What we do here is, he registered a company (sdn bhd) with 49% foreigner and 51% thai. The thai share will be transfered to you i.e. the shareholder will signed a power attorney to you, to become a full and only authorized person in the company. furthermore, the thai shareholder will presigned a letter of resignation with the date left empty, in case anything happen i.e. past away or change shareholder. The company will buy the land or property for bird nest farming.

This is way that most of the foreigner company run here.

I don't know about Thailand but in Singapore, my sis need to have a Singaporean partner. The problem is that you cannot do any work in your company and you will be fine if the authorities find you helping in the company. My sis was fined and warned not to do it again and Singapore enforcers just typical Singaporean are "KS" and you will be caught so beware.

Now, my sis is OK because she apply for PR and she paid heavily for the PR running into millions of ringgit investment..... Worst of all, now she must use Singapore car which cost many times more.

I just found out from a Malaysian living in China that we can lease properties in China and all commercial properties in China are lease anyway and once the property change hand, it's again a new 75 years old lease so go ahead and invest in China and even after 50 years, you will get many times as the market is growing very fast in China as the new buyer will have a new lease of 75 years. Unlike in Malaysia, when the lease end, you need to apply and the authority may not grant you an extension and if they do, you need to pay a percentage of the valuation price. Am I right cos my friend told me so.........

I'm not sure how much but I know yes most land title or lease of land will expire around the year 2020. It's just another skim cook up by the government to make sure they have the money for any project needed to be done by 2020.

Normally the price for bird nest will increase during december/january? since february is CNY

Hi Anyone here did or know of people doing studies on mites affecting the birds (which may impede the growth of birds in the BH ) or other pests or mites that affect the human and how these can be reduced or eradicated ?
One BH owner informed me that he used to get bities everytime he enter his BH but after a weekly cleaning regime this bites are rare. Are the pests laying their eggs on the bird faeces. How long does the eggs of these pests need to reproduce etc. Are we 100 % sure the chemicals
used are safe for us and the birds.

Maybe the sifus here can share their experiences but I think some scientific studies by the authorities should be advocated .

This post has been edited by sekosan: Nov 28 2010, 11:51 AM

Hi all, no doubt this is a great forum for all swiftlet geeks!

My location is in Penang Mainland, been thinking of converting my current emptied shophouse into Swiftlet Farm.
Wondering if anyone can recommend some experienced consultant/constructor around this area?

Basically, I need to renovate top floor only. And install all the required equipments. Please drop me a message if you have anyone in mind.

thanks a lot!

If your shop house is situated within "Pusat Tumpuan Uatama Aktiviti Bandar", you might have problem applying license from PBT.

Oh, I think mine is not within that area. Mine still has some distance from the BM Town.
Know anyone that could help in the conversion?

Thanks

Advisable you go to JPV to register your intention and wait for JPV site visit evaluation first before conversion. If JPV ok, most likely PBT will be ok for the license too.

This post has been edited by aeiou228: Nov 29 2010, 08:41 AM

Actually, I decided to have someone come over and quote me a price for the conversion first. And possible of bird call testing at the same time.
If the whole idea of conversion make sense and the price for the project is within my budget then only I proceed for the licensing. or maybe leave licensing for future...

Dear all swiflet owners,

We are one of the leading manufacturer of Expanded Polystyrene Foam (EPS) in Klang Valley. We have been supplying this material to numerous projects at Sabak Bernam, Sg. Besar, Sitiawan, Dengkil, Penang, and even East Malaysia thru the birdhouse contractors, owners and even trading companies. Our materials have been recognised as a superb insulation material that helps to reduce heat of the birdhouse and most importantly cost savings. We are only supplying this material but if you required installation we are able to provide the know how knowledge based on the feedback from our customers experience.

And not forgetting, we are one of the sole distributor in Malaysia of Extruded Polystyrene Foam (XPS) which our products are manufactured from Singapore. This material considered as a more high end product compared to EPS. Reason is because it have more high R-Value in insulation. We also have supplied this material to few high end birdhouse projects in Klang Valley.

If you wish to know more about us, kindly visit our website http://www.yeehup.com.

Thank you.

Best regards,
Andy Low @ 012-2097934
Email: andylow@yeehup.com

Dear Andy,

I heard about how good your products are and friends from Singapore also told me about the good insulating properties but I haven't heard of one fellow here using your products on a BH.

Secondly, the contractor you introduced to me gave a high quotation for the BH..........so, I just stick to old way of doing BH. No offence as cost is definitely a big consideration in BH construction. If you have provided more BH contractors using your products, then, maybe, we maybe able to see results in using EPS in BH construction.

WW, I use 3" EPS on my roof.

The roof slab is laid, then the EPS sheets are placed, keeping them together with masking tape. Lastly a 2" approx. layer of reinforced concrete is poured over the EPS.

My daytime roof top temperature gets to be 40+deg. C and above, sometimes much more, but the ceiling temperature directly underneath remains a steady 30 deg.C. +- 1 deg.C

Interlocking EPS sheets would make placing much easier as wind tends to move the sheets unless quickly weighted down by BRC mesh.

2" RC is probably minimum over the EPS as if your drainage holes get blocked up, it will FLOAT. So, make sure that the drainage holes are large. I use 4 x 4" pipe even then sometimes leaves etc can block it up.

EPS under pressure can also waterproof your roof slab if it has hairline cracks, which is quite common.

EPS cost is negligable, the contractor must have charged more for other items. Because the EPS is very bulky, the transportation cost can be relatively high but then again a 8 wheeler lorry will probably add maybe Rm1k + There is hardly any expertise required to use EPS sheet insulation.

I also use 3" EPS sheets under my bungalow roof, above the ceiling boards. The roof is the notoriously hot (uninsulated)corrugated metal sheeting yet the temperature inside , even during a very hot day remains noticeably cool.

I've worked with other insulations before but none come close to EPS for price and insulating properties. Durability ! well this stuff supposedly does not degrade appreciably in our lifetime, though some insects like to bore into them. Due to it's durability, it is a biohazard so we should not be using EPS food containers, which is common practice in Malaysia.

I'm in no way connected to the above company but they are free to offer me some commission after this post. Please PM me for my bank account number.

Will it make a difference if the EPS is laid with the slab and the topping RC ie a wet sandwich?
There's a likelihood the cement will infiltrate the pores and hold it in place on drying?

Ha ! Wet dreams abound. A wet sandwich between two fine forms.

In practical terms, it would be a mess ! It is quite time consuming to get all the 4' x 8' pieces of EPS in place and by then the newly laid concrete will be hard.

If concrete infiltrates the EPS, which it won't, not by any significant amount, it'll make this junction brittle besides, EPS is a closed cell foam produced under high pressure so does not have pores but sometimes have very fine fissures between each cell when manufactured under lower pressures. Think of millions of inflated balloons bonded together under high pressure. The brittle junction will not hold the EPS in place unless there is weight from above.

BTW if you pour wet concrete on top of EPS without any formwork around it, the EPS may float to the top and concrete flow to the bottom. So it is essential to have formwork all around the perimeter to prevent the concrete from flowing to the bottom. The need for a formwork requires the first pour to be at least solidified.

Ooops, my mistake for not checking up before I asked, I thought EPS was Polyethylene ..it's polystyrene!
I didnt realise folks still use this material (EPS).. always thought that we have all migrated to polyethylene by the frequency I see PE used in most packaging. Hardly see EPS used as packing foam nowadays.

I swear it never crossed my mind

This post has been edited by Cergau: Dec 1 2010, 11:44 PM

EPS is cheap to produce and practical, so it will be used for quite some time, especially in Malaysia unless world markets ban the use of EPS in packaging.

Many countries now use a form of expanded corn starch(cellulose) which is eco friendly.

Almost all man made polymers are not eco friendly.

Should we worry about something that may not affect us in our lifetime? You bet ! Nipping the 'disaster to be' in the bud will be better than solving the problem when it gets out of hand.

The use of chemicals also affect the insects that feed the swiftlets which in turn affect the nests they produce. Not looking so far down the chain, some even use chemicals directly on the nests. Unnecessary treatment of nests for cosmetic reasons may actually be detrimental in the near future. If sterilization is necessary there are universally approved methods.

Everyone should create the awareness that NATURAL nests are not pure white, nests turn yellowish in time without affecting the efficacy of the nests and of course the yellowish nest are more mature, which, similar to wine may be better.

The emergence of artificially hatched and captive bred swiftlets will open a Pandora's box of belief that our nests may be tainted.

nobody has heard of radiant barriers ??

Anyone interested to buy BH on agriland with 2000nests and 2.5acre freehold chinese land in east coast? 2yrs (December 2008) ago took over at 500nests and renovated. Since then the qty jump to 2000nests within 2yrs. No renovation required. 30 x 100 x 2sty, 4m height/floor. Current value of the land (by the road side) min. Rm200k/acre.
Asking Rm3.9million.