Additional Features For Your VIP Room !!!

So you have done nearly everything but still those Facifagus are still stuborn and avoid your BH?

You have make the entrance hole bigger, installed those hexagonal tweeters on the roof, put those mini bazooka, play the best sound, perfect humidity and good room tempature.

The birds do enter but they never stay.

What else can be done?

Well you might want to try something new but this might mess up the BH a bit.

What I have in mind is to get your VIP room floor wet not with water but with sand and splashed with fresh bird shit water.

Before you get yourself dirty please make sure you seal any possible holes, like wire or phone trunking lines, and lay some plastic mat.

To ensure that these mat seal the water perhaps you should look into applying those double sided tapes.

Once the mats are well laid and locked in place pour those fine sand (used for cement works) about 2 mm thick.

You then get those fresh bird shits mixed evenly with water.

The bird shit water can then be slowly poured on the sand for wetting purposes.

The wet sand with birdshit water will not only helps to make the room humidity perfect but it also provide those natural aroma to lure those birds to come and stay inside your VIP room.

This technique was applied by a BH owner in HCM city.

I was amazed with the number of  birds inside his BH but the moment I stepped inside the room my shoes was buried inside some sand covered with those bird shit water.

Each room was with at least 200 - 300 birds and I believed those wet floors provide those strong smell that excite those birds to come in and flying all over the place.

I am not going to gives any one a guarantee but this was something that I saw and I think I will apply this simple technique for all my BHs.

There is nothing to loose if you try but make sure those plastic mat will not cause any leakage to the lover floors.

My advise after you have installed the above system, get a set of rubber boots (Chua Chu Kang Boots) so that when you enter the VIP room you put on the boot.

Best of luck to those who wanted to try this new idea.......

Interesting Wall Erection Material Using Styrofoam Made In Vietnam !!!

Some where about 1 hour drive from HCM city I was introduced to a new and fast wall erection technology.

The owner was the very proud to introduce the new method which he uses in all his BHs.  Currently his third BH and planned to have at least 20 more.

What is so special about this new technology?

Well just imagine to erect a wall of 15 meters by 40 meters and 4 meters high within 3 days.  It is a record time.

The technology was said to originate from USA where the Styrofoam materials (varies from 6 inches down to 2 inches thick) complete with those steel reinforced mash.  They were said to be manufactured in a factory in HCM.

What you need to do is to have your BH frame up and get the Styrofoam with steel mat in place.  Once done you use cement spray gun to splash the cement sludge to the wall erected.  You need to apply the cement both inside and outside and smooth the cement by hand.

In less then three days you are ready to move to the second floor construction works.

The Styrofoam mat can also be applied to the laying of inter floor and your internal rooms.

Fascinating fast erection and cool technology.

I have never seen this technology in Malaysia before and I recommend that some Malaysian should look at adopting this new method.

Vietnam Swiftlet Farming Industries Will Flourish Within 5 Years !!!

 Just watch my words.

There will be at least 10,000 BHs within the next five years in Vietnam.  Currently the number is below 1000 BHs.

What surprised me most was the number of BH owners and newbies who contacted me just for a cup of coffee.

Nearly every night there were at least two groups that dropped by for a chit-chat.  Even when I landed at KLIA there were two more newbies who wanted me to meet them.

While in Go Cong I accidentally met one of my blog reader whom I have never met face to face.

"Are you Pak Harry from Kuala Lumpur? I have been your regular blog reader."

He wanted to show me his perfume hanging garden.  Today just before checking out of my hotel he was at the lobby wanted me to have a present for all the good things that I have done.

"Pak Harry can you send a short report on what I should do to improve my current BH?"  That was what he wanted from me.

Late last night two groups who keep pushing me to work with them in starting a showroom in HCM and Go Cong.

I am very impressed with their aggressiveness.

The group who engaged me to be in HCM have indicated to erect not less than 35 BH within the next few years.

Huge, massive and plenty in numbers.  It looks as if my service will be greatly required in Vietnam.

My objective will still remain as it is.  I wanted more people to be successful and I hope it can be applied to foreigners.

The outlook in Vietnam is very positive.  The number of birds are plentiful and the number of BHs are not so many.

When you have a BH, you are looking at thousands of birds within 3-6 months and not hundreds.

I also discovered some interesting building technologies used in building BHs.  They used a kind of 3-D wall made of Styrofoam with steel frame.

Using this new method the erecting of each floor BH's walls takes less then 3 days.  We are talking about 15 meters by 40 meter by 4 meters high floor.

Will show some photos soon.

I was also introduced to "HCM Viagra", an aroma made in HCM city made of blending of fish, egg, bird shit water and a few herbs. Took home a bottle for testing and from the smell of it, I think it is very strong and attractive.

The person who blend this aroma used in his BH and the result so far is 3,000 birds within less then 2 years.

What a new discoveries.  This will be very good for the swiftlet industry.

There Are So Many Birds In The BHs But Not Many Nests, Why Pak Harry !!!

Something that seem to be quite common in Vietnam.

The number of birds inside the house is by the thousands but the nests on the nesting planks are less then a few hundreds.

The first case was a BH owned by the King Shrimp producer.

From his evening counts the number of birds was at least 2,000 entering his 100 days old BH located in the east of HCM city.  When entered for the first time after the shut the door off of 100 days the number of nests on the nesting planks was about 100.

He suspected that it was due to those mulfunctions humidifiers and his water pump.

I think there must be something more to that.

The second unit was about 5 minutes drive from Caravalle hotel.  The owner's son took soom time to visit his BH today and after following my advise plus playing my Black cloud sound, the number of birds entering were at least 3,000 birds.  This was after less then 2 years playing my Black Cloud.  Before that there was nothing.

I was given a chance to enter the BH and the number of birds inside was at least 600 to 700 flying over the place.

To my surprise, the son told me that he can only harvest less then 700 grams a month.  That is something wrong with this BH, I told him.

So what do you think might be the possible problems.

The humidity looks good (floor were wet), the temperature was also good (if not they will not even bother to stay), the darkness was within range.

What can be the cause of your tenant not wanting to pay their monthly fee?

I am of the opinion that they might be too young birds who are not ready or perhaps matured to find a parner and start making love.  If it is so why can't the owner seduce them to find a partner and quickly mate?

The best is to play the righ internal sound.  I suggested to the son to look into the possibility of testing a number of internal sounds available one by one.

The best is to assemble about 5 to 6 good sounds and test them for at least 1.5 months.

Before starting the first sound he should take some nests count check.  Take those counter and take note of the total number of nests in the house.

After every test, he can start counting again.  Compare the number and if there is a different then log them inside a book.

Once he finish all the sounds selected he should choose the best among the 6 sounds.

One possible reason could be the type of planks used.  In Vietnam, red Meranti is not easily available.

I think he should consider importing a few, say one ton (1,200 feet), and install them onto the current nesting planks using screws attachment.

Just focus on one floor which have the least number of nests.

Do the same nests counts before and after.  After say 3 months if they love meranti then why not import more to cover the whole planks in the house.

It is worth the hassle and hard works.  If he can increase the percentage from current only 20% to 50% or higher, it worth every penny, I assured him.

Second Day In Vietnam !!!

I was taken to a town called "Go Cong".

Mr J wanted my advise on his new BH project on a piece of land just beside the padi field and about 300 meters from the town area.

Just before arriving we took a walk in the small town.

There were a number of them at one specific location.  It seem that among them there was this BH, a two stories house, where those birds entered and started colonising them even without any sound being played.  That was about 15 years ago.

Now many enterpreneurs try to build larger BHs around the unit.

While walking along a small street some one called me by name.

"Are you Pak Harry from Kuala Lumpur? Welcome to Vietnam.  I have been reading your famous blog everyday and tried the latest you wrote the "Hanging Garden".

I was not suprised but very happy to note that there are more and more people from Vietnam who are reading my blog.

He allowed me to enter the data room and show me the CCTV screen of his BH.

From the external views plus a few internal pictures shown I have the following remarks (my personal opinion):

1) Nearly 90% of the BHs in GoCong uses the side entries type. 

2) The entrance holes were too small and not big enough for those birds to fly in and out at the same time.  They should have enlarge the hole buy at least three times of the current size of about 2.5 feet X 1feet.  It seem that there are too many owls and those small holes are good for protection.

3) Most of those BHs have this weired placement of tweeters around the small hole.  They placed those big tweeters below the hole or on the roof top.  With so small an entrance hole there is not enough space to install the tweeters around the hole perimeter.

4) The town seem to be regularly hit with electricity stoppages.  The only best way to operate the BH with lesser interuptions is to install those back up batteries.  During my visit most of those with no sound have very little birds circling around the entrance hole.

After the trip came back to HCM and met two interesting blog readers who wanted to say hello.

One of them was a young man who met me in Kuala Lumpur about 2 years ago.  He was studing in Singapore but took a short trip to meet me and I took him for a one day tour to Kuala Selangor.  I did talked to him on the entrance hole direction which he asked his father to change the direction.  Just three weeks after the changing the birds started to enter the hoouse.  Now the same house have a total of 3,000 birds.

I planned to test the new aroma "MysecretRCP" at this BH to see its effectiveness today.

The secong young man is still working and wanted some advises which can help him to go to the next steps.

I told him to upgrade his knowledge by reading and attending those important Seminars and Workshops.

Get the knowledge and prepare to be a successful swiftlet farmer.

A Recipe For A Disaster !!!

Something that I would like to share with all my blog readers.

I am now in Ho Chi Min city of Vietnam.  Just about to bath but prefer to write something that was discussed with me yesterday evening.

One of Mr J parner build two BHs in Vietnam.  After 100 days there were only about 100 nests in the house.

"Pak Harry, we know for sure there were at least 2,000 birds staying in the house but how come only 100 nests?"

I was a bit curious why such thing can happen.  I asked Mr. J for any pictures inside the BH plus any other pertinent informations to help my diagnosis on the problems faced by the BH.

Yes he got some recent pictures taken.

I took some time to figure out the possible reasons and wa la now I can see why.

First the BH was so big and so bare.  Nothing fancy inside, very little tweeters, no external tweeters inside, little humidifiers, little fresh birdshit on the floor, the nesting planks were those very thin (3") type, and what really suprised me was when the origin of the consultant.

Something more to add was that the LAL (hole to push the birds downstairs) was not properly located.

"Pak Harry my friend used a consultant from Thailand and they cannot communicate due to no common language they can used.  So the Consultant brought with him two interpreters.  One who can will interprete the thai language into chinese and then another interpreter to translate the chinese into english.  So every sentence discussed will need to jump at least two person before the other person know what were the other was talking."

What a mess.  I would say that this might be the possible reason why the BH was not properly done.

By now there should be at least 1000 nests or marking in total and not 100.

I will be meeting the owner of the BH on the 19th Sept 2010 and will try to convince him what he should have done to accelerate the nests multiplication.

First Day In Ho Chin Min City !!!

Yesterday everning was in Batu Pahat to do up a BH that was said to be dormant for about 4 years into operation.

This BH was owned by the same owner whose BH I repaired in Ayer Hitam, Johor.

After the back breaking job I drove home to get ready for my journey to Vietnam.  Reached home at 12:30 am.  Took my shower and slept for a few short hours.

This morning got my eldest son to sent me to KL Sentral.  Cought my 9.35am flight and by noon I am in HCM city.

A very crowded town with 10 million people.  There were so many motor cyclis and I am not sure how they can drive all over without any accident.

Mr J of HCM wanted my opinions on a few of his investments into swiftlet farming in Vietnam.

He took me for a long ride to view two units of 3 stories shop houses that he owned and been empty for almost 5 years.

We tested the area using the test gadget he bought from me and the number of birds swelled to about 200 after less then 10 minutes.

I told him that there are good potential but he must not set too high on the number of nests he can harvest per month in the first 2-3 years. What he can do is to get his BH better off as compared to the neighbour.

The key to his success will be a very good sound plus some magic "MysecretRCP" and a well done internal designs.

He was happy with my explainations and decided to go ahead with the his renovation plans to start next month.

Tommorow I need to travel about two hours to another spot where he wanted to get his laborers to start working on the new BH. This new BH will be huge.

There is a possibilty of another 20 to be build immediately after the first, according to him.

On the way back to my hotel, Caravelle Hotel, stop at a shop for a bowl of beef noddle.

While waiting for my noddle, the BH owner in Batu Pahat send me the following message:

"Harry, today birds response was tremendously good.  Some birds rushed into the front entrance and lots of birds which passed my BH will turn back and immedietly jump into the entrance hole.  Your SuperJerantut and the secrect aroma really works."

He must be one of those very happy person with a very high possibilities of getting a full house soon.

In Vietnam two to three blog readers contacted me for a cup of coffee.

I am fee for breakfast and supper.  Call this number +6017 755 1318

Fungus On Your Nesting Planks !!!

 1st: "Pak Harry there are fungus on my BH nesting planks.  What should I do?"

It seem that the best way to get a fast  and clinical answer is to call Pak Harry.  He is a walking "Encyclopedia".

Beside the above got another call from Klang.

2nd: "Pak Harry how can I know if those birds flying above my shop are swiftlet?"

What about this:

3rd: "Pak Harry how come those birds keep flying in and out of my new BH?"

Then again:

4th: "Pak Harry I need a good sound and it must be effective in this town"

People please try to be a bit hard working.

All the answers are found in my blog.  Just insert your question in the google search on my blog you will get the answer.

As for the fungus on those nesting planks, I told him to firstly reduce the room humidity to about 95%.  Try to reduce the operation time of the humidifiers.

The next thing to do is to check how severe is the fungus attack.  It is the whole floor or just a few planks?

If it covers nearly 80% then it is better to replace them.

If a few you can either replace or perhaps put another layer of nesting planks on it.

I think to screw a piece of plank on the fungus infested will be faster.

You might want to apply those sodium propenate on them.  Some people uses those EM to apply on the affected surface.

To me the best is to screw a new piece of plank is safer.  I am not very sure if those birds likes the smell of EM or Sodium Propenate.

On the second question, the best is to get hold of the test gadget and play the "Duress" sound.  Once you play the call/test sound only Facifagus will response.

For the third question, my reply was to relook at the external tweeter arrangements.  The birds tend to rush out when there is no follow up tweeters to pull them into the house.

For the 4th, I told him to use duress sound.  It is effective and there will be many birds coming to the roof top however I cannot guarantee that those facifagus will enter their BH.

All other sounds are difficult to predict.  They can be good in one area but have nothing at other areas.  The only way to get the right sound is to engage Pak Harry to come over for half a day to conduct the sound test.

Yesterday a BH owner in Bukit Beruntung engaged my service and we ran about 15 different sounds from my collection.

Out of the many only five show some kind of effectiveness.

The good thing was that the owner was very happy to watch how those sounds pull the birds to his rooftop and they do entered his BH.

After the test he make the final decision which sounds were suitable for his BH and he cannot go wrong since the sounds were played using his amplifiers and his BH tweeters.

I only charge a small fee for my professional time plus I provide free  inspection inside his BH and provide tips on what he should do to improve the house.

Use your common sense in finding the effective sounds for your BH.  You already spend a couple of hundred thousands and to be "Kiasu" in getting the right sounds is not the right way.

Remember I am not saying that you should only get Pak Harry, you can get other people if they are sincere and willing to share or sell their sounds.

(In this swiftlet farming industry who do you think is willing to share their favorite sounds?)

The following Test Log was used during the test :

Bird Sounds Test Results

Owner of BH: ………………………………….

Address         : ………………………………….

Date of test    :…………………………………..

Time of Testing : ………………………………

Results

No	Name Of Sound	Excellent	Good	Average	Poor
1	Godsend
2	Black SS
3	LadyGaga
4	Tiger2
5	Special2010
6	TongkatAli
7	KingKong
8	Kathy
9	DHoney
10	GoldPot
11	Silver Bullet
12	SriKepong
13	Diamond
14	NobodyButYou
15	Marvelous Cloud
16	TenByTen
17	Super Jerantut
18	D'President
19	Shooting Star
20	Black Cloud
21	Definite
22	Superstorm

Excellent: 30 birds or more.  Good: 20 birds. Average: 10 birds. Poor: 2 birds and below

Invitation to Test "MySecretRCP" Aroma !!!

I recently discovered a new BH Aroma that smells very enticing.

So far tried in about four BHs in Sungai Patani, Ayer Hitam, Setiawan and Jerantut.

The response seem to be pretty good especially in Jerantut, Pahang.

The liquid comes in a five liter plastic bottle and nicely packed in a carton box.

I plan to test in at least 10 BHs and wanted some volunteers to carry out the test too.

The ideas is to have as many tests as possible before we can conclude how good the aroma perform.

The aroma is in liquid form and can be sprayed on the wall about 1.5 feet below the nesting planks.

It can also be used inside those bottles that I did in Ayer Hitam where the hanging garden was carried out.

Once sprayed on the wall it will be dried up about one to two weeks.

The aroma can be reactivated by spraying plain water on those walls.

I am looking forward for those who would like to volunteer in conducting the research.

Please email your interest to harryswiftlet@yahoo.com. Please write this title:  Volunteer to test "MySecretRCP".

The cost will be reasonable just to cover the cost of material and postage.

Finished One but Three More Needs To Attend To !!!

Last week completed the revamp works on a BH in Ayer Hitam, Johor.

And yesterday handed over another BH completed in Sungai Pasir, Kedah.

Both owners seem to be pretty happy with what they saw after as compared to prior to the revamp operations.

The number of birds flying in and out of their entrances increased significantly.

What I hope is that these BH owners will stay away for at least 3 months so that those birds will not be disturbed and let them get used to the new environment created.

Each BH have at least one VIP room.  The one in Sungai Pasir has four VIP rooms since it was made up of three units of shops houses and one and end unit.

The VIP rooms were filled with a sizable number of tweeters with at least two tweeters chandeliers.

The internal tweeters were plenty and I can guarantee that at any one time there will be enough beds for at least 150 pairs of birds.

I suggested that all the external sound tweeters be standardized using one brand. This make many good sense.

Beside the tweeters I added as many as 100 fake nests in each house.

Sprayed some aromas (MySerectRCP) and got those humidifiers running full force.

The floors were wet and a number of fresh bird shit bags were laid around the humidifiers.

Overall I am happy with the work done and I hope more birds will colonies the two BHs.

During the weekend I visited two new unconverted factory units.  Both owners wanted my help in getting started and are totally blank on what to do.

Inspected the sites and proposed what they should do.

I have very strong feeling that there will be more people asking for help and I hope with the limited time available I can served as many as I can.

Those who wish to have their BH visited please try to give enough time to schedule my trip.

For this week I will be in Batu Pahat from Sept 14th till 16th.

Will be in HCM Vietnam from Sept 17th till 20th.

Will be in Masai Johor from September 22nd till 23rd.

Will fly to KK for the Sept 25th Workshop from 24th till 26th.

Will be back to Masai on 28th till 30th.

Preparing my October 2nd Seminar from September 30th till 2nd.

How Do I Write My Blog ?

A new blog reader who wanted to know how I can write so many interesting articles about swiftlet farming.

"Pak Harry, how do you come about with so many interesting stories and where do you get them?"

An interesting comment from the new blog reader.

Well to be frank I too find it unbelievable that I can write so many interesting articles that not only record my findings but also help others who are new in swiftlet farming.

My real secret is actually my desire to expose the so many interesting things about swiftlet farming.  I was once an idiot who took swiftlet farming for granted.  I depended so much on my "Sifu" and in the end I was very dissapointed with what he did to me.

Once my mind was set up to expose everything about swiftlet farming I keep towards that goal. 

I first set my objective on why I wanted to be a blog writer. 

My objective: "I wanted to help all newbies who needed help in running their BHs.  I wanted them to be successful.  I wanted to minimize the failure rate by at least 5%."

I will stay away from politics, I will not critisize my fellow bloggers, I will not be agry if I receive negative comments, I must listen more, I must take as many photos where ever I go, I must make lots friends not enemies, I will use my engineering background to evaluate any strange behaviours of those birds, I will continue to search for more interesting news that will eventually make BH owners successful in their BH venture.

Every new finding is a blessing to all my blog readers.

Every new gadget, aroma, sound, design of BH and internal arrangements of BH that will help to improving our BH is an asset.

We need to be 100% sure that we are doing the right staff.

Remember the fate of our BH depend on us and not a third party.

My wish is that there will more newbies that will find this blog and with all the strange findings I wrote will make them a better person.

I believed that are still many more hidden things that can help all BH owners and I will continue with my mission to find more new things and try myself.  Once the works well I will expose to my beloved blog readers.

Have a good weekend and hope all of you enjoy reading my findings.........

The Question and Answers on How To Choose The Entrance Hole Directions !!!

I just replied a friendly email from a newbie from Singapore.

She was actually very impressed with the vast informations on swiftlet farming available on my blog.

What she has in mind was to build a BH about 10 meters by 20 meters 3 stories hight.

Her main problem is where to locate the entrance hole and which direction.

I think this is a very interesting questions and if you are not careful your BH will be empty for a very long months.

My simple answers to her were as follows:

As for your question of the location of the entrance hole there are a plenty of things to take into considerations.


Some of them are:
1) The flight path. This flight path is the direction where those birds are flying home in the evening. They will normally start flying from at about 4:30 pm till darkness. You need to stay on your piece of agricultural land and do some observation. The entrance hole is recommended to be facing this flight direction.

2) The next important consideration is the direction of the morning sun. Those birds uses the morning light to guide them out of their house. So which direction will allow those birds to go out and hunt for food the earliest? The east since the sun rise from the east and go down in the west. What if you face the entrance hole to the west? Those birds will normally around the roving areas and not the other floors. They cannot effort wake up late to go and hunt for food.

3) What if there is a source of water nearby? Water is a vital in the life of those birds. Everyday the birds will normally take a sip of water prior to going home. Water also will genarate flying insects from 4:30pm till the night. The sun energy, after 4:30 pm will help the marine insects to tranform into flying insects for their breeding puproses. This will be where those birds will come for their evening meals. So you might want to think about facing your BH entrance hole towards the water source?
 
So if you happened to read this article please be careful where to choose the right location of direction of your BH entrance hole.
 
The best is to get all the three right !!! Yes the entrance hole is towards the flying path, it is also towards the morning sun and it happened that the river is just infront of the house.
 
A superb combination and I am sure your chances to be a successful BH owner is great.
 
I wrote sometime back about my observation about all those towns that are with slow moving rivers passing them.
 
Most of these towns seem to have plenty of swiftlet and those BHs facing the river will stand a better chances to be populated if their house are properly done.
 
Just look at towns like Parit Buntar, Muar, Sibu. Kuching, Kota Baru, Kuala Trengganu, Kuantan, Pekan, Kemaman, Kota Tinggi, Teluk Intan and so forth.  All of them have lots of birds and lots of successful BHs.
 
So before you purchase a piece of land for your new BH try to get them closed to those slow moving rivers  or lakes or ponds.
 
Minimise your risk and take note of the importance of water to these swiftlet.

ONE DAY SEMINAR/WORKSHOP ON SUCCESSFUL BIRD HOUSE VENTURE

At Sutera Harbour Golf Club commencing from 8:30am, organized by the Sabah Swiftlet House and Bird’s Nest Industry Association (SWIFIN).

Seminar/workshop will cover the followings:-

1) Biology & Behaviour of swiftlets

2) The Breeding Biology of Swiftlets

3) Swiftlet Propagation/farming

4) Guidelines of Swiftlet Farming (SABAH) & permit /license application.

Others:-

1) Introduction to Swiftlet Farming

2) Secret of successful Bird House

3) Business loan opportunity for Swiftlet Farming.

4) Visit to an established bird house (Dr Laurentius’s bird house for his Ph.D research in swiftlet farming, Oxford University)

Speakers:-


1) Dr Laurentius Ambu PhD (Swiftlet Farming) FCAM (Director of Wildlife Department, Sabah)


2) YB Datuk Karim Bujang (testimony of his bird house)


3) Officer of Agro Bank, Kota Kinabalu (to be anounced later)


Registration Fees:-

1) Non-member RM1,000. 00 per person

2) SWIFIN Member RM800.00 per person

3) Early bird discount : 10% off if registered before 20th Sept, 2010.

4) Seat limited to the first 35 persons only

Further Information:-

Contact : 088-259169 / 269169 or 016-5843685 (Mrs Li)

Language : Bahasa Malaysia & English

Every participant shall be entitled for an external sound (worth RM300.00), one cup of Bird’s nest soup (worth RM50.00), one box of Borneo Bird’s Nest (worth RM300.00) and certificate of participation (suitable for Permit & Farming Loan Application)

Inclusive of buffet lunch and 2 tea breaks .

Payment methods:

Cash or bank-in to Alliance Bank a/c no 100930010779203 to kindly fax remittance slip to 088-269553.

(cheque payable to “Sabah Swiftlet House House & Bird’s Nest Industry Association”)

(I will be available during the workshop to meet those who wanted to start their BH)