2 to 3 lux is exactly the ideal light intensity for swiftlet farm. Total darkness won't have any advantage over that.
Just talked to a friend running a 5 yrs old farm last night. His is a joint venture with consultant style. The consultant manage everything down to harvesting and selling. My friend doesn't know much about market price. The consultant is giving him RM3K/Kg price. I think the consultant is giving him very low price. Isn't that price for grade C or D nest?? Any comment? And FYI his farm is doing less than 1kg per month. For double storey shop house that's consider not so productive.
Dr. Chris' forum is written in his book "About the author" page. It's a members only forum for existing farmers and readers of his book only. - http://groups.google.com/group/swiftlet
The 45 degree hormone smell plank is RM3.80 a piece. If it really works double the price is still consider affordable.
I'm currently finding an insecticide call Fedona FC. It's odourless liquid, human and bird friendly. To prevent termites in the farm. Anyone know where to get?

No lah... got to use it as it is, can't mix with anything. I usually use all 5 litres up within 2 months... 

Sam

2 to 3 lux is exactly the ideal light intensity for swiftlet farm. Total darkness won't have any advantage over that.
Just talked to a friend running a 5 yrs old farm last night. His is a joint venture with consultant style. The consultant manage everything down to harvesting and selling. My friend doesn't know much about market price. The consultant is giving him RM3K/Kg price. I think the consultant is giving him very low price. Isn't that price for grade C or D nest?? Any comment? And FYI his farm is doing less than 1kg per month. For double storey shop house that's consider not so productive.
Dr. Chris' forum is written in his book "About the author" page. It's a members only forum for existing farmers and readers of his book only. - http://groups.google.com/group/swiftlet
The 45 degree hormone smell plank is RM3.80 a piece. If it really works double the price is still consider affordable.
I'm currently finding an insecticide call Fendona FC. It's odourless liquid, human and bird friendly. To prevent termites in the farm. Anyone know where to get?
Typo correction: Fendona FC.  Not Fedona FC

After you join the group Dr. Chris will personally email you. Asking your're existing swiftlet farmer or owner of his book. What kind of question they asked u for verification? For me since I'm not yet both so I just purchase the book directly from him. If you haven't owned the book you may buy from him. RM79.90 including postage to anywhere within Malaysia.  It's a good book. Try to ask for 10% discount as after I joined the forum I read that he gave 10% discount for forum members. It's better than Crystal's Complete Introductory Guide.  Yeah I just bought "The Complete Introductory Guide for Swiftlet Farming" E-Book last night and finished reading it within an hour.

hi everyone i am new here.i am just wondering how much to build up 1 swiftlet farming, and does it need a lot people to take care of it?

i heard someone said after you have collected all your nest you need to clean it again is it true? and can u guys sharing what are the problem you facing doing this biz..

I see, he wants to verify that you bought his book or not lah. Are you going to buy his book? RM79.90 possibly got 10% discount.  BTW first word in page 68 is "Meranti"  I just added a link to an Indonesian forum Klub Peternak Walet The link is at my first post.

I've read that. Nothing new. Election coming. "Moon clan" flaming Bee Anne for ignoring licensing issue on swiftlet farms. For many years authorities haven't decide how much fee to imply so until now still no need license yet. Later need license just pay them lah.

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It's not so simple. Investment is high, failure rate is as high as 50%-70%.  Many not fail but fairly passed with poor results. But if after a year your farm is successful, the future is very bright.

This piece of equipment is called Hygrostat. It's an ON/OFF switch trigger by humidity. e.g we set the hygrostat to 80% RF.  It will stop the current flow to your humidifier when it detects the humidity is 80%RF and will run again if humidity fall below 80%. Very good for humidity control. 
Normally in swiftlet farms people use timer switch to control the humidifier. Will auto off at time where natural humidity is high enaugh.  But on rainy days humidity is high too but timer controlled would fail its purpose. Over humid will results in molds on nesting planks, nest become yellowish hence grade fall.

The hygrostat/humidistat / humidity controller. I've ask my friend to find the product in China. If he can find one then budget is below RM500 I asked him to buy 2 units. He'll be back after 5 days. The local supplier selling too expensive but the product is great. With 2 meter length sensor. So the sensor can put at nesting plank for best results. The accuracy range is +-1%. Price is RM850 including shipping. The RM550 is their old model stopped selling now. That one only build in sensor. Same like the type Nest Tech build-in their humidifiers. Accuracy range is +-15%. That's way inaccurate. It works like a timer switch but it trigger by environment humidity. If we set the trigger % to 80%RF. It will stop sending power to humidifier when the humidity reach 80%RF. Will start the humidifier when environment humidity is less than 80%RF. You know we can't predict the weather humidity. Sometimes the time suppose to be less humid but the humidity appear high. Such as on rainy days, even after rain we can't predict how long the humidity will stay high. Over humid for a period of time will result in nests become yellowish colour. The grade drop then price per kilogram also drop lah. If humidity not enaugh also the nests will become smaller, thinner, got gaps between the strands. If too dry nests will easily crack, some fall to the ground and in some cases the shape not nice. Not half cup shape.  Another good thing is if you can maintain stable humidity. Mean the environment humidity not go up and down too much. The swiftlets will feel very comfortable. Swiftlets will build bigger, thicker, heavier nests. According to Nest Tech, in this situation you will get weight increase of 10%-15% more weight for same numbers of nests than before.  E.g. normally you need around 120 nests to make up 1kg.  Fore nests build in stable humidity/temperature maybe you only need 105-110 nests to make 1 kilogram.

Local selling RM850.
The hygrostat come in few models. Cheapest 1 is RM850 with 13amps plug. Max can control up to 2 units of humidifier. If 2 floors you have to buy 2. Because 1 unit only 1 sensor. Can sense 1 floor only. Correction the sensor wire is 3 meter long.

What type of humidifier are you using? How many unit? How long and wide is your farm? Floor to nesting plank how high? If you have 2 floors you need to put 1 hygrostat each lah. Each floor sure different humidity level. So for 2 hygrostat you can use/control up to 4 humidifiers.  Each floor 2 units.

bro remember to tell me on ur exprience on the hygrostat oh hehehe, yea regarding my place there just came back with the readings, 33.5 C n 90% higest reading, min reading is 28.5 C n 68% so in that case the min i think should be nite time dy ler haha coz my timer never set for it to work at nite, any idea to bring down the heat ? like extra layer at the celling top or fan mayb ??? wat is the most ideal opening for the birds to fly in ?? hight from the ground lvl to the place where the hole is located at, and the turning point / partition of S curve? really need to save that place up coz its still empty

If concrete building it should be easier to solve problem than wooden building. 33.5 C & 90%RF indicates the high humidity is holding up heat. You need to vent the hot wet air out.  For 20x70 ft farm your ideal roving area size should be around 20x10 to 20x15. Inside roving area can also install nesting planks. Some birds will build nest there as well though it's not so dark. Attached is example of roving area by Dr. Chris' book. The flying path forms an "S" curve.

[ images removed due to copyright claims ]

lolz where u located at ??? this law is just dumb hahaha wats the diff with cc n the birds, but actually if the cc is just too packed and alot of kiddos screaming... gona scare ur birdys away man haha.... by 20 u mean the entrance to the partition board den 10 ?? haha

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.

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.

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!!!