I was about 12 years old when I had my first proper cold bird's nest dessert. It was a treat. I remember how expensive it was, I had to share it with my cousin. I was told that it's difficult to get swallow's (or was it swiftlet's? Anyway in Indonesian we call it walet) nests from caves therefore the price is high. If I remember correctly, this strands of salivary laminae cement tastes like jelly. It supposedly good for your immune, increase you libido, etc, etc. Dont ask me if it's true.
Nowadays, it is easier getting these nests. If you see tall buildings with no windows in some places -mostly in areas near the sea, those are nesting-houses. Most of them are not painted, I was told birds prefer it that way.
When I was in Rawajitu, Lampung. I met this guy, Wawan who showed me around and telling me about this business. This big business. Apparently such building can generate more than 250 million rupiah ($250000) every 40 days! No wonder on the way to Rawajitu you can see nesting houses everywhere between the paddy fields.
It is interesting to know that while the co-op for the fishermen is not working well, wealthy nesting-house owners are setting up a co-op. I hope it works out.
At the back of the house that I visited, they transferred their old kitchen to a nesting-place ever since there was a swallow building a nest in it a while back. They closed up the windows, doors, and later on building up above it, and also the room next to the old kitchen to make room for more nesting-place. They only left out 1 door that only be opened every 40 days to harvest those nests. Inside they put racks upon racks for nesting and resting and also some irrigation. The rest are just tiny holes for circulation of air.
These birds loves dark cold place to nest. They go out early in the morning just after dawn and travel miles and miles away for food. I was told that each day they travel about 3000km looking for flying insects before coming back around dusk. 3000km a day! It took me 2 weeks to do that far while I was in Lampung!
Although it seems easy enough, I know people who has these houses without any bird ever lived in it for years. There are houses left empty for more than 5 years and still no bird. As it turns out, in order to attract these birds, people also use recoding of these bird and also spraying bird's 'fragrance'. Ok, fragrance is not the right word, odorant is more like it. I have no idea what it was, perhaps its pheromone or worst: bird's poop. The point it, it attracts bird to come to your building and nest. People spent good money for these. They even use witch doctor! I wonder why there are no Bird whisperer around.
The house that I visited harvests about 3 kg every 40days. From that they earn about $3000. Not bad. Not bad at all. It's a very good business considering you dont have to feed them, just build that house, keep mice and eagle away from it and probably also pay someone to guard it, as there are lots of bird's nest robbers around. If you manage to get some birds in the house, it's a gift that keep on giving.
During harvesting they always left out some eggs for regeneration, and some they collect for consumption. Too bad when I was there they dont have any left. I was told its very tiny, about 0.5 cm. To eat it you just soak it in boiled water for 10 minutes, and you can eat all of it, including the eggshell.
Eventho it's good for the economy, a lot of people found those nesting-houses are hideous and ruining the view, especially when they are built in the middle of paddy fields. I think the local government needs to regulate the area that can be used for this, so it would be a win-win situation. In Rawajitu they tend to build them in blocks, some are in the middle of residential area (if you can call that residential area), some in the middle of paddy fields, while in Lampung Timur it's more spread out. I prefer the Rawajitu approach, it is less intrusive.
Last week mom bought a couple (male and female) of Betta Fishes, also known as Siamese Fighting Fish, to accompany the male red tail one we already have. The male one is blue veiltail which has been develop through selective inbreeding, the female has natural coloration which is about twice as big as the male in size.
