Thanks mod for moving the thread here. License really depend on which state you're in and my state still no need license yet. It's not hard to obtain license. You just need to attend a seminar and follow some of the standards given such as no water pond to be build inside. Now mostly using humidifier to humidify the air. My setting will only play n from 6am-8:30am then 4pm to 8pm and all the neibours are doing swiftlets farming themselves so no problem. Just they're too close-up to share experience with rookie like me.  Ask question from them they will ask you to pay RM5K-RM10K consultation fee.
So I bought some guide books to learn so can minimise the chances of failure.

May I know where's your location? So far my local authority still no need us to obtain license yet. The RM400 is annual fee? The seminar you attended held by who? I haven't attended any seminar but I got a seminar recorded 2 DVD video. Have to make sure my place up to the standard approved for license. Who knows when they will start license policy here.  The guide books I bought from the company who organize those seminars. 3 books + a DVD in 1 set.

My relative is doing it.  It cost them about RM20k to renovate the whole 2nd floor shoplot houses for swiflet.  May i know which guide book u hv??

Yup, swiftlet farming is definitely not a cheap investment and risk of failure is high. Some even used up to RM50K/ floor for renovation and equipments. Mine starting very small around 25' x 40' area only. If can success will double up the area. Mine budget should below RM5K not sure yet. Now still cleaning and clearing up the place. I have 3 guide books that come in a set.
1) Bird's nest and swiftlet farming
2) Swiftlet farming: An Ideal Investment in Malaysia
3) House Swiftlet Behaviour and Farming.

burung layang layang.. their nest are very valuable like gold 

The company name is Nest Tech Equipment Technology located in JB. Check out http://www.nesttech.com.my
They got quite a numbers of swiftlet farming equipments for sales.

May I know how much the consultant cost? Are they company specilised in this field? No harm to know more experts. So yes please, number and person/company name. 
Although I'm planning to do it myself. Of coure those renovation thing need to hire "tukang" lah. Want to do it myself so I'll know every detail of it then maybe if my place success later can become "Consultant" leh   

The books cost me RM403 include postlaju.   But what to do? Hire consultant more expensive.  My 2nd renovation is not in the same room.  It's next door room separated by a wooden partition. Can renovate siap-siap then only open up the wooden partition to make it bigger area. BTW no cement will be used in the renovation. The place is downstair cement upstair wooden old shop lot.

There's another company in Kuantan selling swiftlet farming equipments - http://konghengswiftlets.com/

Agree. Super expensive. I have whole pricelist of their chemical liquid. Cheapest one the ammonia RM220/5 liter! The digital hygrometer/termometer RM180. That one I checked online selling around RM50 only. But dunno where to find in Malaysia other than Nest Tech. The long distance speaker is the long pipe look 1? They have long distance and middle distance. For mine I use 4" PVC pipe to DIY into 2 x middle distance speakers. 45 degree poiting up.  I guess their 6 direction/8 direction speakers could cost a bomb!  BTW I only use 1 amplifier so outside and inside noice is the same.

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Added on March 26, 2007, 1:53 pm
I'm 34 and doing these alone. More ppl more different ideas. Since this is my first "experimental" farming better do it myself.
Ideal humidity is 80%-90%. So good quality wood is a must. I choose "Meranti". but must not be hard because swiftlets' claws need to hook up there. Soft type meranti that soft but have resistance to humidity. Since there are almost uncountable types of meranti. I particularly choose "Meranti bukit" because it's dark-reddish colour and very little smell compare to others. Don't choose the softest type because when "harvesting" the knife can damage the wood if too soft. As for 45degree angle wood I will buy from Nest Tech's hormone smelled ready made.  RM190/50pcs.

FYI I'm in Kuala Terengganu. Setiawan is one of Hamster9's swiftlet farm there. As starting I won't use the 6/8 directional speaker yet. How much you bought the 6/8 directional?? Include the water nozzles and the "External Swiftlet Attraction system - Mist Cooling Pump NT-1P" ?? So far here nobody using the 6/8 direction yet. If I first ppl use scare kean boycott lorr.  The 45° wood I just want to try Nest Tech claimed so powerful. The wood they soaked in their formulated liquid.  Normal type can get at less than RM2/pc.  Nest Tech selling RM3.80/pc. Metal plate not so recommended coz metal+humid=oxidize=toxic.

The consultant did everything for you then charge a total sum? 15 piles of droppings + 1 nest base is quite promising. But for more accurate result evaluation should be the 1st 6 months. To be consider successful must have at least 10 units of base or nest combined.

would you be able to forward me the consultant's name and company and also contacT ?

thanks

weihow_2000 your consultant uncle got sell Humidity/Thermometer? Preferable digital type. Nest Tech selling too expensive. Made in China. Found people sell in E-Bay Hongkong converted to RM around RM50 only.

I currently still asking every where to get the hygrometer/thermometer locally. From Ebay HK the item price cheap but shipping alone already over RM60 so cannot buy.

New updates: Successfully ordered a digital Hygrometer/Thermometer CT-138B from CT made in Taiwan @RM75 including shipping. 

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.

Can we eat these birds ? Deep fried with turmeric ?

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

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.

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

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.

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 am

Wow, 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