All of our Bird's Nests come from a family farm in Indonesia and adhere to the highest quality standards. The A-ratings refer to the size and uniformity of the nests. More A's indicate larger nests with fewer defects.
We at Silkie denounce those misleading and unhealthy practices and select our bird’s nest suppliers very carefully. We have partnered with a farm in Indonesia that is over 70 years old, where farmers use traditional processing methods to produce the highest quality product. Because we are TCM herbalists, we are committed to providing the most natural and pure bird’s nests for our customers.
Our Silkie guarantee:
- Bird’s Nest's cleanliness ranks highest in the industry.
- No more than 10% water content in Bird’s Nest (to protect against cracks from dryness).
- No chemicals are added while cleaning (such as bleach, hydrogen peroxide, etc.).
- No glue or other materials were added (such as seaweed, fish bone powder, non-edible rubber, etc.).
- No broken bird’s nest fillings.
- Never bleached (so the color might vary in each nest).
- 100% Pure Bird's Nest ( contains the natural mildew aroma).
Keep refrigerated for freshness.
There are four deceiving practices you need to know before you buy a bird’s nest from anybody else:
Bleaching or dying: The bird's nests either come from caves or houses that are specially built to accommodate them. The red-blood swallow nests get their distinctive color from the interaction of minerals, air, and humidity and are fairly rare. It is generally believed that the minerals in red nests are richer than those in white nests, so the price is slightly higher. However, there are some merchants using food coloring to dye the white nests red to achieve a higher price. This color processing also hides the presence of fine feathers and other particles that should be removed and can cause harm. White bird's nest is a natural product and it has its own natural greyish color. If you look at pure white or red nests, there is a high chance that they have been bleached with chemicals or dyed. Often, consumers are misled by the idea that a pure white or red bird’s nest is of higher quality, which is not true. A natural white bird's nest should be cream or grey colored and can have some darker spots. A natural, unbleached bird’s nest should have a natural mildew aroma. If it doesn’t possess that smell, or contains a strong chemical odor, that is a sign that it had been bleached or dyed.
There are four deceiving practices you need to know before you buy a bird’s nest from anybody else:
Gluing: Birds’ nests are built by swallows depositing strips of saliva to create a home for their offspring. The saliva is very rich in protein and the building process takes at least two and a half months. During that process, the bird feathers and other impurities can get mixed into the layers of the nest. Therefore, each nest undergoes a painstakingly laborious cleaning process involving magnifying glasses and tweezers. That cleaning process can leave holes in the nest which doesn’t affect the efficacy but lowers the commercial grade of the nest. However, some processors will create a paste from seaweed, fish bone powder, and other substances in order to cover the holes. Some go as far as smoothing out the crevices and adding as much as possible of the relatively cheap paste in order to double the weight of the processed nests. We have even seen bird’s nests that were covered with non-edible rubber. The non-edible rubber covers the bird's nest for a long time and can preserve the nest better, but it will permeate into the layers and will not wash off. In people with a weak digestive system, it causes gastrointestinal discomfort and can harm the function of the digestive system.
There are four deceiving practices you need to know before you buy a bird’s nest from anybody else:
Adding weight by adding water: To avoid the bird’s nests becoming brittle and crushed during the transportation, they should contain between 5% and 10% water. Some companies are known to add more than 15% of water to the birds’ nests in order to increase their profits. However, the higher moisture content makes the nests turn moldy faster and requires them to coat the nests with spray glue, similar to hairspray, to preserve them.
There are four deceiving practices you need to know before you buy a bird’s nest from anybody else:
Resin-filled bird’s nests: Some bird’s nests are made from a substitute material, an edible resin that can be bought in Asia for as little as $1 USD per pound. The fake birds' nests are intermingled with a few real birds’ nests in the same package.
100% Natural
Our farmers never trap or feed any food to the swallows for the purpose of enhancing their productivity. The swallows have their own free will to fly in and out to hunt for food on their own. Our bird’s nest is the purest and most natural in the world.
Harvest Birds’ Nest
Our bird’s nest comes from Indonesia, where farmers provide a natural, safe, and clean environment for the swallows to build their nests. Once all of their eggs hatch, the swallow parents no longer need the nests. Our farmers will remove the nests, which allows room for other swallows to build their nests.
