I started collecting bird chirp CDs since few years back. Until recently I took over a failed/gave up mini farm of 18'x45' to renovate. Spent 3 months+ DIY then re-open on 21/7/2007. I treat this as a hobby only. Swiftlet farming is interesting and addictive. Always think of ideas to improve. Sometimes in dreams also about swiftlet farming Read lots of farming books. Bed time reading also farming books... Get as much info online join all the swiftlet forums I can find. Teh tarik discussions, exchange ideas, experiences and sound with kt newbie farmers like me. Also I like to do farm watching. Go up tall buildings to observe other people's farms.

Higher buildings definitely have advantage. But don't be supprise there are double storey old shop house doing better than 4-5 storeys building. There're a few tall farms near the temple. Longer operating history than the 2 storey but the 2 storey is really heavy duty. Monthly 20-30kg but the size is quite big 3 shoplots but only upstair for farming.
Those out of town farms are mostly stand-alone farms. They choose out of town for low profile. Cheaper land, build without permit also small chance bandaran can find out. More and more farms like these in Setiu district and Kuala Berang. These area not many farms some even pioneer farm. Birds that come visit don't have much choice to choose from so stay permanantly chance higher.

My 8 directional tweeter is already up there since 21/7. Want to see can go to water front jetty behind Seri Malaysia sit there can see a DK with the 8 directional tweeter on top.   This morning I just went there big crowd of birds playing around the tweeters. Most of my tweeters are 95cents piezo tweeters. Some connect with condenser capacitors. Sound better but volume become lower. For internal I also use carbon magnetic tweeters sound more natural but volume also lower than piezo.

The old double storey shop house do better because last time there is no other suitable house ma, so there just stay only lah. Some more last time ppl don't know the technique of bird calling and this old double storey shop house is well known among the bird. So a lot of ppl said it depend on luck if you invest in this business last time. But now there is bird calling cd in the market so it easy to call a bird to your hotel. ppl said if there is a nest the population will start to increase is that correct? Although there is no sound the bird sometime still playing at the entrance is this showing a positive sign or negative sign? One day i will go to seri malaysia jetty to see your farm, if you want to see my farm you must see from pasar jetty the jetty entrance next to redang holiday office. If you use the redang holiday office entrance your must look left to see my farm. There is a small pondok make from abestos on top of the roof that is my farm.

Nope. wrong guess. The heavy duty double storey doing good not because bird got no choice. This farm is newer than a few taller buildings farms beside temple. It's newer than top floor of old Sony building. Why birds choose the double storey rather than these 4-5 storey building farm? God knows 
Population will sure increase IF you're the only farm in the area. Young birds won't fly to other farms and the farm is in A.F. "food canteen" area. With good sound population will multiply 3x-4x each year. But if there're other farms nearby. Young birds got other choices to choose. Couple birds which built nest before would likely to stay but hatching young birds will go test around for a place it like. There are many farms the number of birds stop growing for many years already when more competitors nearby.

Nope. wrong guess. The heavy duty double storey doing good not because bird got no choice. This farm is newer than a few taller buildings farms beside temple. It's newer than top floor of old Sony building. Why birds choose the double storey rather than these 4-5 storey building farm? God knows 
Population will sure increase IF you're the only farm in the area. Young birds won't fly to other farms and the farm is in A.F. "food canteen" area. With good sound population will multiply 3x-4x each year. But if there're other farms nearby. Young birds got other choices to choose. Couple birds which built nest before would likely to stay but hatching young birds will go test around for a place it like. There are many farms the number of birds stop growing for many years already when more competitors nearby.

Do you check the old double storey building material use to build those building. The wall thickness is very different and the material like cement also different same with the brick. Maybe all this thing make the bird to choose the place to stay. May i know what kind of player you use to play the sound and what other sound equiment you use because got some of the equiment i don't know the function.

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Added on August 16, 2007, 8:29 am

The building material normal one lah. As long as desired temperature achieved ok already.  I'm using 1 old china made vcd player and 1 new DVD player with USB port. All cheap cheap one. 2x amplifiers. I know some insist on using Pioneer players and expensive amps. Sifus said that human's over sensitivity not birds'.  Design, powerfulness of sound, strategic placement of tweeters more important.

The building material normal one lah. As long as desired temperature achieved ok already.  I'm using 1 old china made vcd player and 1 new DVD player with USB port. All cheap cheap one. 2x amplifiers. I know some insist on using Pioneer players and expensive amps. Sifus said that human's over sensitivity not birds'.  Design, powerfulness of sound, strategic placement of tweeters more important.

This cheap vcd player can stand the heavy duty jobs or not? We need to run it for a few hour a day correct or not. Do we need to use fan to cool player down? The two amplifier you use is how many channel? Because i have see ppl using not just an amplifier for sound but there is some other equiment that attach to the amplifier i also don't know what is the function of the attach equiment. Do you know what is the attach equiment and function of this equiment? How many adjustment knob do you have on the amplifier?
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If not run too hot cheap and avoid put inside farm(humid) players can be heavy duty.  Choose those with USB port. Can run flash drives no moving mechanism so less heat longer lifespan. My internal sound running 24/7 on USB drive. Rest 10min every 5 hours. No problem at all. Fan? I have a 12cm standby but not using. Touch with hand only. Not too hot no need to use. Thoese small type new players often run slightly warm only. Old players with big transformer would be quite hot.

My internal amp used both LR channels because many tweeters. External amp not so many tweeters also used both channels. Normally farming sound system got player, amplifier, timer, cable, tweeters.  Got other things? No necessary liao lor. Adjustment knobs amps normally got quite a few lah but volume knob enaugh. Others no need to use. As natural as possible.  hey I saw your farm already. Downstair is mobile phone shop one? Nearby got 2 silence farm leh. Try to pancing the birds from there with sound. Their home no sound you got sound more likely can lure them leh.

sorry...newcomer....
u all sell all the bird nest to distributer for them to process?
do u all process?

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Added on August 17, 2007, 10:02 pm

Farmers mostly sell to collectors/middleman. Nowadays some even come to harvest for you. Some come all the way from Indon to sapu nests. Collectors then sell to process factories/exporters. It's not that simple as you think to process bird nest. Without skill and experience you might end up lost money.i.e. Your processed nest damaged become lower quality class price lower than the raw nest you bought in. Even some operationg factory don't have the skill to process cup shape nest. Only process nest strands and broken pieces nests.

If got budget i will setup my sound system. That right that is my farm on top of the mobile phone shop. Very small right? What do you think got any potential to grow or not? I think both of us got a good potential places but space limited and somemore need to compete with other farm. What is the best external tweeter and how many should be use? And how many internal tweeter should be use?

The two farm you said got no sound one, there is a sound but not all the time somemore now the sound is a little bit softer compare to last time i think at the time you were here the sound is off that why you said no sound. So after you see my farm any good advice or comment?

You farm sound system should cost around RM300 for the full setup. Any farm got potential just the time to take to have results. Actually Kg. Cina not a good place for new farms now. We may see a lot of birds around this area because it's a bird residential area. Well there are things I shouldn't reveal openly in forum. There're so many without contribution post forumers reading this thread each day. Check out the number of clicks. Tweeters most people using piezo tweeters. Dirt cheap and durable. Proven good enaugh to lure birds but cannot tahan if the amplifier set to high volume. Installation area and numbers of tweeters is very very important. Also another thing I shouldn't reveal here. A teh tarik session then I can tell lah. Jef are you coming for teh tarik?

ic from this thread, u all say 1kg cost RM3500 to rm 6500 is for the raw bird nest?

You farm sound system should cost around RM300 for the full setup. Any farm got potential just the time to take to have results. Actually Kg. Cina not a good place for new farms now. We may see a lot of birds around this area because it's a bird residential area. Well there are things I shouldn't reveal openly in forum. There're so many without contribution post forumers reading this thread each day. Check out the number of clicks. Tweeters most people using piezo tweeters. Dirt cheap and durable. Proven good enaugh to lure birds but cannot tahan if the amplifier set to high volume. Installation area and numbers of tweeters is very very important. Also another thing I shouldn't reveal here. A teh tarik session then I can tell lah. Jef are you coming for teh tarik?

You farm sound system should cost around RM300 for the full setup. Any farm got potential just the time to take to have results. Actually Kg. Cina not a good place for new farms now. We may see a lot of birds around this area because it's a bird residential area. Well there are things I shouldn't reveal openly in forum. There're so many without contribution post forumers reading this thread each day. Check out the number of clicks. Tweeters most people using piezo tweeters. Dirt cheap and durable. Proven good enaugh to lure birds but cannot tahan if the amplifier set to high volume. Installation area and numbers of tweeters is very very important. Also another thing I shouldn't reveal here. A teh tarik session then I can tell lah. Jef are you coming for teh tarik?

Just coming back fr kota bharu, Im always ready for teh tarik session, when ? 
Now reading Strategi Jitu Memikat Walet, pak hen magic book  .

Hi Jef,
What are you doing in kota bharu? Is your farm in kota bharu? or you looking for a new location to setup a new farm?