The price for hygrostat is still unknown. My friend's supplier will negotiate the best price with China manufacturer. For sure cheaper than local supplier.
http://www.ratuwalet.com/contact.html
Look they have a course to make normal nest become blood nest.
"kursus memerahkan sarang walet"
If not mistaken the course cost US$1100 for 30 minutes course.

I'm from pahang.... no worries... my floors are sound proof...

They will create more and more stupid rules... why, cos by doing this they will earn more and more extra income...

Now they say clinic, coffee shop and cc are not allowed to build swiftlet farm...
So for those people who have swiftlet and their shop downstairs is doing those business.. they will go bribe them for approval...

Until today. Health organizations and scientists worldwide have never found any Avian Flu in swiftlets yet. Indonesia has bird flu problem. And their swiftlet population is world no.1. Still none of the H5N1 virus came from swiftlet. In fact the risk of having bird flu is way higher in chicken and duck farms. I'm not saying swiftlet has 0 chance of getting H5N1 but due to their natural behavior the chance of getting it is very thin. They don't share the same flight path as other birds, when they fly they never/can't stop to rest on lamp posts like other birds. Their short legs make them can only stop to rest/sleep in their home. Other bird species won't enter swiftlet farms as the place is too dark for them to live. They don't have echo-location like swiftlets do. 
Nipah and JE only contracted from pig. Period.
Swiftlets' main food source is mosquito. In fact they help to reduce the population of mosquitos hence reduce chances of mosquitos contracted deseases.

Logically swiftlet farm may become potential breeding ground for deseases. Thank god after 20 years of in house swiftlet farming in Malaysia and 80 years in Indonesia. No desease spread through this particular species of swiftlet yet{touch wood]} One of the rule for obtaining swiftlet farming license is monthly clearing of droppings. Farmers should follow the rules on their monthly visit to the farm including the use of special pesticide to prevent ticks(bird kutu). Currently the biggest problem is the chirping sound too loud problem.  Farmers should change to long range and mid-range tweeters for external sound and internal sound should not exceed 40 decibels.

how do we know the sound is below or above 40 decibel or not?

Can we install CCTV (night vision) into the farm?? By this, i can easily check the pipe got leak or not... and maybe can check bird activities too...

how do we know the sound is below or above 40 decibel or not?

Can we install CCTV (night vision) into the farm?? By this, i can easily check the pipe got leak or not... and maybe can check bird activities too...

For dBa measurement you'll need a sound meter/DB meter/decibel meter. Price at RM2xx locally. So far I haven't seen any local swiftlet farmer using it yet.
Night vision CCTV should be regarded as standard gear. Even my store-room size farm got 1.(same model as attached pic). I've seen farm installed up to 8 units of IR camera. Be sure to get CCD sensor based camera. CMOS sensor based is dirt cheap but poor picture quality. Mine the spec is 1/4" CCD with 24 IR leds. 1/3" will be better quality for longer sight range. You can monitor whatever inside the farm without the need to enter the farm. Intall a Streamyx line then you can monitor from any place with broadband connection world wide.
There's feedback from hygrostat supplier. The price is around RM400. The same model as the pics I posted before where a local/indonesia swiftlet equipment company selling at RM850 firm. It's a 3 in 1 device. It can be a timer on/off switch, a thermostat. i.e. trigger by temperature. 3)Hygrostat - trigger by humidity level. So anybody interested to buy? Myself getting 2 units.

The CCTV depend on how many camera you want to use. The need for recording and online viewing. The distance from each camera to the monitoring room. Nowadays installing CCTV pretty cheap already.  Mine all DIY.  If don't want DIY can hire those CCTV installers. Nowadays more and more people doing this. 

1) CCD sensor based 24LED-30LED IR camera is around RM200-RM300 each. (Mine below RM200 because dealer price. Need RM2K/ invoice)Be sure to get those with water-proof housing.

2) Cable. Use only real coaxial cable. No TV wire. Got RG59 or RG58 spec. RG59 is 75Ohm range from RM70 to RM100 / 300feet in 1 box. RG58 is 50Ohm & slightly smaller size. But RG58 is softer cable. Easier to do wiring job. RM50-RM80 per box 100Meter. Both spec price difference depend on China made or US made.

3)BNC connectors. Get those screw in type. Very comvenient no need soldering or clipping tools. Be sure to match your cable size. RG59 and RG58's BNC different size.

4) DV Recorder with network/Online viewing support. - RM880 - RM1000
    4 channels, no need to use PC. Just pair up with a TV. Price come with no          HardDisk.

5) Installation work.  Normally RM120-RM150 per camera.

6) Internet. You'll need a phone line/account then a Streamyx A/C lah.

ok, hope some of you guys can help.

my relatives they live in some old pre-war house in penang where they have stayed for umpteen years. recently one fella bought the next door house and turn it into a swiftlet farm. the sound is bloody noisy and irritating and my relatives really cannot tahan.

i'm not against swiftlet farming per se, but please la have some empathy and common sense. how can you do this between 2 houses where there are ppl (including old ppl and children) staying? actually the whole stretch there are occupied either by families or some small businesses (like sundry shop, clinic, etc). i really wonder how they get the license to do so.....some neighbours claim they probably bribed the approving officer.

so, i hope you guys have some suggestions how to cope with this problem. i'll try complaining to the local council but if its true someone "makan" i doubt it'll work. since you guys are experts at making the swiftlets come, maybe you'll know ways how to keep the swiftlets away too? maybe some counter-noise? or certain smell the birds don't like?

if the venture not successful, then maybe the fella will give up and go somewhere else la... please help!!!

Is a hse or shoplot?
How loud was it? above or below 40DB??

well it's those type of pre-war terrace houses, with those 5-kaki side walks. maybe you wont see much of it in kl, but penang and other small towns still have many of these.

i don't really know how to measure the loudness but i can say that even if you stand 5 houses away, you can hear it loud and clear.

Hi seeseng,

All my farms are not yet full. There's still quite a fair bit of space for new swiftlets to nest in. According to the timetable given to me, I go in to both my farms once  month to collect the nests. My 5 year old farm is doing better than my 3 year old farm, as can be expected - about 4 to 5kgs from the 5 year old one and 1 to 1.5kgs for the 3 year old one. Even if they both don't upgrade (touch wood... hehe), I'm really happy with their performance... the farms have helped me pay ofs the construction and design costs as well as have become valuable assets for me to leave to my 4 children when I'm gone. However, I'm feeling abit daring again to establish another farm... but my wife is really nagging me about not taking aon ny more chllenges and to stick to my retirement... just as well, got to get my colestrol level lower.

Well, your farm sounds a bit small, but the size should't matter much. What I've learnt about successful swiftlet farms is that as long as you get the design of your farm correct and that it's not noo hot,  even swiftlet farms that have internal temperatures of more than 32 degrees celsius have swiftlets breeding in them. The most important thing is that we must install a reliable and good swiftlet sound system together with high quality tweeters in the farm in order to attract swiftlets to breed in them.

Just like my accounting profession, the use of advance accounting software allowed my firm to compile accounting information more quickly and efficiently as compared to recording the transactions by hand. a good swiftlet sound system together with high-end tweeters will be able to play swiftlet chirps more clearly and realistically than an average sound system ever will. Try not to use cheaper alternatives if you can... IC callers, DVD players, CD players, modified car amplifiers just can't compete when a new swiftlet farm that has a good swiftlet sound system is set-up close to yours.

All in all, I purchased about 100 litres of CS Mating Potion and sprayed the solution according to the timetable given to me by the poeple at Crystal Swiftlets. From my observations over these last few years, the mating potion actually works. Many swiftlets from other farms that flew into my new farms when I had turned on the swiftlet sound tended to stay and breed within my farms very quickly and stopped going back to their old ones. The visiting swiftlets really like like the aroma from the mating potions. At the same time, after every breeding cycle, I go into my farms and spray the mating potions all over so that when the baby swifts leave my farms to fly off, they will not be able to get used to any other farms that do not spell like mine. It's really working so far, as I see alot of baby swiftlets returning to my farms in the evenings. I know this strategy sounds devious, but it's free competition right? Also, one good thing about Crystal Swiftlets, is that they assured me that they have a company policy not to sell the mating solution to any farms within 5 km vicinity of mine. As long as this policy doesn't change, I'm quite confident that my farms will continue to grow and update.

Meranti Bukit should be alright as nesting planks. Swiftlets have sharp claws so they can pearch on anything that is abit rough. You are headed in the correct direction. Keep up the ethusiasm. Your farm will definitely reward you in the near future.

Sam

Hows the quality? can show me the picture quality?

ok, hope some of you guys can help.

my relatives they live in some old pre-war house in penang where they have stayed for umpteen years. recently one fella bought the next door house and turn it into a swiftlet farm. the sound is bloody noisy and irritating and my relatives really cannot tahan.

i'm not against swiftlet farming per se, but please la have some empathy and common sense. how can you do this between 2 houses where there are ppl (including old ppl and children) staying? actually the whole stretch there are occupied either by families or some small businesses (like sundry shop, clinic, etc). i really wonder how they get the license to do so.....some neighbours claim they probably bribed the approving officer.

so, i hope you guys have some suggestions how to cope with this problem. i'll try complaining to the local council but if its true someone "makan" i doubt it'll work. since you guys are experts at making the swiftlets come, maybe you'll know ways how to keep the swiftlets away too? maybe some counter-noise? or certain smell the birds don't like?

if the venture not successful, then maybe the fella will give up and go somewhere else la... please help!!!

Guys... i have a suggestion here...

Since most of us is located in a diff location, why not we exchanging the bird chirpping CD's?

This is because buying the CD's is so expensive nowdays... might as well we exchange it among ourself...

How you all think?