Swiftlet farming Step 1

Well, it had been a while since i stop blogging as Chinese New Year is around the corner. Here i would like to discuss  step by step what you should do before constructing or renovating your swiftlet house. Swiftlet are sensitive animal and have unique yet sophisticated characteristic or behaviour. Before anyone should embark into this investment, one must know what is swiftlet.

Topic that i am going to discuss:
1) What is swiftlet? Behavior, characteristic and life circle.
2) When did this bird nest become well-known? History of it.
3) Swiftlet nest or bird nest, what is so good about it.
4) Price comparison for the last 10 years.
5) Export volume for Malaysia vs Indonesia
6) What should you do before investing in it? Location ( Download our free Duress Sound)
7) How much are you willing to invest in it? Minimum RM 15,000 to RM 500,000? 
8) Design of successful swiftlet farm. Swiftlet Equipment listing
9) Arranging of Meranti woods and tweeter placing.
10) Amplifier- which to use? Setting on timer
11) Swiftlet Sound- Internal swiftlet sound and external swiftlet sound. Free download
12) Humidity- Humidifier or Pond?
13) Swiftlet Aroma? A must apply liquid 100% effective and must be free from chemicals
14) Harvesting - when? Which nest should not and must be harvest.
15) Chart of bird nest growth by zone.
16) Break even Point and Return of investment.
17) The swiftlet Taboo and mistake should never do.
18) What you should do if they are no swiftlet on the second and third floor? Lights?
19) Swiftlet Predator ? How to prevent it. List of insect killer
20) Swiftlet guideline by Jabatan Haiwan. Form Download
21) Question and answer






 Chapter 1


What is Swiftlet?
Swiftlets or cave swiftlets are bird contained within the four genera Aerodramus, Hydrochous, Schoutedenapus and Collocalia. They form the Collocaliini tribe within the swift family Apodidae. The group contains around thirty species mostly confined to southern Asia, south Pacific islands, and northeastern Asia, all within the tropical and subtropical regions. They are in many respects typical members of the Apodidae, having narrow wings for fast flight, with a wide gape and small reduced beak surrounded by bristles for catching insects in flight. What distinguishes many but not all species from other swifts and indeed almost all other birds is their ability to use a simple but effective form of echolocation to navigate in total darkness through the chasms and shafts of the Caves where they roost at night and breed. The nests of some species are built entirely from threads of their saliva, and are collected for the famous Chinese delicacy bird's nest soup.

This photo are taken inside my own farm and it is really hard to capture them  in flight. Their wing spread up to 12 cm in lenght and have a very powerful wing for aviation. This are all adults swiftlet. Here as you can see swiftlet can maneuver in a short space. Minimum at least 6 - 8 feet area for them to maneuver.

What do swiftlet eat?

Like most  human, they will be hungry and get up when the sun is up. Do remember this, swiftlet have two capabilities, echolocation and by their naked eye. Their visual are five more stronger and sharp then us. They can hear 5 time also more efficient then us, this where swiftlet song should not be switch on too loud. Swiftlet likely to abandon their nesting place if sound is being played too loud. More then 23 -27 dbb or decimal, swiftlet would dislike it. Do apply this only for external long range tweeter and not inside the farm, i had seen farmers blasting their sound so loud that i had to shout to communicate with him.

Swiftlet lay 2 egg every 90 days and they can live up to 13-15 years meaning each pair nest 30 times. Swiftlet are homely animal and they will keep nesting at the same place over and over again if it not threaten. Swiftlet babies will hatch after 26-28 days. Here the parents will feed their babies three - four time a day Early morning at 6 - 7 am, 11am - 1pm and 7-8pm daily till they can fly and look for their own food

.They are born without any hair and are blind till they are 20 days old. The babies will stay inside the nest till they are ready to fly which took almost 52 days. Swiftlet babies will learn to fly around the roving area or outside your swiftlet farm not more then 30 feet apart. Slowly they will adopt to the environment after 30 days in flight. They will start to match after 7- 9  months later.

 Swiftlet Babies

Swiftlet Egg

Swiftlet Food? They feed on live insects when they are flying on top of tree like Palm Oil tree and other flowery tree. This can be observe after raining or around 8 to 9 am in the morning. Now we can even create insects provider which attract other swiftlet.

How Do I Start A Swiftlet Farm? Do I need Lots of Money?

How Do I Start A Swiftlet Farm? Do I need Lots of Money?

This quetion and remark had been ask many time by newbies and investor. One word say it all, it all depend one your budget. If you have only less then RM 10 k....yupp you can build a swiftlet farm. Some of the photo here are swiftlet farm that i had constructed and very successful so far till date. It is not that size that matter, it is the techniques and also some special aroma and of course, music. Like in any coffee shop, if you put rock song , only tennager will come and Jazz , hmmmm .....sentimental coule will come. So the answer still up to you . When i first started i use only RM 3,000 and now my swiftlet farm afther 9 years worth RM 670,000.00 None other business can grow like this. Trust me, its  worth  it.

Modifying own unwanted house which save cost and oney invested less then RM 10,000.00 for all equipment and renovation.

Bird Nest Quality and Grading....

Grading and quality of bird nest are the most important in raring swiftlet. Nest that produced low grade will basically wasted our effort hence dimotivated us. If you have ow quality nest, dont worry, it is better then not a nest at all. I have came across people who don't even have a single nest after 2 years into operation or side by side with me even started one year ealier. Take a look at this unprocessed bird nest.

From all the photo you can see the different shape and sizes, some in "V" shape which also a corner nest which overall fetch RM 3,300 per kilogram in the market. You can have broken nest but fetch better pricing then the corner nest, RM 4000 per kilogram. Try to bargain a bit higher if they offer you RM 3,300 because after processed the result or quality are the same. As today price in raw edible bird nest are RM 5,100 per kilogram. Price change every three ( 3 ) days in the market.

Bird Nest Quality?

Edible bird nest are so hard to be graded

Happy New Year You , Family and swiftlet...!!!

Greetings to All, hope this year 2011 we will see a tremendous growth in swiftlet farming farm and also the success or fail of many farm. I am creating this blog to help newbies to start up their farm and not to fall into mistake that i had make during my past 7 years of research. I had been active in this industry since 2003 and till now still amazed with the unique characteristic of aerodramus Fuchipagus ( Swiftlet ) in South East Asia. My company Kimmyen meaning "Gold nest" in Hokkein had been actively supply bird nest, bird nest equipment and consultation with a reasonable price through out South East Asia.

Swiftlet farming are consider one of the best investment ever by Time magazine in 2009 and had widely recognize by Malaysian goverment since it had gain international recognition. I really salute to our lovely Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib in having said that, approved RM 5million grant for all Bumputera to take part in this investment. Growth in swiftlet farming in Malaysia meaning the opportunity for all of us.

Time to time i will share my photo token from my own farm and willing to answer any question emailed to me at " kimmyen@hotmail.my" . All is free of charge......

This are my bird nest colected 1 hour ago and are stll wet which i need to dry it before proccessing start. Drying up methods are easy, using fans or just leave in air conditioner room for an hour. How do you know it is wet or dry? it seems dry but reallity, it is not, to determine it is dry, just squeeze the nest inside with your mother tumb and if it make crispy sound then it's already dry up.