Sam,
Yes my farm is small. I call it store-room converted farm. It's my first farm. But it won't be my only farm in future. It will be my stepping stone into this field. I've collected a few swiftlet chirping CDs and one of them is from a farmer who own more than 5 successful farms. I will use that one for mine. Existing tweeters too small in size. Already found a good non-magnetic tweeter @RM5/pcs better sound quality, no hissing. Will add punched aluminium sheet on each of them. Artificial nests will be used to increase populations. I read in Dr. Chris forum that an Indonesian forumer said the mating potion is made of fish oil + duck egg as main ingrediant and kept the other ingrediant such as anti-ant a secret. Crystal Swiftlet selling the potion @RM350 / 5 liter as far as I know. I'll consider to use potion after the construction finished. Nest Tech also selling their own potions. weihow_2000 if you're interested here's the price list:
Ammonia RM220 / 5Liter
Swiftlet aroma RM340 / 4Liter
Swiftlet hormone RM280 / 5Liter
Swiftlet love potion RM340 / 4Liter
Also today I've received the hormone smell 45 degree angle planks from Nest Tech. They're really come with smell. They soaked the 0.7 inches Meranti Kepong wood in their secret formulated potion for 7 hours to make that planks. Made their fastest record of 5 completed nest in 3 months time in their experimental farm. Meranti Kepong is really soft. Made me think twice of choices of wood. Tomorrow will ask supplier to send me Meranti Bukit sample for comparison.



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Weihow_2000, regarding the hygrostat I'm still waiting for reply from supplier. From another forum there's a guy ordered from Tanjung Balai Indonesia @RM550/set. If my supplier can find one should be cheaper than that.
Introducing another piece of swiftlet farming gadget - Infra-Red Thermometer. It's useful for DIY farmers and consultants. It uses laser pointer to measure temperature of areas hard to reach such as walls and ceiling. It's useful when our over heated farm cause by an un-proper covered/concealed part of the wall/ceiling. Just point and click and instantly we know the surface temperature. To anyone interested to buy, my supplier have 2 types. E-Sun China and TES from Taiwan. E-Sun RM-520 @RM285 , TES 1326 @RM385 both including shipping to your door step. Both using 1x 9V battery.


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My farms are usually kept at a light intensity factor of 2 to 3 lux. That's not very bright... maybe around the glare of the luminious paint from a wristwatch inside a dark room. Some swiftlets also nest near the entrance hole of my farms where the light intensity is alot brighter... so I do think that trying to achieve total darkness may be quite marginal.

Yeah, I truly agree that quite alot of swiftlet farmers and consultants always want to keep something to themselves even after we have paid them alot of money for their consultation and advice.

But let's not let them get the better of us. Just remember, swiftlet farming is like any other industry... it takes alot of research and a great deal of common sense, not to mention hard work to see it through to fruitation. The common sense being that these swiftlets are animals with their own natural habits and charatetricstics. Their natural habitat is in caves... so lets' renovate our swiftlet farms into cave like environments to make it conducive for them to breed in. Anything else that these swiftlet consultants seem to be hiding, which doesn't not square with our common sense and logical thought, should probably continue to remain hidden. They can have it. No sense designing and installing the illogical into our swiftlet farms.

What do you guys think? Too simplistic a view?

Sam

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Added on April 9, 2007, 11:27 amWow, you've really done heaps of research seeseng. Good on you.Sound's like you are beginning to know more about swiftlet farming than those swiftlet farming consultants seem to do.

Dr. Chirs has a forum? Is it online? It would be great if you could forward me the link if there is one.

I'm not too sure what's inside the mating potions... but it has a real pungent cave like smell. I spilled some of it on my hand the other day and it took 2 days to get it off. Even my wife seem to not want to come near me during that time... hehe. Confirm that the price is RM350 per 5 litres.

If you can, better not spray ammonia into your farm. Most ammonia solutions in the market are quite strong (even when diluted), and the vapours really hurt the eyes of the swiftlets living within the farm.

The photos you uploaded are quite informative, especially the tweeter with the metal piece on it. How much are you paying for the nesting planks? Are they affordable?

Sam

This post has been edited by swiftletfarm: Apr 9 2007, 11:27 AM

RM550 is too expensive.
Is just a plug with some minor electronic device to control it...

Wow... 5 litres for RM350.
5 liters can use how long? Can mixed with water to spray??

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

This post has been edited by seeseng: Apr 10 2007, 03:05 PM

wow... the Fedona FC is so hard to find... i try to google it but i can't found as well...

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

does nesttech sell any similar potion?? when we have to apply the potion? during breeding season?

i try to join into the group.... unfortunately i cant join... they will ask some question for verifications....

Hi Weihow,

I'm not sure about the types of potions that nestech sells. All the while I've just been using the CS mating potion and I've found that almost all the baby swiftlets that were born in my farm continued to return every day. Kinda afraid to rock the boat by trying anything new, if you know what I mean.

The timetable that Crystal Swiftlets provided me is that from Jan to May, spraying the potion will help to retain the new baby swifts in my farm while spraying the potion in the 2nd half of the year will help to retain the visiting baby and adult swifts from other farms that fly into your farm to play during the day. The theory is that once these visiting swiftlets get used to the smell of the mating potions by playing inside of your farm, they will find it unfamiliar to stay in their own farms and subsequently migrate to yours.

From my own personal limited experience, the potion truly works. But the drawback is, it costs quite a lot of money. However, I don't mind paying to keep my farms competitive, just take the money out from the sales of edible birds nests. Better to spend a bit than to lose my swiftlets to others. In the end, I may end up spending (losing) more, kinda like penny wise pound foolish.

Thanks for Dr. Chris' link, seeseng. Will check it out later. But they ask questions in order to join? Like what? Will give it a try and report back.

regards,
Sam

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..

they ask me 3 questions... i forgot 2 questions oledi... but one of it is "what is the first word in page 68..."

Hi...

First of all... i would suggest you to get a own shoplot.
I dunno how much it will charge for other state, but in kuantan, is roughly bout 30k per floor... no need alot of ppl to take care but is very tedious to get a license.

Yes... you can clean it if you wanna directly import to china, HK or SG or u can sell to those middleman...

Where are you from?

i am from johor,actually my parent have plan to do this few years ago,but when they go to pinang,1 of his friend telling him that it is not cheap to build a swiftlet farming.

is it everyshop have birdnest or we need to choose the shop lot.that guy also telling us better we own our own shop,if we dun own our own shop our owner for sure won't sign contract v us anymore and he is something like taking over our biz.

30k per floor is juz renovation or buying that floor+renovating?

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.

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Added on April 12, 2007, 2:35 amThere are lots of things to be done before you set up a fam. First of all before you buy or rent a shop lot for swiftlet farming. You have to observe other swiftlet farms nearby. Observe the swiftlet quantity in that area. Use a few tweeters to play swiftlet external chirping sound on the roof top to see how many swiftlet you can gather. Decide to use the lot from the results. The preparation for the grand opening never comes cheap if you hire consultant or consultant companies. Bear in mind that not many consultants do well. Some consultants provide joint-venture service where you don't have to pay them but they will share the profit from your harvest for up to 20 years. Alternatively if you're daring enaugh you can do most of the job DIY. That's what I'm doing now. Because my under constrution farm has only 32' x 19 nesting area exclude roving area and entrace hole. Not worth it to hire consultant. Most of them charge RM5K to RM10K for advice only. I know a few farmers from outstation that renting shop lots in my area for swiftlet farming. Majority of farmers still own the shop lots themselves.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Apr 12 2007, 11:13 AM

seeseng... just now i try to go in www.sinchew.com.my
under the "east coast news"... i saw something regarding to swiftlet farming in terengganu. I try to go in but the link broken.
It's something like licensing issue....

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.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Apr 12 2007, 01:56 PM


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sifu'S~~~ hahaha i nees some help guys i have 1 farm on for roughly a year now helping to take care of it now but seems that there are still no nest's inside but they seems to fly in n out of the place. any ideas on making it to work ??? darn i just got the thermometer reading inside its 34 hahaha any solutions ??? really need u guys advice, uncles breeding at that area just kept their mouth shut when asking for some advice ish~


i think i need those auto-hydrometer which turns on the humidifier auto to maintain the humidity inside plus iis there any way to control the temp inside ??? seriously need advice man haha oh yea those things cost how much







This post has been edited by hypEr_mad: Apr 12 2007, 11:06 PM