How many nests are considered good after first year of operation.

How many nests a farm should have after a year or few years of operation is debatable. Many had indicated from 10-100 nests or even more.


I guess it is somehow debatable. It is very much depends on the location of the farms. Definitely it is not fair to use the same yardstick to judge a farm at a Prime Zone birds area compared to those which are not in the Prime Zone birds area.

( this is a harvest from a farm of 1 ++ year old)

In a good Prime Zone bird area after a year of operation it should have at least 30-50 nests. I had seen some achieved many times beyond these figures. Any number below this the farmers need to find out the underlying factors.


If it is below 30 nests then it is definitely something wrong. Those that have less than 10 nests showed that the farms are in red. ( Alarming Red). And those that have non or just one or two in Prime Zone birds area are considered totally failed badly.


Well as in non prime Zone areas , achieving 30 nests in first year of operation would be considered good. In such area the farm needs time to build up its birds population. Most cases such farms are those that are located in areas that are not famous for Swiftlet farming and in areas that have no Swiftlet farms.


So how many nests a farm should have after a year of operation its all depended on the location the farms located.


If a comparison is to be done it should be compared with the average nests per year of farms of the same location, not other location or state.


So to compare your farm with others and see where your farm stands , check around with your friends and find out the figure from here you should get the average. Every town , state and country the average is different.


So find it out today!



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Selamat Hari Raya

To all my Muslim readers " Selamat Hari Raya & Maaf Zahir Batin"

Have a joyful & happy celebration. Hope that I could join you all .....! But during this long festive holiday I am doing farm visiting. Happy holiday.

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Making Swiftlets Stay in Farm (Love Potion & Sound)

Here is a video of Swiftlets entering a successful farm that uses right Aroma and Cd sound. There are so many of them charging into the farm after a long day of foraging food.

One trying to pass the other to get into the farm first. This scenario is common among successful farms and all Swiftlet farmers are indeed looking forward to this one day. I bet you would

I’m sure many of you are wondering why some farms can attract so many birds and some so little and some non at all.

There are few factors that actually influence the above. The most common ones are the Aroma and Cd Sound.

The Aroma has the ability to make Swiftlets feel comfortable as they enter the farm thus this would make them stay and make nest. As baby Swifttlets hatched from eggs the first thing they could sense is smell.

(look at the eyes, yet to develop seeing ability so smell is important)

At this time they are blind as their eyes are yet to develop seeing ability. Therefore smell plays an important role here. This sense of smell has conditioned them from the very first day of life.

If your farm especially new farms do not have the smell that resembles the farm that they had grown up in then attracting young bird to your farm would be hard.

Through this observation, research, field test and many field visits therefore the "Love Potion" was invented for these purposes to make birds feel comfortable in new farms and encourage them to make nest at the faster period of time.

Many birds entered the farm for the first time and later turned back and never come back again. This is because they don’t find it good or comfortable in that farm. So to counter this we farmers have to make farms that liked by Swiftlets. We don’t have a choice, if we want to have a successful farm.

Besides Aroma Cd sound is also one of the important factors that influence Swiftlets to your farm. The right Cd sound would attract Swiftlets from far away working as an advertising instrument promoting your farm to birds.

It has to be good in a sense that it must has the ability to persuade birds to enter farms. There are many sounds in the market nowadays good ones are those that are specially re-mastered and remixed to adapt to different farm’s location. As for me, mine are all re-mastered and remixed type.

Nowadays there are so many farms (approximately 60k-70k). You won’t be surprised that the sound that you are using is of those duplicated one from one farm to another and the effectiveness of it to attract birds is somehow questionable.

Therefore paying attention on the above (Love Potion & CD sound) is very important as it would help you to improve your farm’s performance in a way of increasing nests if your nests growth is stagnant. For those newly set up farms it would help in attracting birds to your farms and make nests.

A clear understanding and knowledge are needed if one needs to achieve good result and to become a Millionaire Swiftlet Farmer within few years.

Good luck to all!

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This is How Malaysians Invest in Potential Area - part 2

It was huge inside, with such size the capacity of nests would be massive if in few years time when this farm is inhibited by swiftlets.

( farm inside)

All inside walls are perfectly plastered for smoothness even my house walls are rougher. The owner is very detail about the finishing of the farm. It uses good grade of red clay bricks. It is the best grade amongst red clay bricks. Definitely No to sand bricks.

The walls are multiple layered. You can’t imagine. I respect the effort and the amount of $ spent on this farm.

(concrete reinforced ground floor)

The cost of labor is high as all finishing is of perfection. The target of completion of this farm is 6 months. He won’t want to miss this year swiftlet breeding season.

For many years I had thought of using good alternate material for nesting plank instead of the commonly Meranti wood. The Meranti wood won’t last long especially in condition of high Rh. It also invites termites and mould.

Some of the plank materials that I had thought of which are good like Marble but the cost are extremely exorbitant. Due to this therefore all my farms are opted for Meranti.

But somehow for those who can afford it then they would choose the best. This farm is choosing the best. It is using good grade of Marble as nesting planks. All Marble planks are specially grooved for easy perching of birds (hang). It was specially order- made.

( marble nesting planks with groove)

To accommodate the weight of the Marble the building was built with reinforced material to support the weight of the Marble planks. This pushed up the construction cost of the building.

( Crates of Marble 2 tons each , here are less than 10% of the amount needed)

Furthermore being built on a soft soil at the river bank, imagine how many piling poles it needed.

The Marble planks are so expensive that the cost itself for this farm could easily equivalent to the cost of construction of a common 2 storey farm.

(grooved ceiling for installation of Marble planks)

The installation of the Marble planks is another huge task. It needs many skilled workers to do the job this is due to its weight and the progress is slow. A 6 ft Marble plank weights about 20kgs. Imagine how many planks are needed in a 50x100ft, 6 sty farm. So this is what I call “How Malaysians Invest in Swiftlet Farming”

The cost of the planks and the labor itself are killing so not many would build it in such way.

The reason being that many had resorted to build farm with expensive material is to achieve a good internal environment liked by birds so that birds would stay and make nests.

The owner is a true investor as he see the opportunity and the potentiality of this area he really banging hard on it “good entrepreneurship”. For such huge farm we are talking about 20 years investment or more how many of us really look beyond it.

Swiftlets farming is a long term investment .For those who want to get quick bucks out of it I guess they had invested in the wrong place.

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This is how Malaysian Invest in Potential Area - part 1

It was another trip to the North for farms visiting. It was a beautiful small sleepy hollow town with many beautiful old pre-war building which some of them are more than 100 yrs old.

( beautiful pre-war building)

This small beautiful town is located at the bank of a river. If you talk about humidity this is a right location. Most of the pre-war building here had been converted to Swiftlet farm. The ideal of it is that the structure of these building which the formation of bricks laying was different from today's brick laying techniques.

(good environment , perfection)

In such the pre-war build has a thicker wall thus creating a better heat thermal barrier. Therefore most of the successful farms are from these old pre-war building.

As you walk around the town you would see most of it if not all, the upper floors were converted into Swiftlet farm. The result here is fantastic, looking at the swiftlets entering the farm at 12 noon clearly shown that there are many nests in those farms.

The location itself has the advantage over many places. There are many birds here, with such high density of birds I supposed even a not so well made farm would also attracts birds. The only difference is how many nests could one farm out performed the other.

( side narrow entrance but birds still love it)

The uniqueness is that all sort of shape and sizes of farms here attract birds. Most farms here have nests. Even those that are simply made with zinc and with little knowledge won't deter birds from making nest. What a wonderful place! I was wondering what if I build a farm of my own here. Wow.....definitely....

Due to such wonderful environment this area has attracted lots of outsider to build Swiftlet farm here. Some are Mega ones. You'll be surprise to see how these investors going all out to capture a share of this lucrative Swiftlet Farming business especially in potential area like this.

(Mega farm 50x100ft, 6 storey . currently complete at 4 storey)

They are talking about millions of Rm not hundred of thousand. One of them is this Mega farm that I had visited. It is a 50x100ft size. A 6 storey with standby steel beam for future (2yrs) extension of additional of another 50x100ft , 6 storey at the side. Imagine how big it is.

For those who commonly invested in shop lots that below 1M would be an eye popping experiences. So for all swiftlet farmers, you all had chosen the right investment because if it is not potential this Mega farm's owner wouldn't have invested heavily like this.

This is one of the most perfectly done farms “in term of finishing, workmanship and material”. As far as internal design and layout that is another thing.

(looking over a beautiful river, tranquility)

The ground floor's wall is of concrete to prevent theft and flood. The building is currently completing the 4 storey .There are another 2 storey yet to be completed. As you look at the steel extruded from the concrete pillar indicate concrete will be poured on it.

This is heavy investment and the owner is happy about it. There are many more, wait till you see the inside………

To be continued…

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Farm Visit to the North again

I will be leaving for the North tomorrow. I had planned this trip for quite a while. It was an invitation from my reader. He is a nice guy.

We had met before and had dinner many months ago in K.L.Tomorrow I have to get up early to catch a plane.

My reader has 5 farms. He is a true Swiftlet enthusiast. I shall keep you all updated about the findings.

Got to sleep early........zzzzzz

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Atap for Roofting

My friend called me up and asked me where can he find "Atap" for his farm. I cracked my head to figure out where to get them. It is not easy to find it nowadays especially in town unless you go the rural area.

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People have been using "Atap" for 100 of years before all those new roofing materials were available. It is cheap and reliable. It has good insulation property as it is made from natural material.

/

The disadvantage is, it is highly flammable. If its caught fire especially during festive season, one firecracker all it needs to bring down the whole farm.

/

Furthermore the dry Atap leaves are good place for predators like Lizard, cockroaches, wood bugs and wire snake that hunts on small birds to live and hide

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Nevertheless it is cheap and has good insulation property. You may be surprised that it has higher thermal insulating than some modern roofing materials.

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This is because the leaves that make the "Atap" actually traps air between them thus worked as good insulator..

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The biggest set back is highly flammable. If you want to use it you better think thoroughly. If you are unlucky you may loose your farm to fire.

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My advice is "No".

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Phua Chu Kang in Swiftlet Farming (PCK)

Do you know there are many Phua Chu Kangs in this Swiftlet farming industry? To know one all you need is to pay attention to how they talk and write.

They Talk loud & big, normally in a dialogue way. The syndrome is everything I know even before you ask “I know... leh..he..he.. I know..oh..I am the best...leh …so many… leh... all others don't know leh…he he can not tell leh..he ..he..”. Doesn’t it sounds familiar? At the same time they enjoy criticizing others and once they started they can't stop. Slow down lah.....

If you happened to meet this type of people I bet you just have got to be careful. They often belittle others because they assumed that they know the best and they are the heavenly send swiftlet prodigy but they have forgotten that there are no swiftlet in heaven. If you read between the lines you get what I mean.

(PCK giving consultation)

Often then not they can't stop the habit of saying bad words. It is so hard for them to stop if they were have to stop they would die. Therefore, they resorted to use other phrase to utter out bad words probably spelling it differently. In this way they feel much comfortable at the same time reserving theirs habit. Bad habit die hard don't they?

Those jokers actually spoilt the true spirit of the respectable Phua Chu Kang . PCK is humorous but with ethic not like those jokers that always utter foul language.

There are many of them so beware who you are dealing with. Worst of all if they take charge of the consultation of your soon to be farm. I bet your farm ended up as dirty as their bad habits. How would you expect birds to stay and make nests? Well, if the birds would make nest it is going to be a very dirty one as dirty as their habits.

I believe character & attitude represent certain degree of one reputation. So by few conversations and observation you would know the person behaviors from here how good he is in this field could be easily identifiable. If you are sharp enough you would also be able to find out how shallow is his knowledge.

If you can't differentiate it then it is too bad, as I had said before in Swiftlet farming you need good observation. If you can not even differentiate between an unknowledgeable joker who talk with no action and one that has genuine skill then your involvement in Swiftlet farming is destined to fail.

In Swiftlet farming you must not only have the ability of differentiate things & be observance but also the ability to strike out those jokers who talk “ he..he..he..” but without action. This saved you the hassle of spending time and efforts on unproductive knowledge.

So beware, you decide and make good judgment. The biggest mistake in Swiftlet farming is not choosing the wrong location but choosing the wrong person who is a joker and you treat them like an expert. That is the biggest down fall.

Simple! Just read between the lines you know what I mean “Quality information & non quality information”

Hope you all learn a thing or two from here.

FYI PCK is my favorite TV series. Please don't spoil PCK reputation!

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Security of Swiftlet Farm " have you thought of It"

When we planed to build a farm we should also look into the security aspect of it. Most would not pay much attention to this until many years later when their farms are break in.

For some who are concerned about this would build thick walls, heavy steel doors, etc but overlooked the roof & ceiling. I had seen farms with thickness of 3 inches doors but the roof was not protected from burglary. The owner told me that if the thief could climb like a Spiderman then let him have what he wants.

I am sure he will regret later, provided his farm is successful in near future otherwise he is also wasting money on his 3 inches thick door, because if his farm failed then there is nothing to steal anyway.

( heavy steel door)

Most burglars would prefer to come in thru the roof because it is easier. All they needed to do is to remove the clay tile roof. If the roof is of zinc or asbestos all they needed is a cutter unless you have a concrete roof. This has resorted farmers to put steel plates on the ceiling. Often costly.

Security in farm is an overall process not only concentrated on certain areas. I’m sure most come across farms with many CCTVs, what is the point of having many CCTVs to observe the security but you live farm away.

You may be frustrated when one day yousee burglars stealing your nests in your farm from your home but you can't respond fast enough because you live too far.

Even with alarm system if the thieves are smart enough they will cut the alarm connection and let it activated for a while after the sound stop then the will break in. This is more prone in secluded areas where there are not many residence houses around especially in area of semi-abandoned shop lots area.

Other ways including putting bard wire & broken glasses on the roof or around area that the farm's owners may think that thief can easily gets in. But it is more for preventive or dummy effects if the thief really wants to break in they will find all ways especially if they know that your farm is harvesting many kgs nests.

( bard wire around the entrance hole)

Often than not when the farm is break in most birds in the farm are frighten and this would affect the birds to migrate to other farm.

Thief couldn't be bother about the survival of the chicks or eggs. All they wanted is to capitalize on the nests . They will take all immaterial small or big. All eggs and chicks are thrown down and leave to die.

Imagine if you are the parent birds would you still choose such place as your nesting site?

If your farm is seeing good result and if you think that your security measure is not enough then you should do something about it. Don't wait till someone break in.

There are many unreported cases where gangs with parang or even guns waiting for the owner down stairs to rob his harvest. Some of this harvest may worth up to Rm 60K or more.

There are also cases where burglars hacked a hole on the wall of a successful farm because the farm immediate building was an abandoned empty building.

Well I am sure you could beef up the security with today's technology to prevent and limit the burglary problems but I can assure you that it can't be totally eliminated.

It will be costly to have all these gadgets to protect your farm provided your farm is harvesting good kgs per month..

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Light at Entrance Hole to prevent Owls

I am sure for new comers who are new in Swiftlet farming would wonder why there is a light fixed at the entrance hole.

There would be guessing game here, as to why the entrance needs a light, "Is it for the Swiftlet to see"?

Well, the reason being is to scarce off Owls. The light is fixed at the entrances which controlled by a timer. This is to prevent Owls from coming near the entrance and to prevent them to enter the farm. As most Owls are active during night time especially the time the sky is getting dark.

But bare in mind that not all Owls catch their prey at night there are few species that actually active and catch their preys during the day time which I had witnessed myself.

Initially when the light is fixed at the entrance this would scare off Owls but over the time the Owls might get adapted to such situation as most animals are able in adaptation to survive in the animal kingdom.

Besides that having light at entrance attracts insect thus this would at the same time attract swiftlet to feed. With plenty of insect around the entrance hole chances are some swiftlet may go in to the farm and stay over night.

With plentiful of insect during the night when all Swiftlets had settled down in the farm this would be the hunting ground for small Bats. This would expose your farm to Bats and they might stay in your farm considering that there are plenty of foods at your farm's entrance.

Other perceptions are as a guide or a target land mark for easy identification for young Swiftlets therefore sometime you may see some entrances are fixed with light of different colors.

There are always advantages & disadvantages here......so you decide.

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Building farm on NO MaN Building "LAND"

This is a very unique farm that was shown to me by my good buddy. It was almost camouflaged. No one will notice it if they are not sharp enough.



You may hear the Swiftlet chirping sound but it takes a while for you to find out where it came from. When you look at the building window you could see thru the glasses and all you could see is an empty building with good ceiling of no nesting planks.




( on the middle of the building on the roof top, a DK)


There are no brick walls or board sealing up windows in the front and back of the building.


So where is the farm? Well , it was built on the roof , the middle of the building in the center. So it is solely no man building.



(it was an area for water tanks but was converted to farm)


Great idea! Having a farm in no one building ! You don't have to own a shop or a piece of land to have farm.


The beauty of Swiftlet farming is that most farmers are creative . Bravo to the owner. I guess whether it will be successful or otherwise it is secondary but I respect this type of creativity.


Cheer Mr. Owner!

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Before & After "LOVE POTION"

I would like to share with all my readers the pictures taken before & after using the Love Potion.


It was used in one of my readers' farms.



(above is the pic of corner board without nest )

( a month plus after Love potion had been applied)

We had only applied to 6 corner boards in the farm that has more 480 corner boards. It was a 3 storey farm.

The result was good. If you had tried and the result is otherwise there could be other underlying factors that you need to find out.

Some of the factors that you need to consider are;


1) Temp

2) RH

3) Predators

4) Wrong type of wood used as nesting planks.

5) Applying unknown stuff to nesting planks

6) farm design

7) Size and location entrance hole

8) Building material of farm
and many more.

Besides that the way of using the Love Potion is as important as the above factors. Wrong way of using it without following the instruction will not produce result.

It is not advisable to use Love potion together with other aroma. Love potion not only helps your farm to increase nests & birds population but it also helps to identify whether your farm's micro environment is at the best level or otherwise.

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Low Cost houses Coverted into Swiftlets Farms

This is really what happened in some States, can't blame the municipal council tearing down farms. This article is from the Star.

Kondo Rakyat not for birds

KUALA TERENGGANU:

Kondo Rakyat are for the low-income group and not for the birds. And those who converted their units for swiftlet rearing are in breach of their contract. State Industry, Commerce and Environment Committee chairman Toh Chin Yaw warned that action would be taken against them.


The Kuala Terengganu City Council, state Health Department and the relevant state agencies which had rented the units should initiate measures to stop dwellers from misusing their units, he said. “I don’t how many of these units had been converted for swiftlet farming. Enforcement is under the city council and Health Department and the state government will ask them to act,” he told The Star yesterday.


Toh said the state agencies responsible for renting out the units should also look into punishing the errant dwellers. Health hazard: Some of the units at the Kondo Rakyat in Kuala Terengganu have been turned into swiftlet farms by residents.

( The owners must be looking for trouble or got no brain)

“I was told that residents had complained about bird droppings dirtying their homes and laundry, and the noise created,” he said. “On the part of the state government we are looking into drafting specific action against dwellers and property owners who convert their premises for such purposes without approval.”

Rearing swiftlets here has become rampant over the years due to the high demand for edible bird’s nest and the huge profits.

Several shophouses, especially in Jalan Tok Lam and Jalan Sultan Sulaiman, had also been turned into swiftlet farms. Toh said the state government had held numerous discussions with the shopowners and affected residents.

The state government, he added, had earmarked a 220ha site away from the city for a swiftlet park, and he encouraged those involved in the industry to shift there.

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Unsuccessful Stand Alone Farm

I was asked to help a farm of 2 years old in the South. The owner was very distressed as he had spent all his saving on his farm and after 2yrs there are only 2 nests and one of the nests was left after half way of building.



He had called me many times I had deferred the appointment due to my other work load. I told him that I would only be available on every 2nd week of the month. Without hesitation he straight away making hotel reservation and arranged all the necessary things for me....well with all these planned & arranged I couldn't defer the appointment again.



His farm was built and managed by a well known..Con.... whenever he query about the 2 nests in 2 yrs the Con.. will tell him to wait. Con.. will tell him Swiftlet farming is all about patient. No patient don't invest on farming. So he waited and waited, finally he terminated the services of the Con.. and decided to do it on his own.



Yet from here he couldn't find the clues of how to make a successful farm. He had tried many ways yet the result still futile. Finally he decided to call me and thru our conversation I explained to him the criteria of a good & successful farm. From here I was asked to help to revive his failed farm.



It was a beautiful weekend, I hope I don't have to wake up early, but not this weekend as I have farm to visit. I reached this town after driving for couple of hours.






( This is the town with Swiftlet farms)

Mr. Reader was happy meeting me the 1st time. He drove me around and showed me farms around the area, some are just located few kms away from his farm. His farm was located in an area that has few successful farms. There were many birds playing around those successful farms. Thru my observation I could conclude that some of these farms easily harvesting 2-3 kgs of nests per month.

How come his farm is not performing. There must be some underlying factors that need to be checked.

Before my visit, thru the phone I had asked Mr. Reader about his farm's condition. His reply was everything is perfect. I was surprised to hear that. I wonder if everything is perfect why there are not birds. I probed him again what about the Temp, Rh, light,etc again " everything is good".

I keep my reservation and wait till my visit.

It was a 20 x80ft, 3 storey Stand alone located in an Oil Palm plantation. The Vegetation was good here. How come no nest I wonder why'.

As I enter the farm I could feel that the temp was out. It was so hot even on the ground floor. This will affect the Rh. I had brought along my Hygrometer and my temp gun when I checked it , I was right. As I moved to the 2nd floor more things were discovered.

( Red Ants on the floor)

The were ants everywhere. There are Red ants on the walls and some even on the nesting planks. I asked the Mr.Reader ' what did you apply in your farm and on the planks. He replied " many things as long I heard someone claimed it to be good I will try". When I probe further I was shock to hear what he had applied to his planks and walls .

There are many people advising other to applied things that have no relation, whatsoever related to bird in farm, this is purely a MYTH. It will do more harms than good as all these things will invite predators.

One of the biggest mistake was the Inter-Hole it was located on the wrong place. The entrance hole too, was placed at the area making hard for birds to come in. The birds would find it very hard to go down to all floors further more there were ants , Lizards and cockroaches everywhere.

( Inter Hole wrong place)

The sound system was out as most of the tweeters were burned. The Internal & External sounds were of those low quality sounds that wouldn't attract & persuade swiftlet to build nests. The sound was not attractive enough. It was those sounds that anyone could buy from the market or Con..

That is not all the construction of the building didn't take consideration of the sunlight that shine on the wall that created heat. Totally lack understanding of how a Stand alone should be built.

I explained to him and told him that if he wanted to turn around his farm it would be costly as almost all criteria of a good farm were not there.

Sad to say so "It was a real shabby works ". I really sympathise with him. How could someone build a farm like this.

So for now I have to come out with a plan to revive the farm removing some of the walls which are not needed. There will be many hacking to be done and adding insulation materials,etc.

It will be a long list of things to be done. Mr. Reader accepted my advise. Well there are works again to be done...but I am busy....

I shall be traveling more to his farm as they will be plan to be drafted & discussion with the local contractors as well as many discussions with Mr. Reader.

Never mind helping other to turn around their farms is a great challenge for me. Every time when a failed farm is turned around and within months nests & birds increased the satisfaction is at the Peak for me man.........Especially the moment you receive screaming calls from the owners thanking you for what you had done.

Solving another failed farm!

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Red Nests ( Blood Nests)

Anyone wants some Red Nests? Below is a picture of Uncleaned Red nests fresh from farm houses. If you observed closely you could see feathers on it.



Naturally there are only small percentage of Red Nest in some farms. Due to the high demand many had resorted to create or to make Red nest to an extend of using artificial coloring.
I had came across shops selling coloured Red Nests.



I guess those who bought it didn't know about it. It is not easy for those who are inexperience in this trade to differentiate between artificially colored nests and the original Red Nests.

If you have experience in Nest trading you could distinguish it. Of course there are ways to make or create Red Nests other than waiting for the small percentage from farms or using artificial colouring. Well this is a trade secret.



I would say getting or doing White Nests already so hard for some and the Red Nests is one step beyond the white nests. Therefore I would suggest concentrating on White Nests until you are good at it then only you should consider about Red Nests.


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Why it is Easy many years Ago & so Hard Now? " Unsuccessful Farm"

It was easy to attract birds to new farm especially 5-10 yrs ago. Even without basic knowledge and basic skills, farms that are badly made will still attract birds and within years it could harvest few kgs of nest.

(Would you want a big farm?)


With such successful rate more & more people are investing into Swiftlet farming hoping that they would get a fair share of this lucrative business.


Those were the days, wooden farms, farms that simply sealed up windows with boards, second hand unwanted woods use as nesting planks, small store rooms were used, etc all these shabby works & materials used still do not deterred birds to build nest. This is because the numbers of farm still low compared to the numbers of bird. Such simply made farms that do not have the right design & conditions that liked by birds would be hard to success now..


As time goes by more and more farms were built and some are using state of art technology being internally or exterior of the farm. At the same time more shabby type of farms were built too. This pushes up the numbers of farms in Malaysia to approximately 60-70k units as today.


As the number of farms increases , people are finding hard to attract birds into their farms. Some even questioned why I had spent so much money & used the best equipments internally and best material for the building and yet my farm fails.




(Successful farm)


For those who had started earlier and had succeeded when they confidently building another one they faced the similar problems. They wonder why their 1st farm can attract so many birds and can harvest good kgs per months when a duplicated (100% ) farm was made its result was totally opposite. Why? What has gone wrong?



Those who continued to flourish from this lucrative business , having one successful farm after another are those who understand how a good farm should be made. This group of people are those who are observant, experience, knowledgeable,etc.




( Do you dare to invest in such big way?)


It needs lots of thinking. Not surprising that there are still lots people out there that believe as long there is a hole made on the wall the birds will fly in. For those who probably think deeper would thought a hole on wall plus adding some birds sound then birds will fly in. Definitely it need more than this. If it is so easy then the failed rate won't be at 80/20.


In order to have a good farm one must understand some of the example stated below:

1) Experiences & understanding of traditional old farm & new farm.

2) Location of farm, Inland that are nearer to mountain & those located near beach, sea & river. Both concept are different, If you mixed up "disastrous".

3) Experiences in farm that had harvested good kgs and farm that hardly have 30 nests in a year. (observe)

4) Understand the behaviour of Swiftlet. ( how they fly, how they mate, how.......etc....).

5) Physical shape of farm (new building).

6) Material of farm ( internal & Exterior).

7) Internal Design of farm.

8)Understand the type of entrance hole for different farms & different locations.

9) Micro environment ( most know about it , commonly applied eg. Temp , Rh,etc).

10) Macro environment (most know about it, basic eg . location, food chain,etc).


Most concentrated and banged heavily on the last 2 which is 9 & 10. Imagine if you are going for an exam and you only get 2 correct out of 10 then would you pass the exam? 20 marks over 100 would you still get A or B? If your answer is yes then good luck.


The above are only a fraction of the knowledge that one needed to know in order to have a successful farm. It is only 5 % perhaps less . There are many more that I can not finish writing here.


Hope this would help.

Well, Good Luck!

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Creative Idea From My Reader

Thanks my reader for allowing me to post this unique picture. He is a true swiftlet enthusiast. I believe if we wanted to do something nothing could stop us. This is a good farming spirit!


Most who wanted to start a farm always believe their ideas or their techniques and their skills are of the best. This is a very normal and common reaction as we all always have high confidence in ourselves otherwise we won't be investing into this Switlet farming business knowing that the failed farm ratio of 80/20.


Having good spirit and good ideas are not enough. To have a successful farm it takes more than this. In Swiflet farming one needs to have a good understanding of how to make or design a farm that liked by Swiftlets otherwise the farm you had built will not be inhibited by Swiftlets.



( the farm is located at the porch of a bungalow)



Simply making one because there are materials around or spaces available to improvise it will not make a farm that will attract birds. Doing this way is more of satisfying own creativity rather than building a successful farm. Therefore there are so many unsuccessful farms.


Swiftlet farming is a long term investment , 2 t0 10 yrs or beyond, it may takes up to few years before you could see the result , provided your are on the right track and have the skills.



( this is the front part of the farm)


There is no turning back in this business and you can not afford rooms for error. If possible do it right the 1st time. I do understand it is not easy to do something without error the 1st time if one do not have the required skills. But it could be done if it is guided by someone who has the in dept knowledge about farming & farm design.


The best part of Swiftlet Farming is that all sorts of ideas could be incorporated into farming when one believes it works or it could attract Swiftlets.

Good luck...................

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Reader came all the way From Sarawak.

We had a good discussion about Swiftlet farming yesterday night, all about the design, internal environment, the setting up of a new farm, what is needed and all the requirements of a good farm.


I came back quite late yesterday nite and I have to force myself to wake up this morning to go for a meeting ( not swiftlet stuff my other permanent job). I managed to reach my appointment place on time. As usual in K.L the traffic jam is crazy, you need to be early to avoid traffic jam.


Yesterday discussion was initiated by my reader from Sarikei, Sarawak. He is an avid reader of my blog from the beginning since then he has been calling me quite often to ask questions and finally he decided to see me yesterday.


The sole purpose was to ask and discuss about his soon to be farm. It was a 4 storey shop lot which he wanted to convert the 2 top floors of the building into swiftlet farm.


He told me that he had planned this for almost 2 years now, searching info from the net, meeting many sifus,etc to have an in dept understanding of this beautiful business and yet he doubted his knowledge and foremost the farm's design. Therefore he decided to fly over here to meet up with me.


As I was quite tight with my load of works where I only could meet him after working hours. He has to accommodate to my schedule.


He was a true swiftlet enthusiast, brought along with him were pictures of his shop, internal and external, the roof, the window, doors,etc. This would certainly makes planing on paper easy. He also drafted out a plan of the structure of the building indicating the columns and beams.


Good homework! This will help in my planing and design. That is not all he also drafted out a design of his own. Well it is quite good but not good enough.....sorry .....


Certain measurements or sizes areas in his farm were either too small or too big. There were also error in placing the inter hole, inter room hole,etc. All were re-drafted and a new measurements were given.I explained to him the reason and the importance of the location & placement of the above and explained in details why such measurements & sizes were needed.He was very happy about it.


He was very obsessed with sound as he told me that he has hundred of them which he bought from many different consultants..some are very expensive . I asked him do you know which one is good that could attract birds to stay & to make nest?


He replied no, he said as long it could attract lots of birds then it is a good one. I replied" we are talking about quality not quantity.The bottom line is to attract birds to stay & make nests. Attracting lots of birds to come and play at the sound is of useless if they don't stay and make nests.


I also explained to him about the importance of placement of tweeters & the types of sounds that should be used in farms (ext & Int). I told him don't be too excited about sounds that could attract few hundred of birds to come and play at the entrance when a farm is started. The numbers of birds will reduce greatly after couple of weeks and later probably non will come and play anymore.


A good sound could make & persuade young birds to make nest and in long term it will enhance population grow as the numbers of nests increased. The yard stick is how many nests will there be in a farm in a given period of time, not how many birds could it attract to come and play in a given period.


I told him you could ask as many questions as you want. He replied" that's about it for now as I couldn't think of any now because my farm's plan is finalised.


I replied" should you think of one you could always email me.


For sure he is one happy guy as all his questions were answered with facts & details. I bet he did learn lots from this meeting.


Good luck to him!


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Two Types of entrance Holes in a Stand Alone Farm.

Last week I was at the North of Selangor surveying an area for swiftlet farming. It was initiated by a good friend of mine who is an engineer.


He had visited this area before there were plenty of birds and not far from here about 2-3km away there were many successful farms.


To have a second opinion I was asked to join him for this second visit to find out the feasibility of swiftlet farming in this area.


It was a cloudy Sunday afternoon later it rains during the whole journey. In fact it was a good raining day for sound test.


This area was surrounded by Oil palm plantations. The vegetation is good and not far from here about 5 km away there is a river. A wonderful place for farming. Best of all the are few very successful farms around this here.


As we drove around we found few stand alone farms here. There is one that we were particularly interested because it has two big Rottweilers as guard dog. This is the first time I came a cross a stand alone that is guarded by good breed Rottweilers. Normally the common "kampung dog" will do the job.


Well, it looks beautiful, as I observed further somehow I noticed there were problems with this stand alone farms.


As usual the security of this farm was good. There are 2 dogs guarding this farm. The fencing was with bard wire & plenty of cctv. The owner must be very concerned & careful when it comes to security.


I was wondering which come first? Security or nests & population grow ? Which is the priority. Why so many concentrated on security when the farm can't even attract birds? What is there to steal or to protect?


(OR on this side)



Thru my observation there is a big problem of leakage in this farm. There is a water pool on top of this farm as there are few overflow valves at the side. The farm was just renovated as you could see that there are lots of patching to seal up the cracked gaps. This is to prevent water from sipping thru the walls.


To solve the leakage problem, therefore an additional roof was built to cool down the temp of the farm and the farm had no longer relied on the water pool and have drained out all the water.


I presumed that the owner spent too much time concentrated on the security of the farm and over looked the water proofing system of the water pool on top of the farm.




(Another window entrance on this side)


This is very common for stand alone farm, 8 out of 10 shared the similar problem "leaking" Water sipping thru the concrete and walls and it wets all the nesting planks. With such condition birds will never build nest or stay in such farm.


I wonder, if they could spend few hundreds K building the farms why didn't they think about the water proofing system?


That is not all....It really surprised me when we heard some different sounds coming from this farm. We walked around it and discovered there were 2 entrance holes or shall I say two types of entrance holes.


One is the OR & the other is a window type, each at the end of each side the building. The owner must have been trying to capitalize on both type of entrances. He must have wanted a win,win& sure win situation .Well my opinion is " No..No..No.. In swiftlet farming it doesn't work this way.



This would confuse the birds. Unless otherwise the farm is very huge one , for a 3 storeys of 30 x 100 ft still not necessary to have 2 entrance holes and worst of all 2 types of different entrance holes.


From here it clearly showed there are many rectification works done to this farm and the reason behind it is that this farm is not performing well in attracting birds.


If a farm is attracting lots of birds and it has lots of nests then there shouldn't be any rectification works needed. I salute the owner for doing so many rectification works. Many farms' owner are willing to turn around their farms and many also willing to spend big amount of money to make changes to their farm in turn to hope that their farm will be successful. If they don't understand the stand alone concept or do not have the skills or relied on others that shared the same skills level as them then it is very hard to turn around the unsuccessful farm.


The farm was playing too many sounds this further confused the birds different entrances have different sounds.


Sometimes many sounds do not mean good! Unless many nests.


Having a successful Stand alone farm is not easy but it can be done. If you understand the concept and has the ability to differentiate it from the shop lot type chances that you own a successful stand alone farm is high.


Good luck to this farm..

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Type & quality of Nests

There're many types and grades of edible birds nests. The quality of each type is different and this influenced the price per kg of the birds nests in the market.


The pricing are based on the sizes of the nests, the thickness, how clean it is (without feathers) , moist retention in it, the color, shape ( red),etc


Good quality nests are those that come in a full cup size. It doesn't crack and doesn't have holes on it. The saliva lines are perfectly jointed and it looks bulky and fuller. It looks a little shiny as the the moist on it is just adequate.



(good size of uncleaned red nests)


Red nests are priced higher than white nests this is due to it scarcity and the demand from consumers. Cleaner nest with less feather could fetch higher price. The red nests is consider the best quality.



White nests that are clean and have less feathers on it, usually came from force harvesting where the eggs were removed. These type of nests looked white, normally it would be around 8gram each, 125 pcs per kg.



( cleaned white nests)



Those that are categorised in the average quality, are those that have lots of feathers and impurities (kutu, birds dropping,etc).


These nests normally came from nests that had been left by birds. In this category there are divided into two groups , less feathers and lots of feathers. Obliviously
the more feathers and dirties ones are cheaper in price.


Another type is the one that came from force harvesting before the birds lay eggs (rampasan).


The nests from such harvesting is white and clean with less feathers the size of nest is usually small and some are in complete. It will be lighter in weight.


Broken nests or nest flakes are priced lowest. This is the result of poor skill of harvesting and the micro habitat makes the nest deformed. Besides that, it is also due to the nests being eaten by cockroaches and insects.


Nests from such category have holes on it, dry and break easily. It is smaller in shapes. This type of nest would fetch a lower price compared to the above.



( deformed shape nests)


Therefore internal habitat (micro) play a very important role in nest quality. If the internal habitat is out of the preferred range then it will affect the nests quality. In long run it will also affect the birds population.

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