Red Colored Nests Found Inside A BH !!!

Just wanted to share this email message from a BH owner.

I think this guy must be from Thailand or Vietnam.

Read his message:

Dear my Swiflet Professor

I worried about the color of birdnest. could you tel me why they have these color.

White, yellow, red  & mix color little bit yellow or red 

thank you so much for your explain.

Dung Panrang.

Have a good look at the three pictures and if I were him I will be concerned too.

However if you look at the bight side he should be a happy person.

Main reason being red nests are 3-4 times more expansive than white colored nests.

They are difficult to find especially inside BHs.

The main cause of this red coloring is said to be due to a bacteria that consume those ammonia gas generated by your BH rotting bird shit.

These bacteria will consume the ammonia gas and excrete their waste that turn into red.

If you want to create this red colored nest you can try this method:

First you don't remove your bird shit ever.  Make them as thick and moist.

Shut maybe 90% of all your ventilation holes.

Then you introduce these bacteria inside your BH.  You can do this by buying those raw red nest, just one piece, grind it into powder and start to put a pinch inside every nests in your BH.

Make sure the humidity inside is high like 90%RH.

Within a few short weeks you will find that your white nests will start to turn yellow and soon red.

The thicker the ammonia gas inside your BH the darker the color of your nests (red).

However you need to be careful.

If you allow these red nests to stay too long inside your thick ammonia environment it might turn into black.  Like charcoal black.

So make sure you know when to harvest them.

Remember all colored nests are high in nitrite.

I think if you do this it will be very difficult to export to China.

You might be able to sell to Taiwan or Hongkong but not into China.

China specification is up to 30 part per million but red colored nest will contain around 500-700 ppm.

The above are just my own opinion and experience.

I have touch this matter years ago and you can still read it at this article:

http://swiftletfarming.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-knowledgable-some-people-can-be.html

Enjoy reading and I will be happy to receive any comment or opinion.

Remember my opinions are not always right.