Sunday, June 28, 2009

Be My Guests

One of my blogger is so kind to contribute his article in my blog. If you have anything that you wish to share with us, do send to me your article. Thanks

Sometimes, it is useful to sit back and think about the business one is running and try to get to the heart of the matter so that one can make improvements and then grow the business. When one is operating a business in which the object is to attract swiftlets to stay and make their nests in special premises; then one can perhaps be liken to a hotel owner whose customers or guests are the swiftlets.

Sam Walton who started with just one retail outlet in the 1940s, through hard work, persistence and a lot of business savvy, eventually transformed his small business into a gigantic global business empire known as Wal-Mart which under the helms of his family members is still expanding and prospering. In his biography: Made In America- My Story, in Chapter 12: Making the Customer Number One, he observed: “For my whole career in retail, I have stuck by one guiding principle. It’s a simple one, and I have repeated it over and over and over in this book until I’m sure you’re sick of it. But I’m going to say it again anyway: the secret of successful retailing is to give your customers what they want.”

So if you are a swiftlet farmer or rancher, you are actually in the hospitality industry and the premises (either renovated shops or standalone bungalows) can be liken to hotels in which swiftlets are our customers or guests. So we need to provide a conducive environment in which the various needs of our valued guests are met so that they will choose to stay in our “hotel”. In return for providing 5 stars accommodation, these special guests will pay us back royally with their precious nests which are worth their weight in gold!

And for those who are involve in this industry, one should already know what these very special guests or customers require in order for our hotels to be successful. Firstly, we should understand that location is the leading criteria in which a hotel must be located where there are plenty of customers; then we must understand their needs by renovating or constructing our hotels in which their various needs are meet such as in terms of safety (from predators), they must also find it easy to gain access into and out of the hotel. Then, we must ensure that we provide comfortable residence in which the temperature and humidity are at optimum level. Finally, good advertisement in terms of interesting external sounds must be use to attract their attention to come and pay their visit and also soothing internal sound that will make them want to make our hotel their choice of residence; in which not only they will stay permanently but also their off springs as well. So, if you want your hotel to have full occupancy of thousands of swiftlets, you should first perceive them as your valued guests and then act accordingly and you could well be on your way to achieve your goal.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

New External Sound

The last time I changed my External and Playing sound is about 4 months ago. Is time to change a new sound. So, last weekend when I visited my BH, I tried out few sounds I got it from my friends using my Hexagon tweeter.

That day is cloudy day at about 6pm. From my CCD camera, not many birds flying on top of my BH. There are more birds flying on top of BH opposite mine.

When I started playing the first sound call BT (BlackThunder), suddenly, there are a lot of birds flying on top of my roof top. See the video clip below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WcB3tSIoMo

Then I changed another sound call Cpd (ChiliPadi), same things happen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaWZgTIKLD4

What really excite me is that, "ALL" the birds, yup is "ALL" the birds from my neighbour being pull to my BH. I also tried out other birds sounds, below link is one of them. There are not as many birds as compare to the first 2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPQ-1_W8TwA

My friends who passed these 2 sounds to me said his tested 2 times at his place, the respond is not as good. So, what I can say is same sound can show different performance at different places. You need to have at least 4 external sounds which are tested good at your place, so that you can rotate every 3 to 4 months.

Lastly, the original CD from Pak Hen. So, you can get from CK or Pak Hen. I am here just to show you what is good to "MY Bird House" only.

Monday, June 15, 2009

BGB Amp Issue

Last weekend I visited my friend's BH which has no nest after close to 6 months. I found out that there is no external sound? Then we checked the external Amp. He is using the exactly same model of BGB Amp as shown in the photo attached. I have seen the BGB Amp in the lowyat forum. Is is cheaper that Swallow Sound.

What happen is, the blue light at the Volumn node still there. The LED indicator at the thumb drive also light up. But the play LED (red) was not light up. It is not easy to find out the Amp is not working if you never pay close attention.

For those who use the same Amp, please share your experience. Thanks

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Solving High Humidity Issue


Below are another high humidity issue faced with my blog reader. He is very kind to share his problem in my blog.

He has a 4-storeys standalone BH with 11 nest marking after only 1 month plus. That is very good to me. But all his nest marking only at the top floor. He has a 16x20x2 feet pond at the ground floor. He suspect the pond causes high humidity (>90%) and birds do not like to stay at the lower floor.
He opened about 50% of the VH and drained the pool, but the humidity still > 90%. After seeing my other blog reader use the ventilator to remove the access humidity and reduce temperature, he decided to try using the ventilator.
He used 2 ventilators which are placed slightly above the pond. The incoming air is from outside the BH, go through the VH, then follow the long PVC tube and finally flow to the pond. After installed the ventilator, the humidity level now is around 85% to 88%. Now more birds are coming. Hope he is doing well.
If you have any great idea, you are welcome to share in my blog. If my other blog reader never share the idea of ventilator, he would never thought of using the ventilator to solve his problem. The more we give, the more we get.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Useful DIY Blog

Below is the useful DIY Blog for Swiflet farming. He has few BH at Thailand. For those people in Thai, you can contact him.

http://my-diy-center.blogspot.com/

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Pak Hen Seminar

I have been hearing a lot of good feedback about the seminar conducted by Pak Hen. Some even attended all his seminars. I told myself that I'm not going to miss this seminar again.

A have attended few seminars. Some are very basic and you can read from book. Some are trying to promote their products instead of tell you the secret of swiftlet farming. If you really what to learn from true "sifu", make sure you make yourself available for this seminar.