Dear All,

Sorry for not being active lately. Although I no longer own any BH in Shop Lot and have since built 2 standalone one in Miri and one in Kuching. This does not mean that I will no longer fight for my fellow BH owners. I will at any time be available to speak out on their behalf if I can be of any useful help to safe guard their investments.

Of late it has been very quiet in Sarawak. More then 100 licences have been approved on agriculture land and outside City and Major Towns. To be fair BH owners have gone back to compete for top price on who got the most powerful amp. and causing public nonsense. so who to blame ?? if the authorities step in due to public complains. So far as I say its quiet so we will wait and see but I suspect the CALM before the STORM !!!

In fact I have moved base to Sabah and will be building 9 units of standalone BH on 9 acres of our own agriculture land , construction will commence 1 feb 2010. Intensive planting of Gaharu and lemon grass will give the Buyers/Investers an added income. I am also building 5 more BH around Sabah some on turnkey basis. One unit is 50% completed.

So I am pretty busy on the top of the on going Medical Relief Work that I have been doing for past 9 years and still going strong. Hope to build a shelter for ulu folks seeking medical treatment in the city by year end.

Ben

Hi Ben,
Good to have you back and in a fighting mood too.
I was a reader/learner on the sideline back when you were active here.
Glad to hear that you are well and thanks for again volunteering if recalled into active service.

As for your sense of an impending storm;
If they are now licensing BHs and with the Federal guidelines in the works and folks comply, we will have reduced room for abuse. Not that I doubt their ingenuity to create some more.
But let's not play their game, let's demand accountability.
Any infringement should be dealt with within existing legislation & not treat it as an industry wide problem.
The frequent complaints here points to noise level.
Let these offenders be pulled up by the authorities.
They break the law they pay.
They are always the minority, but if everyone here and BH owners not active here so decides that level of noise is necessary for the industry, we will be legislated further and further away from human contact.
Then we become the target of the greenies, moving into wildlife habitat.
I am not being frivolous here, I have read of reports of negative impact of noise level on all sort of wild things.
We open another avenue for abuse.

BTW, I want to share something that is beyond everything else ever being discussed on this forum.
Humankind have about 10 years to do something to arrest or reverse the climatic change.
A free movie released but very little Malaysian publicity costing millions to make & thousands of volunteers.
it's called HOME, you google 'HOME ppr', it's available on YouTube.
Even if you don't buy this scientific projection, watch the breath-taking sceneries from all over.
I have made it a must watch for everyone in my family especially, most of us would have passed the tourch when the worst hits us though no one knows what exactly but everyone agrees it will be bad. Each new negative finding compounds the the problem and the deadline seem to be getting shorter and shorter just like the movie 2012. Sad to say it;s real & not a movie.
It's merely a documentary with no attempts to 'sell' any doomsday agenda.
I wish some Malaysian with a good command of BM contact them to have a BM version for local distribution.
After all major language vers are available for download. It's 1.5 hrs, depending on fomat selected ranges from 400MB to 700MB.
I watched it on my desktop last night.
What troubled me was before I finished downloading to watch & was reading the papers, there were reports of people dying from floods in the desert region of the Middle East. Go figure.
Oceanic currents are slowing being disrupted and Jetstreams in the atmosphere are changing.
Do we wonder why the climate is changing. This is just the start. Even today's paper has the word catastrophic in the report on world average temperature rise for the decade. Once they factor this in, the projection will be worst.
I doubt one can remain a cynic much longer.

Dear aeiou,
Please see whether the following article is any use for you.
Specially the explaination of "ventilation in burst" and the "moisture exchange under different condition"

http://www.rotronic-humidity.ch/_upload/ge...M_DampGuard.pdf

Thank you for the link Tweeter.
The link does provide some useful info about mold and it also high lighted mold is very dangerous and harmful to human health.
We know very well that mold prevention is to lower the humidity but on the other hand we want the BH to have high humidity. Therefore mold growth in BH is an inevitable problem that most BH owners have to deal with and that leads to why I want to discuss about cleaning mold with safety precautionary measures. So far, I have not come across any such discussion either in blogs, forum nor books. Hope experts here can contribute.

Hi everyone, may I check how much the price can fetch for the processed bird nest? Appreciate can roughly listdown the price with grades.

Thanks so much

Nice link! Gives some basic idea on this mold problem.

No wonder Uncle Ben's been silent. I've been thinking of such value added activities as you mentioned, but suitability of soil & irrigation issues poses a problem for me, the only suitable plant would be coconuts. All the best!

who want exchange the external sound with me?add me at msn:zifeng_low@hotmail.com

Let's join Swiftlet Farming Club in Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=401860130631. share your experiences and problems with other members. First of all you need to be in FB first.

Hi, all type of soil can be condition to suit the type of crop you are interested to plant. My Sabah Farm is on sandy soil .I used lots and lots of horse dunk and wood shaving and home made organic fertilizer from chicken dunks composed with home brewed Microb.

My 1 and 1/4 acres of Dragon fruit average 1 ton per month and give me an income of RM70,000 from sales of fruits and RM40,000 from sales of cuttings last year. This is the way to go and have a cash crop to supplement your operation cost until your BH give a resonable return. Also you might want to put in high value crop like gaharu which is medium term crop. With intensive planting 1 acre will give you in excess of RM1 ml return in 5 years.

With good judgements and chose your location wisely to aviod the "slow growth syndrome " being experienced by BH owner in KT. you should be retired in 5 years time.

If you come by Miri I will show you my BH which is only 8 months old. I have promised to burn it down if I have less then 50 nest in 1 year. I can tell you now I don't have to burn down my BH.

If you come by KK I will invite you to my farm and share with you my intensive planting and intercroping system with irrigations and plant feeding program.

Just built a greenhouse for tomatoes to give away to friends and the stream of visitors to my farm. I am researching to raise highly valuable fish that can grow to two Kg in two years and sells for RM250 per kg locally or export to KL and Hong Kong at RM 700 per Kg. Say 1000 head in a 1/2 acre pond with running water X 4 ponds.???? Figer this imaginative market and dream price!! It is possible !!

good Luck.

Thanks for the advice Uncle Ben. I have always been interested in agriculture... and since this was my chosen path... i tend to tread very carefully, your advice about conditioning the soil, location and usage of organic means have always been remembered. Over the past few years i have been visiting many farms... pitaya's, melaka delights/mango, khaki campbell farms, organic chicken farms, cattle ranches... i noticed one thing in common about all these hardworking people... they do not and cannot rely on government agencies related to agriculture. I am saying this openly since even MOA are having problems with their young & inexperienced AO's... some prefer the comfort of an office, rather than go to sites giving advice. My statement; MALAYSIA LACKS PROPER EXTENSION PROGRAMS or more suitable, we lack the EXTENSION SPIRIT. This is the same for both agencies & institutes of higher learning. Hundreds of millions spent annually on research grants... where does the technology go?

Not to be a babble, but i find it disappointing that many smallholders face so many harshness and difficulties with their ranches/farms. We were initially an Agriculture based country... and now we can't sustain our own food consumption. I tell you, if we were at war, our enemies won't have to do much, just wait for us to die of starvation & lack of supplies.

That fish sounds like kelah. Their doing research somewhere in Taman Negara. Aquaculture is also interesting. Dunno la uncle, i'm the type that wants all information available before assessing its feasibility... it takes more time but if i wanna take risks, it better be a calculated risk. I envy your successes so far... will try to catch up.

A friend showed this link;

http://tmgaleri.blogspot.com/

9 units, 20x70 ft for RM385,000 in Tanah Merah.

In Sarawak they are known as Ikan Empurau. Slow growing in pond with running water or concrete tanks.

Whats about BH on stilt with 20x70 x4 ft high tanks beneath the BH. This give shade and some sunlight in. Split this into 3 tanks with 200 tails in each tank. Use pipe water and a recycle system.

Feed with high protein feed and supplement with fruits. They are beautiful fishes. Say 10 % mortelity this leave you 540 tails . After 2 and 1/2 years each would have an average weight of 2kgs. and sell for RM250 per kg. you can expect a return of RM 280,000 less 20% cost . Your nett profit RM224,000.

Not too bad !!! If exported to Hong Kong and China @ RM700 per kg ??? Think Again.!

Dunsun,
The last I heard, the Taman Negara in Pahang has merely established a Kelah sanctuary, conditioning them to take fish pellets and also catch and release angling. I hv not heard of any real research conducted beyond that. I also know of another in the Nenggiri river in Kelantan which I doubt still exist.
Ben,
Was it successfully bred outside it's natural environment for you to get yr hands on 1000 fries? For years there were unconfirmed stories that either in Sabah or S'wak that an Australian researcher managed to breed it. But it was also whispered that the female was already pregnant when captured from the wild.
If someone has successfully bred them in captivity it's wonderful news. In the long run, it will reduce pressure on the wild stock. Malaysian anglers consider landing a wild Kelah on rod and line the holy grail of fresh water bottom fishing.

As for your gaharu trees, are you considering doing the innoculation yrself or leaving them uninnoculated for oil extraction?
I was with a farmer today in Bidor, Perak , every major fruit cash crop over in Peninsular seem to be falling victim to some kind of viral/bacterial/insect attack papaya, mangoes, jagung, dragon fruit and banana. Even oil palm is experiencing some and spreading fast. Natures's balance seem to be out with the years of intensive farming with lots of synthetic fertilisers, chemicals for pest & weed control. I have read abt these happening in Africa and India but now I am hearing it happening in Malaysia. The Green Revolution has run it's course. I am glad Uncle Ben is on the right track going about it in a more sustainable way.

Farmed Gaharu reaches the diameter of 8” at 3 years old if grown on volcanic soil in East coast of Sabah. 3 year old trees are being inoculated in Tawau and Sandakan. Sandakan have shown success and those in Tawau will be tested in two months time.

In intensive planting, I am confident to be at least on par or achieve greater success. Not much problem to self inoculates your own trees and distills the essential oil yourself. Imagine the fun of doing all these yourself.

Ikan Empurau has been successful breed in Sarawak by Government Research Center. So far no frys are offered for sales yet. I have visited a successful farm in earth pond with running water fed by gravity feed from a mountain stream. You can buy their 1 kg up Empurau at RM250 per Kg. Another farm has achieved success in concrete tanks.

We all can dream of a BH in one acre of land the rest of the unused land is planted with 400 gaharu trees and 4 tanks with 1200 tails of Empurau. 4 years down the road this is what you can achieve:

BH harvest from year 2 to year 4 total 55kgs @ RM4, 000.00 /kg = RM220, 000.00

Gaharu 400 trees x RM1000,00 / tree = RM400.000 (can triple this if intensive planting.)

Fish 1000 tail at RM250.00 / fish = RM250, 000.00

I am being very conservative and confident of achieving much higher result.

Of cause there is risk but so what!! “We only live once”.

In Life if one is “scare of people during day time and afraid of antu at night” then do nothing and achieve nothing.

Of cause there are many PPL with great ambitions and expectations but have limited resources (eg. ME). This is perfectly OK but must have the Drive and BIG DREAMS and PERSERVERANCE. Keep your dream alive you will achieve something instead of nothing.

Of cause there are smart Alex with poor judgments and challenging intelligent level and blame everything on bad luck and excuses after excuses. They will slowly dry up on the vine and end up in the compost heap.

Remember!! Your today’s wise investments and hard work is for your future comfort. (Your Family TOO)

The good news is that the birds are back to start making new nests and I went up to a few of BHs last two night and found that in the bird houses are full with birds activities although you don't see much of them in the day time ............. how they enter so secretly ........ maybe magic like David Copperfield.

Go in during the night if you dare but remember that tomorrow, you gonna see alot of white shits................

So, don't worry about no birds and try to louder your tweeters and create unhappiness to your neighbours........ the birds are still there and inside but you didn't saw them entering only..................

Hi Sifus,
Had identified 2 pieces of land in Selangor. Would like to go and do a test all. Can kindly give me one or 2 test sounds that i can try with. Greatly appreciate. Thank you in advance.
Regards
Raymond

What are the possible reasons eggs dropped to the floor ??

KUMPULAN PEDAGANG SARANG BURUNG WALIT/WALIT MALAYSIA/INDONESIA -
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=284786320559&ref=mf


TUJUAN KUMPULAN INI DI WUJUDKAN:

1. Mewujudkan Kerjasama di antara semua Pengusaha, Pedagang sarang burung & Pemilik rumah burung walit / walet di seluruh Malaysia & Indonesia

2. Membincangkan tentang masalah Pengeluaran & Pasaran sarang burung walit / walet bg semua pengusaha.

3.Saling bantu membantu dan berbincang antara semua pedagang, pemilik rumah burung walit / walet tentang apa sahaja masalah yang sedang dihadapi dari semua sudut perundangan & penguatkuasaaan.

4. Berkongsi-kongsi Maklumat & Idea berkenaan Teknologi dan Rekabentuk Rumah Burung Walit / walet yang termoden dan Terkini. Serta Aktivi yg Melibatkan INdustri Sarang Burung Walit / Walet

Golongan Sasaran:

- Ahli Persatuan Pedagang Sarang Burung Walit / Walet Seluruh Malaysia / Indonesia

- Ahli Persatuan Pemilik Rumah Burung Walit / Walet Seluruh Malaysia / Indonesia

- Pengusaha, Pemilik Rumah Walit & Pedagang Sarang Burung Walit / Walet

- Perunding (Consultant) Industri Sarang Burung Walit / walet.

AHLI Terkini 203

KUMPULAN PEDAGANG SARANG BURUNG WALIT/WALIT MALAYSIA/INDONESIA -
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=284786320559&ref=mf

hehe... ikan empurau, sounds more exotic than kelah. i have never been to a kelah farm before. i have been following news about kelah since i was a student, not because i am a kaki kail/pancing but because i do love ornamental fish. the Kelah Sanctuary as its name describes, is a sanctuary under PERHILITAN & a spv under USM... it does do research but i'm not sure if prof Eddy Tan is still the head or not, and i heard MOSTI was funding the research. I haven't visited a successful kelah farm yet... but the potential is there. Uncle Ben, sounds like the Sarawak Government is moving ahead at a faster pace.

Some people did introduce me to this Australian based aquaculture c/o (i think around 5 years back) where they were offering a system with running water. I didn't put much interest at the time since it was supposed to be in house or dalam lot kedai/kilang... secondly was due to the unreliable water quality in Selangor. I vividly remember an uncle calculating that the cost for a reliable & durable water filtration system & reservoir/container would cost more than the tank system! I also heard that somewhere in Sentul, there is a Chinese owned fishery/breeder that is very-very successful in breeding any exotic fish, maybe some of you know these people. At the time it was more out of curiosity rather than committed interest.

It may sound difficult now, but when the proper technicalities, methods & farming system is obtained...here's the issue... kelah bred and raised in captivity... commercially... would it not end up like patin/ketutu/keli? Just a thought.

About swiftlets... recently discussed about cctv. the reason i want to install the cctv is for both security & observation... a friend familiar with thse gadgets (and has experience installing such systems for banks/hypermarkets) suggested i use those that can erm... rotate & zoom. but the cost was rather erm... high. Now i'm fantasizing a mobile camera on a remote controlled car so i can view the birds anywhere in the house. T.T

Like all 'exotic' things, when they are hard to come by, it fetches top prices.
It becomes commodity once everyone Tom, d*** & Harry is producing it.
Siapa cepat dia dapat-lah.

He He, you will need to get the beach buggy model cos' you'll be running over hills of bird shit.
Arent you planning to monitor the BH when yoiu are off site?

---

Added on January 31, 2010, 5:03 pmaeiou228,
I recall someone mentioned that the eggs may be 'stillborn/dead' so the birds reject them.
Also someone suggested bouncing them, it ought to bounce like ping-pong ball.
Just my recollection, not experience.

This post has been edited by Cergau: Jan 31 2010, 05:03 PM

When the egg is bad............or if the nest is done in a rush as the formal one being harvested.............when the bird plan to start a family, inside their body, the two eggs will begin to grow larger and will harden in time decide before hand and since their nest has been stolen, they will try to build one as fast as possible and about a finger and a half and then lay an egg, then they will build alittle bigger to accommodate the other eggs due in 3 days time and there is no way to stop the egg for coming..............so next time when you harvest fresh unused nest, think alittle for the poor swiftlets couple who are planing for their babies to be borned when there are enough food for their babies.

In my BH, I always have empty nests for those neighbours BH birds who happened to find their nests missing and the lady swiftlet is in labour to lay their precious eggs and I save them in time and they will be my faithful ones forever.