Myths of Edible Bird’s Nest

Please see below for some of the common MYTHS that need to be debunked:

Nest farming (house nests) is a cruel practice because you take away the swiftlets' home!

False!
First of all, contrary to popular belief, nest farming actually provides a better living condition for the birds compared to letting them live freely in other hazardous unprotected habitats. This is because, inside our bird houses, we will control the cleanliness (by removing their poos!), the temperature as well as the humidity of the house so that the swiftlets will be able to live more comfortably. Also, most importantly, the swiftlet families will be well protected from the harmful predators! Imagine lizard crawling around and attacking the baby birds! Poor babies!
Second of all, swiftlets have the natural habit of constructing nests throughout their lives; i.e. their secretion gland will continuously produce the fluid to build the nests. And unlike other birds, adult swiftlets do NOT rest inside the nests, instead, they attach themselves on the outside of the nests while resting. It is their young ones that stay inside the nests. So when the adults do not have young ones to take care of, the adults will leave the nests 'unused' and build new ones! In any case, we, Royal Bali Edible Bird’s Nests, do NOT abuse the practice of harvesting the nests! We will wait til the young ones grow up and fly off the nests before harvesting the nests!

Myths of Edible Bird’s Nest

Cave nests are more nutritious compared to house nests.

False!
Since both cave and house swiftlet nests are made by the same type of swiftlet birds, the natural composition of the Edible Bird’s Nests are the same. So what makes it different? It is the environment, particularly the walls ON which the birds construct the nests. Edible Bird’s Nests are just like sponges, they are extremely absorbent and hence will absorb everything around them.
Suppose the cave walls are rich in zinc and iron, the attached nests will gradually absorb these minerals and slowly (but surely) turn their colours to be bluish and reddish.
So many will say cave nests are RICH in zinc and iron, hence more nutritious then? Not necessarily as too much of minerals will lead to poisoning! House nests, on the other hand, since most of the walls are made of natural wood, the chance of mineral poisoning is greatly reduced!

Red Nests are more nutritious compared to White Nests.

False!
There is no such thing as 'naturally-constructed' red nests. All nests created will be white (when dry) or translucent (when they're immersed in water). What makes them possess different colours are the impurities they contain. These impurities are such particles as iron which is responsible for giving the nests their reddish texture. Again, too much of iron intake is not very desirable for our health, is it?
Nowdays, the red blood nests are produced by the unethical dying of white Edible Bird’s Nests. Some immoral industry practitioners even adopt the use of the birds´ feces to produce the red Edible Bird’s Nests.
“It is also believed that if the swallows´ feces are collected from the swiftlet house and placed next to the Edible Bird’s Nest for a week (during that the Edible Bird’s Nest will be stored in plastic container and separated from the swallows´ feces by the gauze) can also formulate the
Red nests produced via this method will inevitably contain a lot of nitrite and ammonia. Ammonia is a compound found in fertilizer and detergent. The consumption of nitrite has strong links to cancer and other major illnesses. Although many shops selling red Edible Bird’s Nests have claimed that their red nests do not bring harmful health effects, however, we advice our customers not to consume any coloured nests.