I find putting the nests in a freezer overnight convenient as I can then work in the early morning and as the sun gets hotter, the 'blown' nests are by then dry. A couple of hours under the fan will usually do the trick if it is an unusually wet morning.

BTW as the nest come out of the freezer, they have to be left a while for them to defrost or they will break up when cleaned with compressed air. Defrosting them inside the plastic bag without exposing them to the air will keep them free from condensation. A little damp nest will not break easily and the debris will not fly very far and be breathed in. You will find a big difference after cleaning with compressed air.

Overnight in the freezer so far has killed all forms of visible life on the nests.

You can buy a small air compressor for under RM500 or a small professional model for just over RM1k.plus. The pro comp will be difficult to store or move around. Since our usage is small compared to a tyre shop, I think a small direct drive air comp will be sufficient. Some people say that the small compressor does not last as long.

The compressed air is about 100psi and used with the help of an air gun with a small long(6" approx.) reaching nozzle. This will direct the air at whatever you are trying to clean off.

Aim at about 3" away at the shit, shell fragments, some feathers, insects, worms etc. Note that this will be blown all over the place so best not to do it indoors. How you hold the nest will help in the cleaning, I usually hold the cup in my cupped hand. Practice makes perfect.

You might need an additional filter to remove water and oil from the compressed air, sometimes this comes together with the model/brand or add on for about RM60.

Freezing the nest for long periods will cause 'Freezer Burn' which is when the moisture in the nest is drawn off it as well as the freezing causing the texture to be slightly broken up. For sterilization we are freezing only for a short while.

Some bacteria is killed in the process of freezing but I would not count on it, so do wear a face mask! Flash heating to 85 deg. C is better at killing bacteria, and it is accepted by the health authorities.

Yes but when carried out correctly, it produces an award winning fart.

Seriously though, some bacteria and fungi form spores when subjected to cold and breathing in these spores may introduce these to our bodies which will then 'hatch' . Depending on the type of pathogen, we could become seriously ill.

The ideal would be to have a vacuum cleaner sucking in the shit as an air compressor dislodges it. Vacuum alone is not powerful enough.

The simplest is to do the blowing in an open field, with the wind from behind your back. A fan blowing in the right direction will also help.

BTW if you do the cleaning soon after it comes out from the freezer, the particles will be damp and will not fly as far. The nest are also not brittle.

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.

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.

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.

[quote=West Wing,Nov 3 2012, 01:08 PM]
[quote=philoswiflet,Nov 2 2012, 08:21 PM]
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 pm

Freezer is cheaper than Chiller and I wonder why????? And remember to store your EBN fresh longer, one must store them in chiller and not freezer.......otherwise, you got patahan only.

[/quote]

Freezer is usually used for commercial purposes but chiller used by people who drink wine ! So charge them more!

In actual fact a fridge is a chiller! It just doesn't have a glass front/door. The glass is usually double layer so cost more to fit.

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Added on November 4, 2012, 6:29 pm[quote=coolandy,Nov 3 2012, 09:45 PM]
Post on behalf of Sifu WW

A DIY modification by me using a vacuum cleaner. The sucking part for the table top and the blower for the top part and this way there will be a circulation of air from the top to the bottom and all dirt goes into the vacuum cleaner.

Just look at the top part and you see that you need no hand to handle the blower and you have both hands to manipulate the nests to clean it better. How good, it’s all depend on the vacuum cleaner power as the stronger the sucking so will be the blower and by reducing the noozle size of the blower, you get concentrate blowing power.

Assist me to forward to the forum to share if what they want to reduce the dirt and the bugs; this works wonder without dirt/bugs flying all over the kitchen.. and all free cos all needed is to attach the vacuum cleaner to the pvc attachment and you have a cleaning station.

Regards
WW

[/quote]


In Chemistry, a fume chamber is in a way similar where any fumes are trapped in a large box and extracted by a vacuum fan to be filtered and dispersed. Any goldsmith will tell you they have one to remove poisonous gas when they refine gold.

So, you can always build yourself a large enough box out of a 100 litre barrel and have an industrial vacuum cleaner attached to the bottom. Any debris from cleaning the nests will then be sucked in provided the cleaning is done directly over the mouth of the barrel.

I doubt if the blower from a vacuum cleaner will be powerful enough though, unless you are only cleaning first time nests. I unfortunately have to clean 3 to 4 cycled nests due to my laziness.



This post has been edited by tuckfook: Nov 4 2012, 06:29 PM

Anyone confirm that it is possible to export or personally carry any amount of clean EBN into Hongkong?

Btw, WW, which Dato were you referring to? Please bear in mind that many of our assoc heads are politically minded and will say things to please the listener.

I would rather listen to someone who has had actual experience.

This post has been edited by tuckfook: Nov 19 2012, 11:57 AM

Owls again! This solution has been posted umpteen times

Use 2 stainless steel rods as conductors running parallel, along bottom edge of your in out hole (s). Separate the conductors wuth porcelain insulation which is commonly available. These were used to separate wires running in the ceilings of houses a few years ago. Sort of like 2" oval plates with grooves for the wires.

Connect the rods to Khind high tension transformers (RM70Approx.) Note that the wires have to be kept at least 2" apart.

Any bird stepping on these wires when it is on will have hot feet. Cicak will be fried.

If your owl has been visiting for a long time it will not need to stop at the hole so will not get hot feet. You will have to find where it habitually stops and electrify that. Otherwise you'll have to catch or shoot it.

Am in hongkong looking for customers. Cheapest grade still hkd500+ per tahil. (37.5gm.) Got customers how to get it here.

You are right. The price I quoted was the over the counter price. Some places mark up a little higher.

Most shops are low in stocks and are interested to stock up for CNY.

I wanted to see what response I would get but so far not many except for the usual guys.

The price of HKD 500 per tahil is about RM 5.3 per gramme. For cleaned cake form. The shops will buy at about RM4 per gramme.

At a cleaning cost of RM1k per kg. Loss of 30%
For 1kg clean cake we pay RM1.3k. So we get RM4k -1.3k=RM2.7k for 1.3kg = RM2k per kg. Not including cost of sending it there etc.

So maybe selling locally or doing it yourself may have a small margin of 10 to 20%. Of course doing this with a large volume will be viable.

Get the EBN to HK and then allow HK middleman to get it into China.

Why didn't the Malaysian government negotiate with China so that Malaysia will continue to allow Chinese Vegetables(also high in Nitrites) etc. into our market in exchange for Malaysian EBN into China.

Why Chua junior didn't do this for us instead of chasing after Talamgate. Why allow Noh Omar to dictate matters not in the favour of us.

Has MCA forgotten EBN is Chinese Culture !

I have never been so disillusioned with MCA in my whole life.

Why are you considering a shop lot conversion in view of all the problems it will invite. Local council will no longer entertain such conversions so you will be illegal from the very start.

Having said that.........there are many methods to insulation. If weight is a consideration, you cannot beat styrofoam and cement board surfacing. People used to be paranoid about thieves breaking in through the walls but history has shown locks are easy to bypass and in out holes easier to climb in.

Meranti is expensive but costing depends on usage and every conversion is different. I don't know if you'll be using anywhere near 2 tonnes of wood?

You have at your keyboard tips access to so many experienced bh builders in this forum and others. Why not publish your plans and get feedback from them.

Doing your own conversion by supervising your own subcons will save you more than enough to buy us all a big dinner.

Heard from to grapevine that DVS is the department holding back on the export permits to China. All due to minor technicalities. DVS is not being helpful by sitting on applications and not providing quick response.

Also heard that you may send cleaned EBN to Hongkong or anywhere else except PRC so long as the nest are from approved EBN processing factories.

Can anyone else confirm?

Obvious they are encouraging us NOT to vote for the present GOM.

The organizers are not stupid. They are cashing in on a desperate situation. When most are suffering they offer a glimmer of hope and in doing so collect $$$ for their services.

Has everyone so easily forgotten the seminars offer by our own members on how to improve the BHs?

This is something MCA should take the lead in as this is predominantly a Chinese industry even though there are quite a few Malays and others involved. What is also significant if that an MCA head is one of the prime negotiators with China as well as several MCA people in the various Swiftlet associations.

I have heard and also observed that it may be seasonal. There are times that nests contain very few feathers and other times when it's full of feathers even though the conditions within the house is stable all year. I have yet to record the times as my production is still low.

Perhaps this could be a group study where everyone does their part in recoding dates, conditions and feathers within the nests.

Judging from the arguments, I am very skeptical. I think it is only logical that one does not jump to conclusions. Fear mongering, as we have experienced, is a very successful method of lowering prices for a middleman to buy or to destroy a competitor.

WW is absolutely right. We must all avoid situations that will increase the probability of our birds contracting any form of bird flu.

Btw the simplest and effective form of disinfectant is 'chlorox' or household bleach. Check WHO for recommended concentrations.

REMINDER. UBAH for a new head at the Ministry of Agriculture. UBAH for a new assistant head at the MOA.

The previous ones f....d us good and proper.

UBAH all Swiftlet association committee members who were part of the nefarious plot that has sent us into hell.

Now I feel better

The Chinese don't need convincing ! We have to convince the rural Malays and Indians.