Swiftlet Farming Cross Fostering (A.Fuciphagus & Collocalia)

In Indonesia you could buy the Swiftlet eggs or the newly hatched chicks that are few days old. It is much better to buy the chicks as the certain percentage of eggs put in the Sriti nest will not hatch or rejected by the foster parents. This technique is called Cross Fostering, which the adult of Sriti (Collocalia) will take care of the A.Fuciphagus chicks.

(swiftlet eggs)

The A.F eggs take about 30-40 days to hatch and another 30-45 days before they leave their nests. Incubation in the incubator with a temperature set at 40C at a 70% humidity. After the A.F eggs hatched the chicks are left in the incubator for 2-3 days before they are transferred. This is mostly done in areas where the A.Fuciphagus population is low and the Sriti population is high.

Identifying eggs that have embryo

This done in a dark room, by placing a flash light underneath the egg, you will be able to identify it. Those eggs with embryo will be sold to Swiftlet farms or send to incubator for incubation.

(newly hatched Swiftlet chicks)

They have been doing this for many years and this is how they increase their bird’s population. In Malaysia we are very lucky to be blessed with an environment that has very small percentage of Sriti. So we should take advantage of this beautiful natural resources. Most Swiftlet farms in Malaysia are colonized with A.F, rarely you will see Sriti in it.

The Sriti are dark deep blue in color. The colors of their eyes are brown and there are very small in size. They are in colonies like A.F and hunt in the same area with A.F. To differentiate them is not easy, commonly identification is through their nest.