Different state different situation. How many licences of ALL type of farms ever released. Many applications but only the "lucky" few got approval in Johor. Some states don't even have such licence for people to apply. In Kelantan a big farm may invite the Menteri Besar to go cut the ribbon for its opening ceremony. Every application for swiftlet farming will be approved in short time.

You should ask "Which state no swiftlet farming?". I can answer you. NONE! All states got people do farming. Is there other races doing swiftlet farming besides Chinese? Of course. Nowadays Tom, d***, Harry, Ali, Ah Chong and Ramasamy also do swiftlet farming.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Sep 18 2007, 04:40 PM

The so call license is like protection money lor. Until now which department should be incharge of collecting this type of protection money still unsure. Everybody also want to eat the cake. When farming majority own by 2nd class people the first class people wanted to make it very hard to approve lor. Gangster movies also got do lah don't want to pay protection what happen? Fuyoh those uncles in uniform from garbage collecting and street sweeping department. Visit Malaysia Year 2007 also dare to tear off(roboh) a few million riggit worth new resort hotel in front of many foreign tourists' eyes. I don't think they do it because they're daring just maybe they're not using the spongy thing inside their head lah.

Preserving endangered species also need to pay? AFAIK they already collect tax from exporting of nests.

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Added on September 19, 2007, 9:36 pmMalaysia now got a lot higher population of AF than house swift. They got different flying pattern and different chirp sound. AF is dark brown house swift is black with white collar. All can differenciate with bare eyes. Just bare eyes cannot diffrenciate AF sexes.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Sep 19 2007, 09:36 PM

This is 2nd unit of the same amp I bought. Just brand name different. The big round coil weight most of the whole thing. 2.2kg. Very simple inside. Lots of empty spaces. Top and bottom of the cooling fin got ventilation.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Sep 21 2007, 02:23 PM


Attached thumbnail(s)

The amp I bought at RM115. Pasar road sure can get cheaper lah. Both amps features the same. Inside design also very alike. Just parts used a bit different. Major different should be the transformer. Mine is toroidal and yours is laminated steel transformer. Toraidal is better for audio amp but for swiftler farming purpose both LPPL lah IMO.


The detail can read at http://sound.westhost.com/xfmr2.htm

here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformer

This post has been edited by seeseng: Sep 21 2007, 09:33 PM

How tall is each storey the standalone farm? Using red clay brick or sand brick? Do they plaster the walls? Standalone farms do have some competition but it's a lot less than in swiftlet central lah. If nearest farm is within 2 or 3 kilometer radious most probably that's your competitor lah. Importantly need to check the land is a swiftlet vegetation area or pass by to go to their food source. Padi field for sure is vegetation area. Low land, short plants and swampy. Swiftlets prefer this than fruit orchard with tall fruit trees. Even abandoned padi fields a lot of swiftlets cari makan there.
Any structure that build on a land is a building. Even a standalone toilet consider a building. Under the law any building need a permit. But how many farm will apply for it? They will reject it anyway. In Terengganu so far only heard 1 huge standalone farm got saman and later on a notice to demolish. But in the end these stuff can be "settled" and currently the farm is completed and in operation. In Kelantan the local government really encourage swiftlet farming. Different party government mah. In Thailand the government even subsidised swiftlet farmers by partially funding them. Here? Dream on.
I will be helping a friend build a standalone farm in a fruit orchard after the monsoon season. At least 2 and half storey including a huge dog kennel on top.

15'x30' is a maybe a short signted people or budget limited design. Swiftlet farming is a very long term investment. First 5 years most of the successful farms can't earn back the capital yet. My store room farm also bigger than its 1 storey lah hehe. Is the 130K including planks installed? Here got a friend's standalone 30x100. 5 and half storeys. Full cost 250k still got small change. In my opinion the 15x30 will do ok due to the good area with good chirp. But it's a waste of land.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Sep 24 2007, 03:36 PM

Commercial lot will be quicker to set up a farm and running. But may face competition from nearby farms. First batch of bird stay may take some time. I've heard stories about standalone farms with no competition in few KM radious get first batch bird stay on the first day of operation. From my own observation more swiftlets go for food at padi fields. Maybe due to convenient fly path on top of short plants. The same area where most flying insects fly. For oil palm plantation only part of the insects will fly on top of the trees. Some fly between the trees where it's risky for swiftlets to fly lower than tree top. So the numbers available to eat should be lesser than padi fields.
IMO the flying insects like swampy wet land since I've seen groups of birds cari makan over a wild keladi field also.

There are farmers creating own food source by planting fruit/flower trees, put rotten fruits around farm. But not very practical. Not even enaugh for their dessert. AF eat and shit a lot everyday. So conclusion AF still need to fly a long way to cari makan.

Nanyang Siang Pau today got full page advertisement article about farming by Nest Tech.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Sep 27 2007, 02:57 PM

IMHO, a biased report supported by a consultant selling expensive swiftlet product catalogue. How do they get those figures? Simply speculation lah. Same like Bolehland how high the % of economy growth and how low the inflation rate reported lor. Be proud! Better than Myanmmar what? U know I know lah.
Equipments: Those well known companies selling at high price sure accurate? Example 1 well known company often publish articles in newspapers selling one model of double fan humidifier with build-in hygrostat at RM2988. Turn up the hygrostat has 15%+- accuracy. The hygrostat I'm using is made in China with 3% +- proven to be same results as my Taiwan made hygrometer/Thermometer.
Dehumidifier is often use in countries with 4 seasons where in the spring indoor humidity so high the floor become wet with water drops all day long. Also widely use in rooms with electronic devices which need a dry environment. It's kind of like air purifier thing. 1 part suck in air to cool down with refrigerated fins. The humid in the air cool down become water and collect inside the equipment. Then the other part blow out dry warm air. Often dehumidifier come in humidifier/dehumidifier with build in hygrostat 3 in 1. Has a high/low setting. When humidity high it run as dehumidifier. When humidity too low it can be set as humidifier. But these type of equipment not practical in farming. Can imagine how many units needed to cover whole farm?

CD sound quality better than normal MP3. But if when we extract the CD track into MP3 use high bitrate of 320kbps and sample rate of 48khz the output quality is comparable to CD quality. For farming we output to tweeters. MP3 and CDs sound LPPL only. MP3 has many advantages. A normal CD of 63 minutes if converted to MP3 put inside a CD can fill in 10 hours of continue playing non-stop. If put inside USB drives or memory cards to play with supported players. Players can last longer lifespan because of no moving mechanism and lower operating temperature also no laser lense aging problem cause poor quality playback or choosy with discs.

Humidifier can reduce some temp but not much. It reduce heat through condensation. But humid in the air also trap heat. From what I tested at my farm by increasing humidity from 65%RH to 85%RH temp only drop 1-2 degrees. So not practical to rely on humidifier to reduce temp. Humidity mainly for the purpose nests won't too dry become crisp no need to be too exact. 80%-90% seminar teach one ka?
Determine where the heat come from and prevent heat from come in. Not heat come in already then buy water-cooling fan system to cool it down. Actually there are actual farm using air-cond. Owner want to save $ because install insulation at roof and wall more expensive. Air cond temp set to 26 so not cold. A thermostat control the power to on at 29 and off at 27. So it only on at hottest moment of the day. Result: Before install air cond no bird stay. After got air cond bird stay.

Personally I would prefer the insulation method. Polystyrene board is affodable and effective. Notice cup noodle with polystyrene cup provide the best insulation for boil water. For long lasting can wrap polystyrene board with aluminium foil.
Freon gas will emit smell even there's no leakage? Well nobody can prove why the birds fly away. We can only speculate.

You missed something. DESIGN. More important than those other things. In my humble opinion. The list is sort of like this:-
Height
Design & Sound equelly importance
Micro habitat
Other so call gadgets/accessories=theory, speculation, human over sensitive....

Aroma hormon from NT. Confirmed it's made from duck egg and fish oil. I let a few people smell it without telling them what that is. All said duck egg or turtle egg smell. Effective or not you got the answer already. Ryan_Cheng said wasn't effective one. NOT ME!

Post altered. Matter settled.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Oct 18 2007, 03:22 PM

A hygrometer with +-5% consider acceptable lah. The range of ideal humidity for farming quite wide. There are models with reading up to +-15% include built-in humidifer also got people selling over RM2K.

Nowadays you can find AF every where throughout Malaysia. Sitiawan, Kelantan, Segamat etc. Quality nests produced at area with less air pollution. Swiftlets originally from caves. There are 3 types of swiftlets producing edible bird nests. 2 types can be found in Malaysia. Those produce edible bird nests in house farms are AF(Aerodramus Fuciphagus).
House farm AF and cave AF are the same. Just in cave like Gua Niah you can find another type of edible nest swiftlet call Aerodramus Maximus the black nest swiftlet. This type the nest has lower % of saliva and higher % of feather compare to AF nest.
Swiftlets that fly around town can be AF or common house swift. Size, colour, chirp sound different.

Dear all,
www.pearlnest.com issue was purely a misunderstanding due to a mistake by the web builder who took the easy way to obtain photos instead of snap his own. The company CEO himself has took the responsibility to sincerely apologised publicly. Mr. Kelvin Heng himself also PMed and called me personally to apologise about the matter myself also paiseh lah if my post affected his business. He will send me a copy of their farming book to let us know all the contents in the book are genuine. A resonsible move from the CEO Lastly I hope the web builder won't be fired lah just one single mistake.

So far not receive yet. Few days ago Kelvin sms me said sent to wrong postal address. Ask me to give him my email. Maybe the e-book sales too good until no stock leh.

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Added on October 26, 2007, 8:37 pmYou yourself should make sure the bus will take you to the right destination before you buy the ticket. Not after bought the ticket and step inside the bus only find the bus is just a merry go round. It's a big investment business.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Oct 26 2007, 08:39 PM

No lah I don't think Kelvin is that kind of person lah. I've received the e-book in MS Word document page 26-95. Page 1-25 not received. Maybe mail server problem.
Updates: Currently received all 95 pages of the e-book from Kelvin. Thank you very much.

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Added on October 27, 2007, 12:15 pmCicak the house lizards are very common neighbour to the swiftlets. Normal house lizard won't bother the birds and birds won't bother them. Unless your place is near to plantation area(palm oil, rubber etc) the cicak there can be wild gecko. This type can grow up to 1 foot long and it's big enaugh to swallow the eggs. If they think food is easy to find in your farm then decided to get married and have kids in your farm then it will be a disaster. If you want to get rid of house lizards can try those fly trap/cockroach trap sheet with glue surface. Just change the given bait to fly or other insects. Another way to prevent those outside lizards get into the farm you may try pouring sulfur powder at all border of the farm to seal up the farm. Sulfur can also prevent snakes.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Oct 27 2007, 04:23 PM