if you can send me a pix of the cement beams then I can see if I can advise you in anyway. Cement beams are not a problem. The problem is that it takes a long time for the cement smells to go away. The birds don't like the fresh cement smell. That's why in the past they prefer pre-war shops. There are many ways to make it easier for the birds to cling to the cement beams. We can talk about that later after I have viewed those cement beams set-up.

Humidification is important. Carrying buckets of water is certainly a no-no. Everything must run automatically and without manual interference as much as possible, unless you are living in the bh 

There are so many factors and you really have to identify them one by one and sort them out somehow. Every bh is different, apart from overall macros there is also a need to identify very specific problems that is unique to each bh.

Hi WW,

I don't think it will smell.
I was told we can choose to use either steam or heat by gas.

I build in Sabah. Those in Kuching are design by me and build by Prof. Andy Yap and Calvin Chai. pls googlr  swiftlets4u .

We are all Pak. han's students and his support with Sounds , aromas and technic .

AFs have this multi-brood character. It will try to breed as often as possible. This character is often exploited by man where the nests are removed before the eggs are laid, or nests removed with eggs and the birds will make a new nest and lay eggs as soon as possible.

The whole cycle takes a bout 4 months if left undisturbed and with the right conditions. From my shallow knowledge, there are birds that breeds seasonally and there are those that breed throughout the year. The timing can be altered slightly due to various reasons.

Tuckfook, the  use of "vaginal extracts" from domesticated pigs during your wild boar hunt demonstrates the power of pheromones. How I wish we could have this for Afs?

Another 2 sen from me. If wrong, sorrylah.

Thank you for the compliments. I was in Kuching harvesting with my partner Prof. Andy Yap. Should I know that you are in Kuching would love to buy you dinner. Spoke to Julia today before departing foe Miri.

All those BH are mostly design by me and built by Yap and Calvin in Kuching as I am fully occupied in KK. All BH endorsed by Pak Han and Sounds and commissioned by Pak Han. Jim Lee and Justin Tan will come and met up with us on PHM visit and we criticize our own work this enable us to keep improving our design and technic

.In this now such a competitive environment and at times hostile and  envious smalltimers , we need that small edge to stay on the top. Our books are full I wonder why.???  Thanks to Pak Han and our group support . 6 heads is better then one.  

We enjoy what we do and get paid  handsomely for our effort . 

How does AF locate the insects to feed on? We know that they use sight to catch the insects but how do they locate them in the first place? Any chance that they are sensitive to the insect's odor and get attracted to the place before s feeding frenzy?

Would distilling insects to obtain their oils help? They might go crazy thinking there is food but stomach will be empty.

Just my crazy idea. Something to ponder about :-)

Wow, I did not realise that this happens in the East Coast..  How cold does it get ?

I checked my BH last night and today, my lowest tempt. was 26 c. which got to a max. of 28.5 c in the afternoon. Humidity was lowest from the middle of the night till morning, so the humidifiers were running for quite awhile. You can have 2 sets of humidifiers, one controlled by tempt. and the other by humidity. You'll find the misting will warm up the whole house very quickly as well as the opposite.

To increase temperature in your BH, store your water to be used by the humidifier in the large black poly tanks.  These tanks are to be placed on the roof top to allow for solar heating. The larger the tank the more stored heat you'll have. I use 2 x 100 gals. tanks.

To further increase the stored water tempt. use a whole coils of poly pipe exposed to the Sun for your inlet water to run through. You can increase your incoming water to over 40c. BTW heating the water also gets rid of the chlorine.

Insulate your water tanks with Rock wool or fibre wool or otherwise keep them in an area free from wind if necessary.  Get your optimum conditions by trial and error.

It is the North East wind that is much cooler and causes the ambient tempt. to drop.

I'm sure glad we do not have this problem on the West coast. Not to that extent anyway !

Recently, I played a deadly "catch me if you can" game with a little bat in my 3 storey BH. That little bat made me climbed up and down the 3 floors repetitively and from one end to another each floor, hoping to defeat me with a fall thru LAL by enforced errors. The game lasted 30 min before the little bat lost interest to play with me and disappeared in thin air. I was lucky to survive from the game with the strongly built permanent concrete staircase with protection metal railing. Luckily my ceiling is not too high to enable me to play a fair game with that little bat.

I wonder how some BHs without permanent staircase from floor to floor and also high ceiling BH would have possibly play this type of game ?

Again Harry trying to sell Swiftlet Sound?  Is this allowed in this forum ?

In my opinion, Looks to be politically motivated. If so, it'll only make matters worse  

In Penang, the moratorium on BHs in Georgetown was clear and yet many insisted on building new BHs. They took the risk  

When proposed to set up an association to mediate this matter, there were very few supporters. As such, ASNI does not have 100% support 

ASNI chose to confront the state government when IMHO a compromise should have been sought  

So, we have brought this calamity upon ourselves 

Yes this is correct.

Question:- Would the banks dare to borrow you 85% to build a concrete structure in the middle of no where ie agri land?

Answer: No. With failure rate of 80%, banks no way dares to borrow you a single cent. So investors have to use 100% of own CASH to construct a concrete structure in the middle of no where. Even purchase of land only lend max 70%, BLR+1.XX%.

With 80% BHs in towns latest from news I read in Johor, imagine if they try to move 80% to farmlands with 80% failure rate, you can dream of mega nightmares how much money going down the drain.

Town folks are moving to big cities to cari makan so a lot of old shoplots formally residential now abandoned and some converted to BHs. So what's the problem?

Just hope the current or future government are not so dumb, getting Smarter not Dumb and Dumber. Notwithstanding there are many dumb officers though.

Come and join us on the coming seminar by Pak Hendri Mulia this May, we can talk face to face whole night long with all the experienced practitioners from difference countries  !

For a BH to be producing 10 Kg nests a month, you would need to produce about 30Kg of insects per day as each bird need about 5gm insects per day. So how viable is captive breeding for the purpose of producing nests? Imagine having 6000 birds flying around in a netted area with pellet blowers mimicking flying insects. It would be a sight to behold.

And of course whenever there is a constant direct human/animal contact there is always a risk of cross species viral infection like poultry farms etc.

I placed a cotton soaked with fruit fly hormone at the entrance hole.  Can attract small number of fruit flies but the flies don't seem to attract the birds .   Don't waste time on it. 

Another problem is the smell can last few days only and needs replacement frequently. Due to the design of my BH, I need to walk trough the nesting area before I can get to the top roving area to replace the cotton and this is a big No No. Instead of attracting more birds, I chase more birds away. 

Lesson learned: We must design a BH where we can access to every part of the BH for periodical maintenance works without passing thru nesting room.

Hi Mr Gem,

Yes, letter of approval will be attach in our s n p as well as Forest Dept approval letter, it will be publish in Utusan sarawak, star and also in our website after Gawai. Correction sarawak not vet in charge but  forest dept. In west Malaysia is veterinary.This project or land owner : Lembaga ikan Malaysia, PNK. In sarawak as you know everything is different. Even  the name code for land is different. West Malaysia lawyer can't practice here but sarawakian lawyer can in west. Funny rite? So as this, Why not Vet but Forest?

For example: Mixed Zone= Non bumi or bumi can buy             
                  : NCR = Native land and not non-bumi
                  : Size we use : Points instead of sq feet. ( 100 point consider 1 acre in sarawak )

True facts    : Any person from west or foreign country cannot own a land in sarawak as it is our state law. And even setting up  company   
                      except you  are married to any sarawakian. Any person from west Malaysia cannot over stay in sarawak more then 90 days.

Our Land    : Leasehold 60 years / renewable.
                      If you had purchased the units, we will state your name to caveat the land in Land and survey office , Betong, sarawak

Your Right    : Each owner are basically own 100 % of the unit and have rights to use the walkway, processing plants wash room, enjoying the
                      garden and as well as usage of facilities; bicycles

If you have many doubts on scam ( Don't blame you as current scam-bird nest investment scheme) or whatever you think this project are too good to be true then, would you mind took your time off and come and have a look at the area, successful swiftlet house and as well as whether it is too good to believe in. Remember seeing is believing. So please do took your time off and you can drop by our PNK office which are had been there since 1977. Person in charge : Haji Sulaiman whom also the most influential politician in saratok.

My advise: if anyone who are keen and serious to invest, do call us up, arrange to see the place as well to our site office, showroom and meet our lawyer in person. We do not collect anything from you or ask you to put RM ###### . So do support in making this project a success. For me, i don't ask if i feel it is good to invest, i go and look and feel it for myself , should or not you invest. So i do hope you call us to make flight here as i got 3 ppl already seen the place today at 5pm and staying at my resort. So, mr Gem, hope you can come and have a look .

Hahaha how many times I state that A SUCKER IS BORN EVERY MINUTE OF THE DAY.
I have pointed out the false claim of incredible result in a short time.

I have been brewing my own aroma base on Pak Han formula for past 4 years and only for my own use. I am very sure that they are helpful to settled in  the birds in new BH also served as a imprinting for young birds .

If my aroma can pull in 1400 nests in 2 years I wouldn't be bordered  to sell them and be laughing even in my sleep and at least owned 100 BHs all over south east Asia and inspecting by BH in my private jets. I wonder why this d*** head is still a struggling consultant ???? Bagger !

Oh by the way did you read about the new improved formula ??? Pls wake up readers if it's so powerful and good why do you need new formula ??.Oh there is a disclaimer !! If you complain that it is rubbish then the blame is on imitation LP HAHahaha

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Added on June 10, 2011, 12:59 amDear philoswiflet  pls belief me that sound is probably the most important part in attracting swiftlets into your BH. The internal is even more important then the ext. Sound but at last the birds do get bored with even with the most effective sounds and need constant updating.

I do know few very successful BH farmers they all record and edit their own sounds and never sell any of their sounds.

Here again beware there are so many Sifu who just reproduce sounds from the shops and give them some very dangerous names and sell them for lots of money. One instant 3 very common sound were sold for 15 k in Sabah. The buyer is led to belief
That they are so powerful and must be very expensive. Sucker !

Sorry I do not have any sound for sell and If I trust you and think you genuinely need help and a sincere person I will give you sound for free. They are not super sounds but bolah pakai lah !!