how long would be ideal time to 'freeze' the nest for??

Ideal is difficult to say, also depends on your freezer capacity. I usually leave them overnight, probably about -10 C for about 3 hours. If you have more it will take longer to get to that temperature.

I was told that if raw bird nest cleaned by compressed air, it will be soft and do not have the original taste and moreover the nutrition will be lesser. Anyone can advise on this or has anyone compared it?

hehe Id think it wont take much to freeze them bugs. ive been told leave it over nite.. some say 1-2 hrs.. i guess your right, it depends on the freezer being used.

A chiller is a fridge and a freezer is a freezer and when is a freezer fridge then?
A chiller is one that protect the nutrients and freshness of food and a freezer is one that stop bacteria growing and so, generally speaking, the fridge at home is both a chiller fridge and freezer fridge in one.

So, the argument go on to ask if the EBN store in freezer fridge to kill the bugs cos it must be very cold to kill the bugs, what will become of its nutrition and freshness value as we are taking about high quality health food in EBN. Maybe, that's why all wholesalers of EBN store their nests in chiller and not in freezer....to maintain its freshness and also at cool temperature, the nests can last very long even years.

Something to think about, won’t you think so?

so is it freezer or chiller ?

It's a freezeller

sweet

Talking of using a vacuum cleaner for removing dirt from nests; I have done one months ago I did for alot of other equipments like ultrasonic humidifier before they sell it in the market for BH ( I bough them in China and use large plastic container for the water tank).

So, if anyone can tell me how to download the picture of the modified vacuum cleaner that I have made to the forum from a Iphone, I shall gladly share with you all so that you need not think of how to do it. It so simple if you know how to install one as it acts both as a air gun as well as a sucking basin all together.

The total cost is the cost of the vacuum cleaner plus 10 ringgits only.

This post has been edited by West Wing: Oct 31 2012, 05:41 PM

How about using an industrial fan? Will it be more powerful if we attach a sort of funnel to the face of the fan that would concentrate the air into a smaller hole where we hold the nest for cleaning.

Sorry about a mistake of the modification of vacuum cleaner and infact, it's isn't modification but vacuum cleaner with both inlet and outlet used at the same time..and you idea of issuing an industrial fan won't work like a vacuum cleaner but then nothing can compare to that power of the air gun....but at bad time like now, saving cost is essential to many owners. Cleaning some shits/dirt away may tempt buyers to give a higher price for our nests.

Looking at the present situation, it may take many months to get better price and only when the processed nests can be exported so can our unprocessed nests, too. Someone told me that there is no nests selling on shelf at China at present and my reason is that if anyone try to put EBN back on shelf, the authorities in China will confiscate all as all legally imported nests were deemed Malaysian and Malaysia nests haven't been exported for over a year.

So, everyone sell EBN under counter in China these days and what's price we got are because not of the news that our nests can be exported but rather that some nests go underwater to China so that the Chinese can still have their supply of nests. If we are to depend on our factories buying our nests at reasonable price, better wait another year cos they can only process 5 to 10% of our nests.

Happily, that once our nests can be exported very soon so will the rest can be sold on shelf as Malaysian nests ( Indo still not able to export yet) and by this way, we hope to be able to gain better price for our nests........ with buyers that will export unprocessed nests to China or other places by ways only known to themselves.

Hi WW,

Instructions for uploading photo/image file to forum:

1) At FAST REPLY, see and click MORE OPTIONS

2) Down the bottom, see FILE ATTACHMENTS

3) Click the BROWSE button and navigate to find your photo/image file at FILE UPLOAD box (for example if store at DESKTOP)

4) Then click to select the file

5) Then click to select ADD THIS ATTACHMENT and soon you will see a file of your photo/image registered under FILE ATTACHMENT that give you details of the name of the file and its size

6) Then finally, click ADD REPLY

This post has been edited by philoswiflet: Nov 1 2012, 01:15 AM


Attached thumbnail(s)

You got to teach this uncle how to transfer picture captured by his iPhone to his pc too before he can upload to lowyat.net forum



This post has been edited by aeiou228: Nov 1 2012, 11:19 AM

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Added on November 1, 2012, 11:59 am

Tak boleh, Kawan. Semua ikut U cakap..................

I download it to my computer but cannot add to the posting lah. Abit out dated in computer knowledge......hahahahhha

Hey, Coolandy, what's wrong with your email ????

This post has been edited by West Wing: Nov 1 2012, 01:53 PM

If most people are using Iphone or Android, then migrate to Facebook or Google +

Adding picture from phone to FB or Google + is just a button away, so to say.


Domestic Freezers usually go to about -10deg. C and a domestic Chiller goes to about 4 deg. C

At 4deg.C not all bugs will die most will become dormant and revive when warmed up.

Freezing causes the water to crystallise and this expands below 4deg C. This expansion may affect the texture of some foods.

Even a very powerful fan may not produce more than 15 pounds per square inch whereas an air compressor will make 100 PSI.

using the compressed air incorrectly will cause the EBN to disintegrate or break up thereby affecting the texture, which is similar to cleaning with water and tweezers.

All forms of cooling will dry the nests up and dry nests are brittle.

WW,

Less kung-fu power in computer is OK;
Most important is powerful kung-fu in nests producing...

Tuckfook,
Thanks for providing the data about the industrial fan and other answers to queries...
You should design a search engine especially for the swiftlet farming community;
something like google but is known as tuckfook....

Hope you are not embarrass by this public compliment...


This post has been edited by philoswiflet: Nov 1 2012, 07:06 PM

TQ not at all. Had a friend who was in the process of compiling such a fuciphaga pedia but unfortunately he passed on. Mr. Charles Chng.

Charles was very keen on the project and had the patience unfortunately not the time. I unfortunately will only make an appearance when I am not hunting wild boars.

There are many others who have information but are surprisingly reluctant to share.

When times are good, nest crumbs and bird shit are also in strong demand. but now it seems a dirty job to clean and harvest inside the farms..Sigh.

Well good news is my recent trip to China revealed that prices in China are still high and there I was advised to bring nest into China by all means instead of considering other ventures in China.

Can any kind soul advise which reliable freezer should I get for storing my clean/raw nests? Cost-effective if possible.

I bought a freezer few months ago... but did not bother to use after using it once after storing for a period. The freezer is about 2ft tall x 2ft wide and 4 feet long; cost me $810.

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Added on November 2, 2012, 9:15 pmI knew Charles briefly and after a period of correspondence, there was silence on his part until someone informed that he passed away from lung cancer. He told me that he was planning to visit Malaysia and might drop by for a visit at around May this year... well...

The little I know of him was his generosity; such as in sharing his DIY projects on his various blogs... there was as you mentioned- the fuciphaga pedia, which was his conception of a project to scientifically understand the various asppects of swiftlet farming enterprise in depth. This project promises much labor and pain for him but maybe to him, it must also means a stimulating intellectual challenge.

Although he was very well off and had an interesting life wondering and exploring the South East Asia region while making his living as an intrepid forex trader which was underpinned by his great love of maths. Yet, he had genuine emphathy for the less fortunates so much that he became an activist in helping to sponsor a school (for orphans?) in Thailand.

His style of conversation is clear and gentle and his generosity in his desire to share findings shines through. Its very sad that he died so prematurely when there is so much he had yet to furfil but its sometimes observed that Man proposes and god disposes... All we can see is that life can be so unexpected in all the twists and turns... Yet he seemed to have lived life to the fullest as in living the motto-Carpe Diem (To seize the day)while he was alive and his magnificent swifltet farm which was the result of him utilizing all his scientific skills to plan and build will now serves as a tangible monument to his genius and the success of which will serves to take care of those loved ones he left so grudgingly behind.

Allow me who counted as his friend to eulogize him with the eloquent words of Ralph Waldo Emerson who in an eulogy to his friend-Henry David Thoreau, observed:

"Where there is love,
where there is beauty,
he will find a home."

Hunting boars? Your skill as a boar hunter might come in useful when huge man made or natural disasters struck... such as those survivalists in US who prepared bunkers and cabins with years of provisions... hunting boars not only provide meat on the table but also a means to defend yourself from marauders out for supplies... see how someone even pulled a gun at a petrol station in New York City follwing the perfect storm-Sandy in order to get supply of gasoline for his vehicle. Then there are reports of looting and criminals taking the golden opportunities to prey on others....

As to your observation that many others who have information but are surprisingly reluctant to share...
I think there is already much sharing of info in places such as this forum as well as in the various blog...
And I think it may ask too much for all experienced farmers to simply throw out all the knowledge that they have painfully gathered over the course of years of farming.... many experienced farmers would share in a gathering of trusted comrades (the ideal as envisioned by Charles) but see no point to bare all they know as this industry is in fact highly competitive... As it is, the novices now are much more fortunate in having so much free info at their disposal unlike several years ago. Would it be asking too much for them to do a spot of studying all that were stated and discussed in this forum for example, rather than being spoonfeed?

This post has been edited by philoswiflet: Nov 2 2012, 09:22 PM

Lovely eulogy Philoswiftlet and such compliments for our fellow swiftlets farmers. I had the pleasure of spending lots time and sharing ideas with Charles over dinner on many swiftlets seminars that we attended. Unfortunately his plained visit to Sabah never materialize . Miss his good humor and share lots of laughters. Charles R.I.P.

I have not been active on this site lately. Built my # 27 BH. Might build one more . A new concept BH measuring 20 ft x 24 ft x three stories at very low cost below 50 k to counter the current poor prices of BN. With my understanding on birds behavior and 4 months of designing and lots of thoughts , I don't see why it shouldn't work.

I have basically loss interest and confident in BN farming. I have achieve some unprecedented result of late. 2 BHs started harvesting at 7 and half months old both have 300 nests and markings . My last BH 45 nests and markings in 2 and half months, but its time to move on to other things of interest and new challenges.

Best wishes and good luck to all.