Dear Friend,

This isn't a hobby; a serious investment for the future esp. retirement but if you can afford to make a habby, that will be nice. Going there every sunset and observe the birds cycling and going into the BH. It's really so enjoyable and I believe it's good for health like looking at green or fishes cos it relax the body and mind.

Good suggestion, and the birds will thank you for it as just leaving the bld. to the birds and in  years to come, you shall have great great grand parent to great great grand swiftlets. You shall see birdnests that you never see before, maybe 10 layers nests and coming to birds matter, I wish to let newbizs know that in most successful BHs, during proper harvesting, you shall see so many birds at one location like you saw in the adv. for hormone or perfume. As we  light up the floor, the about to fledged birds will be scared and fly to the darker area of the floor and if I am to take a picture, my solution will definitely sell like hot cake with hundred of young birds at the end of the floor. I did tried to take picture to share with my handphone even lately, Apple 4, all pictures don't come out good.

Remember, not that smell isn't important but we do get similar effect during harvesting nests so pls. no cursing for sellers.

Oyes, flying path is like if you are catching fishes and where to you place your net and it is similar to that. If your BH isn't in the path of the swiftlets, the entrance should be facing the path of the swiftlets and some swiftlets may come to examine your BH after hearing your call of love ( swiftlets sound with tweeters). Got it??

2 types of flight paths, 

1 :    external where the birds fly to and from their feeding grounds from their original homes.

2 :    internal where the birds fly into and out of the BH, to and from their nesting areas.

Initial attraction of the birds require that we call them from as near as possible to their external flight paths as otherwise they might not be attracted by the caller. This criteria is getting less critical in areas where there is already a large population of birds from existing BHs.

Then when they circle the new BH, the internal flight path has to be conducive to the way the birds fly so that they will feel safe and secure. Bad flight paths within the BH will stop the birds from entering, eg. too many partitions or small turning radius. Later when there are young birds they might not be able to leave the BH being unable to navigate the BH.

lainux,

From your post, I think it was safe to say that you didn't do enough research on the business. Like most of the seniors here would say, most information about the business are already all over the internet. You have to use your own observation and intel to filter those that work for you best. Without in depth research, you are bound to hit the nail.

Most basic requirement for someone to be successful in this business is to b interested and keep digging information while observing yourself. Reason being that there are too many information available for you to choose from.

For Example.
Difference in location, method on starting can vary alot.
Difference in location can mean
- Different sunset time
- Different food location thus diff flight path
- Wind speed
and so on...

Also, beware of conmen in the industry...
Gravity,

Going to seminar could b very useful, but information provided are only entry level. I would say information provided in V1, V2, V3 of this thread way surpasses what can the seminars offer. Just take your time, and read everything.

lainux,

Exactly, like what you say, the information are available in bits and pieces and some are even contradicting, which confuses ppl... That is y it is important for you to pick up pieces of information that is relevant to you. My first impression of ppl in the industry is "secretive". To those ppl who are sharing their information to me, I felt that they are not telling me all, however overtime I notice that it is not that ppl are not sharing. But the fact that things that work for A might not work for B. However you could still learn from what they say.

But to truly learn is to have an actual BH for you to observe. After awhile, you will notice alot of things. Like timing of birds visiting, returning. How to differentiate between visitors and residents.

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Added on June 2, 2011, 3:27 pm

I agree with most of the things said here, the saying that swiftlet are afraid of brightness is wrong... They do not fear the light as i've seen swiftlet build their nest at total bright places and I notice that swiftlet at my BH are not bothered by the light that switched on at the entrance of the BH as they still zoom in and out freely. From what I read of the internet, they rely on echo of their clicks interpulse periods to navigate in total darkness.

I also heard from alot of Sifus that swiftlet have very good smelling sense.

One thing tho, my BH planks are made of cement, so I don't see birds hit hard on it YET. But I can't confirm as yet because my BH is fairy new. Mayb the birds in the city are more used to wooden planks rather than cement.

How do you access to the open roof ?
Sudden bright light shinning in and air turbulence in nesting room when u open the doors at 1st and 2nd floor in the noon time. Your birds may not like the disturbances but thieve would prefer this stair case design.

My Sifu Pak quote ( I teach you to self diagnosis the problem with your BH and how to retify the problem  ) unquote . But this come with years of research and experience from all the failures and mistake made on the way! Each BH and different areas is unique .

Still with the topic on height and BH construction.

Why do we choose a certain height if we have the chance to do so unlike town building, there is no way but to do it at the height and try to renovate with lest destruction to the building.

But to do a BH @ agriland, let imagination go wild so why restrict yourself to the basic design of BHs. We do know the requirements of doing BH but we can do better by improving the design from the eye of the bird.

Now, coming to the height and why do we choose a certain height?? Consideration from the points of the birds and human being to be taken into account but then, whose comes first.....BIRDS of course and if no birds then why bother to build a BH better build a nice palace. Other considerations will only be consider if such action allowable for the birds.

Human factors come second but if possible, then win, win method should apply. Building a BH high is to give freedom of flight and comfort for the birds and also less stress. A man is about 6feets and the bird need 3 feets, so a BH should be at least 9 feets and not less. Here, we are taking about new fledged birds which will definately find difficulties to fly in restricted and too small the space and so why not give them the comfort and space. Birds happy, we happy, birds make nests, we sell nests.

But then, when we take consideration on dust and polution from the floor (we are not going to sweep the floor every month, are we), we build it higher the better so we add a few feet to it and make it 12 feets.

But then, those human predators!!! We add much much more height and if possible and from what I understand, pole  higher than 12 feets is impossible to control well so I will build my Agriland BH at 15 feets (taking consideration that ladder higher than 12 feets is risky) to be safe from human predators in case they succeed in tearing down my 2 metal doors. hopefully, the height will prevent them or at least slower them for totally destroying my nests. My prime concerns are for the chicks and eggs but surely, if by doing so, I can make my money, that's an additional bonus for being such a nice and concerned guy.

So, have a nice day

Your are right, designing according to the bird preference is priority i.e. 90'c corner is much better.  Furthermore, current valuation of bird house, per nest fetching at Rm1000 easily almost regardless corner or cup nest. Therefore, concentrate on constructing fast grow design is priority. Value of each harvest is lesser, but counter back with fast grow, i think after all is balance and higher in value.

Sifus,
Would appreciate if I receive some critique on the following design
Thank you in advance.
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your birds will be last to know sunrise

are you being serious?