Some Bird Shits on the Floor

Went to the bird house with my friend Mr. Chong yesterday. When we went into the nesting area, we saw about 7 birds flying inside. The was about 12 spots of bird shit on the floor.

We look at the timber plank above the bird shit area but were unable to see any bird nest. Everything looks okay but still no nest.

We found the cooling fan for the external amplifier was not working so I quickly went to a store nearby to purchase a new cooling fan to replace it.

Mr. Chong said to visit the bird house in 2 months time.

Swiftlets in the Bird House

Visited the bird house this morning with my friend Mr. Chong. We were standing outside the bird house looking at the swiftlets flying above the roof.

The swiftlets turning in circle, sometime fly far away and sometime very near. My friend said that the birds have gone into the bird house. I was not very sure because I have not seen a single swiftlets inside the bird house for the past 9 months.

We then proceed to go into the bird house. Once the door to the nesting area was open, I saw swiftlets in side the nesting area. My friend said that we could turn on the lights. Once the lights was on, I saw about 6 swiftlets flying in circle inside the nesting area. We did not check further as we quickly turn off the lights and left the bird house.

I ask my friend are we allowed to turn on the lights, he said it is ok. He usually turn on the lights to harvest the bird nest.

My friend only take 2 weeks to get the swiftlets into the bird house while I waited for 9 months without any result. If I have engaged him earlier, I could be harvesting bird nest by now. This shows that experience consultant is very important. Many swiftlets farmers called themselves consultant. They just duplicate a successful bird house and if they are lucky, the bird house is successful. When it is not they do not have experience to solve the problem.

My friend said that the swiftlets will begin to build nest very soon. So the next visit is about 2 months from now.

Renovation Completed

Renovation work started on 23 Sept and was completed on 25 Sept.

Major changes are the entrance area. The roving area is bigger and the passage from roving area to the nesting area have changed. All CCTV cameras removed as my friend don't recommend it.

The position of the humidifier was relocated and the mechanical ventilators were turned on 24hr.

Smell in the bird house is much stronger now. He changed the entrance sound but not the internal sound.

Went in to the bird house on 30 Sept. No sign of bird inside the bird house. However, there are many swiftlets flying above the roof circulating the entrance hole. My friend said that the birds will be going in very soon. Will visit the bird house in about 2 weeks time.

New Consultant

Met my friend Mr. Chong at my bird house. He took a look inside the bird house and then he asked if there are any successful bird house around. I said yes and took him to one of the bird house about 500m from my bird house.

My friend took out a pair of tweeters from his car and started playing the bird sound. Swiftlets started coming down to his car after hearing the sound. As we drove back to my bird house he said that he could turn my bird house around with some renovation work.

He said that work done by my previous consultant was quite good. The room temperature is good, the planks and tweeters are well installed. The only problem is the roving area which is too small. The internal sound is good but the external sound needs to be changed. He needs to hack away the wall and create a bigger roving area.

As we were having lunch together, I asked him why he venture into swiftlet farming full time. He told me how he started into swiftlet farming.

He used to have problems with his business, workers problems, collection problems and always make him very stress. He used to mixed with a group of friends and among the friends there was one guy who was always smiling. Whenever he met the guy, the guy always looks happy and smiling. So one day he decided to ask him the reason. The guy told him that he is a swiftlet farmer and make 70k a month. (I think he must be smiling in his sleep too) The guy is willing to teach my friend how to venture into the swiftlet farming. So that is how my friend started to be a swiftlet farmer. That was 7 years ago. Now, my friend have more than 10 bird houses and he is also doing bird nest cleaning and selling to retails.

Swiftlet Consultant

I have not written in the blog for some time. I was busy. Busy calling me consultant as he refused to listen to my call. The number I called always have a funny tone sound like he is always oversea. I can't contact him for more than a month. My friend was also having the same problem.

Anyway, I decided not to call him again and wrote a letter to terminate his service and take repossession of my bird house.

I called my friend - a property agent in Seremban to introduce me a swiftlet consultant. My friend had sold 2 shops in Seremban to a man called Mr. Chong to turn it into a bird houses. In within 6 months Mr. Chong has managed to have more than 20 nests in each of the bird house. My friend recommended me to give Mr. Chong a call.

I gave Mr. Chong a call and surprisingly, Mr. Chong happens to be one of my old friend. We used to play golf together. We have lost contact and he has ventured into swiftlet business for more than 7 years already.

Mr. Chong has more than 10 bird houses and according to him all the bird houses are successful. He don't do consultation work but willing to help out for friends that require his service.

I will ask him to have a look at my bird house soon.

Start Over Again

After noticed that both my amplifiers broken down and the bird house was without sound for more than 2 weeks, everything has to start over again. This time the new amplifiers are equipped with fans to cool down the temperature.

Things that have changed by my consultant are as follows:

• Change to new amplifiers and new sound
• Painted the roving area with white paint instead of black paint
• Connect JBA water into the water tanks
• Make an extra hole 2’ x 3’ between the entrance area to the roving area
• Increase the aroma in the nesting area
• Change the mechanical ventilators timer

Hopefully, what was done by the consultant is effective to attract the swiftlets. The most important in swiftlet farming is not to give up. I have a friend that renovated his bird house for 6 times before having a house full of birds.

There are also some lucky ones like my friend’s brother-in-law who own a bird house in Pahang. His bird house has more than 100 nests within a year.

External AMP not Working

Went to the bird house with my friend this morning. I found out that the Amplifier for external sound is not working. Called my consultant cum supplier and was told that the brand he supplied was not good.

The AMP brand Bxx is not very reliable. He said that another bird house that he supplied with the similar AMP also broke down. He will replace another brand of AMP for me.

Property Agent

I went to Seremban to meet my friend Mr. Yeoh. He is a property agent in Seremban. He has found a new gold mine in selling property for swiftlet farming.

It happened sometime last year when he sold a vacant 4 storey shop to a purchaser from Klang. The purchaser turned the shop into a bird house. After he discovered about swiftlet farming, my friend decided to learn more about swiftlet farming. When I visited him, he told me about swiftlet farming and got me interested. Both of us attended the swiftlet farming seminar together.

After learning more about swiftlet farming, I decided to build my own bird house. However, my friend, Mr. Yeoh went to a different path. Instead of going into swiftlet farming, he started to search for abandon shops for sale and advertised in the newspaper. Due to his knowledge, he managed to sell many shops to interested swiftlet farmers.

Some of his clients are swiftlet farmers and some are swiftlet consultants. Swiftlets consultants bought the shops at cheap price and then sold it at higher price after turning it into a successful bird house.

My friend managed to sell the whole row of abandon shops 1 unit at a time. Purchasers are very funny. When they learn that one for the unit is a bird house they want to buy the unit next to it. My friend manage to sell the whole row of shops to different purchasers and each time the price of the shop went up higher.

My friend made quite a lot of money from sales commissions. While I have spent a lot of money in my bird house and still waiting for the return in a few years time, my friend is putting money into his own pocket.

His idea is to make money first and have his own bird house later.

Hot hot Weather

Due to the hot weather this few days, the water tanks in my bird house is completely dry. I have 3 numbers of 400 gal water tanks inside the bird house to collect and store rain water.

The water stored inside the water tanks is not enough to cope with the dry season. I need to apply a JBA water meter to supply water to the bird house.

I wanted to save some money for not applying water meter because the minimum water charges are quite high. I think the minimum water meter charge is RM36 per month. The amount of water usage in average for a bird house is less than RM10 per month.

Still no Sign of Bird

Check the bird house recently. There is still no sign of bird staying in the bird house.

Using the temperature data logger, I noticed that the internal condition is very good. The temperature is below 30 deg C and the humidity is 85%. All the micro conditions in the bird house are good.

So the only problem now is the sound. How to advertise to the birds to inform them that there is a good bird house for them to build their nest and lay their eggs. I have changed a few external sound already but the result was not good.

When I was standing in front of my bird house, I noticed that external sounds were coming from all directions. I can hear external sound coming from the opposite houses. I realized that the sounds from the opposite houses are echos from my external hexagon tweeter. Since most of the houses around my bird house are empty, they can create a lot of echos.

I have decided to shut down the hexagon tweeter and install two bazooka tweeters facing directly to one of the bird house nearby with a lot of birds. Hopefully, I might attract some of the birds from the bird house. ;)

I have also changed a new sound. Let see what is the result in a few weeks time.

Bird Nest Price

Received email from my friends. They were talking about current bird nest price. They were very happy because the price is going up.

The price of bird nest has risen to about RM3,500 per kg from about RM2,800 per kg. I think I will go up to RM4,500 very soon.

Rain Water

I have installed the data logger in the bird house and will only collect the readings in 3 weeks time.

When I was at the bird house, I noticed that the water tanks for the humidifiers are empty. The water in the water tanks are rain water collected from the roof gutter. I assumed that the water collected in the tanks can last for at least 10 days without rain but I was wrong. Only 5 days without rain and the tanks became dry.

I have decided to install an additional tank to collect the rain water so that it can last for at least 10 days. If the problem persists, I may have to reconnect the water from the water main. It cost about RM500 for deposit and a minimum usage charge of RM15 per month.

Temperature Data Logger

Went to my bird house last Thursday to install a TV monitor to the CCTV system. Before that I have to use a notebook to connect to the CCTV system using WIFI to view the video.

I checked the internal temperature in the bird house and found that the recorded maximum temperature is 29C and the minimum temperature is 27.3C which is within the design specification. However, in order to check the temperature more accurately, I may have to invest in a data logger. A data logger is an instrument that can record the temperature and the humidity level in the room with a fix interval. It could record as many as 5000 readings in the memory.





The recorded data can be transferred into the computer using USB connection and a graph can be plotted using the software provided. The readings will be more accurate than the one that I am using now. But, the price of the data logger is very expensive. It cost about RM400 per piece.

Anyway, I have already ordered and waiting for the product to be delivered soon.

External Sound

My mobile phone rang at about 10.45pm yesterday night. When I answered, I heard an excited voice over the phone - “Is the external sound you sent me a duress sound”. It was my friend – Victor. I said no and why. He said the sound was very good and attracted a lot of swiftlets to his bird house. Some swiftlets even cling on to the hexagon tweeter.

Victor’s bird house has been in operation for almost 3 months already. He has been testing external sound for his bird house over the Chinese New Year holiday. He wanted to have 2 external sounds, one sound for his hexagon tweeter to turn on only in the evening and one sound for the external tweeters to turn from 7am to 8pm.

The external sound that I sent him was bought from a doctor and I have not tried it yet. One of my friends has tested the sound using a test kit in an open field but the result was no good. That is the reason why I have not tried it out in my own bird house.

I am excited now. I will try it in my own bird house today. Hope to see good result.

Waiting

Happy Chinese New Year. I was busy preparing for Chinese New Year and have not catch up with writing the blog.

Many of my relatives and friends know that I have a new bird house. So whenever they see me, the first thing they will ask is “are there any birds in your bird house?” and my answer is always “no, not yet”.

The way I answered them sound slight disappointed. Yes, to tell you the truth. The day when the sound in the bird house was turned on, I was expecting the swiftlets to swarming into my bird house immediately and I was expecting to find bird nests in the bird house within a week. I was so excited and went into the bird house after 2 days but found no swiftlets inside the bird house. The high expectation was little let down.

People used to said that the higher the expectation the higher the disappointment. So after 2 weeks, I felt more disappointed especially when I was constantly been asked “are there any birds in your bird house?”

Now, I have told myself not to be disappointed. It is the actual process and time frame to attract the swiftlets into my bird house. I looked back at the projection in my proposal before I started my bird house; I have only projected 30 nests in the first year. So the time frame is still within the range.

It takes a fruit tree 3 to 5 years to start growing fruits for harvesting. Rearing cows and sheep also require 2 to 3 years before selling them so what is waiting 2 to 3 years for the bird house to be occupied for nest harvesting?

Swiftlets farming is a waiting game. You need to wait for the swiftlets to multiply. At the meantime I shall be playing golf while waiting.

BH after 2 weeks of operation

Called my bird house caretaker today. He said that he saw some swiftlets flying in and out the bird house. Inside the bird house he saw some bird shit on the ground but the amount of shit is not enough to indicate that the birds have stayed overnight.

Swiftlets will usually visit the bird house and play around but it will take a while before they decide to stay overnight.

I have placed insect powder near the entrance hole to attract the swiftlets. The insect powder is a mixture of insect eggs and food. After adding some water, the insect eggs will start to hatch and produce maggots. After a few weeks, it will turn into flying insects and start to fly around the entrance hole. Swiftlets will be attracted by the insect and come into the bird house.

Sometime the flying insects might attract other types of birds to come into the bird house too!

Bird Sound

You can have a bird house built perfectly according to the swiftlet requirements. The temperature is right, the humidity is good and everything according to the expert’s knowledge. However, how do you get the swiftlets to come in?

Well, just imagine a newly open restaurant, the food is delicious, the place is clean and the environment is good. But how to let customers know about the restaurant? The restaurant owner might have to advertise in the newspapers, radio or even television.

For a bird house the only way to advertise to the swiftlets is to use external sound. A good external sound will be like a good advertisement which can attract a lot of customers.

Then are all the external sounds the same? No, there are a lot of different external sounds available in the market and the effectiveness of the external sound also depends on the location of the bird house. One good and effective external sound at one area might not be good and effective in another area.

The best way is to get a few good external sounds then try one first. If the sound is not effective, then try another one. Try until an effective sound is found then keep it for a few months to attract the swiftlets down to the bird house.

As for my bird house, the first external sound that I used was not effective. So a second external sound was used. I am still monitoring the effectiveness of the second external sound. This is a trying stage and might need a few tries before getting the correct sound.

My Bird House - 4th week

My bird house is completed. The work took exactly 4 weeks. In fact it could be much faster if not for the few holidays along the way.

All the final details are checked. The alarm is installed with a mobile phone SIM card so that it can call me when the alarm trigger. I used a digi prepaid card because the telco allows the card to be actived for 365 days by paying RM30. I added another RM20 standby for the call charges.

Wifi is added to the CCTV using a router so that I could view the pictures from my notebook. I could see the picture from all the 4 cameras in my car without going into the bird house. Technology is great!

Bird sound is turned on and everything is set. The external sound will play from 7.30am to 8.00pm and the internal sound will play for 24 hours using 2 amplifiers alternating every 6 hours.

The next important thing is to test out the external sound for a few days. If it doesn’t work then the sound must be changed. The external sound must be monitored until a suitable sound is found for the bird house.

After everything is done, the only thing to do is to wait and pray. Hopefully the swiftlets will come to stay in my swiftlet hotel.

Swiftlet Farming in Malaysia

Article in the Star Paper dated December 13, 2008 for your interest

The sky’s the limit for swiftlet farming?
By Errol Oh

THERE are indications that swiftlet farming has the potential to be as huge in this country as it is in Indonesia, where listed companies are among the industry participants.

Malaysia enjoys certain advantages such as the fact that the swiftlets are found only in some parts of South-East Asia. There is also swiftlet farming in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines and Myanmar, but our local conditions may tip the balance in our favour.

Also, the frequent forest fires in Indonesia in recent years have driven away many birds and many have ended up in Malaysia.

Says swiftlet farm owner Dr Christopher Lim: “Indonesia is the pioneer in swiftlet farming. It has done quite well in the past but lately it has found that the nest production and quality are not as good as in Malaysia. So much so that the Indonesians sometimes buy nests from Malaysia.”

Nobody seems to be concerned about the possibility that once swiftlet farming takes off in a big way, supply may one day overtake demand.

Says Kelvin Heng of Pearlnest, a swiftlet farming consultancy outfit: “There’s a limited supply all the time. The swiftlets nest only three times a year. People are getting more health-conscious. The wellness industry is growing fast. The demand for bird nests won’t go down.”

Before this, the Malaysian operators are almost exclusively minor-league entrepreneurs and property owners.

Today, bigger players are coming into the picture as well. For one thing, swiftlet farming is one of the East Coast Economic Region’s promoted activities.

On Nov 25, Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed said his ministry would propose to the Cabinet that the development of the industry be given more attention.

A prominent Tan Sri who controls a group of listed companies is believed to have personally invested RM2mil to build a swiftlet farm in Pekan, and may be looking to have more in other locations.

At least one Malaysian-listed company has ventured into the game, and that is Seal Inc Bhd.

Its wholly-owned subsidiary, Seal Ventures Sdn Bhd, is the developer of Krai Eco Park, a project comprising about 60 three-storey buildings in Kuala Krai, Kelantan.

Seal Inc’s 2008 annual report refers to the project as an industrial park development, but a Krai Eco Park brochure unmistakably positions the units as swiftlet houses.

Supporting the industry

Another telling sign that swiftlet farming is gaining momentum here is that a sub-industry has emerged in Malaysia to provide swiftlet farmers with a broad range of products and services.

The former include audio, monitoring and security systems; chemicals; and fittings for the birdhouses.

Lim is not the only one to have produced a book on swiftlet farming, although he recalls facing a lot of resistance within the industry when he began writing in 2006.

In fact, there are several such publications in English, Chinese and Malay. Sharing of information, it seems, is no longer a no-no.

On the services side, there are dozens of consultants who offer to design, build and manage swiftlet farms.

There are also those who organise seminars and courses. There are dozens of websites and blogs relating to the industry.

The worry is that some of the service providers may not have the necessary expertise and experience, and are instead looking to capitalise on the surge in swiftlet farming.

According to industry insiders, the standard consulting fee for turning shoplots into birdhouses is RM10,000.

“That’s a much faster way to make money than by investing in the farms, which will take a few years before you start seeing good returns,” says a farmer.

Swiftlet Ventures International, which has not begun operating its first birdhouse in Rawang, says first-hand knowledge is not always crucial. The consultancy’s edge, says manager Mohammad Azimullah, is its ties with an Indonesian firm with a 30-year track record and with other Malaysian players.

The argument is that it is just as important to be able to draw on this network’s pool of know-how.

Another new trend to watch is the development of the so-called eco parks, which feature rows of purpose-built swiftlet farms at single locations away from residential and commercial areas.

This way, there will be compliance with the authorities’ requirements and there will be no neighbours to complain about the birdhouses.

However, some industry players think that it will take a long time to populate so many birdhouses in one spot.

A Fail Bird House

There are about 5 existing swiftlet bird houses around 500m radius from my bird house. Most of the bird houses are quite discrete and it is rather hard to notice them unless you look carefully. One of the bird houses even put up a decoy signboard saying that they are trading tiles.

However, there is one particular bird house which is very badly built. The front entrance hole is an existing window cover partially with plywood. Two tweeters are placed at the entrance hole. The sound from the tweeters is so loud that it becomes a nuisance to the whole area there.

Since this bird house is just a few lots opposite my bird house, my contractor have been observing the bird house daily and found that there is not a single swiftlet flying into the bird house. I suppose it must be a fail bird house and the owner keep turning up the sound trying to attract the swiftlets. In fact, if the sound is too loud it will scare away the swiftlets instead of attracting them.

Investing in a bird house is for a long term basis. It must be properly design and build. However, many bird houses are built on shops/factories that the owners have difficulty to rent it out. They just want to spend very little money to do up the bird house and hope that the swiftlets will just fly into it and produce a lot of nests. They are trying out their luck and contribute to the statistic of another fail bird house.

My Bird House - 3 1/2 weeks later

Visited the bird house this afternoon. Most of the renovation works have completed. Only outstanding works are the installation of alarm system and CCTV.

Alarm and CCTV is part of the equipment that all bird house owners need to consider. Alarm is to prevent thief from entering the bird house and the CCTV is to monitor swiftlets entering the entrance hole and the nesting area.

It is advisable not to enter to the bird house too often because it may distract the swiftlets and also the smell of human present in the nesting area. Therefore, it is best to enter the bird house only once a month. The only way to monitor the entrance hole and the nesting area from outside is to use the CCTV.

The CCTV that I install will have 4 infra red cameras with a video recorder. The recorded data can be downloaded into a computer notebook. Some bird house owners afraid that the infra red camera will distract the swiftlets but those tested found no such problem.

My bird house is currently enclosed with aroma. We have to let the aroma spread in the bird house for about 3 days before turning on the sound.

We have targeted to commence the bird house on Wednesday (2 days from now). Hopefully, there will be a lot of swiftlets tenants.

Cat and Dogs

Many people ask me how my dogs can be friend with a cat. Well, let me tell you how it all started.

This stray cat (we named him Kitty) used to roam in front of our house. My wife and children felt pity and often fed him food. Whenever the cat was around, our dogs will bark at the cat nonstop. However, since the dogs were tied, the cat was not afraid of the dogs.

After a few weeks, the cat became very brave. He started to come into our car porch and sat very near to the dogs. Since the dogs were tied, they were unable to reach the cat. The cat sat there looking at the dogs and the dogs as usual will bark at the cat continuously.

Whenever we untied the dogs, the cat will quickly run away.

This went on for a few weeks. Then one day, when we untied the dogs, the dogs quickly ran towards the cat. But the cat instead of running away, he stood there waiting to fight with the dogs. When the dogs were near him, he used his front paw to hit the dogs’ face.

After about a minute, the dogs started smelling the cat and the cat just stood there with his tail down and his back spine curl up. Then miracle happened, the dogs just walked away and played by themselves leaving the cat alone. Every few minutes, one of the dogs will run to the cat to smell him and the cat was always ready to use his paw for defence.

We let the dogs and the cat there for a few hours. Then we tried it again everyday. After a few days, the dogs and the cat have become good friends. They play and sleep together and the dogs offer the cat their food.

Now the stray cat has a home and three good friends.

I think the cat is very intelligence. He dares to take the first step to get acquaintance with the dogs by sitting near the dogs everyday. We should sometime learn from a cat too.