Hi, what qualifies as good and nice ? I'm interested in increasing the population of my bird house, will your sounds do that ? Will it be possible to have samples to test or can you carry out a test for us ?

Thanks.

http://www.www.igeorgetownpenang.com/opini...elines-in-place

and it is so very quiet on the Penang front !

I wonder if ASNI and other similar associations are aware of what is happening right now ? Wakey wakey !

URGENT TO ALL SWIFTLET RANCHERS IN THE STATE OF PULAU PINANG


KURSUS PERUSAHAAN SARANG BURUNG WALIT

ANJURAN:
KELAB SUKAN DAN KEBAJIKAN
JABATAN PERKHIDMATAN VETERINAR
NEGERI PULAU PINANG

TARIKH: 5 OGOS 2010
MASA: 2.00 – 6.00 PTG
TEMPAT: BILIK SEMINAR 1,
JABATAN PERKHIDMATAN VETERINAR
NEGERI PULAU PINANG
BAYARAN: RM180.00/PESERTA

Terbuka kepada semua pengusaha dan bakal pengusaha sebagai asas untuk perlesenan, pendaftaran dan pengiktirafan premis burung walit. Kursus meliputi perladangan, GP, GAHP, perelesenan dan prosedur eksport/import sarang burung walit.
Pendaftaran awal dialukan, pendaftaran secara ‘walk-in’ diterima tertakluk kepada kekosongan tempat.
Sila daftar pada waktu pejabat kepada: En Zainal Naim (Ketua Kerani)
Jabatan Perkhidmatan Veterinar
Negeri Pulau Pinang
KURSUS PERUSAHAAN SARANG BURUNG WALIT

ATURCARA

2.00 – 2.20 ptg Pendaftaran peserta
2.20 – 2.30 ptg Perasmian Kursus
Dr Wan Mohd Kamil bin Dato’ Wan Nik
Pengarah Perkhidmatan Vetrerinar
Negeri Pulau Pinang
2.30 – 3.00 ptg Kertas 1: Garis Panduan Pembangunan Industri
Sarang Burung Walit
Puan Salmah bt Mahmud
3.00 – 4.00 ptg Kertas 2: Pembinaan Rumah dan Pengurusan
Burung Walit
Puan Jannette Lee
4.00 – 4.30 ptg Kertas 3: Amalan Penternakan Baik
Burung Walit (GAHP-Burung Walit)
Puan Lily Rosalind
4.30 – 5.00 ptg Kertas 4: Perlesenan Premis Burung Walit
En Mohd Faidzal
Bahagian Pelesenan MPSP
5.00 – 5.30 ptg Kertas 5: Prosedur Eksport/Import Sarang
Burung Walit
Dr Nabilah bt Abd Talib
5.30 – 6.00 ptg Penutup dan Penyampaian Sijil

6.00 ptg Minum petang dan bersurai

---

Added on August 4, 2010, 12:52 pmThe various Swiftlet Associations were informed several days ago.

I am a fully paid member of a local association but to date I have not received any notification on the seminar. I believe some other members have not received any notification either. Is the seminar being boycotted?

Whatever action the associations are planning, it's rather late is it not ?

So now, I had to 'kay po' to inform all of you.



This post has been edited by tuckfook: Aug 4 2010, 12:52 PM

Some of us are very much involved, but on the outside of the associations mainly because we do not see eye to eye members and the committee. Not everyone subscribes to the idea of doing things together, happily. Having a proper dialog with all our neighbours and appreciating all their concerns as well as expressing ours.

There are going to be some very angry and then very sad swiftlet ranch owners in Georgetown when the Government comes down harshly on them. They could have avoided much sorrow with proper negotiations. Still not too late for a last ditch effort, I am told.

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Added on August 6, 2010, 7:31 pmUrgent to all Swiftlet House Owners in Georgetown and all supporters


Meeting scheduled with the MMPP, Penang Heritage Dept., Penang Heritage Trust, and all swiftlet house owners and all interested parties.

Monday 9th. August 2010

9.00am to 12.30pm

Kompleks Masyarakat Penyayang Jalan Utama 10450 Pulau Pinang Next to Governor's Residence, Western road, opposite Polo ground.


Supporters are welcome.

This is the last chance !!!!!!
Swiftlet Houses may be banned from Georgetown !!!!!

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Added on August 6, 2010, 8:12 pmPlease inform everyone you know who has anything to do with Swiftlet houses in the State of Penang.

This is probably the last chance you have, to make your views known to the Penang Government. May also set a precedent for other states to follow.

Penang Heritage Activist will be in attendance. They will also have their say.

Be There or only SOB quietly when your Georgetown Swiftlet house is torn down.






This post has been edited by tuckfook: Aug 6 2010, 08:12 PM

What utter drivel !

State your case, factually, and perhaps we can help clearing your obvious misconceptions.

Well said West Wing. You have described the democratic process which we all hopefully adhere to.

If the writer has a grievance then it should have been brought up with the respective association's committee. All members voted to have the committee represent the members.

Committee members are NOT paid and have regular jobs so cannot respond immediately, though they need constant reminders and a little prodding now and again.

If any party feels that they or anyone else can do better, then by all means get voted into the committee. An association is not a corporation and has no boss. Anyone capable can be voted in to become the leader.

The associations have to work within the framework of the law.

In Penang, No new BHs were allowed to be built after 2008 in the Georgetown area. Prior to that, permission had to be granted by town council before any BH building work was started. This is the therefore also the advice to all potential BH investors.

Regardless of the directive, many people did build their BHs and they therefore risk whatever action the local town council will take.

At no time did the local associations recommend to the local town council not to allow new BHs whether in urban or rural districts.

At the recently concluded Forum in Penang, virtually all the NGOs in attendance presented their case against BHs in Georgetown, there was no support from any of them. ASNI presented their case very well, refuted their allegations totally. In the end, all the NGOs agreed that it will be up to the Local Government to formulate the final local guidelines in implementing the 1GP.

There were a few un attached forumers who stood up to speak out against swiftlet ranching but there was no necessity for the caring swiftlet ranchers in attendance to say anything else. (if there was, it probably was not important enough for them to speak out).

If you are a member of ASNI, please direct your grievances to ASNI by phone or email. If you are not a member of any association and have a problem to resolve, please join an association of your own choice and have them assist you.

I do not know what you've got against the associations as you have not been forthcoming with details.

Since you have the impression that many of the associations recommended to the govt. not to allow any more BHs in urban areas then perhaps you should provide some detailed proof.

Also, since you know the associations that you have accused of such an act, then by a simple process of elimination, you have the associations that did not.

Whatever the misunderstanding is, I'm sure there is an amiable solution.

BTW it is good to encourage MORE BHs in any area because more breeding sites produces more swiftlets and in turn make more nests. Restricting BHs will limit the number of swiftlets. Young birds will not necessarily return to their place of birth as they will look for better sites to nest.

As you singled out ASNI, I may perhaps be of assistance.

If you cannot provide details, I'm sorry this discussion will have to end here.

Unfortunately the above property, sharing a back lane, is almost directly behind the property owned by Rebecca Wilkinson, the person is making a lot of noise against swiftlet ranching in Georgetown.

Rebecca purchased her property recently, surrounded by several long established swiftlet ranches. Her properties were restored completely, one to be her personal residence/heritage home-stay and another is her art gallery.

Rebecca is also very active within PHT, hence all the complaints directly to MPPP heads.

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Added on August 18, 2010, 3:41 pmCheck this site out, especially the video of Rebecca's house. There is much to be learned if you are planning to build your own swiftlet ranch. Some places naturally attract swiftlets, I have been there and seen it myself. Seeing is believing.

http://noswiftlethousesingeorgetown.blogspot.com/

All the seminars and sifus in the world would not be able to make a place as attractive to swiftlets as that.

This post has been edited by tuckfook: Aug 18 2010, 03:44 PM

Unfortunately Rebecca is not a mat salleh ! She's a Malaysian. Father was a planter,,,I think,,, and mother chinese.

Yes I have taken her on as politely as possible, as you can see from the postings/comments. Rebecca was less vociferous at the last forum seeing that we are prepared to stand up to her.

In Penang, it is now up to the state officials to decide and finalise on the regulations for swiftlet ranching.

Some of the people in PHT, Badan Warisan, etc. are very highly respected professionals, each an expert in their respective fields.

Whatever we post or say must not be easily refuted. Wild challenges unsupported by facts will only bring us more problems. The whole issue must be treated very professionally.

Most of that which is said by PHT officially is supported by facts that they will furnish, it is up to us to prove them wrong. It is therefore not wise to challenge them without being able to furnish facts to prove our point. So far all of PHT's presentations have been very professional. They also have the support of the government departments behind them.

ASNI has done it's best in presenting the case for Swiftlet Ranching in Georgetown, as professionally as possible and by successfully answering all the accusations raised by PHT.

All arguments have been presented by both sides to the city councils of Penang. It is now up to YB Chow Kon Yeow to finalise the Swiftlet Ranching Guidelines for Penang. This is due to be announced very soon.

The photo quality is not high enough to determine whether the nest are of the Fuciphagus or other swiftlets that produce mud nests. Unless we have higher resolution on the nests I cannot possibly tell. Laterite soil and mud contains iron and mud nests looks almost just like our white nests except they are rounder and have a rougher texture and usually do not posses elongated ends that the AF nest have.

Nests usually become reddish brown because of soluble iron which gets absorbed by the new damp nest and in time oxidises to become brown iron oxide. Thereby giving the nests a reddish colour.

In limestone caves, iron dissolves and leaches into the nests which then oxidise to give us blood nests. Many other soluble salts can also produce the red colouring.

Iron is good for people suffering from anemia, and therefore good for women especially. How did the ancient chinese know this without knowing chemistry is a wonder.

Most fake red nest use food colouring and this will colour the cooking water red. Naturally occurring red nest will not turn the water red. Natural red nests are also never uniformly red.

Much of the red colouring used was not permitted food colouring, if permitted food colouring was used and declared there would not have been this problem in China.

In any case, the Chinese importers are now colouring the nests themselves to save us the trouble.

http://bit.ly/9Nz1Bc

The above is AlJazeera report on swiftlet houses in Heritage Georgetown.


Penang State acknowledges receiving the 1 GP but has yet to finalise on how Penang will adopt the 1 GP.

---

Added on September 2, 2010, 1:29 pmThe best way to determine whether the tweeters we purchase are in the correct sound range is by using an oscilloscope.

We can also determine roughly whether a tweeter produces the correct sound range from just listening, as the sound range produced must be audible to us humans as well.

Simple logic prevails, in that if your first nest is not built next to if not on a tweeter then there is reason to suspect.

Also, by observation, new birds should cling on to the tweeters otherwise the sound or tweeter is not quite right.

After a BH is populated we can reduce the internal sound gradually, this will also encourage the birds to also build nests on the flat areas and not corners.

Bear in mind that the birds build nests near tweeters because they think they are within a large colony and therefore secure. In a well populated BH, the natural night sound from the birds is probably louder than having the tweeters on low, so it becomes redundant and also the natural nesting sound is probably better.



This post has been edited by tuckfook: Sep 2 2010, 01:29 PM

WW you are without doubt one of the most observant and magnanimous on Swiftlet matters that I have ' met '

I have often said to many new swiftlet ranchers that they must spend time to observed what is happening in their BHs to try achieve optimum results, sadly some prefer to pay and believe what the consultants say after a few minutes visit. Each house has it's unique properties.

What is the best level at which the night internal sound should be played ? Switch off all the artificial sound, use a ladder to approach some nestlings, touch the nest or rap the planking and then listen carefully at how loud the young birds are calling their parents. That is probably the optimum level your internal sound should be at night.

In my nest BH, it's either that or the share market, I plan to put a tweeter at almost every corner, hopefully eliminating the use of corner pieces. This will perhaps fool the birds into thinking that there is a nestling at every corner. With so many tweeters, it'll create the sense that there are many birds at many locations and not just loudness creating the false impression of many birds.

With the sound at the correct level, there will not be the necessity of turning the sound off at night ?

So, why do we need to play the sound louder daytime ? Well, I really don't know as we all started that way ! After my nest BH I'll tell y'all. I guess louder helps to fool the birds !

External sound is good at attracting all the birds but recently I have found and therefore have reason to believe that it causes the death of some young swiftlets. Young birds learn to fly and they are also attracted to this sound which is usually OUTSIDE the BH being made by chasing birds circling the BH. So my belief is that they get attracted to the calling sound that some of us use to lead birds into the depths of the BH. These birds either collide into the wall or are so attracted to the sound that they get entrapped by their attraction and die from starvation as they never get outside to learn to feed. Though not many but there are deaths near these internal callers.

I had previously thought that young birds get attracted and head for the sunlight outside. It is probably both. I have lost more fledglings in a house that has more corners to turn before getting to the outside than one with a very open concept but a common factor is that it happens near the internal callers.

Everyone please report your observations, any info will help.

The number of birds occupying a house does not necessarily indicate the success of a new BH. Eg. in an area where everyone gets 100 nests in the first year, 20 nests is certainly below par whereas in an area that 20 nests in the first year is norm, then 40 nests would be good.

One possible mistake I find is that the same music is played by more than one house within the same district. Then one complains that the same music played is not attracting the birds whilst the other is doing well. Does that not say something ? So change the sound only when you find the birds not being attracted to the music. OTOH if your music initially attracted the birds but fail to do so later on, then there is probably a serious underlying problem. It may be the house or the surroundings. Act fast before the house is blacklisted and it'll be difficult to reverse.

WW, have you or your friends tried any hormones, potions, etc. ? Do they do any good or harm ?

From advertisements, they are very tempting but do they work ?

I have an area in my BH that is almost completely empty so it'll be a good place to experiment but of course the birds have not nested in this area probably for a reason known best only to them as we do not speak their language and think like them, I can only speculate on the reasons, which I will not reveal for now .........until after the experiment!

Also, do you find more dead baby birds near your internally located outside sound tweeters?

Thanks

Hi WW, thanks for your frank answer.

My BH is 100ft x 22ft. May be described as 5 sections of 20ft x 22ft per floor, of 3 stories. Alignment is East to West with in out holes at East, North and South on 4th flr. 'dog Kennel'. Internal well of 20ft x 20ft from top to bottom in the central section.

The strange thing is that on the top floor, in the East wing consisting of 2 sections, 20ft x 22ft, only the section nearest to the central well is occupied whereas the last section to the East does not even have spots where the birds rest or shit. This un occupied area is darker than all other areas on the same floor, with the opposite, west, section, bright enough to read large print from a newspaper. Wall temperature at this un occupied area remains a max. of 30c. and min of 27c. with humidity from electronically controlled humidified set at 80% Rh.

All other areas and floors are well occupied and visited by the birds.

Please note that the birds are building nests in all the brighter areas of this floor !

All the floors below are darker than this unoccupied section but then again, nests are being built almost everywhere.

I am not particularly worried about this situation, this is an excercise whilst waiting for YB Chow Kon Yeow to finalise the Guidelines for Penang. I hope it will be interesting for forumers. Also I have not tried out my solution as I think I'll leave it to test perfumes, potions etc.

If this is actively discussed, I'll then report on all results, which hopefully will guide everyone in one way or another.

My house on agri land also used no special perfume when I first started.

I used 100kgs of Ammonium Bicarbonate, got it cheap as it was the tainted China stuff that the Govt had banned because of some poisonous additive. I also had about 100kgs of bird shit which was kept wet in big basins.

First markings in about 1 month and complete nest in 2-3 mths. About 100+ nests by 12 mths and 200+ nests in 24 mths.

The strange thing is that the area I describe is still barren !

So, it'll be a good place for me to experiment !

This post has been edited by tuckfook: Sep 9 2010, 09:40 PM

Piezo tweeters are neither 4 or 8 ohms. They should be in the region of Kohms. All tweeters are wired in parallel and never series.

I don't think anybody uses coil type tweeters anymore as these are prone to failure due to the environment. Coil type are usually used in high end hi fi equipment and tend to be very expensive.

Piezo tweeters are cheap and last a lot longer as well as being good enough for our purposes.

Google for more information on different types of tweeters

Depending on type or design, usually a .25" hole at the bottom will drain the water entering the tweeter. After making the hole, spray the tweeter dome with a thin coat of clear lacquer.

If you are using the tweeter with a coil in the back, this coil is usually just to filter out the lower frequencies. Just spray everything with a coat of clear lacquer.

The Piezo crystal is waterproof but the soldered contacts usually corrode.Again clear lacquer helps extend life. Modern domes are plastic but some in the market is paper. Again clear lacquer will make it last for years.

Water will make the tweeter inefficient but when it dries out it returns to normal.