While the normal bird’s nest, which is ivory in colour, can fetch up to RM10,000 a kilo, the reddish “blood nest” fetches up to RM20,000 a kilo.
Traders justify the exorbitant price by claiming the “blood nest” is a premium grade of the Chinese delicacy.
In exposing this scam on Saturday, Deputy Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Chua Tee Yong said these tainted bird’s nests were dangerous to health and may even be fatal when consumed by humans.
He said the nests were either sprayed with iodine or stored at premises where there was high ammonia content to give them a uniform bright-red colour.
“Some also use karya gum (from a soft wooded tree) to give the bird’s nest its reddish colour,” he told The Star.
Chua advised the public against purchasing bird’s nest from dubious traders and urged the industry to practise self-regulation to ensure the quality and safety of the product.
He said that all bird’s nests must have a Veterinary Service Department health certificate before they could be exported.
Federation of Bird’s Nest Merchants Asso ciations chairman Datuk Beh Heng Seong said the term “blood nest” was coined by conmen and that there was “no such thing”.
“Bird’s nest is made up of the saliva of swiflets and is ivory in colour. It is impossible for bird’s nest to be red in colour.
“The so-called blood nests have high levels of nitrates from the artificial red colouring added to it,” Beh said, admitting that many consumers had been deceived into paying a high price for the dangerous product.
He said a kilo of bird’s nest costs between RM8,000 and RM10,000 in the market depending on the grade while a kilo of the “blood nest” was between RM15,000 and RM20,000.
Beh said Malaysia produced some 240 tonnes of bird’s nest worth RM1bil a year and 90% of it was exported to China.
Asked whether the federation, comprising 19 associations and 10,000 members nationwide, had tried to rein in those who were cheating consumers, he said they were looking at educating consumers on bird’s nests and coming up with guidelines for the industry.
Meanwhile, Fomca secretary-general Muhd Sha’ani Abdullah urged the Health Ministry to issue guidelines on what a genuine bird’s nest was and to warn consumers of bird’s nests with added colouring.
He said so far, they have not received any complaint from consumers on the so-called “blood nest” but added that could be because consumers were unaware of tainted products in the market.
He suggested that the Health Ministry issue certificates for untainted products.
“Traders should also be responsible by making sure no harmful chemicals are used in their products,” said Muhd Sha’ani.

Hi WW,  thanks for your frank answer.

My BH is 100ft x 22ft.  May be described as 5 sections of 20ft x 22ft per floor, of 3 stories. Alignment is East to West with in out holes at East, North and South on 4th flr. 'dog Kennel'. Internal well of 20ft x 20ft from top to bottom in the central section.

The strange thing is that on the top floor, in the East wing consisting of 2 sections, 20ft x 22ft, only the section nearest to the central well is occupied whereas the last section to the East does not even have spots where the birds rest or shit. This un occupied area is darker than all other areas on the same floor, with the opposite, west, section, bright enough to read large print from a newspaper. Wall temperature at this un occupied area remains a max. of 30c. and min of 27c. with humidity from electronically controlled humidified set at 80% Rh.

All other areas and floors are well occupied and visited by the birds.

Please note that the birds are building nests in all the brighter areas of this floor !

All the floors below are darker than this unoccupied section but then again, nests are being built almost everywhere.

I am not particularly worried about this situation, this is an excercise whilst waiting for YB Chow Kon Yeow to finalise the Guidelines for Penang.  I hope it will be interesting for forumers. Also I have not tried out my solution as I think I'll leave it to test perfumes, potions etc.

Thanks for your response.

From observation, the birds fly into the East wing but only to the sections nearest the well(centre) not the innermost section near the eastern wall. In fact most of the nests on the 3 rd floor are in the East wing near the well.

Planks are new, unlikely to have mould but I will check. 

There is very little shit from flying birds in this area even though there are 2 tweeters playing external sound at the wall.

There are no obstructions in the flight path as there are no columns or partitions in the entire BH.

Yes, all mine work of normal car lead acid batteries driving a cheap ups, so far no problems.  The deep cycle batteries should give me better battery time as the voltage in normal starter batteries drop off very suddenly( ups will switch off) and quickly giving me about half the rated capacity(on higher amps draw) but then again we do not expect the main power to be off for so very long!

One 40Ah starter lead acid gives me about 2.5 hrs running a single 3 channel amp. with about 300 tweeters on internal sound.

One 70Ah starter lead acid gives me 1 hr. running a 16 channel DVR with external HDD. No monitor running.

One 7Ah deep cycle gives me more than 6 hrs running 2 cameras or 45mins. with the night vision leds(40) on.

One 70 Ah starter lead acid gives me more than 10 hrs  with a neon trans.

one  7Ah deep cycle gives me more 3 days with an alarm system

So anyone planning to raid my place, I've got you on candid camera being lit up with 15000volts and if that's not enough, it'll be on youtube and facebook.

BTW you can also buy battery operated fence chargers, just leave them on charger all the time.