Harvesting of Birdnests: My action in August 2007 !!!

Sometime in August 2007, I felt very angry with my tenant (swiftlet) staying in my birdhouse.

What really happened was that I was on the impression that once the birds lay their eggs, hatched them, take care of the babies and once the baby birds flew away, the nest are mine and I can harvest them.

Well, well ,well I was wrrrrrooonnngggg.

The bird actually recycles their nests. They reused the nests and lay a new clutch of new set of eggs.

I was a bit mad and feel being cheated. So I was a bit furious, angry, cheated and disgusted. So I did the thing that I should have not done.

Yes, I harvested all nests in my birdhouse with eggs plus the empty one. I have no choice but to do it.

I actually plug those with or without eggs. I lay off those with babies.

I remembered sharing the experiences with members at SMC on September 1st 2007:

"Dear Members,

I do not feel good today for I did some harvesting of all those nests
that were recycled by my birds.

Well, U see I have been tracking these nests built in my birdhouse for
quite some time.

Whenever I visit I will record the nest populations based on fully
developed nest and those with half cups and marking.

After giving lot of time I observed that these birds are recycling the
old nests.

Every time I come in they are either with baby birds or
eggs. Only one or two are empty.

So I did what I have decided to do i.e. to harvest all those with eggs
plus empty.

Those with babies are spared. I keep the bird eggs. (Can it be boiled
and eat?)

I just hope that my action will not do any harm on the population.

For record purposed the total number of nests increased by 25%. "

There were many members who told me that what I did was wrong but you know what happened after three weeks?

There were more new ones came out and those that I removed were back at the same spots.

I was very pleased with the outcome and maybe I can learn something about good harvesting methods. Maybe I was lucky!!!

My personal views on house bird nest harvesting are:

1) Once U have birds building nests in your new birdhouse, let the number grow to a reasonable figure. I think the best is to be at least 20 nests.

2) Once you have 20 nests, you can now tag them with colored tapes. Use white for new, green for those with eggs and red for those with baby birds. U need a ladder to climb and check if there were eggs or empty. Those with babies can be easily seen.

3) U should visit your birdhouse every 3 weeks for checking and harvesting works.

4) U can now start to harvest those nests that were marked with red colored tape. Remember they must be empty i.e. no more babies staying in the nest.

5) Once U harvest U can now retag the nests as per the colored tape. Those nest with eggs but now with babies shall be tag with red, with egg(s) green and those without any tag before white.

6) Make a new count of all the nests and record them in a log book. How many are white tagged, green tagged and red tagged.

7) The harvested nest should be kept in a container that is dry and covered from air.

8) U can now either sell to the buyers or keep them until U have a sizable quantity or cook to eat?

I hope that the tips given are well taken and useful to all birdhouse owners.

If it is useful, use them during your next trip your birdhouse.