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.