Biggest mating season started. From observation can see more birds chasing each others. Those lonely birds finding wife. Those married birds eat more for energy. The time schedule for swiftlet activities also can see difference from before mating season.

This morning I drop by to see my grandmother at kg china, from kedai payang I take a back road crossing a parking area on my left side there new farm with a monkey house, is it yours seeseng, seems lot of birds keluar masuk .

You mean the farm inside the kampung? Or the yellow building with green dog kennel? Mine is at river side. Can only be seen from the jetti at water front food court. It's the one in the picture I posted. 3 days ago I went to change CCTV camera. Found few drops of shit on the floor but doesn't look like stayed overnight shit. I'm suspecting miscalculation of dog kennel size made bird fly-path not smooth.

rock man

This post has been edited by swifbuild: Jan 19 2008, 11:52 AM

Yes you're right. My problem is small DK and roving area. Birds need longer time to familiar the place and pickup for population will be slow. From observation through CCTV the birds can't fly fast when going into entrance to roving area then nesting area. It need to "handbrake" then dive into roving area. Inside roving area quite narrow(around 5.5' widex15'long) to circle if it's not facing the inner entrance. In there birds need to fly slower need braking near the walls to navigate to nesting area.
I miscalculated when deciding DK size. We know AF need 4-5' to make a turn at fast speed. So I made it 4'x4' the minimum. Then the 4' is wall to wall. I didn't think of AF at high speed will turn when 2-3 feet to reach wall. So I presume the minimum for DK inner size should be at least 7'x7'. Otherwise a long shape runway. Bigger square or long size so birds no need to slow down and turn at narrow angle. So you suggest renovate to enlarge DK or wait and see?

This post has been edited by seeseng: Aug 6 2007, 02:24 PM

Still early to judge better wait and see, no need to rush

I agree with Jef. Sometimes we are surprised to what this bird like or can do. For example, my farm which is successfull has small roving area (less than 3m X 3.5m) and yet it is the most successfull of all my farms. So wait a few months and watch the progress

good starts

This post has been edited by swifbuild: Jan 19 2008, 11:53 AM

I guess you have your point as his case there are no nests yet so there is minimal risk of doing renovation. In my case where the farms have population already, it is always very risky to do some modification and need to think very carefully as these birds are versy sensitive to changes and when they don't like them they all will move away. I have recently put partition on my planks where I put perpendicular plank to the existing one about 1m away from the nests. That evening the birds which usually were around 52 occupying that plank were only 23 left. I see this on my CCTV camera. The following morning I undid the change but the birds were still not coming back. My point is when your farm is inhabitated you have to be carefully on doing any renovation and pick the right timing.

hi, I had followed your instruction "U need to click "download: 001.rar" at the bottom. Then type in the 4 digit/letter then press Download" but still unable to download.

Please assist. Thanks

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Added on August 7, 2007, 10:15 pmhi, SeeSeng

I had followed your instruction "U need to click "download: 001.rar" at the bottom. Then type in the 4 digit/letter then press Download" but still unable to download.

Please assist. Thanks


This post has been edited by tongserseng: Aug 7 2007, 10:15 PM

Hi, i am a new member and have a diy swiftlet house for 5 to 6 year oledi but not yet success. first i am facing musang problem from the begining,this musang is very kacau one just only the shit and pee smell make the swiftlet runaway. now a little bit better because we set a trap to catch the musang, so now no more musang on the roof at night, if got luck the swiftlet will come and stay in my hotel. another thing is that i would like to know how good is this location Jalan Sultan Zainah Abidin or Tanjung near MAA building in kuala terengganu. if somebody know this place and performance for swiftlet hotel please let me know.

Hi kent, welcome another member from KT. Not only musang smell will scare the hell out of the birds. Other predators also. Commonly rats and bats. There's a small species of rat with big eyes can actually climb 90degree walls with rough surface! After 5-6 years how many birds stay in your farm? Your farm is at Tanjung there or you want to know the specific location is ideal or not? Good or no good a few sessions of bird call test will let you know the result. But at these few months mating season bird call test might not get accurate results. Most lonely males busy chasing females. More birds speding more time on feeding for more energy at night ehem~. Less birds playing around.
I presume that area is consider good since there're quite a few heavy duty farms doing well there. Example. Astaka.

Hi seeseng, nice to hear from you, i heard you are from kt and your farm is in kg.cina, my farm is in kg.cina also, my farm is very small and diy farm you knowlah no consultant involve so a lot of problem must solve by ourself because of small budget everything is limited. Due to bird flu i stop my project and my cd player also breakdown at that time, so no sound, no nest, no bird at that time. i just leave it like that for a few month but after that i just go in to check and see whether there is a bird or not you know what i discover a nest and baby bird inside so now i just let it like that with no sound play, due to some wrong information i make a mistake for not taking away the nest after the baby bird can fly so now the nest being use back to lay eggs for the second time. so how is your farm seeseng? my farm i can cosider as a fail farm but will wait and see how the progress.

This post has been edited by kent kt: Aug 12 2007, 10:34 AM

Most consultants can't gurantee success yet they're overpriced. Especially the time when you started. My friend got a farm also in Kg Cina hired a consultant from outstation to do 5-6 years ago. Produce some nest but stopped growing since 3-4 years ago until now less than half kg/month. Can't even cover the old house installment. The farm uses total flat planks without any groove. The sound not attractive at all. 5-6 years ago the same consultant even comment on plaza perdana farm : "If there can have bird I'll chop off my bird! " ....... see how's plaza perdana now doing? One of the top in town.
God bless until now not a single case of bird flu worldwide is related to A.F. yet. Since you can have a nest without sound then it should do well with sound on and other stuffs.

Hi kent,

1 successful n silence farm locate above bata shop at jalan sultan zainal abidin, owner turn off the sound few years back after neighbours complain, seems doing very well with no audio no ding dong.


Looking for motorolla tweeter a rational price, any suggestion guys.

The problem is when there is a sound they playing with the sound only no making any nest, so best keep quite first, i use to install a humidifier inside the hotel but due to the space is too small the humidifier sound make the bird runaway, i saw there is a new farm on top of niwawa babycenter got bird start playing oledi check the tweeter and see i think it is the 8 directional tweeter he use on top of the roof, So seeseng how is farm? any nest or bird inside?

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Added on August 13, 2007, 12:31 pmHi Jef,
Are you from kt also? where is your farm house? you are looking for a tweeter i use a normal tweeter only for my sound but now keep quite, no sound.

This post has been edited by kent kt: Aug 13 2007, 12:31 PM

When a farm got sufficient permanant residents we can actually turn off external sound or both. Provide the farm must have very good micro habitat to keep the young lonely birds from moving to other farms and existing residents power enaugh sound to attract birds from other farms. There're quite a few silence farms in town. 2 farms next to MPKT parking building pasar kedai payang, 2 floors above KT Sports etc.
For new farms opening recently no sound=sure die. Birds will not stay straight away after first visit. Some may take as long as 3 months to go in to stay overnight after the first visit. Some stayed for some time and left after 3 weeks also got.
Not using motorolla tweeter AFAIK it's quite expensive. Why not getting the type Dr. C using @RM3.50/pc if not mistaken. Mini coil magnetic tweeter with bird lepak spot.

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Added on August 13, 2007, 2:17 pmMust understand the birds' normal behavior. We need them to come and play to familiar with the surrounding of the farm. To familiar with in farm flight path etc. before they make decision to even testing stay your farm. Don't expect nest to be build so soon. Especially at area with lots of farms. They tend to test out many farms before deciding to stay permantly in one. Your 1 nest case probably the birds made decision to stay when they visited last time when got sound. Then they come to stay after you off the sound.

Poultry humidifier do sound like 747 aeroplane taking off. But the sound I don't think it's a problem. Animal has this instinct call animal adaptation. First time - scare, 2nd time... the more the birds apapt to the sound it become braver. Mine also small farm but got 2 poultry humidifier in farm. 1 unit not enaugh to generate over70%RH. From CCTV I can see birds playing around in the blowing upward mist from the humidifiers. They actually love the mist.

Niwawa babycenter there if not mistaken long time ago do farming liaw. Failed then gave up. Until recently got experienced sifu help to consult. Heard is Candy cakehouse help 1. That farm first 2-3 weeks no birds play. Even after changed hole from west faced to south faced. Yet no bird play. Mana boleh?!! LADIES & GENTLEMEN... 4 DIRECTIONAL TWEETER!!........ still no bird... first 2 days lah. Then later more and more birds playing liaw. How I know? This farm every morning chirp sound morning call me. I open window can see the bird got play or not liaw.
Thanks to the 4 directional tweeter. Now I got guts to put up my junk yard 8 directional tweeter. I'm not first mah. I follow people nia mah.
My farm. Not satisfy. 3 weeks. Shit here and there. No big pile shit. Now decided to renovate dog kennel and probably roving area. Waiting for tukang finish in hand job. Now mating season good time for renovation work. Birds rarely move to new farm at this period.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Aug 13 2007, 02:17 PM

Hi seeseng,
you know a lot of swiftlet thing, how long have you been learning about all this thing, yes i still remember at the time when the sound still running there is a bird trying to make nest exactly on the tweeter but stop building it half way, my farm size is about 10feet x 50feet only, so when the humidifier is on i can see the bird come out from the house, but now bird like to play in tall building, ppl also try to make swiftlet hotel out of town somewhere in ulu terengganu or ulu dungun is this places ideal for making swiftlet hotel? so what tweeter you use right now? when are you going to use your 8 directional tweeter? so your hotel is still very new and how many time of renovation you did?

nice to meet u all here....juz wanna get to know more about swiftlet....
need time to read all the thread here....

I started collecting bird chirp CDs since few years back. Until recently I took over a failed/gave up mini farm of 18'x45' to renovate. Spent 3 months+ DIY then re-open on 21/7/2007. I treat this as a hobby only. Swiftlet farming is interesting and addictive. Always think of ideas to improve. Sometimes in dreams also about swiftlet farming Read lots of farming books. Bed time reading also farming books... Get as much info online join all the swiftlet forums I can find. Teh tarik discussions, exchange ideas, experiences and sound with kt newbie farmers like me. Also I like to do farm watching. Go up tall buildings to observe other people's farms.

Higher buildings definitely have advantage. But don't be supprise there are double storey old shop house doing better than 4-5 storeys building. There're a few tall farms near the temple. Longer operating history than the 2 storey but the 2 storey is really heavy duty. Monthly 20-30kg but the size is quite big 3 shoplots but only upstair for farming.
Those out of town farms are mostly stand-alone farms. They choose out of town for low profile. Cheaper land, build without permit also small chance bandaran can find out. More and more farms like these in Setiu district and Kuala Berang. These area not many farms some even pioneer farm. Birds that come visit don't have much choice to choose from so stay permanantly chance higher.

My 8 directional tweeter is already up there since 21/7. Want to see can go to water front jetty behind Seri Malaysia sit there can see a DK with the 8 directional tweeter on top. This morning I just went there big crowd of birds playing around the tweeters. Most of my tweeters are 95cents piezo tweeters. Some connect with condenser capacitors. Sound better but volume become lower. For internal I also use carbon magnetic tweeters sound more natural but volume also lower than piezo.