Harvesting

I have not written this blog for a long time because there is nothing much to write about. Just waiting, waiting and waiting only. But now it is time for me to harvest some nests. So I visited my bird house on 6 May with my friend Mr. Chong. He is there to teach me how to harvest my first bird nest.

There are already more than 30 numbers of bird nests in the bird house. The number is not great but I am quite satisfied because the area where my bird house located don’t have many swiftlets. I noticed that 8 out of the 10 fake bird nests that I have installed were occupied by the swiftlets. Some of them have eggs inside and some have baby swiftlets hanging on the nests. I plan to removed the fake nests and install it at other locations when the baby swiftlets become adult.

Anyway, Mr. Chong taught me how to harvest the bird nests. First, he climbed up the ladder and used a mirror to look into the nest. If there is no egg inside the nest, he then used his finger to touch inside the nest just to be doubly sure. After that a scrapper is used to harvest the nest. I have bought a scrapper which is about 4” wide thinking that the scrapper must be as wide as the nest :) However, my friend said that it is not suitable and gave me a scraper which is about 1.5” wide. Yes, I think smaller scrapper has more flexibility especially for nests that are at the corner.

Most of the nests inside the bird house have either eggs or bird inside the nest. I only manage to harvest 5 nests. My friend Chong said that my bird house is about 2 weeks slower than his bird houses.

After harvesting, Mr. Chong said that the nests are quite dry and asked me to increase the room humidity by changing the humidifier with a larger propeller. He also suggested that I start to harvest the nests every month and I should see the nests increase very fast.

I weighted the nests when I went home. It was about 42g for the 5 nests. I was told that there should be about 110 nests per KG, so with a quick calculation, 5 nest should weight about 45g. Looks like my nests are under weight. Maybe the nest is too dry or the swiftlets are too small.

Another Swiftlets Eco City

Just received a fax from my friend in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. He faxed me the brochure of a new swiftlets eco city in Sungai Gadut, Negeri Sembilan. The eco city is built on a 30 acres land with 20 units of 4-storey standalone bird house. Each bird house will have a minimum land size of 1 acre.

Like all swiftlets eco park, it comes with 24/7 security and free maintenance for 2 years. It also provide harvesting and marketing services.

Guess what is the minimum price for 1 unit? It is price from RM750,000 per unit. Do you thing it is expensive? Well, I don't know. Let us breakdown the price and see.

1 acre freehold agriculture land = 43560sf x RM6.00 (est. only) = RM261000

4-storey building (28' x 80') = 8960sf x RM50 (end user price) = RM448000

Total Breakdown Cost = RM709000

Add others like road, drainage, security, the selling price seems reasonable. The selling price is reasonable but is it worth to invest in it? Before you invest in it you must also estimate the number of bird nests that you can get per year. With the estimated number of bird nests then you can calculate the return of your investment. If the estimated return of your investment is less then the bank loan repayment plus some extra pocket money, then it is not a good investment.

If you ask me how to estimate the number of bird nests, I will said that your estimate is as good as mine. So give yourself an estimate of the number of bird nests produce per year put it into the equation and see is the bird house worth investing or not.

At the end of the day if your investment fail, you are the only one to be responsible.

Bird Nest Price

Just heard from a purchaser that bird nest price has fallen to about RM2800 to RM3400 per kg. He said that the Indonesian are not buying and the China market is very slow due the the global recession. Bird nests are considered to be food for the wealthy so when the economy is bad less people eat the bird nest.

Price of bird nest should increase when the global economy improve in a few years time. The price may go up to RM6000 or more per kg. Since bird nests can be kept for a very long time, if you have the money right now it is a good time to buy bird nests to keep for future price appreciation. Buying bird nests for investment is a good idea just like investing in gold, wines or painting. Just if I have the money....hmm .....hmm