Taking about Bridges bring me to a joke to share.

Once, a Indo worker who used to build BH for me rang me up and said," Boss, nampat banyak sarang bawah jambatan diKuantan" "Betul kah? Kamu tahu sarang burang walit, was my reply. "Tau Boss, saya banyak buat rumah burung walit; sudah biasa"he said adding that he can send me the nests....and for free. I told him to send some samples of the nests by courier to me and if it's swiftlets nest, I will pay him some money for it.

What do you think he sent me........swallow nests and over 200gm each. If only swiftlets build such big size nests.

Coming to serious matter, as quoted above, the birds left the cave to evolve to our present species and they may one day decide to shift to other location safer and that's the end of our fairy tale of the duck that lay the golden eggs.

As D day for the industry is getting nearer but still many owners blasting their sound as if they have the right to do so without consideration of others feeling.

That's really bad for the trade esp. in the town and it's like giving reasons for the opposition of the industry to fire hard on us. Be kind and considerate to thy neighbours so that where the time come, you may have them for support but at least you got lesser enemies.

Spare some sympathy to those who are going to fight your battle to ensure that you can remain in town by not creating unnecessary sound polution which is the main complaint and disturbance causes in the industry so far and yet we still cannot prevent such uncooperative owners.

I have proven that without bird calls ( internal and external ), I still have healthy growth in my old BH so it's not asking you not to play Birdcalls but to soften it and ensure that nobody is disturb by your BH. This way, you have already help those @ Association who are going to negotiate how best to allow all to remain @ town.

I sympathy and pity those guys who are to battle for you but you aren't cooperating....and for that reason, I quit helping the Association to ensure the safety of the BHs @ town even though mine are also affected. Why should we help if you aren't helping yourself and worst damaging the very chances of getting a better deal for all.

Do ensure all your neighbouring BH owners cooperate by not disturbing the peace and worst, some even dump fertilizer into the drain (never on your own drain but over the other side) when no one looking...............why like that????? Real shame on you if you are one of those!!!!!!!

It's easier said than done but if you are the one that help to negotiate the safe passage for the good guys and what's then, the bad ones will get to you cos' the blame on you that they are not allow to stay @ town. then what???? Will the ones that you help to allow to remain @ town help come to your defense if these really mad and unhappy owners are going for your hide for the bad ones aren't going to admit that they cause their own destruction and that you are the culprit that cause their BHs being not allow @ town....they aren't going to think that you have save those who are cooperating and should be allow to stay and convincw the authorities that action is needed to be taken only against the bad ones.

I won't want to be the one to try to save those who follow the recommendations and make peace with the rest of the population cos it shall be my hide at state. My own home being disturbed by the BHs sound pollution an many occasions and even with my close connection with the Association manage to solve the problem for a month but just one month and then what?????? Those A**H*** have no brains and they don't know that by doing so, we are helping them and to ensure them of a chance to remain @ town and they think that it's their Right to remain or all BHs can go to hell (demolished) together!!!!

Only if I be given a legalized torch to burn (007 license) and I will burn down their BHs if they repeat the disturbance after warning so that we will have better chances and leverage in negotiating a better deal with the authorities. Maybe, self control by the Association, lower fees and non interference from the authorities is my agenda.

No offense to anyone in particular but just to speak for all even those who object to the industry. We must appreciate their understanding of our industry but we also must respect their rights to good living!!

Ooph Bro,

I waasn't meaning you or me in my posting at all. I was just trying to add to your view and I do share your view on the matter but just regret that many owners are not helping at all by joining associations and follow the guidelines. Even if not lending a hand, at least stay clean so no to burden those who champion your cause and try to help.

Sorry, I didn't mean you in my posting at all.......

As I always mentioned, never do anything to your BH when the good is going and although the entrance is large enough that the small portion of nails aren't going to cause any inconvenience to the movement of the birds but bear in mind that the opening look different from the eyes of the birds and those nails may look threatening. Also, do you use glue to stick the plank of nails to the entrance.

New fledged birds are very easy to be scared and afraid of every new objects or movement in the BH and can easily cause them to fly away. That the reason why the internal sound is need in new BH to make them feel safe and confidence with birds around and a wrong sound may cause the reverse reaction. So, use of night sound need to be very careful or else, instate of creation a better environment and surrouding, you have scare away the birds.

That's why, there are many small things that you may missed when doing modification of the BH and it maybe your problem to your BH. Pigeons have been serious problem with BH and have cause many failures in new BH and their shits attract large quantity of Cs.


Unless you do have problem, then solve it and not to try to prevent something which isn't there in the first place.

Above, is my advice to newbizs and always be patient if the increment maybe small cos the increment depend on so many outside and uncontrollable factors and not only due to your design or conditions of the BH.

Few months ago, a BH owner get a letter to demolish his BH as the bandaran had received numerous complaints against his sound disturbance. He joined the Association after receiving the letter, then he asked the assciation for assistance and the association helped to solve his problem and he promised to ensure that his sound will not disturb his neighbours. The association told him that in case of any future complaints against his BH, he will has to solve it himself.

A few months passed, he again raise the sound and the notice to quit again issue to him but this time since the association will not help him: he promise that if he goes down, he will ensure all BHs@ town follow....

A case which will happen again and again......

""International Conference and Training on Swiftlet Ranching

Organizer's Details
Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin
Kampus Kota, Jalan Sultan Mahmud, 20400 Kuala Terengganu Terengganu Darul Iman, MALAYSIA Kuala Terengganu Malaysia
Phone:
09-6220707
Conference Description
International Conference and Training on Swiftlet Ranching will be held from 17th July, 2011 to 19th July, 2011, and will take place at Taman Tamadun Islam, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia. This educational conference will invite well educated people, such as, academicians, researchers and entrepreneurs from Asian region, who will socialize in the suitable environment and share their expertise on swiftlet ranching industries, and will disseminate current state of art in swiftlet ranching, thus creating awareness on the potential of Edible Nest Swiftlet's industry. It will be organized by Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin that enhances and nurtures the talent of future leaders in various disciplines through reengineering of knowledge promotion of transparency and openness, instillation of diversity for the benefit of humanity.""""""


Above, any here attending?????????? I heard that the the seminar is Rm500 +Rm300 per head. I am not attending but will be in KT on these few days and maybe anyone attending may want to share some infos on it in the evening over a cup of coffee........on me of course!!!!!

"This educational conference will invite well educated people, " and I wasn't going as I M not so well educated people Hahaha so any "Well Educated People" among us here going for the conference???????

This post has been edited by West Wing: Jul 13 2011, 12:37 PM

I was there and left after 20 minutes not because I didn't pay for the fee which I didn't and smuggle myself in but left because it's boring....... I have 2 from our Association attending and maybe tomorrow session will be exciting I hope.

There was one booth selling a book on how to process birdnest nest for Rm120 and for those newbiz and those who want to know about processing EBN, it's a nice book with pictures clearly explaining how to do it. Another interesting tool for measuring standard of EBN like C,B,A or AA similar to my three last fingers A, 2 fingers C and in between B id you don't understand. Unless you have small fingers, fingers size should be similar.

Others, nothings really worth looking into like ECO Parks investment. fire extinguisher, Aroma and Perfume, etc and etc same same..



This post has been edited by West Wing: Jul 18 2011, 07:44 AM

From what I heard, the formal course attended cannot be use as the V-dept comes up with a new 1GP course and to get the license to operate, one must has the new 1GP certificate; again another fees to pay to the V-Department and the course is similar to the formal course provided by the V-Dept, I can predict.

Oyes, the 1GP booklet will be sold for Rm15 and can be obtain @ V-Dept thru internet and Dr. F stressed that no one should photostat the booklet as it's copyrighted and copying is a serious offence.......... copyright OK but why don't allow Malaysians in the buz to copy if cannot get one copy which The authorities want all in the buz to know and follow; let all copy and learn if that's what the Govt. wants.

Again that's my personal opinion only.

Yeh! not all consultants are bad infact none are bad but some have very little experience and become a consultant without even knowing well the trade.

Case history

My friends and I were talking in a coffee shop 3 years ago and the shop owner joined in as he told us that he is interested to start a BH on his own. He did asked many questions......

3 years later, I have coffee in this shop and my friend told me that the owner has since become a consultant for the trade and is giving up coffee shop buz by the end of the month as he doesn't make much money from coffee shop and now, intending to go full time consultancy. Consultancy in BH must be big money earner, I guess.

See, a less then 3 years experaince guy can become a full time consultant, cos there are so many Malaysian out there who don't know a thing about swiftlets sanctuaries buz........

So, before engaging a consultant for your BH, you must at least understand the basic of doing BH; the art and science of swiftlets ranching, then you may be able to tell if your consultant is a lprofessional or not....whether he understand what he is doing or saying.

Mix around with fellow BH owners, cos they will be able to guide you well as they have the experience behind them and also the failure so that you would not do it again. These, no consultant can tell you cos they are busy making profit from the new investors of the trade..........ike the EPark guys claiming that you will become millionaire in a few years and convince you to dream on and like under spell, you gave all your retirement saving to them.......with no concrete agreement/assurance that you will get all your investment back.

Remember, like good salesman, they are just doing their job to convince you and if they convinced you then they maybe not good consultants but certainly good salesmen....

Even that the birds fly high, by looking and observing the movement of birds, one can tell if the bird is just fledged, young or old birds. Although not 100% but at least you can tell.

Those who chase and talks alot are definitely old ones like me who talks and talks none stop.

Do one day observe the birds with a experience owner and very easily you will be able to determine if the birds is new, old and maybe get it right even "your birds" as your senior birds need not think twice before entering the BH and new ones will hesitate before entering, my friend. Just be observance and see and you will find it easy to understand...like when I started the BH, I don't even can differentiate the swiftlet for the swallow or martin but then by close observation, I learn the differences between them; even that the swiftlets in the BH are of many sub species to be exact....although we refer to them AF only.

Many things that we think are right because someone did mentioned it or written it but most of it, we didn't do a study on it as we are in for the nests and not to understand all about swiftlets; just on how to populate the BH and to make more and more nests...bigger and whiter ones if possible. Others, not really very concerned like if the birds may have more than one mate, cheat on the mate or do the birds chose another mate after the mate dies.........we will care and will try if it concern the improvement of nests in quality, quantity and price.

Above are just my observation to share and pls. comment.

SAM now no more interested in fishing equipments and products and now in swiftlets. He used to be selling fishing equipments and now a swiftlets farming products specialist. Just ask for anything for BH and I think he has it...almost everything.

Newbizs wish to know on what to use and how to use..may talk to him but decide for yourself, I caution you unless you have a big fat pocket.

As Dr. Fadzilah mentioned @ K. Trg on too many researches have been done on the same thing on swiftlets, and a waste of govt fund and Uni must first check if other Uni is doing the same research as there are really so many studies can be done on swiftlets and the industry.

Topics like do temperature, humidity and other factors affect the breeding, quality and quantiy of nests.

Or what food (insects) produce the better nests and too many IF but still no answer so need not do research on same topic again.

Oyes, another finding is you dont know cos if you check on your BH @ night and you will notice some nests have only one parent bird and why??

Reason? could it be that the birds do sometime alternate their parenting while the other one goes in search of food far away or could it be that swiftlets arent mono but polygamy in nature...hahaha.....anyone got the answer?

Well, just my observation to share.

The very things that happened in our own backyard and yet, we need to learn from the Mat Salleh. I sincerely hope that we would have Asian like those MS that really do the research to gather true information and without hidden agenda like trying to sell products or fake information to gain $$$$$.

Only if our Govt. does look into color before giving out grant to do research in the field of Swiftlets ranching ( Sanctuaries) then, we will be at least better and learned than the MS in the study of Edible Nest swftlets which we see everyday in our own backyard.

Hopefully, we can prove that their old findings are wrong or incomplete but first we must not take their finding to be 100% truth or fool proof, then we maybe able to concentrate on our own investigation. This has happened in the Theory of Evolution; proving all formal theories to be mistake or wrong.....and maybe, we do have a MAN that can stand up tall.

In my opinion,

1. The price should not drop as most buyers in Malaysia are Indonesians or their Agents.
2. The price will drop because the Buyers will try to capitalised on the matter to earn more.
3. The culprit and the main producers of fake nests are the Indonesian and some of their Malaysian agents and by tarnishing Malaysia nests reputation, the Indonesian Buyers/HK Buyers gain the most as they can again monopolized the China market like before as they have been doing it for century thru HK.

Malaysia Authorities should and must ensure that only pure Malaysian nests can be exported to China and not from Indonesia thru Malaysia. Make a Law to jail those who export fake nests to China and do include a ban and a hugh fine to deter anyone who try to be funny and cheat. Many Malaysian send their nests to Indonesia to have them clean and who know what is included in the returned nests.....your guess is as good as mine.

No offense to those readers who send their nests to Indonesia for cleaning as we cannot assure of quality if they are done in a foreign country. Import the cleaners from Indonesia if we do not have the skilled workers and I heard that there a processing outlet in Pahang using orang Asli maiden to do the cleaning of nests. This way, we can help the orang Asli to be employed and help to safeguard our export of EBN industry.

Good points there, TF and Dato shouldn't has gone to the paper cos people in China also read Malaysia news!!!!!

Red nest, those pig skin and other additives are old news and it's how the authorities want to deal with the matter only....

Have you meet China EBN Buyers in Malaysia.......all they want is white and whiter and big nests and they are not interested in light brown or small nests.

They want to buy @ prevailing market price cos they come with buying agents. They don't understand or could care that nests exported to China have been processed or bleached. First of all, Malaysia Federal Birdnest Association should educate the Chinese that raw nests aren't cotton white and the best nests are mostly light colored brownish and not those pure white and 1 cm thick nests. Most natural nests will come with a little shit inside, some feathers and stain and only thru bleaching will it goes away.

Although with proper maintenance @ BH, one can get better nests but not those you see @ some shop. I even saw in Singapore that a medical shop owner drying birdnest (washed) under the sun. Oh God, by the look at the nests will tell you that they are 100% faked nests and Singapore Govt. used to be so strict with health regulation didn't take action.

Once the Chinese understand and know the true color of nests, will they accept birdnests as they are without insisting on whiteness which maybe harmful to health. It is the educate them to know what they are buying instead of accepting the advertisement as the truth. Even now with some many negative news on Red nests, the Chinese still think that Red nests is the best for health.....With so many advertisements using film stars and popular singers saying" I eat only Red Nests" . To them, Red nest best then cave nest and last only own house nests.

Pigeons and swiftlets don't mix so beware of problem cause by pigeons. They will try to make hole in your roof to build their nests and so will the beginning of your nightmare.

So friend, pigeons curry soon????? hahahaha sorry for the joke

Withour any prejudice or disrespect to any Sifu or lecturer, below is my humble opinion on matter in discussion.

I have attended before a course on nests dry cleaning and also another one on exporting nests to China. All I can say is that these courses can and do only give you a brief knowledge of the subjects and is good if you have little or no knowledge of the matter concerned but these courses cannot provide you enough knowledge to do what are taught.

To be able to clean, two days lecture will not provide you with sufficient and needed knowledge to process nests for export ....only enough to sell it to your neighbours.

To export, the two days seminar will just give you a insight of the trade but will not help you to export successful as I have tried to export after the course many years ago and still I haven't exported a single nest legally...although the course attended by me was the way to export EBN legally to China.

The rest is best left to you to decide and like I said before and repeat it again now, got money to spend, better go and attend the course or seminars to learn and I assure you that you will be more learned after the course but still not enough for you to start buz. If you do so immediately, you will fall afew times before you really learn the trade.

Long practical training or someone showing the way to do it will definitely be a better solution to your requirement. Above, are my humble comment on the matter discussed.

Sure thing, try not to build BH above makan shop or next to one and you may experience the same difficulty like a friend many years ago.

Case history: Years ago, a BH owner built a BH next to a Chinese Restoran and since than, no bird for more than 2 years and finally, he understand why. The exhaust out of the makan shop facing his BH. He appeal to the maken shop owner to allow him to divert the opening of the smoking gun away from his BH and although not very good, his BH do has birds staying and increment and inprovement since the diverting of the smoking gun.

Experience to share.