Hi sifus here,

I discovered this forum few months ago, when i started my first farm. There are much useful info, advice from many generous sifus here that help me a lot. Many thanks to West Wing, tuckfook, coolandy, benchai,... and many others for your sharing with non-profit.

Since swiftlet farming industry is very new, secret and high-profit, there are many traps awaiting for rich investors without knowledge. Many bad consultants are looking at your pocket. So, i choose my way to learn and develop a birdhouse myself.

My Bh is in good location and under flying path. After about 5 months, my bh got about 100 nests. From that day until now, for 2 months, it had lower growth rate than before, only about 10 nest each month. I made an overall inspection and found that nothing unusual. Temperature, humidity, brightness,... are within range. No critical changes were made as well. Was there any sifu in this situation before? What is the possible reason for low growth rate of nest population? I need your advice to improve the situation.

Thanks in advance.

Dear uncle WestWing, benchai,

Thanks for your advice. I will wait and observed for a few months before any renovation.

Have you here ever tried extra fooding for swiftlet? How is its effectiveness? Does it help to increase population faster?

Sorry if this topic discussed before cos i have searched on V1, V2, V3 but cant found any result.

Many thanks to seniors here for your advice. By the way discussing about BS aroma, let me tell you my own BH story. This is my second BH, next to the first which has low growth rate for a few months i mentioned before. Both was built on a piece of ariland, having same dimension 10 x 30 m x 4 stories. I called them the old and the new.

In the old one, because its area is quite large, i had to spend lots of money for BS. At that time, i bought about 300 kg for the first application. I scatter on the floor all over my BH. Some was soaked in water for a few days and spray on walls. It cost me about RM1500. When it was on sound, it seemed to be very attractive. I could count about 20 birds staying overnight on the first day. After 3 months, this bh reached 60 nests. After 5 months, 100 nests. Since then, it had lower growth rate.

After 5 months since the old was on sound, the new was completed. But this time, i decided not to buy the BS to save my money. I just used my homemade aroma under my friend's instruction. This time, the aroma cost me about RM500 only, 1/3 to the BS. At that time, i didn't have strong belief on the aroma, just give it a try before BS application. Could you believe that i had about 100 birds staying overnight on the first day it was on sound. On my first visit last month, i can count about 80 BS spot and some nest markings just after one month in operation. Haven't visit it till now but through my CCTV cams, i can count about 200 birds staying each night.

Noted that the two have different design and play different sound. The environment in the new is totally dark while the old is a bit brighter.

This is my own true story, just wanna share with friends here. Any comment is most welcome.

This post has been edited by bancroft: May 18 2012, 05:56 PM

Don't be so pessimistic, uncle WW. Vietnamese nest production is not high enough to approach export market. All EBN products is just for local consumption. If you have been to Vietnam recently, you can see birdnest shop grow up everywhere. They are taking opportunities when Malaysian suffer a ban from China.

Vietnam swiftlet ranching is at very first step. More than 90% of BH failed. You cannot invest in producing EBN for export if all the materials depends on importing. As soon as Malaysian is allowed to export EBN to China, they cannot find any source of cheap nest. How can they compete with Malaysian when your production cost is lower?