While we are still on scents....
Another loud thought...assumption is ...it works...
It does so by
1)Attraction? ie creating a 'lived-in' ambience for their comfort thus encouraging them to stay
(for like in the sounds we play) OR
2)Masking? It mask those smell (that we think turn them away) of a newly built BH? OR
3)Combo?...after 2 has been achieved then 1 kicks in?

To add on to some of the existing myth...
An Indonesian contractor who claims to have 'experience' building BHs in Indonesia suggested rubbing pineapple/skin onto the walls..
wheter to get rid of the cement smell or to attract birds????
This was what prompted my earlier Qs wheter it strictly mask, attract or both?

Pineapple juice is a mild acid and will neutralize the alkaline cement to a certain extend. Many fish farmers rinse their new ponds using pineapple before putting in new fish.

As for scent, creating the right ambience and masking unwanted odours seems logical. Unlike dogs which have a super-sensitive nose, birds are not known for that. Some species of vultures do detect their food through smell.

How I wish Afs can be positively attracted to a certain smell. So far to the best of my knowledge, all are guesswork.

Just my 2 sen.

WestWing, thx for the long advice...u r real sifu!

---

Added on January 11, 2011, 12:02 pmEng Lee, thx for your view & the lice problem (but for mine, lice problem still long way to go )
but will keep in mind your concern

This post has been edited by jeffwpl: Jan 11 2011, 12:02 PM

Talking about pineapple bring me to remember a joke that we share at a coffee shop long ago, a new biz asked his friend how to make his new BH success and he told the poor guy sharing the same table with us to take a picture of me and place it at the entrance and the swiftlets will come.

I laughed and added that you need to build me an alter with pineapple "Wan Lai- wealth coming" and coconut "Yah Che- Win-Money" so that his investment will bring in wealth and win lots of money. Remember, that's only a joke and don't you follow....hahahaha.

Maybe, pineapple juice can neutralize cement but I still prefer the ultimate power of BS aroma solution on the wall if you have problem of alkaline cement but then, thinking of it, swiftlet came from lime cave and isn't lime cave alkaline? All the time, I believe that using BS is to make the swiftlet feel at home with lots of BS smell ......just like in your own home, I guess........and also, to clear the cement dust.

If someone here did use pineapple and maybe can share his experience with us. Every thing is a possibility and maybe, we may come up with a variety of solutions to solve all our BHs problems but do remember that the sky must have new fledged swiftlets or otherwise, new BHs will sure be afailure no matter what type of method you try and try. Try persuade you neibouring BHs owners to breed swiftlets and only with new birds will your new BHs be successful and his' ( although already successful) be more plentiful. Preach to him that even he may share some of his fledged birds with other's but he certainly will get a percentage back.....even at 10K birds, maybe next year be 15K or more.........spread the golden words...preserve the swiftlets and let them multiply.......helping others to be saccessful and saving birds' life will definitely bring happiness now and good merit in the after world.

Now I am talking like a preacher so must stop lah.............hope you do enjoy my bla bla bla hahahha

Nice of all sharing here.

I'm not sure about pineapple can mask the cement smell or not but one thing for sure and known to every one that the glucose in the pineapple juice is a good attractant to ants, cockroaches, lizards and other small insects

This post has been edited by aeiou228: Jan 11 2011, 04:23 PM

Hihi

Im a newbie in this swiftlet farming..... Anyone knows any consultant operating around selangor? I got a abandoned shoplot, wanna turn it into a BH...

Yuet Han

Whether it masks the new concrete smell, we don't even know if the birds dislike that smell, or the smell of wet shit is conducive to swiftlets, all we do know is that this smell of wet shit helps bring birds into the BH quicker.

It is logical that the smell of wet shit gives the impression that the BH is a well established colony. Newly built concrete houses will also have swiftlets entering and nesting within but it would take a little longer.

What we are now more interested in is a scent that will ATTRACT swiftlets. Like the smell of a b**** in estrus will attract a dog for miles.

Given the opportunity, I will rub the scent from the anal gland of a civet cat onto a small piece of nesting plank, then fix this in the roving room and scrutinize this for the next few days to see if indeed swiftlets will look at this.

I think everyone should try a different scent and perhaps we'll hit the goldmine.

Another good post from Tuckfook. He is definitely right to say that we don't know if the birds like cement smell or not. Only if he birds could talk to us but then, the price of ebn would drop like a rock.

As for me, I only use BS soaked in water.

Something new to report is that it is still the best to use the Taiwanese humidifier instead of the ultrasonic humidifier cos' my USH fail me and it's less than 6 months old.

Unless, we can place the USH in very clean area and that the water is very clean, we may experience break down sooner than you though.

I left the downed unit in the BH nesting area and water in the water pan is soaked with BS and feathers.....So, I will still go for the Taiwanese humidifiers unless I can spend time to install the unit outside the BH and divert the mist into the BH. very Time consuming which I do not have.

If you really want to go for the USH, you must follow the following rules.
1. Maintain your unit regularly.
2. Use filtered water for the unit.
3. Place the unit outside the BH and ensure that the fan inlet is also filtered well....
4. Get maintenance tools as well as warranty period incase of transducer or fan breakdown which is very common with these unit.

Hey, don't you notice that the Taiwanese humidifier motor can really last but I hope their bearings could be also reliable. Latest type of such unit is Made in China. Look same and infact, I think that they are the same product but just that the China one preform better than the Taiwanese one......must be the condenser used in the unit. I tried one recently, the mist is more and finer than the Taiwanese type but the material used look inferior to that of the Taiwanese.

Possibility, it is the same manufacturer but made it in China to save cost.
Something to share with friends.

This post has been edited by West Wing: Jan 13 2011, 06:23 PM

Hi all,

I just received news my new BH got complained about the noise, but didn't say specific which part or direction.

Last week we have checked day&night both internal and external volume to be at correct levels.
I had personally tuned the internal tweeters to the 2nd lowest notch which sounded as if normal bird volume.
The external tweeters were not tuned by me, but my partners said only can hear little bit at ground floor.

Gonna make a trip there ASAP to solve this, so is there anything specific that I should lookout for ?
Maybe the timer or amp volume not accurate/consistent ?
Styrofoam + ceiling board + half closed window -> not soundproof enough ? really need bricks?

Thanks in advance...
Really paiseh disturb other ppl Im worried if next warning come again means TheEnd for me

This post has been edited by BirdNest_Satay: Jan 13 2011, 08:35 PM

hi tuckfook, heard of enzyme? i'm trying it out since got ppl say it will produce fuller nest, lesser lice, lesser cockroach, balance pH etc. Haha, wouldn't expect it to be a goldmine but i'll be happy if it can reduce the lice and the unwanted bugs in the BH.

sifu sifu sekalian, any idea how to reduce lice other than Ferdona or enzyme?

---

Added on January 13, 2011, 9:36 pmand another thing, i wonder did anyone maintain a record of how much BN cost over the years? would love to have them if anyone has it.

*still dreaming of a transparent market price for bird nest after 2 years+*

cheers.

This post has been edited by athlic: Jan 13 2011, 09:36 PM

Dear Sifu,

How do you manage the bird shit and cleanliness of the BH floor ?

Friend suggested laying vinyl sheets or plastic sheets on the floor. When the plastic sheets "filled up", just roll it up, clean it and reuse again. Is this a practical way ?

hi there all the sifus,everyone in this forum.....have been folowing this forum for few months oledi....got my swiftlet understanding from this forum ,thanks to all contributed....just got my sijil from jab.vet
i would like to start up small house first,in kl ...have been monitoring places...
but i dont have a proper bird call , all i have is which i downloaded from the net...have tried doing the calling test but bird very little respon...
i dont want to waste money to buy the sounds which sells in blogs...i really dont trust them..have even asked the jab.vet people when kursus ....they also guarding their sound like gold...,dont know why,,,,,but they claim want to help the newbies....hhmmm....
i have high regards for afew old timers here in this forum.....give good advice, easily share infos...now i hope any old timer here would sell me or whatever the proper sound for me to start my bird house..... thanks very much

i heard about enzyme as well, they claimed that it is clean, environment friendly, blablabla...
imo, enzyme could be a good one for maintaining the bh from those bugs & cleanliness(considering the benefit of household one).
but which type enzyme in the market is suit bh? where to get them? cost? application method?
i did contact thru' web about the supplier...but unfortunately, no response.
another worry point is the supply chain...while applied onto int & get a good result (AF use to it alrd), suddenly stop supplying.
if u got a source, hope to publish here to share the details

Hi all sifus, need to seek opinion on number of birdnest in BH to be able to harvest 1 kg per mth?
Based on calculation, we able to harvest about 25% of the total of nest in the BH.
Example: Your BH have 500 nests. 1 year you may able to harvest 1,500 nests (1 year 3 cycle, so 500 nest x 3). Harvest per month = 1,500/12 = 125 nests per month or 25% of 500 nests. If assume 1kg = 125 nests, BH need to have 500 nest (125nest/25%) to harvest 1kg per month.
Based on my experience, we normally need +-700 nest in BH to be able to harvest 1 KG. All sifus, can you share your experience?

suggest you double check the timer program for your external tweeters especially if you are using digital timer. sometimes there is overlap and the amp is still switched on throughout the nite. A power outage can cause timers to be out of sync.

also try to go around the area during the quietest part of the day ie. at dawn or midnite , if you want to check the loudness of your bh ext sound.

Thanks for the response.

Currently we are using the wall socket analog timer with a round dial to push in the small 15minute ticks.
7:30am to 7:30pm

This post has been edited by BirdNest_Satay: Jan 14 2011, 11:42 PM

r u sure its ur bH and not the nearby mosque? LOL....http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/mca-leaders-unaware-of-members-role-in-azan-row/

There are 2 main type of complaints; one is what we consider is serious and true complaint and the other is what we call, jealousy complaint.

As for the real complaint as many of BHs really need to lower their sound as it's really disturbing to your neighbors. It's not what at the volume at the amp that tell how loud the sound is as it depend on the number of tweeters and the amp. A volume notch of 3 at one amp doesn't prove anything as each amp even of the same model don't have the same output at the particular notch. Let you ears be the judge of the sound.

Open type of BHs can really create problem for the houses behind the BH esp. in the middle of night as sound seem to magnified many times in the quite night........even the sound of mosquito can be heard clearly. With your internal sound going, it can cause sleepiness night for many and that's not good for the reputation of BHs in your town. I never advice fellow BH owners to make window type entrance rather do the open air well for the town's BHs. I also advice people not to use internal sound at night and so far, none of my BHs has a internal night sound but I don't say that having one is not correct rather not to have one @ night in town BH so that all town BHs can be safe from destruction.

Out of town, do what you want as nobody will care with exception that you may disturb the wild animals or maybe some dead souls living at the area.
So, there is not such thing as the correct notch as each amp is different at a specific location. Most nearby residents don't mind the day sound but don't take kindly to the night sound. In one long ago case, we have to take action on our own to remove the TNB power fuse to solve the complaint of the resident staying behind the BH (the owner is not local).


Coming to the second type of complaint and this type is jealousy type and there isn't any way to solve as I do have a problem with it. Many years ago, behind one of my BHs is another successful BH and as all smart people, open my entrance hole to face his entrance. That is the starting of my nightmare as my back shop BH owner has been complaining secretly to the Association so many time about the noise disturbance of my new BH ever since I started the sound. The complaint doesn't even stop after I cut the connecting cable just leaving the tweeters with cut wire. That was the only time I tried with open window type entrance and since then, I promise myself never do another open window BH to save myself from any nonsense complaint.

Just my own Experience to share.

Any one ?


Maybe this mechanical timer is the culprit ? Temporary power supply disruptions will alter the timing of your sound play. This type of mechanical timer only good for BH owner who live in at the BH ground floor. Digital timer with built in battery is highly recommended for BH owner who lives far away from the BH.