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.