Mr Ben, can you please share us your experience handling aroma in BH?

Thank you.

Thanks for the reply. Anyone has any other opinions ?
Why is the micro habitat in a wooden house harder to maintain/control?
You guys are also using those humidity control things and so on, right ?
I don't know how hard it would be in a wooden house cause I've not tried it before, could you please elaborate more on this issue over here?
The land is an agriculture land surrounded by palm trees. Would it help with my environment?

........why use wooden house in the first place unless you already have one at present and wish to save cost. Not that wooden building do not attract swiflet but then, for other reasons and factors, the brick ones beat the wooden building many times more.

As for environment also, wooden building create more problem, like the wetness will destroy the building, insects will make home and fungus will grow and so will diseases......all no, no and no except, if you have one old grandfather building, the old wooden beams are the better place for the swiftlets to make home. I have seen one old wooden house in Pekan, Pahang and you practically can jump and catch a bird or two.

Building a BH in an agriculture land is already helping the environment as you are producing natural fertilizer and the birds are controlling the harmful pests. Your BH is a land saving/eco friendly industry that producing many many times profits more than any industries or estate of the same sizes.

Above are my own comments only.

Hi West Wing,

Please don't say that. Everybody's comment means a lot to me and are invaluable information for those who have questions. :P.
Well, the idea of a wooden house in the first place is due to cost factor itself. Building a brick one would be costlier and takes a longer time as well compared to a wooden house. The initial thought is to have a wooden one and as we progress, when times are good, then we'll get a brick house ..

I believe the environment in the land is suitable and appropriate, which is why to get the land. It would also help against any unnecessary troubles in the city. Building a brick house in that land would've costs us few times the price of that piece of land.

I feel I need to explain to you again and I will feel sad if you said that you will build a brick building after your wooden BH become successful. As we mentioned before that you move, the birds don't..............After the birds have decided to make their home at a certain location, it is rather very difficult to move them to another location even next block. That's the reason that one BH has thousands of nests and the next block has hundreds only.
And also for that reason, the value f BH depend on the numbers of nests as the buyers are sure that the birds will return.

Build a smaller BH and expand sideway later but not a wooden house, then a brick Building next time and you will regret later that your friendly thieves pay more visit to your BH than you do. Each time, your T friends clean up everything and that will hurt your BH development and you may end up so desperated that you will try to out do the thieves and harvest all before the thieves come.

I didn't even mention the problems with rats and his pest friends....I willl like to imagine how you are going to cope with the problems. Even the brick ones isn't spare of the problem but at least, they can be easier manage than the wooden BH.

If for me, I rather take a bank loan to build my secured BH and since that Bank interest is low. The above are my humble suggests and comments on the matter and the decision is obviously your's but I just can't keep my big mouth shut because I do like you to be successful and I mean you well........maybe, the experts around here can give your their opinions and I maybe not right but at least, I do concern for a fellow rancher. Above are only friendly suggestions and pls don't misinterpret.

What makes you think wooden house is cheaper than brick house ?? Try asking the prices of hard wood timber from the store kayu and sawmiller 1st, it's not cheap. Unless you wanna build your BH with "chap ch'ar" grade timber. The labour cost for building wooden house is also more expensive than brick house. Also you need to spend more micro habitat for wooded house.

You will end up paying more for an inferior BH

This post has been edited by aeiou228: Apr 29 2009, 05:40 PM

Hi West,
When you mentioned building a smaller BH, we're still talking about bricks, right ? .. :P .. Yea, ok .. I'm cleared on this part now. No Wooden. Oh hey West and some other guys, maybe if you don't mind, you could PM me your MSN address and I could have a small chatroom with everyone else and talk bout anything on swiftlets?


Is that so? .. Ok .. guess I need to do some research on this area as well .. I believe I'm very well conviced now that Brick is the way to go. Oh, how bout those Warehouse Aluminium kind of build? .. Are they good?

By the way, What do you guys think about the preliminary site survey / testing on potential sites for BH?
Are there any certain criterias I should be aware of, on the surroundings, etc ..
One thing to note, I see from some of the links you guys posted, some blogs are actually selling those tester kits for site survey during the preliminary stages .. would you recommend buying the sets or using some other DIY ways?

Go to Pak. Han,s next seminar and he will teach you how to produce your own aromas with different combinations of materials available in your area.

My home made aromas taught to me by Pak Han is working well and used by few friends with very good result. Of cause it will not increase your bird popualtions by 700 birds in a few months. Don't belief such Bull S...t. It does make your new BH smell like an old BH and the bird will stay . All new Bird Shit spots are on the side I applied the aromas in my BH. New nests fundations marks are on the top of tweeters that I applied the concentrate. I cannot betray the trust of my sifu and I don't need to cari makan from BN business so get in touch with Pak. Han and he does sell some of his product.

Kuching Farmer and myself have applied my aromas on to a new paint roller and stick them out from the LMB of his new BH . The bird came and clink on the rollers even with out and music. FYI only after 4 days in operation more then 10 birds are staying . The aromas combime with Pak. Han,s external sound and Romoma 2 for internal sound is working.

My new BH 20' x 62' x 2 stories is in on track and will met my dead line and completed within 30 days and within my projected budget of RM25.00 per sq. ft. Thanks west wing and eng. Lee for all your input to help me achieve my target. Now planing another BH 24' x 70' x two stories same method and budget.

Hi, I'm a newbie to swiftlet farming. I was told that if I'm able to get RM50/60 per square feet to build a BH, it i good enough. Where are u located and how you manage to find rm25per square feet? Thanks.

Ong

getting less than 30/sft for a bird house is within reach. As uncle said, even RM25/ and possibly lower, is attainable. with a few conditions of course;

1. Detailed planning, design & drawing (with proper selection of material)
2. Proper land preparation
3. Competent workers who know their stuff and can push 7 to 7 working hours
4. NO shortage of building material
5. Not during rainy season
6. Access road to site of BH (this can be a major issue at times)
7. Acceptable rates (pay) of workers
8. Take good care of workers (honestly, Indonesians are skilled and fast doing work. they'd appreciate a karton of gudang garam once a week, or maybe a freshly slaughtered ayam kampung once in a while, and make sure they have appropriate accommodation)
9. Of course all monitored, purchased and supervised by yourself. In other words, NO consultants.
10. Rule of thumb, anything delaying construction equals to increase cost.
10. Care to add more?

Talking about aroma... maybe will be using 20L before launch. Roughly 20L. Do you think it's enough for a 30x80 3 floor unit?

Maybe I am getting old but since someone mentioned Aroma and before I forget, Let's talk alittle of aroma esp for those BH already has birds but want to have more: who doesn't!!!!

My suggestion is that never spray directly to the planks cos if you find them unsuitable and worse if having negative effect on the birds.....habislah, what to do, nasi sudah jadai bubur. Try cleaning up the plank, too wet and fungus maybe and maybe cannot removing the unforgiven error on your part to believe the so called consultant or sifu.

What to do is rather very simple, just use a few planks of about six feets and spray the aroma on one side only. Screw the planks on to the BH;s planks that you want to spray initially. This way, if you happened to misfired, you at least can withdraw the bullet any time by removing the planks and no harm done to the BH. The smell will be disappear in a day or two the most.

That's my suggestion only and will post other pointers as soon as I remember them......getting forgetful these days but looking rather young and healthy because taking birdnests everyday. Birdnest no good for the brain.

Wise Words of the day " A nest a day keep the Doctor away"

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Added on April 30, 2009, 12:12 pmCase history and I always like to talk about past experiances.
Once, a friend read a blog and ask me to help to buy Aroma from **** and I did buy for him but then, shamefully telling, I stole a little out of the 4 L container as tax. I applied to a corner about 6 by 6 and what do you know, it is the only area that has only one nest; the one there before I applied the Aroma and ther rest is.....cannot tell lah.

This post has been edited by West Wing: Apr 30 2009, 12:12 PM

hi ben,
i am very interested the Pak. Han,s next seminar, so could u tell me where to get the seminar info? Thanks

no need to buy tester kit,use your car's player or just radio player will do.

just heard will be held in jarkata again comming August.will include nest marketing and processing

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Added on April 30, 2009, 1:20 pmUncle Ben from Miri

This post has been edited by kuching_farmer: Apr 30 2009, 01:20 PM

Wow..it's good news for newbie!
start to save money for the trip.

Has Attended Pak Han’s seminar 3 times. Will definitely be the first to book for a spot for his next seminar. What he taught me works well for me. The fun and opportunity to met fellow farmers from Indonesia who have much more experience than us. Many are very generous and willing to share their knowledge and music for free.

Having learned the basic of BN farming, Bh owners now must go high tech in order to obtain optimums return for their investments. The different is one BH of 1.5 year has 50 nests (this is what the owner declared! No discount Kah ?) Whereas another 2 year old farm not too far away have more than 400 nests. (The owner is currently building his 4 th. stand alone and will be retired shortly) Oh yes he is using my aroma and will start making his own after attended Pak. Han last seminar in Jakarta.

If my farm anywhere in Malaysia have only 50 nests in 1.5 years I will burn it down and do something else. Maybe use the dark and flooded ground floor to grow mushroom .Hopefully will be a more profitable alternative.

I am glad harry kok have the curtsey to acknowledge Pak. Han’s contributions. Harry is an avid writer and I do enjoy reading his articles some of which are useful , lots are shallow and does make fun reading but can be miss leading to newbie and make them part with their hard earned money. Beware !!, but can’t blame him cari makan bah! Plus the fact that a sucker is born every minute of the day.

Ai yoh ! The last time I look my friend is still on the roof top can someone HELP get him down or call the Fire Department.

My article is meant for fun reading only with some punk intended and not meant to be disrespectful in anyway . Have Fun.

I thz RM 25/ft2 is the cost of bare building, am I right Uncle Ben?

In Penang, the bare building cost is about RM 25/ft2.

My China friend would like to buy bird nest from Malaysia.

Is there anyone here selling?

Are there any export and import tax ?

This post has been edited by kuching_farmer: May 2 2009, 03:13 PM

hai Ben:
I am curious about your BH cost at RM25/sqt, is it build BH from the ground or only rennovated by ready made shop lot?
If RM25/sqt for new build house, can you share how do you do you project management like: cost of material, labour cost/day, no of ton of kayu meranti being use, and etc...
I have RM80k, and i want to buid a new BH near my house. I have been scratching my head for long in order to get my BH bunglow ready. I have been planning for long but lack of money, so that's why postpond it. Please advise me.

hakawei
012-6187114