance to meet me due to the fact that he do have some "friends" who are successful in swiftlet farming.

Due to unforeseen things his BH after about 2 years into operation was with only 3 nests.

One beautiful night he joined another fellow teacher who happened to follow my blog regularly for a cup of coffee.

I remembered we set for almost 3 hours and talk about lots of things.

Once he finished analysing me and my ability to talk about swiftlet farming he became a bit more confident.

Before we part I told him that I will be only free at lunch hour and he have to pick me up at Felda Belara.

The next day at about 11:30 am I received his call saying that he was on his way to pick me up.

"Just wait for me there and I have decided to have you to inspect my BH", he said.

I waited almost half and hour when he appeared.

"Pak Harry I really need your help since I have tried so many ideas and nothing happened." he sadly told me.

The moment I arrived I can see a few things that I was not happy about.

When I entered the data room my itchy fingers started to play those knobs and my mouth was telling him why I did those adjustments.

I entered the nesting ground floor nesting rooms and later the two floors above.

After some evaluation and thinking I told him some interesting list of things that might help him with the BH.

He listen and was very surprised with the many things that I pointed for him to consider.

I told him that the same night I will write a detail report and will hand over at 10 pm after his prayers.

We met and I handed over the report.

I told him that I am very sure if he follow my recommendations he will see some results.

Today after just three weeks I received a SMS message from the guy who introduced this teacher to me.

The SMS was like this:

"Pak Harry I got some good news about my friend's BH you recently visited. After your visit there were improvements with lots of new nests markings and lots of birds came into both in the morning and evening."

After reading the shot message I feel so good that I have successfully turned around another sick BH.

By just inspecting and put forward my full recommendations it works.

This is a great achievement which I should be proud of.

I discussed with my wife during dinner and she was very proud of me.

"I know you very well.  When you do something you do with all your heart darling.  You are a good man and I am happy that there are more people who appreciate your contribution."

I hope that I will continue to serve the industry and how I wish I can receive invitation by every BH owners in Malaysia for my expertise.

Try my inspection services and I can guarantee that you can turn around your BH.

Started Planting Sour Sop Trees At Bujang Valley BH Compound !!!

Yesterday planted 20 sour sop (Durian Belanda) trees at Bujang Valley BH.

I was hopeless.

I did not use those glove and blistered three areas on my hand.

Bought a few trees a few weeks ago and if not planted quickly they will start to dry up and die.

So went to the hard ware shop purchased a few changkul, a chop and parang.

Straighten the rows with rope and dig holes about 10 feet apart.

After all were ready got those young trees at site and plant one by one.

They need wood support to hold in place.

Got them tied to a wood pole each.

Watered  all of them and now nursing my poor hand.

Next round must make sure I use those glove.

While in Karangan, the BH owner told me that I can use the Soup sop fruits to attract those fruit flies.

The love the fruits according to him.

Let hope that it is true but I planted it because I read some where that the fruit can cure cancer.

What ever it is I love to plant trees and see them grow.

Hopefully within 2-3 years they will  bear fruits.

Testing of Titanium Bullet Tweeter !!!

Something which I have been planning of testing.

I recently purchased about two sets of Titanium Bullet tweeters about 500 ringgit each set.

The tweeters are meant for cars but I saw in Lenggong BH.

The owner without any knowledge installed it and I was very sure that where ever this tweeter was installed there will be nest above or beside it.

This give the idea to try out and see how good is the tweeter in attracting those swiftlet.

What I did was to combine the installation with fake nests (3 pieces) and at the same time apply the super pheromone.

The four tweeters complete with fake nests were installed at Bujang Valley BH.

Give these test tweeters about 2-3 months and see how good will they work in a BH.

See these photos:

(Side by side on a chosen nesting plank)

(Closer look at the installation)