Thanks to all fellow contributors of thoughts at our V3 thread and again it's come to maximum posts of 2500. Hope this V4 thread continue to be one of the most read swiftlet discussion forum around. The forum to discuss and alert all fellow ranchers about any problem arise in this industry. Sharing of DIY techniques, methods are welcome.


Some links regarding swiftlet farming:
Kong Heng Swiftlets Equipments Supply
Nest Tech Equipment Technology
Ming-Yan.com
Nest Talk Consultation Service
Crystal Swiftlets
Klub Peternak Walet - Indonesia
aerodramus.com
Yahoo Discussion Group

Blogs regarding swiftlet farming:
CATATAN HENMILIA

Swiftlet Farming : an Addictive Hobby & Multi-Million Dollar Business
Johan Walet.com
GMYS ENTERPRISE-Menjual Peralatan Memancing Burung Walet
Swallow Bird Nest Indonesia
燕农天地与燕屋管理 (swiftlet farming & management)
World of Swiftlet Farming

Proceeded from V1 http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/431781/+2420

V2 Thread

V3 Thread

Hope v4 brings good price to bn.

would like to get some opinion about the aroma. how effective of the product and can we home made it?

Our Official keeper doing a good job. V4 walets, be patient. Recovery is on the horizon.

to WW

You mean your BH nests increase from 2600nests to 4k nests in less than a year?

then mean how old ur BH that time ad????8 years???=)

thanks

and the first year ,how many nest in that BH??

Littlebird,

You have to work hard and dig it up from the forum. It has been widely discussed before.

Wau, V R now in V4 and still running hot and together we may make a record....SeeSeng must be proud.

4K nests in over 4 years, if I believe that I could do it then, would I sold it so cheaply, but that's the good old days. And it's over 6 months and not a year! I was also surprised what then it's too late and did you know after afew years, how many nests were in the BH which was sold again to another buyer and this time, it was sold for over 5.5M and the BH had over 10K nests according to the seller then.

Now, I think that the amount may drop some as the new owners modified the BH according to their way and from friends that they harvest the BH monthly. Why modified when the good was running as I always preached and his loss maybe my gain as one of my BHs is close to this BH and I shall be expecting better harvest next time around; thanks to this Chai Sen Yeah.

That's why I always said that when you care for the birds, the birds will remember you and always return to your BH, their home and with them, their descendants and even to great great grand swiftlets, relatives and friends........

i remember i saw some post in V3 regarding using the poly-foam as fake nest to help the young bird build up their nest. i cant find it now, can anyone tell me how to stick the poly-foam?

In the good old days, the doubling of nests in 12 months is common. Even tripling has been recorded. Hence, to grow from 2.6k to 4k nests in 8 months is not surprising. Another 12 months, it would be 8k. In fact, it should be expected of very successful BHs. In fact, it only needs 30% of young birds to return and with 3 breeding seasons a years, doubling is achieved.

The situation now is very different due to the proliferation of new BHs. The young birds have a lot of choices. If 10% of the young birds come back to your BH, you should record 30% growth a year and be very very happy with it.

Location, good calling sound and good house design is the key.

This post has been edited by coolandy: Nov 23 2011, 05:25 PM

Can't believe we reached V4 already, keep up the good work everybody!

Something off topic, BH horror stories, any sifus here have any stories in BH to share?

There's this BH of mine on the East coast, whenever I go inside it just gives me the creeps, I don't know why. I can go to all my other BHs in the dark with no problem but this particular BH just gets me thinking about stuff every time I go inside.

I have to turn on all the lights (not a lot) and get out quick, I guess I'm paranoid

---

Added on November 23, 2011, 8:56 pmWhy go through all the trouble having to cut some foam? For new BHs you can buy those plastic fake nests and put some on every floor.

Some birds will choose to use the fake nest, after they breed once you can remove the fake nest and hope they come back and make a REAL nest the next time they breed.

This post has been edited by northface: Nov 23 2011, 08:56 PM

Plastic fake nests are costly whereas styroform cost nothing; use 2 screws to install each fake nest. By the way, seeing how the prices for nests had tumbled, wonder if there are less cases of break-ins nowadays?

Need advice from Sifu here.

My shoplot BH, 22x75 have around 350 nest in almost 2 years.

According to my friend Sifu, he said we must clean( spray fentona and throw away bird shit) every month. But other friend say we must not throw away the shit if we want to increase the population.

We maintain clean only if we want the quality nest but slow down the increase of population.

Which methods is true??? Please share.

Thanks

Sweep the BS and place them in several buckets and leave them in diffent spots in the BH. do this every six months so u don't have to step on Thick BS every time u enter yr BH. Spray some water on them every now and then this will realiease strong aroma. After six months remove them and use as feterlizer and repeat the process .

When u have thousands of birds you may consider to build yourself a water tower for each floor of your BH. The exhaust fan will suck in the dusty air steer up by your thousand birds and blow them through the water curtain and eliminate the dust . This will keep the dust to a minimum and u get whiter nests.

One more advantage with this system is you add better cooling in the bh . Most BH get stagnant once you reach 3000 birds . Birds body temp. Is 35 degrees and u imagine the heat produce by 3000 birds or 10,000 birds in the BH at night. All my BHs are equiped with exhaust fan from day one. Good luck

can i know ur this bh at where/????hot spot location????

in town or agri land?thanks


around this bh got other success bh like urs?????thanks

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-...524017101_n.jpg

Need advice from Sifu here. If I want to design a BH like this, will there be any problems for the bird. Should I change anything in the design? just want to learn something.....Any idea is well come.

Bro check it out this blog http://swiftletslover-jblim.blogspot.com/2...rds-nest-4.html

The owner of this bird house use half of the A4 size paper to build fake bird nest.

Cheaper and easier.

Too many partitions, and how you expect the birds to go to the 30x24 room beside the roof opening? They need to make a 180 degree turn into a 4 ft opening, remove some partitions and this might work.

just reinstalled most of the wiring in bh. some tweeter were malfunction and some were due to wiring problem. use sound detector device to check and found it is very convenient.

So after enlarge the second 4' door to 12', is it still necessary to open another side entrance of 4' to enter the 30x12 room from the roving room?

There are really many of such successful BHs around and the only difference between us is that I share but they didn't for reasons known to all here and some personal ones, too. Sucessful ones in towns and well as on agriland but more difficult on agriland due to many known problems.

Having a few thousand over a few years isn't very difficult if you get all rights; Right place, Right timing and Right conditions and you can see the growth that you never seen before......... there are still such luck now but no one is telling.

Even now, out of hundreds new BHs, there are some very successful ones, some average but most of them slow or fails as there are some many new BHs with not many owners willing to allow the birds to breed ( excluding me and some here of course). Their aims now focus more on better quality nests fetching premier price meaning white nests so they will remove nest before the birds lay their eggs and after the birds lay their eggs........no shit on the nests, you get prefect nests with no stain at all.

Which way is better of the two evils, someone did ask me and I did advice some and has since regretted telling them as they are doing what I told them to do which isn't good for the growth of the birds.

The most honorable and humane way is to allow the birds to fledged and thus repaying "the duck that lay golden eggs" and helping others to grow and also you; you may have thousands nests but afew more thousands would be better, right? The most importance of all, your own soul! Just by allowing the birds to multiply and fledged and just one successful BH can and do support 10 BH in the area. Just imagine that the 10K nests BH allow their birds to fledged and there shall be approximately 20K new birds and that's just one time and most new BHs ask for only 100 nests in a year and so you need only to capture their 5% fledged birds; you got three times to try in a year.

If only that the Chinese now insist on brown nests (after the RED nests and the bleaching whites) to be the most healthiest and safest then I would be blessed.

My 2 cents' worth.


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Silly idea, sorry to say. Hate to comment on something very old as in V1. Wanna try something, you must have something more rigid than paper folding............

thanks for advice but is it possible that the last room will become too bright?????

Thank you for your kind sharing benchai..

Sometimes silly idea is the best!!! God Bless Your Soul!!!

If that was my BH i would just do something like this. Have the roof top opening's entrance on other side instead. This way it is easier to control light and less wastage.

And personally I don't like these so called VIP rooms, never worked for this. Just my humble opinion.



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I think this design is much better.

If New BH, FLIGHT not Light.

One Suggestion: Sliding doors.

Hi Members

Good watch for Cash Cow Project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDad1DgLjvU...player_embedded

that design, I think light is minised. and light is equally important as bird will not stay if too bright.

thanks good advice. even my bh only 107 nest 2 years......

sosos, where your BH located?

got 4 bh

one in kapar, klang,kuala selangor and sekinchan

Taking thru experience,

Years ago, during fledgling time, for an hour or more, I would go out of my shop in the late afternoon to observe young swiftlets in thousands gather around the hill near my BH to play as this was the first time the newly fledged bird did flew out and gathered in the sky. Like young children learning to fly and with the wind high up, they circle and circle and make friends and the old bachelor males will try to find a partner there. I don't know if the males had already a partner or not, maybe swifltets do polygamy like some human do but then expert said that swiftlets are mono and married for life....

Now, we don't such scenario as most BHs don't share the same view and as such, such beautiful scene is only happening in history.

Just from my old file (brain) to share and only if I still remember the rest... hope you all don't mind me sharing my old memories here.

This post has been edited by West Wing: Nov 27 2011, 11:18 AM

REQUEST FOR QUOTATION (SWIFTLET HOUSE CONTRACTOR)

- CONTRACTOR OR CONSULTANT WHO HAS SUCCESSFUL TRACKRECORD ARE INVITED TO SUBMIT QUOTATION
FOR A UNIT OF 40 * 70FT * 3STOREY = 8400SF

- QUOTATION TO BE FULLY FITTED WITH PLANKS / SOUND SYSTEM ETC

- KINDLY PROVIDE TRACKRECORDS, DETAILED COSTING, TIME REQUIRED FOR FULL COMPLETION, （GUARANTEE OF QUANTITY OF NESTS AFTER 1 YEAR IF ANY）

LOCATION : JOHOR

CONTACT : wtan@hotmail.com

（NOTE：THIS IS NOT A ONE OFF STANDALONE PROJECT, SUCCESSFUL CONTRACTOR WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY SHORTLISTED FOR PHASE 2 CONSTRUCTION CONSISTING OF 9 UNITS OF 40 * 70 * 3STOREY) = 75000SF)

Thanks northface and jo yeo for giving me more idea on how to design my future bird house. actually, have one BH done by sifu which is very similar to northface plan. but the top entry is only 6'x6' and the result is ok so far.....
anyone have more idea on the design to share??

it should be good with this result in two years! mine still hv to work hard.

You mean the roof opening only 6x6? That's too small in my opinion, normally at least 10x10 in fact mine all 12x12. The inner wall opening can be 6x6 la, I would think if growth is slow you can try open the roof wider and you will see good results.

yes.2 months time 80-100birds stay overnight. Inner hole 8 x 11....

Wah!! Very good ... mine 1 years only 24 nests...

When officials from China come to M'sia and find that we are still selling Red nests at outlets of some major shopping mall, do you think that they will agree to our Govt's sincerity to work for mutual benefits? They will probably think our
Govt is trying to poison his own citizen... just my 2 sen

This post has been edited by swift4ever: Nov 29 2011, 11:48 PM

Actually haven't heard anything from our hardworking government these few weeks, they taking time off for Christmas already?

Sorry for my ingorance...
By the count of the nests, when will you be able to get back your investment?

I mean it is not cheap . Lets assume standalone BH costs RM300k...

I heard that a lot of pp get back their investment in 3 -5 years... .
With this kind of growth nowadays... pp can't even to breakeven in 10 years

Even my bh 3 years 2500nests need 3 years to break even bro. Cost at 140k. Any BH above rm300k is impossible to break even within 3-4years. But think about long term. Once u break even, your profit would be alot. First few years suffer first.

Well, let me explain why and how BH ranching to most can make money in a long run provided obviously you can get nests.

1st. year is critical years on whether if you are on the journey to richness or not.
2nd. year is forget your GR scheme or you are on your way and if so, you will find a steady increment of nests.

3rd. year is a year when you shall know if you are there or still retain in 2nd.year class and if you pass the 3rd.year class, you maybe on your way to wealth.

After the 3rd. years and if you are successful, you are already in K nests status and in the coming year, anything can happen and your BH is now officially a self supporting BH where you can support your own increment of nests and will able to increase more than you may imagine provided obviously, you do no unnecessary modification as your BH is already a sanctuary for swiftlets without anymore renovation which may do worst than improve the situation. Also, since your BH is old, the older the better to get other BHs new fledged birds..

At 5th. years, you are already rich as you now have got back all your investment and your BH now value afew time your investment and that's what I refer to as your true return for being patient and kind to the swiftlets.

Assuming that your building cost RM150K to building and with the land will cost you about Rm250K and after 5 years, the inflation value of the BH will be at least 500K but you haven't taken in to account of the nests value which is at least RM500 per nests and having let say, 3K nests and that work up to be Rm1.5M. Totally, RM2M if that doesn't satisfied you, I don't know what will which you only invested Rm250K at the beginning and you have got the investment back in 3 years. So, the Rm2M is pure profit!!!

Do you agree?

Agreed sifu WW, but that's before this red nest scandal exploded.

Nowadays with low BN price everything has to push back few years, valuation of everything related to BN will have to be lowered. sifu like you that started swiftlet farming 10 yrs ago were the ones whom reaped the most, high price and high growth.

Given the number of BH nowadays, really don't know how some of the BH owners are ever going to recover their investments. That's just like any business I guess, some ppl make tons of money while others fail to do so.

West Wing,
Totally agree with your points .. But i believe it is ideal case and true maybe 10 years back

However , with the current situation. what the success rate to pass Year 3 to get into K nest status?
I guess it is 20 %

A lot of my friends are having less than 200 nests even after 3 years.. not to mention K nests.
So I guess they will take a longer time to get back their investment

Hi, like I said, your friends got to retain for another 2nd. year for failing that year test. Like in your school days, you need to retain remove class for failing to get the passing result....and that's one year wasted and maybe another year if you still failed.

You got to have K nests to be self dependence cos without the K nests at your BH, you shall always be at the mercy of the nearby successful BHs and if they are not producing, these BHs are even sharing your fledged birds and you lose to them as their BHs are older and they draw in your birds better and faster than you. What come out of your BH is share among all BHs in your area and you are infact taking the smallest share being the late comer.

Yes, as they said by Dec the guideline will be out and mid of Dec, China representatives will come over to visit. Hopefully there will be huge volume order during the visit to get it back to China in time before CNY sales.

To whom do you guys sell it to, the nest?

Hi, i also not sure when I can get back my investment but I feel happy & satisfy when I see those bird entering my BH & bird nest on the plank... I only can hope as my BH is not at prime zone, near my area also not much BH...

Brother.........

Building cost Rm150k ? very cheap........... can share how is the building looks like ??????????? and the contractor contact no ...........
sure will not forget your share if the deal is on .............

I've seen 24x70 3 storey BH that cost 150k b4, no slab on your roof (zinc roof). Wall use 1 layer cement brick only, not even plastering on the walls.

After 3 months water leaking, and even if got nests I think you have to share with neighbors because anyone can just open up your roof or your walls and jump in.

Realistically speaking, normally about $50 per sq.ft of cost for stand alone BH so most 3 storey BH 24x70 would cost 250k or so and that's excluding land. Agriculture land normally cost anywhere between 100k to 150k per acre for areas with proven swiftlet ranching record.

Does this mean that even if your BH is with the best condition, most of your fledging birds are going to move to an old nearby BHs anyway ? What is the percentage of the new birds stay in their original BH in this case ?
Thank you.

Here, we have friends that just did their basic BH for Rm36/ft ( include metal safety doors and windows) not including of planks and sound system and mind you 9 ins red brick wall, 15 feets high and slab rooftop plus roofing Free.

I did mine @ Rm46 include everything plus roller shutter packing lot, 16 metal doors, 4 metal windows, resting/control room with bath room and normal gate ( specifications ordered from an architect/Engineer drawing) .....and I still consider it expensive but I don't have the time to check on the BH so I left to a childhood friend (contractor) to do it.

some friend told me that Johor and other states are cheaper. Only profesional like Engineer Lee and other contractors here shall know if anything lower is possible or not in doing proper construction of BH. I just believe that doing BH must make alot of profit cos a contractor just finished doing a few shop lots here at Rm48/ft and still make money......with so much of aluminum frames and tinted glasses, thick steels and heavy concrete of 8 ins ( ours only 6ins slab) plus much more electrical points and fine work.

No offence to our contractor readers here cos I am just a layman in the trade of construction.

---

Added on December 1, 2011, 5:28 pmBest conditions that you can do is to imitate old BH and you can never beat an original oldie and these BHs will surely have an advantages over you unless the guys did what I consider foolish action of renovating the old BH, "Kia Su" as they want to better you in the art of doing BHs and your BH now became the preferred one if you have done all correctly.

Otherwise, there is no way to beat the more than 10 years having over 10 of thousands nests in drawing birds...they have everything going for them; the original heavy smell ( your's only imitation) and original sound ( your's only man made ones) and proven conditions ( your's only assumed right or suggested by your consultants). Remember that large volume of Birds draw and attract in more birds which you lack off.

A silly suggestion on why not fly some dummy swiftlets to draw in the birds.... If anyone did try it out, remember to PM me on it. Ha ha ha...speaking of originality.



This post has been edited by West Wing: Dec 1 2011, 05:28 PM

Guys, i wanna ask about something. Recently just done another renovation on my shoplot. As you can see, the left one is the new BH meanwhile the right one is old one. Since both of the BHs are separated by only a woody wall, should I connect both of the BHs? more spaces for swiftlets but i afraid might disturb the birds too.

This post has been edited by mois: Dec 1 2011, 10:27 PM

To newbies, consider buying established bh when price are lower now instead of building new one, do make sure it still has potential for further growth. Besides, it is one way to help those who might be tight on cash flow.

Dont see the bird house drop recently, the one nearby my area selling at RM500k for 100 nests. DSST shop houses. However, i do agreed to invest in those abondoned shop lot, what u all think ? at least the inital cost not high.

Unless you can be sure of result of your new bh in 5 years, otherwise buying old at lower price will give you a head start.

this device very useful to check the tweeter. found that some areas no bird stay because of the malfunctioning tweeter.


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are there any active members from Miri, Sarawak in this thread?

Hi All,

My friend/customer wanted to sell his double story shoplot BH in Jerantut. 1.5 years old with 360 nest on first floor and ground floor guaranteed n many more in the making. He just renew his license in October 2011. I have a BH just beside his where I bought the empty shoplot 2 months ago with 420kRM.

His BH has online CCTV, cement rooftop, sprinkle water spray, well maintain. He is asking for RM1Mill.

I am thinking of buying his BH since my shoplot BH has no license n the bandaraya has stop issuing license.

What is the fair price?

How much is a 2 storey shop lot in Jerantut sell for? Let's say about 500k, which I think is already sky high for town like Jerantut, then your nest even value at 1000 each also not close to 1 mil.

And don't forget ppl value nests at 1k each because they used to sell for 4k+ per kg, now it is half the price and god knows how long it will last. If you can't get it cheap then why buy it unless you got lots of dough lying around nothing better to do with it.

This post has been edited by northface: Dec 3 2011, 01:52 PM

Then what is the fair price? The market price for an empty shop is RM420k now..

Thanks for the feedback

Let's say because of low BN price now you only value $600 per nest, 360 nest comes to $216,000. Total is 636k, since he's your friend etc you give him 50k more for renovation, work done etc.

Even then I wouldn't pay more than 700k for this shop, asking for 1mil is unrealistic, if that BH was mine and someone offer me 800k I quickly sell already. You really don't know how many months or years before nest price recover.

Furthermore seems like the whole shop is used for BH only so you have ZERO rental income, your income from this shop is from the nest you sell. 360 nest won't even get you 0.5kg every month, you do the math and see what your 'rental income' is from harvested nest.

Thank you for your valuable feedback northface. I know how to negotiate with him now. Anyhow, I need his license to safe guard my BH.

Good day

looking friends who doing bh at pengkalan ipoh areas. pls pm me. thanks

May I add that afew hundreds nests isn't a selling point to potential buyers and it only increase the value some as anything below a thousand nests isn't helping very much.

I have heard of BHs having few hundreds nests and stay stagnant for years. Best you will pay is BH plus afew hundred for each nest if you want to consider the nests. One to two thousand nests BHs are usually the big guys buy as these BH have assured potential and are not very expensive like 5 to 10K BHs.

Before it's about RM800/nest and now as the price of EBN drop so is the value of the BH.....my opinion only.

what is the current price for BN? isnt still rm2.5-rm2.8k?

Lucky you got Ben!

Who is Ben?

but i trust the EBN price should be up before the coming CNY.

Reality check, CNY is coming in 1 month's time. If there's such a huge demand we would have already seen price increase some time ago.
Mind you BN is not like vegetables you harvest them from the field and can send straight to customers. BN needs to be cleaned, packed and shipped overseas.

Therefore if the retailers see a surge in demand and the processors get orders they would have already started stocking up, not in a few weeks time. Hence my conclusion is this year's demand for BN is basically gone, can only hope for clearing up of the red nest mess next year and hopefully Chinese start consuming BN again.

u made ur point here as normally the prices should up before the CNY. However, i still optimist about the price increase. maybe a little of i cannot do anything, but if most of us can put positive think on this and i believe it will help this industry. some more many reading this blog and some decision may made based on this blog as well. Hopefully there are are others thinking in this way as little me.

Actually what's the price for this week? I cannot bear to look at the nest I have in my store....

There are only few buyers in the market as most of them are already close up shop for the festival and if you are desperate in selling, you will not get good price for the nests @ hand. Remember that there are tons of EBN ready for China market @ hand and also alot are smuggled into China thru Vietnam.

So, wanna good price, you may need to wait for some time.......selling alot now will cause the price to fall further. Here, we are the lucky ones that sold all nests at Rm3100-Rm3500 the last time the China buyers were in town but then someone from nearby town destroyed everything by selling Rm2600-Rm2800 to the China buyers and cause the price to fall backward and the buyers now focus at the other location..........now, what's the actual price, I don't know or bother to find out as we are without nests but I heard from a friend that someone in PJ offered Rm3K for quality nests but I can assured you that it will not be a good sale as the buyer will definitely be very choosy about the nests that he buys so best is to pack up the nests properly and wait for the storm to pass.

If you can't look at the nests harvested, then don't harvest the nests and let the nests lure more birds into your BH and you next harvest will be more than this time....although the nests maybe brown or double storey or more.

Some news on the EBN price to share.

Thanks for the advice sifu WW. Surprisingly I called up a friend in Pekan today he said over there corner nest can still fetch 2.5k and cup 3-3.2k as of today.

Anyways, since the price depression of BN I haven't been harvesting at all, all I do when I go into my BH is to check on the sound and other problems etc. Really hope in 2012 the price can get back to 4k. Good thing with BH is that it's very low maintenance, only pay minimal water/electricity every month, hopefully all of us can weather the storm.

He is Benchai and the one and only.

I see alot of ppl asking questions abt how do we determine how success is your bird house. To be honest, so far there isn't really a correct answer as most would simply tell you that there is no exact answer due to the vast variables. So rather than asking what is "success", y don't we all chip in our own results as a method of comparison. I assume we are all enthusiast and we keep regular records of our BH. Below are my results. With the results, atleast we can see what ppl around us are performing and then maybe compare the differences in more details....

Year Started: Dec 2010
Location: Sabah
Size: 70 x 30 x 3 storey
Type: Open roof
Results:
Month 3: 1 Nest
Month 6: 1 Nest
Month 9: 10 Nests
Year 1: 21 Nests + 4 Incomplete Nests

If you dont mind, please share the cost as well; land, building, 'consultantcy fee', etc
I think this is important to determine the cost vs gain.

For example, if I inherited a shoplot , then i dont have to pay anything except the renovation and consultancy.
Then it will tremendously reduce my initial cost.

Year Started: 31 august 2008
Location: Sarawak
Size: 60 x 30 or 80 x 30 i forgot
Type: monkey house
Results:
1.5year = 1300-nests
2years= 1700-1800nests
3years= 2400-2500nests
3yeyars+ 3months= unknown hopefully can reach 2700-2900nests.

growth slower because alot of new BH around.

Bro mois, you should be VERY HAPPY with such a result, I don't think anywhere in peninsular Malaysia can you achieve such growth rate anymore.

Right now your BH is already considered successful, you can even sell it for millions. So just sit back and wait for harvest every 2 weeks!

Yeah im very happy as well. Already started harvesting when it was 800nests. Wah how u know harvest 2 weeks once? This is exactly what im doing by the time it reaches 2000 nests leh. Now already renovate. See my previous post. But no one give suggestion:(

Once a BH reaches over 1k you can harvest every 2 weeks so u don't miss nests that little birds have flown away, I think a lot of ppl know that

As for renovation, since yours is so successful already why renovate? I suppose you want to expand your BH but be very careful not to do very drastic changes or it might even affect your current bird population.

I would just build another one beside the successful one haha!

Not renovate, just another extension actually haha. Shoplot is linked to the BH. But two separate BHs, now in dilemma whether to operate separately or just open a hole between them. But i guess probably open a hole in between. More spaces for birdies and hopefully percentage of staying there is higher. Just wondering, how much can we harvest monthly if the nest count is 3k, 4k, 5k?

Initial cost was about RM400k inclusive of everything. Land was inherited.

---

Added on December 6, 2011, 10:23 pmFrom the things I heard and learnt, heard that it is best to open 1/2 holes connecting the birdhouses depending on the size, you mention 60ft or 80ft, I think 2 holes would b good enough.
Don't open the holes first, do the renovation and necessary fitting works, then lastly, open the holes. That way you do not need to start fresh.

Btw, 1.5year n 1.5k nests... WHOA! The nest results around my area is 300nests on the 1st year and it is considered very very successful!! Big goodjob!

Abt the harvest, one of my friend who current run a BH with over 10k nests within, he harvest 10% of the nests everytime. His average harvest is 8-10kg depending.

So 3k would b around 200-300nests? 4k = 300-400nests? Not very sure since I am not there yet haha

This post has been edited by oneup: Dec 6 2011, 10:28 PM

Speaking about 10k nests, i dont think monthly harvest only 8-10kg. By the way 10% is kinda too low. Suppose to be 15% at least i guess. That translate 11-13kg monthly. How long does it take to reach 10k nests? I think once reach 10k nests mark, one year nest counts can be increased by few thousand nests!

Wow. With such growth, thats quite something Sarawak at where?

These days when the price of nests are down and the increment of nests are below expectation, many may want to sell off their failed BHs.

Like no serious buyers for nests the same apply to buyers for BH and selling is also be a problem unless you are selling very cheap. Previously, there are so many potential buyers asking for lands and BHs but they are now gone without a trace........

With every bad time, come good opportunities, opportunities to buy cheap nests and also cheaper land and BHs. Everything concerning swiftlets are on sales and I hope that the equipments, products, books, books and others should now be cheaper to reflex the present situation....maybe producers and supliers of these goods will also provide better discounts for their products to help owners of BHs badly hit.

I am not sure, but he told me 10% so I take his words heh...
He was one of the pioneer within the district, his BH is abt 10 yrs and i am not sure how long did it took for him to reach 10k nests because when i got to know him, it was already at the 8k nests mark...

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Added on December 7, 2011, 2:02 pmVery true. 6 mths ago i still heard ppl talk abt it at kopitiam... Now no one is talking abt it anymore haha... But I do agree the fact that "with every bad time, comes good opportunities"


This post has been edited by oneup: Dec 7 2011, 02:02 PM

Year Started: 8 jan 2010
Location: taiping
Size: 24 x 70
Type: open roof
Results:
3months = 15+-nests(50+-birds)
6months= 30+-nests(100+-birds)
10months= 20nests havested+ 30+-nests(180+-birds)
11months= 15nests havested+ 35+-nests(230-250birds)
I'm satisfied with my results.
p/s: my 24x70 individual bh fee=RM140k+RM20k(internal with guarantee 30birdnest in 1 year)

I still don't understand the guarantee of 30 nests in a year apply here and if failed, do the contractor refund you the money or what?

If the contractor can assure me of these success in any place, I will now give him a contract to do a new BH now at a certain location and will even give him a bonus if the target attained during the agreed period or otherwise, penalties like forfeiting of 30% held as insurance against failure to attain the guaranteed amount.

Otherwise, what's good a guarantee "In Words only" and I can even boost to give any failed BH a hundred nests within a year for a good fee and some renovation done by me. Terms are that the owner must pay me for the renovation in advance and the consultation of Rm10K after the nests attained. If failed, I already got my money for the renovation and if successful, the consultation fee will be a added bonus.. Either ways, I make my money and if failed, only my reputation is tarnished only.

Sincerely, I like to give some suggestion cos your BH is good and should be better if you do ensure that you allow space for the birds to breed and multiply. Looking from what you said, you are in good location and there were steady increment of nests in the BH and that's very good but beware of harvesting unused nests and you may slower the gains of your BH. Pls. remember that I just wanna help only and not criticizing here.

Congratulation, my friend

Ｙｅａｈ　ＷＷ.　Ｉ'ｍ　ａｇｒｅｅ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｙｏｕ.　Ａｃｔｕａｌｌｙ　ｔｈｅ　ｇｕａｒａｎｔｅｅ　ｍｅａｎ　ｈｅ　ｗｉｌｌ　ＦＯＣ　ｒｅｎｏｖａｔｅ　ｆｏｒ　ｍｙ　ｂｈ　ｉｆ　ｔｈｅ　ｒｅｓｕｌｔ　ｉｓ　ｎｏｔ　ｇｏｏｄ.　(ｈｅ　ｉｓ　ｍｙ　ｆａｔｈｅｒ'ｓ　ｆｒｉｅｎｄ)(ｎｏ　ａｎｙ　ａｇｒｅｅｍｅｎｔ,　ｊｕｓｔ　ｔａｌｋ.　ｈａｈａ)
Ｎｏｗ　ｉ'ｍ　ｔｒｙｉｎｇ　ｔｏ　ｉｎｃｒｅａｓｅ／ｂｏｏｓｔ　ｕｐ　ｍｙ　ｂｎ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｃｕｌｔｕｒｉｎｇ　ｆｒｕｉｔ　ｆｌｉｅｓ　&　ａｄｄ　ｓｏｍｅ　ｆａｋｅ　ｂｎ.　Ｉ　ａｌｓｏ　ｓｔｏｐ　ｈａｖｅｓｔｉｎｇ.(ｍａｙｂｅ　ｃｈａｎｃｅ　ｔｏ　２－３ｍｏｎｔｈ　ｈａｖｅｓｔ　ｏｎｃｅ.)　
Ａｎｙ　ｇｏｏｄ　ｓｕｇｇｅｓｔｉｏｎ／ｏｐｉｎｉｏｎ　ｆｏｒ　ｍｅ?　Ｔｑ.

10k nest should able to harvest, average 17kg to 20kg/mth based on 2weeks/harvest. also depending on location i.e. determine the size.

My opinion to share.

1. Cultivation of fruit flies and releasing them at the BH are only because not many birds visit your BH and your intention is to draw more birds attention to your BH.

2. Adding fake nests is to encourage birds to quicken nest building in area which normally is empty of nests and never in area already with nests. This is to encourage birds to lay eggs in the fake nests (with little additional saliva) esp. for the young birds whose nest building skill isn't good at all and thus helping to fasten the process of nest building and increment of nests.

3. Remember that only old birds will remain faithful to your BH and not the new fledged ones and they will leave your BH leaving half built up nests or even after building their first nests in your BH and what you need is to ensure that they do lay eggs and nurse their chicks to fledging. Only after this full cycle can you call these birds your faithful birds and not before then.

bro ww. Tqvm....thanks for sharing the info which many ppl wont share out.