Happy 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

MAY 2009 BE A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS YEAR FOR EVERYONE.



I wish everyone can live harmoniously in the country without quarrel and fight. Share their happiness and wealth together.

My dogs have decided to make peace with a stray cat and share their food together. Now they live happily. No more dog barking every day.




If the animals can do it, intelligence people like us can surely do it if we try. I wish everyone in the world can live in peace especially the people of Palestine.

My Bird House - Temperature

Visited my bird house this afternoon. Work is abit slow due to holiday on Monday.

Most of the major works have been completed. The workers are installing the wiring and the tweeters. Others were installing the water piping and doing general cleaning.

When I and my contractor were standing in the nesting area with all the wall and ceiling enclosed we can actually feel the temperature in the nesting area without using a thermometer. While both of us were chatting in the nesting area for nearly half an hour, we realized that we don’t feel warm and were not sweating. The temperature in the room was very comfortable and it showed that the thermal insulation for the nesting area is working.

Temperature is the major concern when building a bird house and I am glad that the design to reduce the temperature in the nesting area is working. This is the first step towards a successful bird house.

My Bird House - second week

Just visited my bird house this morning. The workers have completed the entrance hole. The metal roof is open with the wall all done up. The pond below the open roof is also completed with waterproofing.

Black paint is painted on all the walls in the roving area to prevent reflection of sun light into the nesting area.

Meranti planks with cement boards above the planks are about 80% completed. The workmanship is very good because there are no gap between the planks and the ceiling boards. There are also very minimum gap between the planks joints. Insects like to hide in the gaps and eat the bird nests or suck the baby swiftlets blood.

Wiring for tweeters is partially completed. There will be four channels for the whole nesting areas. Each channel will connect to about 25 tweeters. The wiring that is used must be of good quality because the plastic cover on the cheap wiring may crack after a few years. The wiring must be connected in parallel so that when one tweeter is broken it will not affect other tweeters.

My contractor estimated that the work can be completed in another week time.

Temperature

Most people know that temperature in the bird house must be between 27°C to 30°C. However, after they constructed the bird house they realised that the bird house temperature is higher than 30°C. They are unable to lower the temperature after they tried many methods.

When you design a bird house it is very important to determine the method to lower the temperature before constructing the bird house. After the bird house is completed it might be very difficult to lower the temperature. Even if you can it may be very costly.

Many consultants will advise you to construct the bird house first and then treat the temperature problem later. They said that you can always lower the temperature using water mists or humidifier.

If you think carefully, how much temperature can the water mist or the water from the humidifier lower the bird house temperature if the water tanks are installed inside the bird house? The temperature in the water is almost the same as the bird house temperature. If too much water is use it can also cause fungus to grow on the timber planks.

Other ways of lowering the temperature that I know some bird house owners did was to use water sprinkle on the roof or cover the building with netting to prevent direct sunlight.

All these methods use after the bird house is completed are not very useful. Therefore, it is advisable to design the bird house during renovation stage so that the temperature can be lowered to between 27°C to 30°C.

My Bird House - after 1 week

Just visited my new bird house this afternoon. The brickwalls are completed and plastering work is in progress. Work is progressing as schedule. Meranti planks have not arrived yet.

In order to maintain the front fascia of the building, the front windows which was stolen were replaced with fixed glass painted black inside. There is a layer of brickwall behind the fixed glass for security. The roller shutter is shut with the brickwall behind. Since my bird house uses an open roof entrance, it is very difficult to know that the building is a bird house if you don’t look carefully.

I advise all bird house owners to spend a little more money to make their bird house look nice in order to blend with the surrounding buildings. Don’t forget that you own the bird house for a long term.

My contractor told me that many people came to look at my bird house. These people are mostly bird house owners in the neighbourhood. Trying to learn some design secret I guess.

Learning to design a bird house is very difficult because you can not learn it from the book. If you want to build a bird house you have to steal the design from some existing bird house owner or the best way is to engage a consultant to design it for you. There is also a third method, which is to attend bird house design course. I know that Nest Tech is organizing a bird house design course on 20/12 to 21/12. The fee is very expensive.

Another Swiftlets Eco City

Just received a fax from my friend in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. He faxed me the brochure of a new swiftlets eco city in Sungai Gadut, Negeri Sembilan. The eco city is built on a 30 acres land with 20 units of 4-storey standalone bird house. Each bird house will have a minimum land size of 1 acre.

Like all swiftlets eco park, it comes with 24/7 security and free maintenance for 2 years. It also provide harvesting and marketing services.

Guess what is the minimum price for 1 unit? It is price from RM750,000 per unit. Do you thing it is expensive? Well, I don't know. Let us breakdown the price and see.

1 acre freehold agriculture land = 43560sf x RM6.00 (est. only) = RM261000

4-storey building (28' x 80') = 8960sf x RM50 (end user price) = RM448000

Total Breakdown Cost = RM709000

Add others like road, drainage, security, the selling price seems reasonable. The selling price is reasonable but is it worth to invest in it? Before you invest in it you must also estimate the number of bird nests that you can get per year. With the estimated number of bird nests then you can calculate the return of your investment. If the estimated return of your investment is less then the bank loan repayment plus some extra pocket money, then it is not a good investment.

If you ask me how to estimate the number of bird nests, I will said that your estimate is as good as mine. So give yourself an estimate of the number of bird nests produce per year put it into the equation and see is the bird house worth investing or not.

At the end of the day if your investment fail, you are the only one to be responsible.

Bird Nest Price

Just heard from a purchaser that bird nest price has fallen to about RM2800 to RM3400 per kg. He said that the Indonesian are not buying and the China market is very slow due the the global recession. Bird nests are considered to be food for the wealthy so when the economy is bad less people eat the bird nest.

Price of bird nest should increase when the global economy improve in a few years time. The price may go up to RM6000 or more per kg. Since bird nests can be kept for a very long time, if you have the money right now it is a good time to buy bird nests to keep for future price appreciation. Buying bird nests for investment is a good idea just like investing in gold, wines or painting. Just if I have the money....hmm .....hmm

Fuel Price and Economy

Went to a dinner function on Sunday night. The speaker said that the economy in Malaysia will be greatly affected next year due to globle recession. Instead of taking out billions of Ringgit for Value Cap to help the share market, he suggested that the Government should reduce the fuel price. By reducing the fuel price to actual market price of 90 sen per litre, every person in the country will benefit. It will boost the economy of Malaysia.

Come to think of it, what he said is true. Money put in Value Cap or bailout certain companies like what happened in the US only benefited a small group of people but by reducing the fuel price the money can spread to all the people in the country. Manufacturers and exporters will be able to reduce their cost and become more competitive. Price of goods can be reduced so that it can become more affordable. Cheaper traveling cost to attract more tourists. So many benefits that you can think off.

My Bird House

Work started last Thursday to convert my light industry factory into a bird house. The factory is one and a half storey high. The entrance hole and the roving area will be at the 1st floor office area and the nesting area will be at the factory area. Design for the bird house is quite simple because there are not much adjustment that can be done to an existing building. The entrance hole will be an open roof design with water pond at the bottom to catch the rain water. Due to the height of the factory roof the ceiling has to hang down using angle iron welded to the roof trusses.

The major problem at the new bird house is the security issue. The place is very quiet during the night and I heard that one of the bird house nearby was robbed last month. I have plan some features to help preventing robbers from coming into the bird house.

The bird house shall be completed by middle of next month before the Chinese New Year.