Factors to consider when building a Swiftlet home

Being a delicacy in Chinese cuisine, bird’s nest soup is made from edible bird nests that are produced by swiftlets. Since the bird nest trade is a lucrative business, swift farming, building a swift house, has flourished in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.

To build a swiftlet house, you need to consider the following factors: –

1. Availability of swiftlet

First of all, you need to check the area where you want to build a birdhouse, see if there are swiftlets. This can be done using a special detector.

2. Rent

Preferably, your birdhouse should be located outside the residential and commercial area. It may be in the middle of a palm oil plantation. It should be near bushes and jungles, ideally with a river. The reason is that salangana foods, namely insects, thrive in this type of environment. During the day, when the air near the ground gets warmer, the insects float up into the sky where the salt flats feed on them.

3. Structure of the house

It could be a reinforced concrete structure, an unoccupied house, an unoccupied store, or a stacked container.

You can rent a vacant house or vacant store lot.

Some farmers prefer to build their own birdhouse. A two-story structure can cost you RM200,000. You have to get an engineer to design the structure.

A cheaper option is to use containers. You must build the bottom support frame of reinforced concrete or steel frame. The container can be stacked on top of the support frame. One container can cost you around RM6,000. To maintain a stable temperature inside the container, you must insulate the roof and wall of the container.

4. Living environment

You should create a suitable living environment for the swifts that resembles a natural cave where it is dark and humid. In the case of vacant houses and shop lots, you should block windows and doors to shade the light. The temperature should be kept between 28 and 30 degrees Celsius and the humidity between 75 and 85%. The coastal area is an ideal place where the average temperature does not change abruptly.

5. Sound system

The sound system includes the equipment and recorded swiftlet songs. It is important as the correct song of the salanganos would attract the salanganos to stay in their salanganas house. You need two types of recorded swiftlet songs, namely an external song to attract the swiftlets to stay at your house and an internal song to keep the swiftlet in the house. You should hire an experienced consultant to advise and install the sound system.

6. Hygiene

You need to keep the bird house clean. Cleaning should be done once a quarter. You may consider using some organic products like enzyme to neutralize feces.

7. Ventilation

It must be kept ventilated. The ventilation system should be cleaned weekly.

8. Security

The equipment for your sound system and the bird nests in the birdhouse are expensive items. You must consider security to prevent theft. You can install CCTV or hire staff to take care of the security of your swiftlet home.