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.

Bird House Update

Visited my bird house last Wednesday. Well as expected, the number of bird nest has increased to more than 10. I did not count the exact number because there are more then 10 swiftlets flying inside the bird house. I don't want to spend too much time inside the bird house.

There are many new spots of fresh bird shit on the floor. The nest that was built at the other corner of the bird house which I believe was swiftlet from another colony has about 4 new spots of bird shit beside the nest. Probably the swiftlet has invited his friends to have come and join him.

Let me share with you something that my consultant friend has taught me. When my bird nest remain at 1 number for a few months, my consultant friend think that it might be because of cockroach or lizard problem. So he placed 1 plate of the cockroach bait (product from China) at the corner of the floor. I asked him whether 1 plate is enough to cover the whole bird house and he said that it is enough. After placing the bait, the number of nest started to improve. Now every time I visit the bird house, I have to add additional bait inside the plate because the plate is always empty. It shows that the cockroach or lizard are eating the bait.

During this visit, I have brought along a new broom, dust pan and waste plastic bags. Did not need to use it yet, just prepare lah:)

Bird House Update

Visited my bird house yesterday. I have not been into the bird house for more than 2 months. The last time I was there, I saw 1 full nest with baby birds, 1 half completed nest and 1 with extension work using the fake nest.

This time, I was happy to see some improvement to the bird house. There were about 5 completed bird nests and 1 half completed bird nest. 2 of the nests with baby birds hanging on them. I noticed that 1 of the bird nest is located at another corner of the bird house far from the other bird nests. I presume that this bird is from a different colony. If it is true, then my bird house has birds from 2 different colonies.

I know the result is still very slow compare with other bird houses but is a good start.

From what I learned, the number of bird nests in a bird house should have a multiplying effect. ie 2, 4, 8, 16, 32,... this is because the baby birds will usually make nest beside the parents nest. Each pair of bird can lay eggs up to 3 times a year and if the baby birds will mate after 6 months. Let us do the math below using 4 months laying eggs cycle and 8 months egg to adulthood cycle, the figure is something like this:

Month 1-4 ~ 1 nest
Month 5-8 ~ 1 nest
Month 9-12 ~ 2 nests
Month 13-16 ~ 3 nests
Month 17-20 ~ 5 nests
Month 21-24 ~ 8 nests
Month 25-28 ~ 13 nests
Month 29-32 ~ 21 nests
Month 33-36 ~ 34 nests
Month 37-40 ~ 55 nests
Month 41-44 ~ 89 nests
Month 45-48 ~ 144 nests
Month 49-52 ~ 233 nests
Month 53-56 ~ 377 nests
Month 57-60 ~ 610 nests

This calculation is for 1 pair of bird that flew into the bird house to start a family with the assumption that no baby birds fly away to stay in other bird houses. What happen if more than 1 pair of bird decided to migrate from other bird house to my bird house, the above figure should be double or triple:).

We must be have patient and make sure the bird house is always in good and comfortable condition so that no bird will want to migrate from the bird house. Not everyone is so lucky to have bird house that have 100s of nests within a year.

So for those that do not have many bird nests, the most important is to be patient but must always make sure that the number of nests is growing hopefully like the figure above else something is not right and action must be taken.

So at the mean time it is waiting again until the next visit

1 year anniversary

Today is the one year anniversary of my bird house. So far only 1 nest but it is a good start. Wasted 9 months without any result with the first consultant. I hope 2010 will be a good year for my bird house.

To new bird house owner, don't get con by your consultant if they keep asking you to wait for the birds to come into the bird house. I listened to my consultant and kept on waiting for 9 months. Based on my experience, if the consultant is good, you should be able to see result within 3 months. If you don't see any result after 3 months, kick the consultant out and replace a new one. I could have saved 6 months of my waiting time.

Mr. Chong told me this morning that the bird nest price has been escalating in the past few months. It is now within RM4.5k to RM5k per kg. Good news for all the bird house owners.

First Nest

Passed by my bird house yesterday, I decided to go into the bird house to take a look even though my appointment with Mr Chong is next month.

Before going into the nesting area, I noticed that my external amplifier was not working. After checking, I found that the plug was loosed. I guessed I might have loosen the plug while installing the cooling fan the last time I was there. O ! no external sound for the past month, I think sure no bird already.

When I went into the nesting area, I saw a bird flying inside. There was not much extra bird shit on the floor. But to my surprise, I saw a bird nest on the timber plank. A full size bird nest!

This proof that even without external sound, the bird which have already visited the bird house will still find its way into the bird house. Without external bird sound I was unable to attract any new bird into the bird house therefore no increase of bird shit on the floor.

Hopefully, when I visit my bird house next month, I will find more nests inside.

Some Bird Shits on the Floor

Went to the bird house with my friend Mr. Chong yesterday. When we went into the nesting area, we saw about 7 birds flying inside. The was about 12 spots of bird shit on the floor.

We look at the timber plank above the bird shit area but were unable to see any bird nest. Everything looks okay but still no nest.

We found the cooling fan for the external amplifier was not working so I quickly went to a store nearby to purchase a new cooling fan to replace it.

Mr. Chong said to visit the bird house in 2 months time.

Swiftlets in the Bird House

Visited the bird house this morning with my friend Mr. Chong. We were standing outside the bird house looking at the swiftlets flying above the roof.

The swiftlets turning in circle, sometime fly far away and sometime very near. My friend said that the birds have gone into the bird house. I was not very sure because I have not seen a single swiftlets inside the bird house for the past 9 months.

We then proceed to go into the bird house. Once the door to the nesting area was open, I saw swiftlets in side the nesting area. My friend said that we could turn on the lights. Once the lights was on, I saw about 6 swiftlets flying in circle inside the nesting area. We did not check further as we quickly turn off the lights and left the bird house.

I ask my friend are we allowed to turn on the lights, he said it is ok. He usually turn on the lights to harvest the bird nest.

My friend only take 2 weeks to get the swiftlets into the bird house while I waited for 9 months without any result. If I have engaged him earlier, I could be harvesting bird nest by now. This shows that experience consultant is very important. Many swiftlets farmers called themselves consultant. They just duplicate a successful bird house and if they are lucky, the bird house is successful. When it is not they do not have experience to solve the problem.

My friend said that the swiftlets will begin to build nest very soon. So the next visit is about 2 months from now.