The First Few Days Of Swiftlet's Life

The baby birds after hatching from their eggs need adequate food to grow.

If they are not provided with food for two days, they will die.

If they are already grown and there are no food being supplied by their parent, due to severe flooding or drought, they will in fact kill themselves by crawling out of the nest. They actually kill themselves by falling onto the BH floor.

By doing so they vacate the nest and at the same time their parent will be able to survive to start a cycle once the food supply is back to normal.

Those that are properly fed will be able to take their first flight on the 45th day after hatching.

On the 43rd day they will no longer take any food. This is their way of preparing themselves to cut down their weight.

They will no longer be sitting in the nest but clinging at the side of the nest.

They will test their wings vigorously during this period.

Once ready, on the 45th day, they will release their claws from the nest and drop towards the BH floor.

In general these young birds will follow those light out of the house at around 6am till 10am. They actually follow the matured birds out of the house.

They will not follow them to the hunting ground but will fly above the rooftop as if testing their wings and learn how to navigate from outside the house into their nest. They do try to catch those insects in the air but their main focus is to strengthen their wings and body before going for hunting on the 48th day.

They will repeat this flight tests movement many times until late afternoon. If they feel tired they return home and will cling onto the nest where there were born.

After resting for about 2-3 hours they will start the flight test again from 3pm onwards.

This test and navigation check flight will last the most 2-3 days.

Once they are ready and strong enough they will follow their parent to hunt for food on the 47-48 days of birth. Usually they will return home following their parent.

During this period that can be easily diverted to enter any new BH or perhaps old BHs that are located along their flight path towards home.

That can be a very good reason why it is important to ensure that your new BH must be completed just before the ending of the breeding season.

Hope this article gave you some idea on how these young birds start that maiden flight and how they get themselves strengthen before going for hunting.

A Very Strange Thing That Happen In A 350K BH

This weired story have to do with territorial behaviour of Swiftlet King or a Leader.

Remember my article about swiftlet colony members who tend to be aggressive when their colony numbers grow big enough.

They tend to chase the other smaller colony size members away and overtake their territories (if you do not build a colony divider).

Those smaller colonies will eventually move away to another suitable location or maybe find another safer BH nearby.

The lesson here is that there is a kind of territorial protection behaviour pattern that are being practise by these wild birds.

Beside becoming aggressive, these birds also mark their territories by using their shit. Good example are those markings on the walls of the roving areas. If you look at the pattern of those shits on the wall, they were all intentionally made and not by chance.

The birds need to bomb the wall while flying. They need to fly as such they shit must hit the walls. Can you visualise how difficult it was but they do that for a purpose. Territorial marking !!!

Another interesting method is by the use of sound. The dominant leader of the colonies will give a loud shriek or call to announce his dominance.

This special sound made do make the rest very scared, run away, keep quite or not willing to be close by or even stay in the same BH.

This was what possibly happened in a 350K BH with only one nest.

This BH owner has his BH put into operation for almost 1 year plus. After so much money invested he was hoping to get his BH filled with swiftlet nests.

Months after months the birds was staying away from his BH except one couple.

It seem that this couple has a very dominant character so much so no other birds dares to build their nest inside the 350K BH. Even their own babies will stay away once they have taken their flight. (I assumed so since after more then a year there were no sign of any nest in the BH)

The owner was very disappointed with the only one nest so he decided to do the extreme.

He closed the entrance hole and one night he use those net to catch the couple.

He literally kill both of them.( I am not too sure how they did them).

Once that was done, after a few short weeks, the house begin to be populated by those new young birds.

It was very strange but it can be due to the dominance of the previous tenant.

Too bad they were no longer alive to explain to us what they actually did to scare the rest from entering the 350K BH.

This real event was told by one of my blog reader during my occasional meeting with some.

Which Egg Will Produce Male and Female?

Swiftlet normally will lay only two eggs per breeding season.

Usually one will be male and the other is a female.

How do you know which egg will produce male chick and which will be the Female?

This is where Fatich Marzuki comes in.

In his book titled: Meningkat Produksi Sarang Walet Berazas Kelastarian" page 53, he displayed a chart comparing between the serinti and swiftlet eggs.



He also indicated which will be the female and which will be the male.

Have a look and maybe by now you can have a 100% sure that they are the right chick for your breeding operation. Double click on the picture to get a larger display.

Remember breed more female then male.

What Really Happen When Those Birds Build Their Nests

Have you ever thought or ask yourself what do you think happened when the building process of the nest takes place?

Let me tell you about the behaviour pattern of these wild birds (AF only).

Usually when any nests are being constructed only one of the couple will carry out the work while the other will stay nearby.

I believed the starter will be the male bird.

He will locate the most appropriate location to build his nest that he feel very safe to start a family.

Due to his urge to copulate or make love to his mate he need to choose a right location that can expedite the construction works.

The faster the construction the faster he will get his investment returns ie sexual copulation.

In AF world once copulation takes place the female will lay her 1st eggs within 8 days. The second egg will be laid on the 9 or 10th day. To build a nest, just be ready ready for those eggs not to fall down, will take at least 3 weeks.

So the male need to quickly get the construction work as fast as he can and if he can find a ready made house, example fake nest, he will surely cut short his works. (I recommend the installation of those fake nests during Phase 1 of your BH).

They also prefer those 90* corners since the shape of the corner will make their construction works much easier and faster. (So do not cover those corners until you have 300 nests in your BH).

The male need to ensure that his nest is strong and wide enough for the eggs not to fall down. Once the shape is in place, partially completed, he will allow the female to carry out her inspection.

If she approved and accept the nest, under construction, she will make those sexy sound calling her hard working mate to make love to her. Remember once copulated or her virgin is broken she got 8 days to lay he eggs.

Normally the eight days will be the best period for the male. He will have the best part of his life with lots of sex. The male will loose not a single minutes of his life. The love making continue every hour 24/7.

Just imagine making love in the air, in the BH, while searching for food, coming home time, drinking time, finishing up the nest and etc!!!

Sometime the male bird will pull out some of the feathers of the female. In this way she will have a slight disadvantage in her flying speed. You will see a few of these feathers on the floor just below the new nest. With a small defect he can easily catch up with her in the air to mate. These feathers will grow once the mating period is over.

Well once she accepted the nest under construction she will help in the nest construction too. They will take turns to finish up the nest.

During this period of construction what do you think the other party does while one is doing the construction works?

Hmm ..... this is the interesting part. Make a guess ????????

For sure the other bird have nothing to do but to stay close to the partner.

The strange thing that usually happened in that the other party will be singing with those beautiful melodious songs that he or she can make out.

The song will serenade the other party to continue his or her works to finish the nest.

If you make a night call to your BH try to put your ear at those key hole on your steel door. If you hear those melodious singing session of those birds then you know that they are building their nests. If there is no sound then there are no nests building.

I think they attend those music lesson in choosing the right sound to sing. He he he.

Insect Plantiful in Padi Field: Padi Sap Sucker/Hopper

During the weekend I was passing a reasonable sized padi field.

What attracted me most while driving was the number of swiftlets flying above.

There were at least 500 to 1000 birds flying in a manner where you can easily concluded that they were eating something that were blown upward.

What I did was to stop my car and walked towards those padi plants.

I wanted to check what kind of insects were coming from those padi plants.

It took some good minutes to detect the insects.



They were so small and their color were similar to the riping rice sacks. The young ones were green in color.

The camoflush really works.

I took lots of pictures and wanted to share with all my blog readers.

The most common were these padi hoppers that feeds on the young saps of the padi seeds.

Every plant I can easily detected not less then 4 to 5 of them.

The young one were so small and every time the will blows I am sure some will be trapped with the wind and lifted above.

This must be the insects those birds were catching.

Have a good look and if you happened to pass any padi fields just stop and check yourself.

We need to learn and understand why the birds seem to prefer those padi field areas.

I am of the opinion that these plant hoppers are damanging the padi output.

The moment they suck those young milk from the padi sacks, they actually make the sack empty.

Just imagine if one day they need to suck one sack? The number of empty sacks will be in the thousands and this will reduce the yield of each harvest.

The number of empty sacks can be observed during the windowing. Usually farmers do this by using the wind by alllowing the rice to drop from the air. Those will not seed inside will be blown away.

What the swiftlet does is to eat as many as they can and help to minimise the spread of these predators (padi field).

Interesting function of swiftlet I guess.

Common Mistakes That Can Jeopardize Your BH Sound System

One of the most important section that many BH owners failed to manage is the sound system.

I think 90% of those who operate their BH do not have any clue about how those amplifiers works and how they are timed to run at the right time of the day.

Some depend so much on their electricians or their consultant to do what the consultant/electrician think right.

Do you think what the consultant set is right or worse the electrician who knows nothing about BH operation?

Their idea is simple, as long the sound is working from say 7 am till 7 pm it is okay to them.

I don't think this is right and my advise is to clearly understand what is best for your BH and make sure those birds like the volume, the timing and the type of sound you played.

I was at this BH during my Friday BH outing and was looking at the sound system. I was supposed to change the sound only but upon looking at the configuration the electrician seem to have mess up the cables and everything was haywire.

Everything that was done was wrong and I am not going to leave until I reconnect those wires.

First was to identify the right cables to the right tweeters.

Then to allocate them to either the internal sound or the external sound.

Finally which should go to the Left and which to the Right connectors at the back of the amplifiers.

Once done you need to be able to control the volume so that the one to be loud is properly set and the lower sound be subjected to proper sound testing.

The method which the timer was used was not right and I have advised the owner to get a new digital timer to get the internal sound be played on a 24 hrs basis.

After re-connection and fined tuning the BH seem to be more appropriate and those birds were on the roof.

I told the owner it is a matter of time that they will become his long term tenant.

He smiled and this was the best smile for a very long time.

He said that for the last 7 months he could not smile and can never have a good sleep. He put every penny of his saving in this BH and the "Consultant" let him down very bad.

"Thank you Harry for all the help".

I am so happy that I put that smiles back on his face.

Inside me I feel sad that his wife is not well. I shed some tears while writing this article. Main reason being I was told by his good friend that his wife is terminally ill and he will loose her shortly.I just cannot understand why his so call "Consultant" do this to him while he channeled all his saving to this project.

I hope my small contribution will at least make him and wife happy that the money was well spend.

How To Minimise The Construction Cost Of Your Dream BH

Recent Petrol and Diesel prices hike have not done any good to the construction materials cost.

I was make to understand, most building materials shot up by at least 20 percent.

The bulk were on the steel and cement prices.

Those nesting planks were not spared.

They used to be around $500 per metric ton. Now nothing less then $600. The cost to deliver to your door step need to be further added.

So what will be the best think for you to cut down these cost down?

I met a few contractors and these were some of the things they resorted to:

1) Make the steel frame at home.
This contractor adopted the "Do At Home" concept. He will order those steel bars and make every feet accountable. Not a foot to be lost. He said that if you sent those steel bars to the work site, you will find some footage goes missing every day. They are either being taken away by those workers or some rags dealers coming over at night to cut those steel away.

So he will cut to size and form those shapes. Ship those that are required to the site. The rest will be in his storage yard.

2) Maximise the use of all Materials.

Another contractor resort to something that I called "Make To Fit". This special person have been in the construction business for more then 22 years. Now he do nothing else but constructing BHs. He employs more then 20 Indonesian workers at any one time.

His idea is to built the birdhouse based on the length of those steel that were sent to him. If they are 38 feet long, make the house to that length or half of it (19 feet) or a multiple of 19 feet. If you follow his style, you will have very little wastage.

3) Use Light Weight Bricks.
One of the latest technologies that will reduce a substantial amount of building materials is to opt for light weight bricks. They are made of low density cement and lightweight. They are also a low heat conductors.

Main reason given was the total weight of your building, BH only.

Using this 8 inches by 24 inches by 4 inches thick, the total weight of your BH will reduced tremendously. When the total weight is down, you need to use lesser steel bars and thinner columns to support the total structure.

The cost of these bricks might be a bit high but in total the cost will be much lower then those conventional bricks type building. How much reduction? At least 20% and perhaps 30%.

He might be right but I just hope the dimension will not cause any severe effect on the swiftlet flying or cornering abilities.

I know one thing, this guy can built a BH below $15 per square feet.


If you have any requirements in your new BH just let us find a way to cut those initial cost down.

How To Increase The Value Of Your Birdnest

Raw bird nests that you harvest from your BH is the "White Gold" if they are cleaned, full half cup shape and big.

The whiter the the color the higher the value of those raw nests.

Every BH owner dreamed of having these well formed nests and their cost can be as high as $1500 a kilogram.

So how do you keep those nests clean and white?

The best, according to some experience guys, is to harvest those nests before those young chicks dirtied them.

Yes you need to think of how to harvest those nests but at the same time you must not harm those young chicks. These are your next season tenants. You must ensure that they live and live well.

So how do you maximise the operation? Yes, you harvest those clean nests but you allow those young birds to propagate.

All you need to do is to replace those real nests with fake nests.

The real challenge is to know when to harvest the nests and what type of fake nests do you want them to be replaced with.

Before that it is recommended that the fake nest are well prepared and laced with proper aroma.

You can only master the art if you are willing to learn from those who knows more then you

Feeding of Young Swiftlet By Mr R of Taiping

If you happened to find young swiftlets on your BH floor, there is a very strong chance that they will not survive if something they are not being fed.

You have two choices. To place them back into the right nest or you need to be their foster parent.

How do you raise them?

Mr.R of Taiping, whom have raised a few swiftlets before gave me the following advises:

1) Keep the baby birds in a container. The container need to be cleaned and warm. The best is in a fake nest.

2) Try not to mix them up, if you happened to have more then one. They tend to bite each other. If they bite each other they might injured and cause the skin to tear.

3) Feed them 3 times a day.

4) The best food are those termite's that fly out of their nests after rain. Catch them and you can keep them in them fresh in the refrigerator.

5) The other alternative are the bread worms or meal worm. Get the smaller size worms from those pet shop or bird selling shop. You need to cut them into small pieces.

6) When feeding you need to be careful. Use a kind of scoop to pick the worms and feed the swiftlet babies.

7) Make sure you do not injured the baby's throat. Once injured they will refuse to eat and die.

8) They will be able to fly all over you within 30 -40 days after hatching from their eggs. When they can fly you need to put them in a room. Do not open the window.

9) Once they are fatten up, they will stop eating about two days before they take their flight. They need to reduce their body weight in order to fly away.

10) You might want to mix their diet with crickets, house flies and grasshoppers. Remember you need to cut them into small pieces to ensure that they can be swallowed.

11) They do not like wind draught. Make sure there are no wind in the room. Do not place a fan or open the windows.

12) They might like you to play those swiftlet sound. Maybe you might want to install a bird sound gadget and play them using a timer.

13) If you wish to have the birds back, you might want to release those birds in your BH. They might come back.

14) You might want to put some marking on their leg. Something white that can use as a tracer if they should come back

Why There Were Many Feathers On The Birdhouse Floor?

On many occasions, when I visited new BHs, being occupied by those young birds I do come across a few with those long feathers on the floor.

Come to think of it sometimes there can be as many as four to five long feathers (wing feathers) while many are those short feathers.

I wonder if anyone of you have ever asked what really happened and why?

I was at my birdhouse one evening and glued my eyes on those swiftlets returning home via the CCTV. Once a while I can see certain activities (wing clapping, chasing and so forth) at a few of those new nests.

There were a few occasions I observed that one of those birds was hanging to the wing of the other bird resting in the nest. The hanging, I strongly believed, is the cause of those long feathers being pulled out of the wing.

The aggression continued for many minutes and many nights.

I concluded that this must be a young couple who have just built their nest and the male must be harassing the female for copulation (making love).

Why should the male pull those feathers out?

I strongly believed that the male just wanted to remove a few of those feathers so that the female birds will be a bit defective in order for him to chase and catch her more easier. With a few shortage of long wings feathers she will be much slower during flight. He will have the advantage on speed and get what he wanted. Yes easier sex in the air.

If you do those birdcall tests, you might come across some birds that have a kind of missing feathers (like human with missing teeth). Those probably are female birds.

I do not wish to claim an expert on this but the above might be some explanations why there are so many feathers on the BH floors.

If you have a much better explanation please share with the rest !!!!

How To Be A Good Hubby Via Birdnest Soup

I simply enjoy reading this beautiful article about this 24 hours loving husband who will do anything just for the sake of love.


Title: Bird Nest Soup.

This is suppose to be delicacy for Chinese but i do not really fancy them. These edible bird's nest is supposed to be swallow's nest. Made from their SALIVA. Err.. i do not really know much about it. Do refer to here for more details of this swiftlet's nest.


All Chinese girls would have heard that the nest's will make their complexion better. Is it really so ? Personally i think it should be true but unless you eat it daily....it wont help you much. *chuckle*


This site stated the health benefit of bird's nest but did not offer any scientific fact. Lolz

Anyway, since me wife had a problem , some of you had known, she wanted to eat bird's nest. Since I am a "Yeah Sei Hau Lou Kong" literary means 24 hrs Hubby or better known as devoted hubby, i did that for her.

Its really easy. Just soaked the dried bird's nest with some warm water and let it expand. Clean up any left over feathers ( oops! ) or debris. Drain. Place the bird's nest, some red dates ( smashed them and check if it is still ok , err... seen some with worm......yuck!) and rock sugar. Any other ingredient like hasma, wolfberry ( kei chi ) you can place them together as well. Pour in water and double boil for 2 hrs. If slow cooker, just set them to low heat and let it simmer for 2 - 3 hrs.


Amount of water depends on the amount of ingredient you put in. I place like 100 gm dried bird's nest , 30 gm rock sugar, 8 - 10 red dates with 600 ml of water.


Check the pic out for the amount of nest i put in for me dear wife. May god bless her with good health both physically and mentally.

Found at: http://foodcrazee.blogspot.com/2005_11_01_archive.html

What Is the Optimum Number of Tweeters per Square Meter?

In one of my previous visit to a birdhouse, I was very sure that nearly all the areas below their tweeters there were sign of bird shits.

This indicate that there have been at least one bird coming to rest or sleep at those places around or on the tweeters.

For newbies, this is a good sign since you know that the birds do enter your birdhouse and are resting inside the house. It is a matter of time that they will start building their nest.

The question that I posted was " What is the optimum number of tweeters should we install per square meter?".

I have seen a number of answers but my conclusion is that the owner is the best person who should decide.

Pak Hen, an Indonesian reputable for being a very humble person and a birdnest expert, recommended a set of tweeters (2 tweeters ) per square meter. While Dr Christopher recommended 2 sets per square meter area (4 tweeters).

For a 20 feet X 70 feet floor you shall be installing 20 tweeters with Pak Hen advise, while using Dr Chris, it will be 40 tweeters.

Base on my own opinion, I will go for the maximum (40 tweeters). This is because, the birds love to rest around or near the tweeters. So if there are 5 birds per tweeters, you can easily have 200 birds to rest in your house.

What is more crucial now is the level of sound that you should play on the tweeters.

How Many Times Can You Harvest The Birdnests Per Year?

The optimum number of harvesting that you should consider is 3 times per year.

Well, you can do twice or even 4 times a year but based on the swiftlets breeding pattern and seasons (wet and dry) in a year the best is 3 times.

The utmost important in choosing the number of harvesting per year is actually your deep understanding of swiftlet cycle of breeding.

Once they are matured swiftlet will normally find a mate. If they found one that can be in love then they will partner for life in building of the nest, hatching of the eggs and looking after their babies. They will only find a new partner if the current one died. They do not practice polygamy. So I think they are not Muslim.

Swiftlet starts building their nest in the early part of the rainy season. Usually in September to October and till April. This is due to the fact that there are abundance of food to eat.

Rainy season will activate the release of matured kings and queens of any insect colonies for reproduction purposes. Good example is the termites, red ants, black ants and etc. Once they are airborne, they automatically become the pick of all birds inclusive of your swiftlet.

The abundance in food to eat activate the mood to start the family and thus urge the couple to find the right spot to built their nest. The male bird will be more excited to build the nest and will be the one that will start the building works.

The food will actually trigger the saliva gland to bloat and the amount of saliva will be the greatest during this period.

Once started the female partner will join in the building until the nest is ready to receive the eggs. The number of days taken to build a nest is around 40 days

Once the nest is ready, the female birds will do the final inspection and upon her satisfaction will call her male to mate. The female will sit in the nest and open her wings while chipping the love call. The male will then fly and sit on the top of her and mating begins. This mating call is very much in demand by birdhouse owner.

If the nest is not good enough they will abandon a build a new one. This abandonment is very rare.

Mating will then takes place every night and perhaps daytime while flying for five to eight days. I guess this is the highlight of all male swiftlets. Well what about the female?

Once the female is ready it will lay one egg and followed by one more. The time different between the first and the second to be laid is not more then 2 days.

They will then take turns to sit on the eggs for incubation. This will take at least 13 days.

Once the eggs are hatched, the first egg will be the first and the second within hours, the parent will be responsible in carrying out their duties to find the food and feed these two babies. The babies will start showing their feathers after two week old. Once matured and able to fly, about 65 days old, they will follow their parent to search for food.

The total number of days to complete the breeding cycle is about 4 months (120 days).

If the climate is good and there are lots of foods they can bread 3 times a year. For all purpose we use two times a year will be good enough.

How do these have anything to do with harvesting?

Well! once you know their habits and reproduction cycle, you can now become a considerate and a successful birdhouse owner.

You needs to use these know ledges to ensure that you will gain the benefits from your harvest but at the same time ensure that the birds population will multiply to the optimum.

Stay Tune to My Next Topic “There Are Three Types of Birdnest Harvesting"

Three Common Types of Birdnest Harvesting

Have you ever thought that harvesting of bird nest is an art. A legacy that , if carefully digested, will eventually helps you to rake in a bountiful of cash and at the same time increase your birdhouse population tremendously.

After reading those beautiful books, I would like to summaries these relevant harvesting techniques:

If U own a birdhouse in Indonesia, you have at least four streams of incomes. It is of course from the nests ( main income) but there are three more that they can generate income. The one that you have never thought of are selling of the eggs, the baby birds and last but not the least the bird shits.

Yes in Indonesia, they practice in increasing the birds population by incubating the swiftlets eggs and manually feed the babies. In this way, they buy swiftlet eggs and babies from those owners who have excess eggs and babies for sale.

The bird shits are mainly used as aroma to lure the birds into new build houses plus as fertilizer.

Okay let me touch on the three types of bird nest harvesting.

If you remembered my last topic on " How many times can you harvest the bird nests per year?", I did described the whole birds breeding cycle. I mentioned that the birds after finding a suitable mate will start looking after a suitable place to build their nest. When they found one, the male sill start to build using his saliva. The female will help and when the nest is acceptable the female will sit in the nest and start to lure her mate to come and copulate (make love). They will make love for at least 5 to 8 days before the 1st eggs is laid and followed by one more within 2 days after the 1st.

Immediately after laying the two eggs, the birds will take turns to incubate the eggs. Of course they will still go out to eat in the day time.


The above information is very important in my next explanation on the three types of harvesting which are:


a) Harvest Before The 1st Egg Being Laid.



This is one of the most preferred harvest by swiftlet ranchers. Reasons being, the nests are clean and without any dirt, feathers, shits and etc. The nest value is at the highest since processing time are shorter.

The birds after finding that their nest are missing, will immediately built a new one.

The setback is that they are lighter due to lesser quantity of saliva. The birds being forced to build a new nest which will effect the bird's health especially the female birds carrying the eggs but without a nest to lay.

b) Harvest After The Two Eggs Were Laid.



This method of harvesting is done once the two eggs are laid. You must never harvest when only one egg is in the nest. If you still continue to harvest, the chance of the 2nd egg inside the female swiftlet will most likely kill the mother bird and will cause lot of stress to the male.

The advantage doing this method is said to be that you can do them four times a year. The nest are more complete is its construction, thicker and the nest quality is at its best.

The disadvantage is that the bird population will decline since there aren't any egg to be hatched and it is advisable to hatch these eggs manually using incubator and have workers to raised the babies.

c) Harvest After The Babies Leave the Nest.



The third method is to harvest once the babies leave the nest.

Advantage is that your bird population will increase since the babies leave the nest and normally they will stay and add to the population.

The disadvantage is that the nests, after breading the babies, are dirty due to contamination by bird feathers plus dirt from the food and baby shit. The nest quality will be affected.

So which method should you apply to your birdhouse?

My opinion, might not be the only solution, is a combination of all the above. You should have a prepare or adopt a suitable harvesting procedures that calls for maximum income while the population will also increased. They called it as "Sustainable Birdnest Harvest Management".

During the early part of the birdhouse, you should let them multiply to the maximum. You should install as many fake nests as you can. You should not harvest any until the house have at least 50 nests in operation.

Once the number is achieved, you now need to start giving each nest a kind of color code. The code is actually a strip of color marker that are easily stick just below each nest.

Use red color for those nest that are with baby birds.

Blue color for those with one or two eggs.

White for those that are without any egg or just being build/in the process of building.

You now keep the log of these numbers in a book kept in the birdhouse.

During the nest visit you now will begin your harvesting operation by only harvesting those whose babies are no longer in the nest. Yes collect only those with the red color marker but are empty. This indicate that the babies have left and these babies will be your new nest producers.

After harvesting, you now need to redo the color marking operation. Red for those with babies, blue with egg(s) and white without any egg or new.

Do the same method until the nests count reach say 100 or 200 nests.

Once this is reached you can start the combined harvesting method.

You will harvest those that are labelled red but empty (no more babies) plus those white labelled nests but with no egg in them.

You do this until the total number of nest reached say 500 nests.

Once it reaches this new number, you can actually harvest intelligently in giving you the optimum number that will give you a good harvest and at the same time the population will continue to grow.

Fig Trees(Cemara): Why Is It So Special To Swiftlet Ranching?

A Brief History of Figs



Figs (moraceae ficus) have a long and well documented history. They are thought to be native to the arid regions of Asia Minor and ancestors of the modern fig tree still grow there today. Figs were cultivated more than 6000 years ago, as show by ancient writings from the countries of Babylon and Sumaria. The Bible makes numerous references to figs. A fig tree was present in the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve used the leaves from the tree to cover themselves once they learned they were naked. Humorists point to several verses in the Bible to show that God hates figs.



Figs were extremely popular in Ancient Greece and Rome. The Greek city of Attica was famous for its figs and the fruit was reserved only for Greek citizens. Many people tried to illegally export the figs. This lead to the term "sycophant", which translates to "to show the fig". Sycophants were informers who revealed people who were trying to export figs. Ancient Greeks prized figs for their healing properties and were eaten by and awarded to Olympic athletes. Fig syrup was also commonly used as a sweetener. The Romans thought the god Bacchus, the god of wine and festivities, gave the fig tree to humans and fig leaves were a symbol of that god. Figs were a favorite of Cleopatra, and the asp that killed her was supposedly delivered in a basket of the fruit.



The Greeks and Romans were responsible for spreading the fig to Africa and the Mediterranean countries. Figs were then brought to Europe and China by Italy during the Renaissance. Figs were later brought to California by Spanish missionaries in the late 1700s. Other varieties of figs were later imported from Europe to the East coast of the United States. Today California is the third largest producer of figs in the world behind Turkey and Greece.

Growing Figs

Figs are actually not a fruit but a flower that has inverted onto itself. The fruit is actually the tiny seeds and pulp that are present inside the fig. Many botanists think the fig is similar to an inverted strawberry. Figs may or may not need to be pollinated depending on the variety. If the figs are pollinated the resulting fruit has seeds on the inside, otherwise the fruit remains seedless. Pollinated fruits are larger than the nonpollinated fruits and have a nutty flavor due to the presence of the seeds. Seeded figs tend to dry better, while seedless figs make better preserves. Tiny wasps (Blastophaga psenes) native to Asia Minor are vital for pollinating the Calimyrna/Smyrna variety of figs. The wasps enter into the developing fruit and pollinate the inside section. Fig growers in California were unable to produce this variety until they imported these wasps.



Fig trees are deciduous and grow to be roughly 30 feet tall. They grow well in semi-desert regions with warm, dry summers and mild winters. The fruits are generally harvested twice a year, first in June and later between August and September. Figs are the only fruit that are allowed to fully ripen and even dry on the tree. Only a very small percentage of figs are harvested when they are ripe because fresh figs ship poorly. Most figs are allowed to dry and fall off the tree before they are harvested.

Varieties of Figs

There are several hundred varieties of figs grown around the world today, with roughly fifty commonly grown in the United States. The varieties are loosely divided into two groups: those with black skins and those with green or yellow skins. The most common varieties of figs available in the United States are:

Mission:

This large variety was named after the Spanish missionaries that introduced this fruit to California. It has a deep purple to black thin skin with light pink flesh and has a distinctive sweet, fruity flavor. This variety does not need to be pollinated.

Calimyrna:

This large variety is derived from the Turkish Smyrna variety and is the most common variety grown in California. It has a golden to green thick skin with a pale pink-purple inner flesh and seeds. It is considered the best fig to eat fresh and has a pleasant nutty flavor due to its numerous seeds. It is also the most common variety that is dried.

Kadota:

This smaller fig is native to Italy. It has a light yellow, green, or almost white thick skin. It does not need to be pollinated, and as a result is nearly seedless. These figs are a good all-purpose fruit and are commonly eaten raw, dried, or canned.


Adriatic:

This variety is native to the Mediterranean area. It has a green to yellow skin with a light pink flesh. This variety contains the highest amount of sugar and is mainly used to make fig bars and paste. This type does not need to be pollinated.
Using Figs

Fresh figs are delicious eaten raw. They are made up of about 50% sugar, making them sweeter than any commercially sold fruit. To prepare them, simply cut off the tougher stem region and halve or quarter the fruit. The figs, especially the thicker skinned varieties, can also be peeled. Figs are commonly wrapped around prosciutto like cantalope. Figs can also be stuffed with sweet or savory fillings such as soft cheeses, cream, chocolate, or nuts. tdent notes that figs go well with thick Greek yogurt. Fresh figs can also be baked.



Besides being eaten raw, figs are also canned and made into preserves. Dried figs add moisture, flavor, and an interesting crunch from their seeds to baked goods like muffins and breads. Concentrated fig syrup can be purchased at some specialty stores. It is used to flavor and sweeten baked goods. Dried fig paste is also used in baked goods.

Figs have the highest amount of fiber in any fruit or vegetable, containing both soluble and insoluble forms. Figs also have a high amount of calcium, iron, and potassium. They contain an enzyme called bromelain, also present in pineapple and papaya. This enzyme will prevent jello from setting, so if you have a desire to make fig jello use canned figs instead of fresh, as the canning process destroys the enzyme. Conversely, bromelain is thought to also help tenderize meats, making fresh figs a good addition to a marinade.




Each of the over 900 different kinds of fig trees in the world is pollinated by its own specific kind of fig wasp. Fig tree flowers do not open to the outside world. Instead, the tiny flowers are located inside the hollow center of the growing fruit. In a complex process, the fig wasps develop within the fig (from eggs previously deposited by an adult female fig wasp), pollinate the flowers, and then exit from the fig, usually before it ripens and falls to the ground.

In the tree or on the ground the fig fruits are eaten by many animals, including birds, bats, monkeys, and animals living on the forest floor. These animals help scatter the fig seeds to other locations in the forest. Thus, while accomplishing its own reproduction, the fig tree also enables successful reproduction by the fig wasp, and provides food for many animals especially birds of the forest.





Fig wasp larvae somehow prevent the fig from ripening, thus increasing the likelihood of their survival (i.e. they mature to adult wasps and escape from the fig before it ripens and is eaten by some animal). But even inside the fig they are not totally safe! There is still another kind of wasp (the "fig wasp" parasitic wasp) that drills a small hole into the fig and deposits her egg near a developing fig wasp larva; the larva hatching from the egg survives by eating the fig wasp larva.





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Birdhouse Construction: You need to check the quality of work regularly

After my second trip to the Sekinchan new build birdhouse it come to my mind that there seem to be a lot of sloppy workman ships that I wish to make my points.

Most critical were the improper installation of the wooden ceiling made for swiftlets to build their nests.

The three stories building looks very well done from the outside but it might not be inside.

The main thing that I think that went wrong might be lack of experience by both the proud owner and the contractor that he employed.

These were what I saw and if I am the owner I will do the followings:

1)Visit the house on a regular basis to ensure that the construction phase are being carried out properly and in accordance to the agreed plan.

2) I will ensure that a special attention be given to getting a very smooth surface on the cement ceiling layer.

3) I will take special attention on the selection of the ceiling wooden panels that I wanted to use in my birdhouse. The panel shall be from a qualified supplier and they are not newly cut. I will also have them applied with the aroma to attract the birds.

4) The corner covers are those with high quality and a very smooth well formed construction. They must not be any cracks or odd shape and poor cutting edges. They are also being treated with swiftlet aroma liquid.

5) When these wood panels are install I will first ensure that they are installed in a manner that the volume of swiftlet nests that can be generated per square meter of the ceiling area to its maximum.

6) The wooden panel shall not be installed crooked. Each wood panel must be cut to the right length using sharp saw.

7) I will use a special air gun that can nail the wood to the ceiling without its nail tops jutting out of the wood. It should be pushed about 1 mm below the wood surface. In this way I will not have problem during harvesting operation.

8) The gap between the wood panel edge and the cement ceiling should be minimized. This is normally caused by the uneven surface condition of the cement finishing. The smooth surface can be achieved if a layer of smooth surface plywood installed to support the cement slurry when poured.

Any gap will allow air to pass and will affect my precious swiftlet while resting or nesting.

9) The corner covers must be installed with its highest precision. The exact location where the nails are to be placed must be precisely determined and when pushed in its head must be embedded by at least 1-2 mm inside the wood. Remember these nail heads, if not embedded deeper inside will damage your harvesting tool (scrapper) plus the nests during your harvesting operation.

10)I will also ensure that I will lay additional layer of nesting planks just below the one touching the ceiling at those areas where they are touching the cement walls or the support beams. This will create additional nesting areas at a very minimum cost.(Make sure those higher wooden planks are thicker then the lower plank. This measures is to avoid birdshits from falling into the lower nests).


The above "I wish list" are just my personal opinions and ideas. I am not trying to be too smart but if you can digest the points carefully and understand the hidden reasons you will appreciate each of them.

These are from a perspective of a person who has carried out the nests harvesting himself.

Drosophila (Fruit Flies) Good For Your Swiftlets Fooding

Overview

Fruit flies (Drosophila sp) are an excellent source of nutrition for many birds, such as baby swiftlets, and adult flying swiftlets.

There are 2 main species, readily available in captivity, the Drosophila Heidii and the Drosophila Melanogaster.

The D. Heidii are the larger of the 2 species. For some hatchling mantids of smaller species, these may be a little too large to feed; so then you will use the D Melanogaster.

Fruit fly culture

Flies are mostly sold in cultures. A culture in a cup or tub, with some laying medium, usually a pre-made recipe if bought from a pet shop, however some private breeders may use mashed potato, banana, other types of fruit, or a bran/oat/ground fruit mix.



This will be the medium for the flies to lay their eggs in, and will provide nutrition for the growing larvae. There may also be a wad of cotton wool, or strips of a wood like substance, curled up. This will provide a surface for the larvae to pupate on, and hatch out. The larvae will also swarm up the sides of the container, and on the lid.



When pupated, they need no further attention. If left in a warm place, they will hatch out after about 6 days or so. The warmer the culture is kept, the faster the pupae will hatch.

When the flies emerge, you can offer them to what you are feeding straight away. If you wish to keep a culture going, then you should keep the culture tub in the container where the flies are being fed. After a few days, when matured, the flies will then start laying in the original culture tub. If a lot of flies are offered, then it is likely that the flies will breed, before they get eaten. When all the flies have been eaten, remove the culture tub, and store it in a warm place, for the eggs to develop, and pupate. Thus, the fly cycle goes on.

The fruit fly culture cycle



The best temperature to keep the flies at is around 20-25c. In these temperatures, the cycle will be at its fastest. To slow the cycle down, simply cool the culture. To prevent any mould, or fungal infections occurring, make sure the culture is very well ventilated. Piercing small holes in the side of the culture tub can do this.

However, these holes need to be small enough, so the larvae cannot squeeze through.
A method that has proven successful is to use clear, plastic tubs or cups, with no lid. As a substitute for a lid, a piece of thin cotton like material can be fixed to the top, using an elastic band, or something of the sort. This way, the larvae cannot escape though holes in the side of the tub, or through holes in what could be mesh, used as a lid.

Humidity does not need to be high when breeding Drosophila. Depending on the mixture used, it is important that it doesn’t dry out. If the mixture does look dry, then simply spray some water in through the top, which will absorb down into the mixture. Do not spray too much water in, as this can drown the flies, and the pupae.

Creating the medium



There are various different culture mixtures that be easily made at home.
There is one very easy option, which is usually used to feed flies on mass. Get a large bucket, and put a few handfuls of rotting fruit in it. Keep this in the corner of your garden, or somewhere similar, and this will attract swarms of drosophila. The fruit has to be rotting, as they will not reproduce on fresh produce. The bucket should be covered with a fair fine mesh, large enough to allow the flies to enter, but to keep out any other pests, such as birds and other fruit eaters.
Another, smaller scale recipe is one that can be made easily indoors. Mix a table spoon of sugar, with a cup of instant or mashed potato, which is readily available from most supermarkets. This can be put in any size cup, jar or tub. When added, pour water in, that is half as deep the mixture that was put in. Mix this, until you get a soggy medium. Then sprinkle some dried yeast on the surface of the medium.
Just cups, jars or tubs of rotting fruit can also be used as a medium. Ripe bananas can also be used on their own. These will not dry out, because as they rot, they release liquid. As this is the case, it might be necessary to put in some cotton wool, which will absorb the liquid.

In all cultures, be sure that the cup, jar or tub you are using is sterile. This way, you will not encourage moulding, and other infections.

Found at: http://www.insectstore.com/keeping-breeding-buying-fruit-flies-drosophila-livefood.php

Which Type Of Swiftlet Rancher Are U Categorised?

Today I was asked about how much time do you need to spend with your swiftlet ranching?

Well many of us will say once a week or perhaps once every three weeks. You just need to drop by to check on the sound system, the humidifier condition and perhaps count any new bird shit spots on the shop floors.

You might be right but is that all?

My answer shall be as follows:

The amount of time you spend at your birdhouse will depend on which rancher category you choose to be.

There are three categories:

1) Passive.

A passive owner will spent all the money that is required to put a birdhouse running and after that he will drop by maybe once a month to check the house, the sound system, look at the humidifier and perhaps collect those utility bills for payment purposes. This will normally take about 20 to 30 minutes.

Every three months he will do the harvesting and do some logging/recording and off he goes. This might be about another one hour to be added to his normal monthly of 30 minutes.

2) Semi-Active.

A semi active rancher will do a bit more where he will come more often like once a week to look after not only the birdhouse chores but also the surrounding. He might need to replace those old rotten fruits that he placed in those huts to breed extra food for his swiftlets. He will also tend those Lao Gondang trees he planted around the house on those extra lands and make sure they are healthy.

He might also have a pond where he has some fish to be fed. These ponds are build not only to breed some fish but also a place where insect breeds. These insects are food for his swiftlet.

The time that he spend there might be like one full day a week.

3) An Active Rancher.

This type of rancher takes this unique business seriously. He is there nearly every day. He employs a few staff to assist him to actually look after the birdhouse, the surrounding plus breed the swiftlet from eggs.

The eggs are purchased from a supplier and they are hatched using a special incubator. Once hatched these baby birds are hand fed by these dedicated workers and will ensure that they are ready to fly within 90 days.

There will be a team that will look after the breeding of the insects that act as food for the young birds.

By involving in this business on full time the rancher will be able to determine how fast he wanted his birdhouse be full to the maximum.

A passive rancher might take 5 years to see a profitable returns of his investment but an active might cut it to just a year or lesser.

So which one are you going to be? It is your choice and U will actually determine the amount of time you spend with your swiftlet ranching business.