Internal Farm Design goes Localisation

There are many different type of Internal farm Designs. Some work well and some are not suitable for certain places, states or countries.



To narrow down I shall concentrate on two major one.


The Hall type



The Hall type or I called it the assembly hall. This type of farm is common in Malaysia and many farms in Malaysia are adopting this type of farm deisgn.



The reason being is, its easy to build, cost saving and most of all birds could fly freely. The disadvantages are the light from outside the farm could easily penetrate deep inside the farm causing too bright where disliked by birds.





(The Hall Type Farm house)


To counter this most farms tried to reduces the size of the entrance hole but this would obstruct the flying patent of the birds and thus causing less birds to enter the farms. Partitions were also erected to reduce the brighness, but erecting partitions at the wrong place will do more harms than good.


For the Hall type deisgn the nest growth normally is slow sometimes it takes more that a year. And thru observation in Hall Type Design most nests are built at corners especially areas that are darker.


Being big itself controlling the macro is not easy . Many gadgets are needed to contract the temp, RH, etc. Hence cost of equipment normally is high.


Room Type


This type of farm is very popular in Indonesia and most of the farms there adopted this design. It was originated from the early day of farming where birds occupied abandoned houses to build their nests.


Therefore over the years most had followed and influenced by this type of farm house. New farms that adopted this design will specially make rooms in the farm.


Sometimes the rooms are as small as 8x8ft but the size of 12x12ft would be better.


( The Room Type Farm)


Good things about the room type design is that the light control is good but often it is too dark. Not all rooms will be inhibited by birds. As reaching the last room will be difficult. If the rooms are too small it makes flying difficult.


Even thought it is well adopted in Indonesia but farms in Malaysia that duplicate such design normally fail.


It has to be localised as conditions and location affect the type of design. What is good and workable in Indonesia may not be the same in Malaysia.


This is purely due to geographical and environment differences. As we can see clearly that in Malaysia we have small percentage of Seriti compared to Indonesia and we seldom or most farms in Malaysia do not use the fostering techniques (Seriti & Walet) like what Indonesia is doing. So we do not following this way.


This also applies to CD sound and other things as well. Some sounds maybe good for certain area but performed badly in others. We can not deny the affect of environment & geographical conditions. As even the birds itself researcher had indicated that the A.F from Indonesia could be the sub-species name under Javanese A.F which may different from those in Malaysia.


So localisation is important " Even Malaysia KFC sells rice where as in The State this is not the case"

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Farms visiting to the North-3

I didn't have a good sleep the whole night even tho I was very tired. I was unlucky to be given a room that the Air-cond break down in the middle of the night.


I had wanted to change the room but it was already 5 am. So I decided to get up. Mr.Reader picked me up at about 9 am. I felt very tire because the whole night was not good for me. Worse of all I was down with flu.



Being a swiftlet enthusiast nothing could stop me from my plan of visiting farms, so the schedule goes on. We had our breakfast and headed for a farm not far from the Hotel. On the way I picked up some Panadol to relieve my cold. It was a huge farm which is 80x100ft , a one floor farm.



It was brilliantly done by Mr. Reader. It was a factory unit converted into a farm. It is not an easy task as most factories are constructed with steel & zinc roof . To control the micro is not easy.



Fantastic job , but the farm is too big and the birds that come in felt insecure. It was like an assembly hall. So it needs some partitioning to create room so that the birds would feel more comfortable.



When partitioning a farm , one must know and understand the flow of air & flying path of birds any mistake made would obstruct the above. There is no guessing game as it would cause more damage than good.



This farm has attracted many birds in a short period of time. There are so much room for improvement. Now the most important thing is to create as many colonies as possible to push up the numbers of nests.



There are many gadgets in this farm, water sprinklers, Hygrostat, exhaust fan,etc. These gadgets actually helped to control the micro to a good level. Bravo Mr.Reader.



I had advised him to seal & erect some partitions at some strategic areas of the farm. I guess in a short time the numbers of nests will shoot up. The size of this farm is huge , if it is not designed properly then birds would only make nests in certain corners or areas of the farm.



This would make the nests growth stagnant. After spending few hours there we decided to go for for lunch.



After lunch, there is another new farm to visit. It is about 1/2 an hour drive from the town.It is under construction. And the owner didn't engaged a consultant. The whole design was based on what the owner knows.



I was invited to give some advice because the owner worried that his design mine not be good and it may not be swiftlet friendly.




(half way construction of a farm)

Well..... obviously the design was bad. The roving was out , the inter room hole was out too and many more. I guess I came on the right time otherwise if its had been completed then it would cost lot more to rectify it.

There are so many farms here and now there are lot of them built next to the Padi field.

After this we drove back to the town and went to an area that are full of farms. For those who are from here would know this place. It is next to the river.


( successfull farm, see how small is the entrance hole)

While we were there I decided to call one of my reader who had used the Love Potion that produced superb result. He was a Doctor by profession.

I told him that I am in A.Setar and I shall be catching a flight back to K.L in 3 hours time. He was so excited that he insisted that we have dinner before I leave, of course we have never met before and this is a good opportunity for me to meet a new friend and to ask him personally about the Love Potion results.

We had our dinner in one of those famous old restaurant (pre-war building) .It was a wonderful dinner as we had the opportunity to discuss & talk about Swiftlet farming. We share info & our experiences of swiftlet farming.

(Wah! still can find such small lane in the middle of the town)

I didn't know that the Love potion had created such a big impact on his farm until he told me about it. His farm was only 5 months old and it has produced superb result........Thanks so much to Love Potion.

( he is where we had our dinner)

He explained the after 30 hours of using the Love Potion the birds swamp into his farm like a tornado. People around his farm called him and asked what did he do to his farm as thousand of birds circling on top of his farm.

(huge farms)

They called him, he couldn't believe it until he went and see it himself. He was so happy about the love potion that without my probing he explain the whole experiences during the dinner.

I am happy because the feed back are from those persons who had used it. Later we decided to visit few farms of his and at the same time to do some birds test at one of his new farm project ( under construction ,stand alone).

At the site within seconds the stress sound was played the birds out from no where swamp in to the source of sound. There are so many of them ( Check out my BTK Test video). Fantastic, all birds circling on top of our car.

I turned around and jokingly asked him is this the numbers of birds circling your farm when you used the Love potion that day? He replied 10 times more than this. I was speechless...........

That is crazy. All of us around there who heard this were totally jaw dropped.

It was getting dark and it is time to leave for the airport.

Even tho it was a hectic trip nevertheless I really enjoy my trip to the North especially meeting and getting to know all these wonderful people. Hope we shall meet again next time and wishes them Good Successful farming.

Thank you Mr.Readers.

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Farms Visiting to the North - 2

We headed for A.Setar along the way there were few Stand Alone farms. During the drive to A.Setar it rains a little but it doesn't help to clear the haze. I was hoping that it would rain heavier but it didn't.

We reached A.Setar in the evening and it was good for bird test. There were so many new commercial development in A.Setar especially shop lot. I was wondering are there commercially viable? But looking further at it, the shop lots were built more for Swiftlet enthusiasts to purchase for the purpose of swiftlet farming.

(Newly built shops)

It is not cheap,you would be surprised that some of the shop's prices are equivalent to those of Selangor state.

Mr. Reader took me to his farm of few months old, as far as the construction works concerned it was beautifully done. The contractor is very skillful but this is not enough to attract birds to stay. As some of the standard farm measurement requirements were not applied & followed. Some are too narrow & some are too wide.

I explained to the owner about what needed to be done. I always tried to save as much re-renovation cost as possible because most owners had spent lots of money in their farms.

Later we take ride around some newly built shop lots to check out the feasibility of the area.

We stop our car few times and did some birds test around those newly completed shop lots , that I guess they were waiting for the CF. The results were wonderful. Birds came to the source of sound within seconds. There were thousand of them. It is a truly prime bird zone area.

I was wondering , how come some farms here still fail, how can it be. There are plenty of birds here. It is just like going fishing in ponds that are full of fishes and yet can't catch one.

Is it the pond's problem or the fishermen themselves? Lets think.......

There were quite a few farms that are successful by judging from the numbers of birds entering the farms in the evening.

(Nothing but solely for Swiftlet farming only)

As the vegetation concerned there are plenty of food here. As Kedah is the largest producer of Padi in Malaysia. The insects & the padi bugs are plentiful here. I guess all you need to know is the skill of Swiflet farming.

( Shops & Shops)

As the location is good , all you need is a good farm that is designed for swiflet farming......sad to say so that most are not.

While we were doing the birds test which lasted about 15 minute there were few cars pulled over to see what we were doing. I think there were fascinated to see so many birds on top of our car.

The reason for the test was to check the feasibility of swiftlet investment at those newly completed shops, who knows I might buy one unit there......just kidding.

It was a full day of swiftlet farm visiting & a tiring one but it is fun. Mr. Reader was a tough guy too he shows no sign of tire or exhausted, I supposed he has to keep up the pave so not to let me down.

For sure we both enjoy it very much. Best of all Mr.Reader was a kind and sincere person. I am very happy to have Mr.Reader as my good friend.

So it was getting dark and we headed back to the Hotel.

To be continued..........

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Farms Visiting to the North

Few weeks ago I was invited to revive few farms in the North. I had delayed it for quite a while as I was tight up with my works, but with the persistent calls from farms' owner and their cries of SOS.


I have to make myself free after so many postponements. I had booked my flight ticket in advance. It was an early morning of a week day. My wife drove me to the Airport. I almost missed the flight. I was late but fortunately the check in attendant allowed me to check in ,many thanks to him.


The flight takes about an hour to Penang,the weather wasn't good with haze all over the North. I was afraid that most birds would temporary migrate to other places that are haze free, then observing them would be hard.


I had never met Mr. Reader before other than few tele-conversations and emails. I supposed that he knew how I looked like as he had seen my pic in my blog. As usual my reader was waiting for me at the Airport and this is the first time I see him.


He was a very nice & down to earth person. I got into his car and we talked about farms & farms & farms. He was so excited that he wanted to head straight to his farm, what a true swiftlets enthusiast.


I told him how about having some "makan" he noted and replied that he totally forgotten about it. We headed to Prai and he took me to one of the shop famous for Teow Chew dumbling. It was fantastic. The restaurant was located in an old area that has plenty of old shop lots that are easily over 80 years.


I was fascinated by the original structure of the building as it was made with good & lasting woods.




( Look at the beams It is like the nesting planks. This shop is over 80 yrs.They had paited it)


This is how the design & the formation of nesting planks ideas were originated. I took out my camera and take few shoots of picture and most people at the restaurant were looking at me ,I am sure they don't know why I am taking photos of a ceiling. The reason was ' So I could share with all my readers".


While having our "makan" we had some discussion and I wanted to know more info and the back ground of the farm that we are going to visit, like when was the last renovation, the numbers of birds, who was the designer,etc. All these info would help.


We reached the farm at noon. It was a good area for swiftlet farming. The farm was beautifully done and Mr.Reader had spend lots of money in it. Sadly the design was the biggest set-back. The farm was designed by a local there.





( Very well camouflaged, all shops are Swiftlet farm)


It was a double storey farm of 2 units shop lots, if it had done properly the farm could produce a huge nest capacity. Sadly it was done without the understanding the birds flying behaviour and they were so many mistakes in that farm.


To have a clearer picture, in order for me to rectify the problems all angles & areas have to be checked to find the problems before trouble shooting & diagnosing.


This included climbing up to the roof top. From here I could observe clearly. I respect Mr. Reader, he too climbed up to the roof which I would advise most "do not do it" as it is very dangerous.



( On top the zinc roof, have to know where is the beam b4 u stand on it, look at the Dgs behind me)


It was a few hours works, taking measurement from nesting room to roving room and cracking my head to find the best solutions that are cost effective and without needing to hacked here and there (if needed it would be at minimal) at the same time turn around the farm to attract birds to nest.

Surely it is not an easy job as reviving works are more complicated than starting a new farm as most reviving works there are many hacking, removing walls, shifting entrance hole this included sometimes the DG is moved to a better position or converted to OR,etc.



(Inside the farm)



This is the only way to do it " Do it or Don't" . If the farm is not Swiftlet friendly no matter what latest gadgets or tools you put in your farm it will still not attract birds to make nest.



You could wait & wait& wait years passed by and the result would remain.


Mr.Reader learned quite a lot from this visit, as when I draw out the rectification plan I explained to him the reason behind all works.



Why the birds are not staying in your farms the details reason. What had went wrong and how to solve it the next time without relying on others. This is self diagnose. In order to do this one has to understand the causes of problems , from here you could find solutions.



Without understanding the reason of problem existence, it is very hard to rectify it, because you would ended up don't know what to do and where to start.



After we had completed our task, we headed for P.Buntar for "makan" again. I guess this is the best part of travelling. P.Buntar is a Prime Bird Zone area. In fact it was the few earliest town that had started Swiftlet farming in Malaysia.



The food was great, I supposed after a climbing up and down, from ceiling to ground floor of 2 units of 2 storey and plentiful of sweat and energy eating anything would be delicious.






( This is the restaurant in P.Buntar where we had our lunch)


There are plenty of farms here some are very successful. After makan we headed North again as I need to cover 4 farms in 1 & a half day trip.


To be continued...........

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Renovation of Farm " When to do It"

The purposes of renovation of existing farms are ether to improve or revive the farms (failed) or to accommodated a bigger birds population.

In most cases it is to improve and to revive it. In many cases, the farms population didn't not grown or stagnate and the numbers of birds nest in farms are not up to expectation. Some having operated in good location, prime bird zone for years only managed to have 20-50 nests.

So if we are going to renovated it, we must plan and have a good working schedule so not to disturb the existing birds in the farms, even though the population may not be big but it is still very precious to us.

Renovation is to be done in dry season. The renovation works takes place from 9am to 3pm. Thereafter works should be stop.

This is to prevent disturbances to the birds in the farms. Any insecure of disturbances would make birds leaving the farm and look for new farms nesting.

( new hole are hacked )

The renovation works should be done step by step in area that are not many inhabitants. A plan is to be drawn out and decision are final .This is to prevent repeat works or changes that would take a longer time to finish.

Numbers of workers should be at minimum to prevent disturbances unless for farms that have less than 30 nests or no nests or the number of nests had been stagnated for many years and it is a totally revamp works to salvage the farm.

(expending the size of a farm)

During raining season it is advisable that the renovation works should take place from 10.00am to 2.00pm. During this season the parents birds won't fly farm for food as food are easily available. Therefore parent birds come back more often and earlier to feed their chicks so the renovation works has to accommodate this.

For farms that have many nests and the renovation works is to accommodate a bigger population the works should be completed in a shortest time possible.

The renovation works has to be done step by step and section by section, one section completed then only move to another section.

(new farm to hacked a hole on the wall)

It is not advisable to hack hole here and there or opened a ceiling leaving it for few days without covering it back. This would confuse the birds inside. Unless it is a major revamp.

If a hole it to be opened it has to be completed as soon as possible.

All works must be completed within a projected period. It is not advisable to drag the renovation works or half way delayed due to insufficient of materials. ( unless new farms).

Pre-plan the material needed, the numbers of workers, the final master plan of revamp, where to start first and where and when to finish. Making sure there are no half way throughout the renovation works then decision changed and new things are added to it or new walls have to be erected.

All these should be finalised on paper in your master plan.

Lastly be very, very, very, sure what you are doing as it is no turning back. Your revamp plan has to be better than the current one otherwise you won't be doing renovation.

In order to renovation or revive farms one has to understand the underlying factors that caused the farms slow growth and the major problem facing by the farms.

In order to diagnose it one has to know the causes affecting the farm (design). If you do not even know the causes how are you going to solve it. You may not even know where to start. Making mistake will be costly.

Hope this would help those who want to renovate their farm.

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Concrete Nesting Plank for Long Term

Due to innovation more and more Swiftlet farms are substituting Wood nesting plank to concrete nesting plank.

The main reason was to prevent termite, fungus and it could last long. This is true with concrete nesting plank for farms, you don't have to worry about termite, wood bugs,mould, flea,etc.

( concrete & wood nesting planks)

By its nature the concrete is stronger and when harvesting it doesn't move, not like the wood planks if it is not properly secured by nails it will move. Birds do not like planks that are easily move or not secured properly when they hang on it they would feel insecure.

The cost of setting up concrete nesting planks is not cheap compared to wood planks. Furthermore it needs experienced workers to do the job and it takes longer time to finish the whole construction works as it needs time for drying.

Most of the concrete planks are engraved with lines for easy perching. The only set back is the concrete smell. Normally it is washed before the farms open. This is to make sure the cement smell is gone.

( combined concrete & wood planks that attracted birds to build nest)

Normally it would take a longer time for birds to make nests on concrete planks compared to wood planks but for long term the concrete plank would be the choice. This includes easy harvesting as we don't have to worry about the planks move. Thus this makes harvesting fast.

The concreted planks with its cement nature, you don't have to worry about fungus & mould if the humidity is too high in your farm.

To prevent slow nest making wood planks are added to the concrete planks especially as corner boards. This would help new & young birds to make nests.

( pyramid concrete nesting planks in construction)

If you are looking at long term to prevent termite, wood bugs, fungus and maintenance free , the concrete planks would be ideal for your farms. Of course this come with a cost. It is more expensive that wood planks due to workmanship.

But your worries of changing the wood planks in future are history.

Temperature & Humidity Affect Nests Quality & birds Population

There are correlations between Temperature & Humidity in Farms. We heard that the desirable average temp in farms should be around 27-31dg and the humidity (Rh) should be around 75-85%.



As we know when temp rises it would affect the Rh and this goes vice-versa. So do these changes affect the nest quality in farms and the birds population in it


Yes, it certainly would. Farms with high temp obviously would not attract birds and even there are birds living in it, in not time if there are farms around the area could provide a better low temp environment then the birds would leave for the one which has the lower temp environment.


Farm with low Rh would affect the quality of nests. Most nests in it would crack due too low Rh. This would make it harder for young birds to build nest as it takes a longer time for them to build because every line of saliva would easily dried out before it could reach one end to another.



Therefore this unfavorable environment is making it hard for birds to make nests. Especially for young birds, after couple of attempts if they find it hard ,they will look for other farms.

(the saliva lines are thicker in Good temp & Rh environment)


With low Rh & high temp , it would affect the saliva and the easily dried saliva would become thinner thus in such situation most nests that are built are small. As we know that swiftlets use lines of saliva to build nest.


( poor control of RH & Temp , the nest is dry & crack there are gaps & holes on the nest)


Where as for good Rh & Temp farms the nests are bigger and thicker, this is due to the thickness of saliva and during the nest making period the Rh & temp in a way helped the Swiftlets to make nests much easily.

In such good farm condition most nests are completed below the average time of nests building which is 40-45days.


With such good conditions of farms the high birds populations increase are very common compared to farms that have a poor rh & temp control.


This is one of the micro internal factors that affecting the nests quality other factors such as season (raining /dry) also needed to be considered as well. Besides that food availability (good vegetation) also plays an important part.


Temp also influenced the growth of baby swiftlets. This is why sometimes we see the dead of baby swiftlets ( caused other than predators).

This could be the causes of imbalance Rh& temp especial dry season where the external temp rises to 34-36dg


During this dry season the Swiftlet parents fly far away to look for food if they didn't come back in time during dry season the baby may die of starvation and dehydration.

Therefor right level of Rh is very important. That is why the growth of swiftlets in dry season is lower that in the wet season as wet season there are plentiful of flies, nymphs and insects and parent do not need to fly far to look for food.


The desirable temp for good reproductive and growth are between 27-30 dg. If the temperature is lower below 27 dg especially for Stand Alone farms that are located in Oil palm plantation, river side,etc.

The temp could dive below this average especially at night or during raining season. This would cause fatality to baby swiftlets that are few days old that are without feathers even thought the swiftlet babies could adapt to the low temp.


So the ability to control the temperature & Rh would certainly help the quality of nest as well the growth rate in the farm. That is why some farms could have 1-2 folds of increment compared to some with non.

( good temp & Rh farms help to increase birds population & nests)


If the Rh & temp are at the favorable level it is not necessary to use a spray bottle to spray water to the nest while harvesting.

The nests would be just perfectly soft and it won't crack when you use the spade to scribe it. It will come out perfectly easy and this makes harvesting easy and fast. If you have to use water spray it means your Rh is questionable?


( Myself harvesting nest in good temp & Rh farm, it makes harvesting easy and fast & maintain the quality nest as the nests are not too dry and less broken nests are collected.


The nests in a good internal environment would be fuller in size, thicker , whitter and glossier. Obviously with this quality you could fetch a higher price per kg.


(white & huge sizes nests fetch better price)


And with such quality it would normally be 70-90 pcs per kg. Of course you would not have all 100% nest that are AAA grade having 20-40% of them in your farm it is indeed good enough.


(this nest is almost 5 inches)


So Temp & Rh play a very important role in nests quality and birds population growth.

Any undesirable changes in the temp & Rh would affect the birds population growth and for farms that have plenty of nests the changes would affect the nests quality.


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Application of LOVE POTION

I received emails & calls regarding how to use the Love Potion effectively. One bottle of Love Potion in good for a farm size of 1400 sf. If your farm is a 2 storey you need 2 bottles.


For farms that have not used it before, for the first time normally a bottle should be completely finished for a floor of 1400 sf. If you are unable to finish it, that mean you are not using it correctly.



One of the best way to use it is by using a spray bottle. This spray bottle is cheap and its available in most supermarket. Pour it into the spray bottle and turn the nozzle to sharp spray. The reason being is we want the Potion to drip and absorb slowly into the walls. With the spray bottle it would helps you to use it evenly on all areas of the farm.

(spray at the inter-hole)

Spray the Love potion onto the walls of the farm especially on area like Inter-hole, below the nesting plank and roving room. The smell of the Potion will attract birds to stay & make nests.

Try not to use mist spray because the mist will be easily blown away by wind and the scent will not stay long in the farm. So make sure you turn the spray bottle nozzle to sharp spray and pointed to the areaa you want and let the potion drips.

(spray at the wall of Roving room & Nesting room)

Repeat above procedure continuous for 2 days for new farms that had never used Love Potion before. Thereafter repeat it after every 3 weeks to have the best effect.

For nesting planks, use a paint brush , make sure it doesn't drip. Apply sparingly a very little on all corner boards. For farms that have nests apply on areas few feet away from the nests areas as we want to spread the nest making to more areas.

The Love Potion is safe to be used on the nesting plank and all areas of the farm as it is made with natural ingredients. It has been proven in fact the areas that had been applied with love potion ,birds love to build nests there.

In fact I would try to post as many pictures & videos as possible as I always believe in seeing is believing. Sometimes you may be able to write a lot, but without pictures I personally think it wouldn't be interesting. Furthermore with pictures readers won't be bored. Am I right?

Above is a farm that is using the Love Potion.

We knew that making birds to enter farms is not easy, to make them stay and make nests are even harder. If we can not even make them come and enter farms what is there more to talk about staying and making nests?

I believe a step at a time is most crucial. A thousand mile journey started with the first step. So lets make the first step first.

Lets Love Potion help you to make your first step.

Hope you enjoy viewing it!

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Sound system.No timer needed. Pre-select sound & able to store sound. Plays 2 sounds

Few days ago I met up with a good friend of mine which is also a blogger. We were talking about some sound system for farm.



Suddenly it came into my mind a system that I had for a while that has 2 USb and 2 Sd card reader. I told him I had for quite a while, you could do the time setting on the screen so you don't use a timer anymore. He was amazed.He said many farms' owner are looking for it.






Best of all this system could store the sound memory , which means when you slot in a SD card you could store the sound into it and by controlling the timer in this sound system you can select which sound to play at which hour. Even you remove the card it still can play the sound that you had installed earlier.


It also has the ability to play 2 sound at one time. This mean one out-put channel could be set to playing external sound and the other one could play external sound. There are 3 LCD screens on it for pre-select sound, timer and channel out-put sound control.

If you look at the picture both sides on the left & right have the USB & SD card slots.

For those who are interested please email me.


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Daring Farmer

Too often those who have no experiences are more daring. I received a call from my reader from south. He confessed that he never skip a day reading my blog. I was indeed happy about it.


During our conversation he asked me about the criteria of a good farms and I explained to him. I asked him how many farms he has? He replied 2 & a half, and the half one is a stand alone and its under construction.


I probed him about inter-hole, the entrance, the specification of the farms,etc. He was totally lost. I explained to him the important of the above, he was surprised that he didn't know that there are so many things one has to look in to before starting the construction works of a farm.


He immediately asked my permission to stop our conversation. Then I asked him why? He cried I have to call my contractor to stop work now or it will be too costly if they had poured the concrete. My god! I replied you better do that.


So after a while he called me again, he said luckily he had spoken with me or else there will be mistake and it will be costly.



So he invited me to visit his Stand Alone farm. To my surprise as I had mentioned non experience farmers are more daring. The farm was built with the 1st floor height of 24 ft. The reason was to prevent theft. I asked what if there is no nests in your farm after 3-5 years would the theft thing still relevant to you? He laughed.





( can you see the height of the 1st floor?)


So why worrying about thieves when one can't even create a good farms that have plenty of nests. It is logically that no nests there will automatically be no thieves. So no worries for now.


So which is more important? I guess those who think like a swiftlet would have the answer.


It was a 40 ft x 80ft , 3 storey farm. I was wondering do we really need such a big farm? No point having big farms if it can't attract birds to make nest.


With the 40ft structure it has to have pillars in the middle. I personally do not favor pillars in farm as Swiftlet could bang on it. I would prefer to do a 25 ft one and stretched it longer instead.

In this case you don't need pillars in farms.




(the owner & I standing at the construction site of his 3 storey farm)

But the farm he was building already erected with pillars and column so nothing much he could do now other than to correct the position of the inter-hole, entrance, roving,etc.

I explained to him the criteria of a good & successful farms and how he should build his farm, most important swiftlet friendly. I drafted out a plan and explain to him. He agreed and was happy about it.

Later I was taken to visit his other farm which was built by a someone he entrusted with. Well he wasn't happy about the performance.....he asked for my opinion ,well I observed many things that are contradict to the basic requirement of a successful farm but I can't say much here .......anyway he had already paid him.

(done by a trusted person, the side facing the Sun, West..)

I asked him to observe and think logically " if you were a bird would you stay in such farm"? He noted and smiled......I guess he has got the answer.

After that we left as it is getting dark. I told him in Swiftlet Farming you need time & experiences, the most dangerous thing is that too often we thought that we know everything. That is the biggest mistake.

Try to think back 3 months ago, then 6 months ago, then 1 year ago, then 2 years ago & so on. Compare your knowledge within all these time , I can bet with you the longer the time past the more knowledgeable you are.

So it is clearly showed experience is a must. So don't be too rush when going into Swiftlet farming provide you could find someone to guide you.

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Survey & Evaluation of Area for Swiftlet Farming Investment

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This is another bird Test with my BTK system that attracted lots of birds. All birds came swaming in within 30 seconds.

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This how you should test a location you intended to invest. If the result is like this video it means you had choosen the right location and you shouldn't wait anymore.

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BTK is for the purposes of survey and finding out the potentiability of a selected area for swiftlet farming investment.

If you had chosen the right location then your next step is to come out with a plan to build or to renovate a farm that is suitable and liked by Swiftlets.

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These are the most important things. Having a good location would not help if the design is void.That is why so many unsuccessful farms even in Prime Zone Area. So everything must comes together.

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So with the test and survey you at least have done the your homework to reduce the risk of failure.

So a Bird Test in a selected area for Swiftlet Farming is a must.

New Bird Test Kit with USB/SD card ready-Good bye to CDs & Car stereo.

How about having a BTK that doesn't need a Cd? That is what I had been thinking for a long time. Finally I came out with one, a powerful one that comes with sharp and crystal clear sound to attract birds.

(small box light & portable)


This BTK system comes with a USB/SD card ready, you can download many birds sound into the thumb drive or the SD card and slot them in and it is ready to play. Pull out the wire from the box and slot it into the cigarette port in your car and the BTK is ready to attract Birds.





(the USB/SD card reader, easy & convenience and can store many sounds)


No more Cd needed and you don have to rely on your car stereo system anymore. No more driving your car to the accessories shop and pay the mechanic to install an audio line out which cost from Rm50 to Rm 80 depends on which accessories shop you go to.


You don't have to rely on your car's audio for volume anymore, so every time when you intended to increase or reduce the volume of the BTK you can just turn the knobs in the Btk box. You don't have to enter your car. Best of all the Amp in the BTK has the volume, treble and bass control knobs just tune to your prefer sound.

This box comes with a 12v adaptor for convenience use when you had downloaded sound into you Sd card and you want to check it, you don't have to go to your car to plug in and test. All you need to do is plug in the adaptor to a socket at home and the BTK is ready to play sound.

(a 12v adaptor is provided, you could plug into a socket at home to check your Sd card sound)

This USB/SD card reader set comes with button for auto continuous replay, pause, skip next file sound and you can select any sound that you had loaded into you thumb drive or SD card. It is designed for convenience and eliminate the hassle of changing cds when using the old type of BTK.

(easy, portable & light. Dimension: 12"x9"x3" )

There are no wire hanging or tangling outside the box. If you are not using it the wire and port that attached to your car cigarette port can be keep inside the box. This is to make carrying easy.



Every part of it has been thought thoroughly, the bottom of the box is fixed with 4 soft rubber stubs to prevent the box from slippery and to prevent scratches on cars. You can put it any where on your car without worrying that it will fall.




It has 5 Motorola quality tweeters to blast out the sound. The flat type of tweeters were choosen so that the range of sound coverage is wider and broader. Close your ears when you are trying the high volume blast, but you don't need that loud to attracts bird.







So now we can say good bye to those BTK that relied on car audio. The 1st prototype was taken to the North for Bird test and recorded on video. The result was fantastic please watch the video above. When the sound was played in 30 seconds the birds swamp down like bees, seeing is believing.




Interested email swifjames@yahoo.com.

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Another Email from My Reader " LOVE POTION"

Yesterday while busy having my business appointment (not Swiftlet stuff) I received another call from my loyal reader who had used the Love Potion.

He was so excited and happy, as the Love Potion had done something fantastic to his farm which is Located in Pahang. I felt the same too after listening to his call, I feel great if I could help. He was so impressed with the result.

Later I asked him to email the experience that he encountered so that all readers could share his joy. Below is the email from this nice person.

Dear James,.

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It really a beautiful feeling to see so many swiftlets on top of my BH circles around. Yes they are all trying to detect where that super doper smell come from.Well as instructed. I paint the main entrance over and over and over again including the roving area. And also I pour a small little cup of BLP and put near the entrance. Of course the most important thing is to attract as many swiftlets into my BHWhether they want to stay put or not I think that is secondary, right.

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To my surprise as I was standing right at the main entrance. I can’t believe my eyes a couple of swiftlets swoop pass my ear one after anotherAs I quickly pack my thing in a hurry to leave my BH fast I can estimate at least they are already more than 30 swiftlets circle inside.

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This alone has already given me the full confident of this BIRD LOVE POTION powerful and beyond my expectation. Well done James keep inventing

New formula and be bless for all your hard works. 3 CHEER

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Best Regards,

Randy Tay.

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"trying, seeing & testimonies from readers themselves" has make me Loved the LOVE POTION so much ..

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Selecting an AMP for your FARM

I guess this is the least talk about in all blogs. What is the criteria of a good Amp? We shall find out.


Those who are new and came into this Swiftlets farm business want information that would help them to have a successful farm. In order to achieve this in dept understanding is important in term of all equipments use in farm.


One of them is the sound system. If you do not know the criteria of a good Amp and you don't have the info then how could you choose a good Amp system?


Not all Amps are suitable for playing Swiflets chirping sound. As we walked into an Electronic shop there are so many types and brands of Amps. Some are dirt cheap, some are dam expensive,etc. So which one is the best for Swiftlets Farming?


Most Amps in the market are designed for human listening pleasure which I call it. The expensive ones are those that are designed to play the acoustic & instrument sounds (orchestra).


All produces different type of frequency to suit the listening pleasure.


As for Swiftlets farming we are looking for Amps that could response and produce frequency that are audible to Swiftlet (echolocation 1-6 kHZ). Some Amps may produce higher frequency & some may not. So choosing the right Amp is important.

Besides that a Swiftlets Farm Amp needs to withstand long hour use as for the internal sound it is 24/7/365 days affair. If the Amp can not withstand heat it will burn the electronic chips inside and that is the end of the Amp.

In order withstand heat the cooling system of the Amp has to be efficient. The Aluminum cooling fin is the cooling system .It has to be huge, the bigger the better. I had seen many using very small Aluminum cooling fin to save cost of production often these type of Amps will not last. If the Amp is pushed to the limit it will burn.

(look at the Aluminium cooling fin, it is 360 dg round type for good cooling & the system is simple)

One of the reason is over load putting too many tweeters than the recommended number. Also the wiring system that is not properly done or using the wrong type of wiring. All these would affect the quality of the sound and at the same time would make unnecessary load to the Amp and shorten the Amp's life.

The above is the Toraidal coil. Its more efficient than the traditional steel type. It produces better sound quality. It is wrapped with copper coil. In most case the heavier the better it is .

Beside the Toraidal on the left is the USB processing circuit. The capacitors are imported.

These huge capacitors can withstand heat than the smaller ones. Normally the small ones would burn easily. So look for big one.

Nowadays, if not all , most Swiftlet farm Amp come with USB or SD card reader ready or both together. It is so much convenience compared to using a separate Amp plus a DVD unit set .

Often the DVD will not last as it is not designed to play 24/7/365. The small motor under the DVD plate often die out as the continuation of long hour use.

Besides that using DVD it involves many wiring and you need many sets of them in your farm.

The worst is when the DVD motor has problem and the speed is not consist it will produce weird sound that will frighten all the birds.

A good farm can not afford sound system that break down often this would affect all birds fly to other farm as birds don't feel secure.

(this Amp has been tested, it produces good quality sound and has all the criteria of good Amp for Swiftlet Farming , best of all it is cheap and has a USB port)

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With Amp that comes with USB port you could store many Swiftlet Chirping sound in the pendrive. If you intended to change the sound all you need to do is just press the button on the Amp.

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When you load a sound to your Pendrive try not to compress it too much. The more you compress it the quality of the sound would be affected. This also applies when you are doing sound editing. Simply editing would not help unless you understand the frequecy and the type

of birds chirping sound.

I believe a simple and a not complicated set-up is the best. Even in the Amp if it has too many function it tends to have problem in long run.

Hope the above info would be useful for those who are looking for Amp for theirs farms.

Remember not all Amps that you see in Electronic shop are suitable for Swiftlets Farming!

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My Loyal Reader Needs my Opinion

I received an email from one of my loyal reader from Kelatan, Encik M. He is very excited about his new farm and it is now almost completed.

He had emailed me many times to ask my opinion about his soon to be farm. I said send me your design and pictures I will let you know my opinion.

Here are the pictures of his farm, a bungalow unit. It looks attractive isn't it? It is 90% completed.

As you could see a Hexagonal Tweeters on the roof. Well the position of the Hexagonal tweeter should be placed at around the Dog Kennel.

Best of all I had asked him to allow me to post his farm design & pictures on my blog so that all readers could share it.

Below is the design, Obviously the roving area is too small , a bigger roving would be much better.

The inter room hole is too small too. There are two entrance holes at the dog kennel which most people would do that if later more swiftlets are using one of them then the other one shall be closed.

Well my opinion, Ok mine, my opinion! Other sifu may have theirs. I don't believe in two entrance Holes I believe one should know very well already where is the best entrance hole should be placed.

If you have two entrance holes that's mean you are uncertain and you have doubts about your own opinion.

Of course many still choose to have two entrances, well let it be. I understand from him that the stair case will be the inter hole. If possible hack a hole at the appropriate place. For staircase inter hole it takes a long time for birds go down.

Heat is the problem with this farm as you could see he is using orchard netting to reduce heat. I guess initially at the beginning of the construction works he should have built walls that could reduce heat (insulation, wall thickness,etc)

For this farm more ventilation holes are needed. Making sure it is placed at the strategic area to have the effectiveness.

I guess his advantages is his farm's location. Located in Kelatan , a Swiftlets Prime Zone area any farm build there will easily attracts birds, even some farms that have the worst design still could attract birds to nest but population will be stagnant.

Well all are welcome to ask and give comment , there are no right or wrong when asking question , all are welcome please email me. swifjames@yahoo.com Thank you.

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Why Stand Alone Swiftlet Farm

I guess when a decision was made to have a Swiftlets Farm, the criteria of selecting a Stand Alone Type or A Shop Lot Unit were solely based on budget or how much one has in his bank account.


Nevertheless , of course having a big budget would indeed helps a lot in term of material use, size of the farm, equipments ,etc but this doesn't mean having a big budget will guarantee a big success.


It is just like the Hollywood movies, some big budgeted movies with heavy weight super star still flopped and while some small budgeted film scored big success.


Stand Alone (S.A) is a big investment obviously the cost involved is very much higher than the those Shop Lot units.

( Far away in remote area)


First of all you need to have a piece of land and getting a good location one for Swiftlet Farming is not easy and most land for this purposes are expensive.

Those that are good and reasonable priced most are belong Malay Reserved which is non transferable to non Bumi. ( can not be sold to non Bumi , so LPPL)


So if you get one you have to pay premium price, that is only the land and yet to include the construction cost on the building.


Often if you buy, the procedure of ownership transfer takes years. And most would wait till everything is properly done and the ownership is confirmed in paper then only they would build the farm. This is to prevent any unforeseen circumstances that may arise during the transfer period.


If you had built the farm during this period if there is complication in the land title and if in any event that it can't be proceeded further , there goes your Swiftlet Farm.


Dealing with Land kinda thing is not easy , in some cases it takes up to 3yrs or more. By the time everything settled 2-3 yrs has gone and the construction works take another 6-8 mths depends on the contractor.


So the time factors involved here. Unless you already had a piece of land which you had bought many years ago or inherited from your ancestor then it is a different case.


The good things about the S.A is the location. If you found a good location that has good vegetation and it is located along the Swiftlet flying path where birds used to fly to look for food, chances are that you might be able to attract them to stay permanently in your farm.



(good vegetation & plenty of food for Swiftlet, but plenty of Predators too)

Of course provided your farm's Micro has to be good. With S.A you don't have to worry about your immediate neighbour that shared the same wall with you doing renovation works on his new farm when you are starting to harvest 5kgs. All those hacking and drilling would affect your birds and they will leave your farm.

Besides that, also no worries of your neighbour "Joker" who knows nothing about farming simply playing "Distress sound " Dure...." in his farm that will make all birds in your farm leave and never came back.

Unlimited farm size, here is where the budget and huge bank account come in. If you are loaded you could have big one any sizes you want.

In long term the S.A is better due to its size and there are rooms to accommodate growing numbers of birds if you could make it.

No sound pollution, so no complain so not summon and so on. If the farm is located in a remote area you could blast your hexagonal tweeter without fear to attract birds from far away.

Best of all the S.A allows you to design the farm that you wanted, which is the most important factors between fail and success farm.

Of course there are set back on S.A as we knew very well nothing is perfect and there are sure to be limitations.

The major problem is with the design , as I had seen many S.A with close to Rm 1 m investment failed. This due to lack of understanding of how a S.A should be built.

The Temp & Rh are big problem in S.A farm. If the owner has lack understanding of what types of material to be used especially the wall of the S.A then controlling of the temp & Rh are difficult.

Also there certain specifications of thickness (design) of wall needed to have a better control of the Temp & RH. This involved the percentage of sand, cement,plaster, type of bricks,etc.

The roofing is also a major problem affecting the S.A. Most would put a water pool on the roof to cool down the Temp often this causes leakage and furthermore when temperature rises the water in the pool becomes hot and making the farm's temp rises instead of lowering it. In order to prevent all these one must have in-dept understanding of the design of S.A.

It is not just as simple as paying some drafmen and you direct him you idea. This is not a movie. Even in movie you need qualify director. Or after you had attended few swiftlets farming seminars and you wanted to call the shot. This often heading for disaster.

There are hundred more problems that might effect the S.A if the design is not done properly which I can't finish writing here.

( A Stand Alone nearer to town)

There are other problems like Owl, eagle, rat, snake,lizard, etc that the S.A has to face. Being built in a remove area or a good vegetation area mean lots of green. This also means plenty of other predators.

Good vegetation not only attracts the Swiftlets but also attracts predators as well because of the food chain and ecology system.

All those predators would affect your farm, getting rid of them is not easy . One of them is the lizard. This is not those that we often seen in our house. It is those long & huge one about 9-12" in lenght.

We called it tokek in bahasa.

Once the got into your farm your birds population will not increase as they like eating birds egg. As lizard will grow in your farm and your birds population will reduce. I shall take about this in my write later (Predator).

If your farm is located in the remote area electricity is problem. Without it there are lots of thing couldn't be done, water pump , sound system, mist, humidifier, cctv,etc. Of cos you could use a generator or huge battery this involve lot of maintenance and installing solar system is costly.

Burglary, yes for S.A. If your farm is located in the remote area and when it is harvesting many kgs. Even with the state of art alarm system the burglars still break in because they knew by the time you reached your farm they already harvested all your nests and having coffee at some other place.

They might even hack a hole thru the wall instead of climbing in. Anyway there are nobody around. The alarm system may scare away the birds but not the burglars.

So there are always advantages & disadvantage of building a Stand Alone Swiftlet Farm.

If you understand the limitations as well as the advantages & disadvantages it would be easy for you to handle it if any problem arises.

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