I bought the Hygrometer/Thermometer from a local supplier here.
I'm now measuring and calculationg the amount of planks needed to build the "hotel rooms". Also how big a cubical should be and the numbers of 45degree angle wood needed.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Jan 20 2008, 08:15 AM

Hi guys, my name is Sam and I've just signed up to join this forum. Guess it's only customary to introduce myself to the established forum members. I live in Tok Soboh, Terengganu. If not many people have heard about Tok Soboh, don't worry. Even my outstation family members can't seem to find my home during CNY. I've just retired from accounting practice, about 56 years old, and have 2 operational swiftlet farms in the Tok Soboh district.

Let me humbly add more useful links about swiftlet farming to seeseng's list in this forum in order to help increase our knowledge about this growing industry.

Make Millions from Swiftlet Farming Book
The Complete Introductory Guide to Swiftlet Farming
Swiftlets City - Swiftlet Farm Consultant
One day beginners' swiftlet farming course
EBN Resources - Swiftlet Farming Equipment
Swiftlet Locator CDs

Ok, that's all for now. Once again, nice to meet you guys and thanks for letting me join. If anybody has any more useful links, please post them up for all to share.

Regards,
Sam

heard alot of this swifflet and seen a lot too.my hometown is sitiawan too.but,jus wana know, how many percentage of the investors get good paid? i heard some ppl after 2 years, they dont have any nest, some, (kg koh), have more than 20k a month return.so, it kinda depends on luck,perhaps. good luck to all the swiflets investors.

ya..that's rite..and if build new swifflet in sitiawan or manjung... u will meet me coz i'm the enforcer in local authorities there.

so... whats the worst scenario when u found out that the swiftlet hse is illegal???

Can we eat these birds ? Deep fried with turmeric ?

i think can... but you might as well eat the nest. The vitamins and minerals in the nest are far greater than the bird...

Hi Sam, welcome to the forum. I'm from KT but never heard of Tok Soboh as well. Under which daerah? May i know how old are your farms? Are there many other swiftlet farms at Tok Soboh? Did you hire consultants to build your farms? Mine totally DIY. May I know which specific Meranti wood you're using for nesting planks? I'm still considering about wood type. Some local farmers here use Meranti Bukit but I think it's a bit too hard in density. The most commonly use is Meranti Kepong. But KT wood suppliers don't have that.
Thanks for your enlightened links on this topic. The first one : Make Millions From Swiftlet Farming: A definitive Guide by Dr. Christopher Lim. I have the book myself bought directly from the author. (But forgot to ask him autograph it )

Hi seeseng,

Nice to hear from you. Don't worry, I'm not surprised. About half of the residents from Kuala Terengganu have not heard of my town before. Tok Soboh is actually 45 minutes from KT, near to Kanpong Sg. Pinang and on the outskirts of Kuala Besut. It's easier to tell people that I come from Kuala Besut becoz even outstation folk know where the town is located

I currently have 2 farms. One is about 5 years old and the other is about 3 years old. By the grace of God, I can humbly say that my farms had helped me to retire. All the nesting planks that I use are Meranti Merah, about 6inches wide, 1 inch thick. To tell you the truth, I never did the construction, design and fit-out of my farms myself. Never had the courage like you have. However, I'd spent close to 6 months visiting and talking to swiftlet consultants all over Malaysia. One of them is from Johor whom the members have been mentioning here but I've read that their experiences with him are very similar to mine.

Even went to Kuantan to visit another one there. No luck as he doesn't even speak English and sounded more like a mediine man than a professional consultant.

Finally, I selected Crystal Swiftlets from Penang, whose link you have mentioned in your post. They have their own factory producing swiftlet farming equipment for export, their employees at their Penang office are all graduates and best yet, they could converse with me in English. Quite rare for a swiftlet consultant to do so I also met the boss, a Thai national, and he has many swiftlet farms all over Malaysia and Thailand. Their charges are not cheap, nor are they expensive. Cheaper than the Johor guy but dearer than the Kuantan one, I calculated.

So Crystal Swiftlets constructed and designed my swiftlet farms for me. I go in to harvest the nests according to the timetable that they had given me and whenever I have a problem, it's quite easy to get one of their employees on the line to ask for advice.

I have Dr. Chris' book too. It's quite informative and good to read. I also bought The Complete Introductory Course on Swiftlet farming as well. It's just as good as Dr. Chris' book but contains a case study on an atual swiftlet farm that shows that a farm with afternoon temperature of more than 32 degrees celsius can still have swiftlets nesting in it. Very interesting. You should give it a read when you have the time. Apart from these 2 books, there are just not enough swiftlet farming reading material available.

Regards,
Sam

Success or failure in this investment solely depend on how well the investors understand about the behaviour of this species of bird. Chances of failure can be as high as 50%. Luck is one of the factors but not the most important. Swiftlet farming has become scientific throughout the years. It has become kind of like hotel management business. No doubt Sitiawan has the largest population of swiftlet in Malaysia. But problem in Sitiawan is the nest is become smaller and smaller. Chances of getting A grade nests is getting lower because of over poplulated and food source become scarce.

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Added on April 6, 2007, 5:45 amNot much flesh to be eaten and it's illegal to harm/kill the species "Aerodramus Fuciplagus". It's highly protected species and only exist in Southeast Asia.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Apr 6 2007, 05:45 AM

Wow sam.... u really knows alot and u willing to share.
Normally ppl who done swiftlet business not willing to share as they sked their idea copy by ppl and then affected their income...
This is happening in my hometown right now.

Yeah, I know what you mean about people not wanting to share and people who appear willing to share but may have the hidden motivation to lead you astray. I can remember that during my 6 months of research and travelling to learn more about swiftlet farming, I just couldn't believe that there are so many such people here in Malaysia. What's their proplem anyway? Don't they know that the greater the number of sucessful swiftlet farms there are in Malaysia, the better and more profitable this indsutry will become and the greater the chances of new swiftlets from other farms visiting and staying in theirs. The goverment will also afford the swiftlet farming industry better recognition as one of the elements driving our country's export performance if the industry can show that it is exporting more and more edible birds nests overseaas. Aaah... headache man.

I've also heard from some of my friends in China that the supply of edible birds nests there have become so limited that only around 20% to 25% of demand edible birds nests are being fulfilled by exporters from Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. So the more swiftlet farms there are the better we, as swiftlet farmers, can help to fulfill this demand. If birds nests become too expensive due to the constant lack of supply, the market for this birds nests may start to turn away and look for some other product substitutes and this may end up hurting all swiftlet farmers. It's only a question of economics.

Sam

Sam, your 3 & 5 years old farms are 80% and up occupied? I believe they're making quite some profits each month. Normally a successful swiftlet farm can pay up the capital within the first 2 years. So I guess yours is making $ minus the very low monthly utility bills. How long is your duration of harvest and guano clean-up?
As for mine I'm still waiting for Nest Tech to send me their formulated 45degree planks. Have to use theirs as sample to match the grooves to be made on my main nesting planks. Most probably I'll go for "Meranti Bukit" because not many choice of meranti to choose from local plank supplier. I might order from Kota Bharu supplier since I heard some of them have 0.7" thick x 6 inch planks. Cheaper and lighter in weight.
My under construction farm is very small. 32' x 19' for nesting area. I'm doing it DIY because budget limited. I took over this 1 year+ tiny farm from friend. No swiftlet stay in at all for 1 year+. Only guano from those test out the farm and left. The farm has many problems to be fixed. My job is to re-renovate and change whatever that's not right. The main problem is the farm is a store-room+swiftlet farm. 1/4 occupied by unused steel air-ducts, company old ledgers, account paper works... files etc etc... With those stuff inside they're generally doing rat and cockroach farming. Not swiftlet. Now I'm clearing up the area and refurbish the place.
Roof top prison tower style entrance with two 3'x3' holes facing north/south. Tower size 4'x4' down to a small roving area before entering nesting area.
Crystal Swiftlet - Do they use their CS Swiftlet Farming Mating Potions in your farms? After constructed your farms how long is their warranty period given? Any after sales services & charges?
I have Dr. Chris' book and 3 books from Mr. Phang Kam Wah. Mr.Phang's books really "advertise" their own product a lot. I think I'm going to order Crystal Swiftlets book as well. Interested in that 32 degree C surviving farm. As I'm in headache of lowering the farm temperature in this April. Hottest month of the year. Humidity can achieve 75%RH but temp highest can hit 31.6 degree. Planning to add timer controlled 12" exhaust fan but unsure of how effective it is.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Apr 6 2007, 04:07 PM

our problem is...the guideline for swiftlet from Federal Gov is not suitable to follow.. u can built in shoplot but not in house... some cases i enforce becouse many people think this industry make lot of problem.. expecially on sound and the shit will coz of viruses(just a thought those naif)

before the guideline...we here just bring to court... but rite now...we legellise this think and lisences it. So make sure u got lisence in Manjung coz in 2/3 month we will do some exercise to tracking those are dont have any lisences.

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.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Apr 6 2007, 11:07 PM


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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

seeseng... where can i get it and how much??

How much for the mating potion costs??? interested on that.
I see you mention alot of sounds and those equipment... but you seldom mention about the brightness... can give some idea??
Thanks man.

appreciate ur participation and ur opinions here. makes good reference for other budding entrepreneurs.

anybody ever did a study on the feasibility, nutrition and market study for swiftlet meat?

Agree with weihow_2000 too. Even in Mr. Phang's 3 books and 2 DVD I have. They still keeping something to themselves only.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Apr 8 2007, 10:54 AM