Hi, let me introduce myself. I own a birdfarm in Indonesia and concider myself as a beginner in this field also and eager to learn more. I had read all the postings in this forum but have not post anything yet so far. Is the movie that you guys are talking about the same as the one in the youtube website?

I have just started the birdfarm about 3 years ago. Here in Java, we all start our birdfarms from converting grass swiflet populatioin to Aerodramus Fuchiphagus population by replacing their eggs and let them be foster parents. I have 3 farms of my own and 4 of joint ventures. Out of these 7 farms, one starts producing and I can harvest about 1 kg every 4 months. The others are still in the process, one already has 18 nests of Aerodramus Fuchiphagus, one has 2 Aerodramus Fuchiphagus, the others are still grass swiftlets. This year I want to start using bird chirps to attract more birds and still in the process of designing the sound system and what types of chirps I should use. I have a humidity controller, but do not use it. In one of my farms placed bricks on the floor and sprinkle some water everyday using a timer. I like using these bricks as they are porous and therefore release a lot of moisture due to the large surface of evaporation. So far this method has been successful for me. As far as the humidity controller, I will use it in my other farm where currently I have 900 nests of grass swiftlet which I am trying to convert. All of us are still learning I supposed and therefore exchanging information is always beneficial for us.

Grass swiftlets are lured the same way as the A.F. It is just that most of the time the house is populated first with the grass swiftlet. I guess they are easier and more abundant around the suburb and they have had the habits of nesting in residential houses since I remembered, whereas the A.F. were used to be found in caves only

Our houses were designed in that they have twilight and dark zones. The birds are therfore capable of choosing where they want to stay. We like to have grass swiftlets also to stay in our farms, the purpose is that in the case in which we are at the point where we can harvest the AF, the grass swiftlet can be use as foster parents when the AF's nests have eggs in them and we get the best quality of nests which sell for higher price.

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Added on May 26, 2007, 7:55 pmSeeseng, I saw your home made long range tweeters which were made of 4" PVC. How do you find them in delivering the sound, do they deliver the sound very far? My thinking is that it is better if we can have the cone shape as the sound wave is reflected at the same angle as the incoming wave (measured from the perpendicular axis. This way the sound is channeled outward. However, if the ones you made are satisfactory to you, I will do the same as it is the simplest way. Today I bought 3 CD's from Eka Walet (Attracting CD, Population CD, and Chicks's Chirp CD). Unfortunately, their qualities are not that good in the sense that the sounds are not clear. I found out that the one I recorded myself using Creative MP3 player was better in quality than theirs. The only challange of recording ourselves are getting the mating sound. Population and Chick's sound are easy as long as we have an established farms.

This post has been edited by liurmas: May 26 2007, 07:55 PM

If you are trying to cut down the sound to your neighbour, would wrapping the outside of the PVC with say polyurethane foam will dampen the sound even further? What is the idea of putting more tweeter inside the PVC? Can we jut put 1 tweeter but very powerful one in term of wattage?

I would not apply the damping material to the inside wall as you want the sound wave to travel far. The reflecting wall is needed for the sound wave to travel. You just want to dampen the sound that is caused by the vibration of the PVC wall. If you apply the inside wall with damping material, only unreflected sound wave will be transmitted (the one that does not hit the inside wall) and therefore the amplitude of the sound that you intend to travel far will be reduced.

Hi guys, can I joint you guys with the CD exchange? This way. we can add our collection in a cheaper way. Even though I live in Indonesia, I think the postage is still a lot cheaper than buying new ones.

Hi Guys, I am wondering since I live in Indonesia, could we exchange the CD sound by email? Usually, these CD's consist of repeated section of recorded swiftlet sound (typically I see less than 6 minutes). If we only take the first 7minutes or so and convert them to MP3 format I guess we can email them to each other. What do you guys think?

Regards,

Liur Mas

Weihow and Swifbuild, I put 2 CDs in the mail today. They told me it will take a week to get to you guys. Weihow, I haven't received your CDs yet, maybe few more days. To be honest with you, I don't have too much faith in the mailing system in Indonesia.

Hi Seeseng,
You could use computer software such as cool edit pro to display the wave form. You can easily tell wether the audio is mono or stereo. If it is a mono, then the wave form will be exactly the same between left and right channels.

Hi Swiftbuild,
I haven't received your CD yet. I wonder if you have it in MP3 file you can send me through email. I think we should target the temperature around 28C. I know there are some farms which are successfull with high temperature but this in my opinion is anomali

Liurmas

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

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.

For external sound I used pieze tweeter because of the durability and water proofness. I myself prefer using coil tweeter for the internal sound. At least at few strategic location if cost is a concern. Personally, I think coil tweeter is much more natural than the piezo tweeters. As far as player goes I am now using portable MP3 -256MB player made in China (it cost $15) and so far they have been operating without any problems for almost 3 months (24 hour non stop).

Seeseng,
just to let you know, yesterday I visited my farm where I used a home made long range tweeter similar to yours (using 4" PVC pipe). What I found out was very surprising to me, that is there was a dead bird inside the tube. Apparenty this bird was attracted to the sound and went in or fell in (I put at 45 degrees incline). I know that this is very rare and might not happend again, but I put screen anyway to prevent from happening again.

I agree that you have to use some sort of equipments to control your micro environment, mainly temperature, humidity, and lighting. However, they are not necessarily have to be top of the line or expensive. Often we can use simple or cheap equipment to get the same results. The main important thing is that we can control them.

Hi Swiftbuild,
I PM you few days ago, I wonder if you have a chance to read it.

Swiftbuild,
I have not received the file nor the CD for the CD exchange that we had couple of months ago

Liur mas

Hi Swiftbuild,
I have sent you few PM's about the shipment of the CD but has no reply from you. How is your farm doing?

Hi Swiftbuid,
I have sent you numerous messeges about the shipment of the CD that you promised to send without any reply. I just hope that you are not too busy to response.