I'm still alive but too sad to post, just read.

Somebody trying to break into my BH, so far cutting the fence and probably deterred by my other preventive methods. (not to be discussed).

Harvesting nests and cannot sell, is the major headache.

Power blackouts is not a problem. Buy computer UPS system with a large battery. 2 x 7 Ah should run the internal sound for an hour. If your blackouts last longer then you need more batteries, just parallel with the UPS battery.

If you already got about 500 birds, no sound for a little while is not a problem.

Now back to my sulking.

Banci is greedy man corner or rather man trying to cut corner to make a half cup out of corner or ..........................sorry lah.....

Now, round off corner and corner make little difference in price and I rather prefer them corner for easy harvesting and the birds seem to like corners more...........Birds happy, I happy......

You maybe the first one to send someone to ICU after taking EBN............spraying on the plank if people don't die, your birds maybe the first to die.............

Replace the rotten planks cos the termites nest isn't at the plank so you need to find the source of the termites. I heard of some anti termites powder to allow the termites to take back to the their nest to kill the mother of your problem; termite Queen...... so, HAPPY Temites hunting....or Hahaha....you now have a inhouse feeding for your swiftlets.

I went into my farm this morning and chanced to see a large lizard, those Indon called Tokek... managed to kill it. Its good to have a length (four or five feet or so) of light white color plastic tubing use for containing wiring inside the farm...its a handy tool to hit at the tokek. Its really lucky to discover and destroy this terrible predator that can eat eggs and probably baby birds as well and sent all the swiftlets into a frenzy.... another thing is to have a can of cockroach grade insecticide spray to deal with roaches that reside in the farm... try not to use it along the planks but only down along the floor.

No perimeter drain in my farms. Only needed if you are using water from piping along walls to cool the farm. I believed the battle tested humidifiers are the best and trouble free method for raising humidity inside the farm.

I concurred with you that the perfume or whatever you call them are all over price as they are not good at all. Even fresh shit beat them all, I guess unless they really come out with something that really work instead like you said "selling snake oil".

Let me just brief here that even when the product was produce was good, the shelf life of it isn't as these concern with smell and after afew months, it no longer work. There was no shelf life on the label at all.
Secondly, if you make your own magic portion with ammonia from fresh shit, it may work well as I have tried many times before.

One thing for certain is that IT'S OVERPRICE by many times and most of these don't work. Hope that with the present low price of EBN, producers will lower their price and best with assurance that it will work with buy back option. I have one container of this Snake Oil left long ago  because one guy refused to pay but it was he who asked  me to buy for him from this Snake oil seller, famous HK. I never use other Snake Oil and only produce my own Shit Oil that smell so bad that house flies would follow me for the rest of the day...hahahaha.

so sorry that I can't comment too much on it as one once told me that why do I need to cause problem to people trying to sell their products.

Read the comments here and there are many using it here and maybe they want to have a say. All the time, I just help to buy for friends who want them and feedback wasn't good at all.

So decide it with your own wisdom and don't listen to Salesman talk........like my wife once bought a ink remover liquid after seeing it on TV and it ended with a discoloured dress. What you read or hear or see may not be the truth.

I tried Black&Decker heat gun on existing mold. Max the temperature ( I think is 500C) and blow it for few minutes.
After the heat treatment, the mold will still be there but it will disappear slowly over time.
Don't remove the mold physically, because if you do, you are helping to spread the spores to unaffected area and some spores are toxic and harmful to your health.

Mold and spores can be killed with a prolong heat of abt 150C for 10 to 30 minutes. At 500C, a few minutes treatment works well for me so far.     
           

As for washing your new BH, as long as it can dry up within 2 to 3 days, I think it should be OK. The weather is so hot now, better wash now.

I must congratulate you and admire you for your courage to build BH at the time many are selling their Bhs  on "OFFER". Try to read V1 and up and most of your new Qs are answered as quoted by TF "I would have thought that these discussion would have died by now"

Just last month, one of my friends rented out his building as store and the building had over 600 nests. When the time that so many given up hope and you came along and build a new BH, hurray to your confidence in the industry. You have given many here HOPE.....that good time maybe here again.

But, but If you have asked me then, I would have advice you to buy one instead of building one yourself as you shall start from Zero and BH now are below cost price with many having plenty FOC nests..

You should have wash the ceiling, let it dry  before putting up the planks but since now that you have done, the planks will be wet if you do wash the ceiling and then problem of well ventilation for the planks should be a problem and that the planks may bend during drying. Big problem, I rather leave it at it is  but maybe someone here maybe able to help you in this difficult situation.

Best of luck, my friend.

It's mentioned here and in so many places but then since nothing to do, I just let you know a case history.

If you are in a crowded BH ( having hundreds of birds) at night with no light, don't move and you shall be saved but I did make a mistake long ago and move around and got hit near the eye. So, if you are moving in the BH, make sure that you use light; remember that the birds see better than you do. In total darkness, they use sound to detect your presence and may hit you if you move. This is what they call Echolocation.