Retired Carpenter Chen Heng Ming, 82, loved to keep birds as pets at his young age. He also liked to capture turtledoves and pheasants. After he has retired at his 60s, he started to spend his time in studying bird habits and making birdcages.

Unexpectedly, it has opened up another career path after his retirement, which allowed him and his wife to live a self-sufficient retirement life by making birdcages and pheasant capture tools.

Chen told Sin Chew Daily that he learned to make birdcages and capture tools all by himself based on his interest in birds. Practices made perfect, he mastered the technique eventually.

“You cannot make big money with birdcages, it’s only a kind of hobby and exercise that allows me to live a substantial self-sufficient life with my wife,” he said with a smile.

“I work only when I’m free in the morning and afternoon, and I only make them when I’ve got an order, including orders from pet and fish shops. Also, some bird hobbyists come for tailor-made birdcages,” he added.

Chen said that a normal birdcage is sold at RM35 and there are two types of pheasant capture tools which are sold at RM30 and RM35 each respectively. As he could make only one a day, he was unable to make big money.

In order to save cost and to respond to environmental protection concern, most of the raw materials Chen used to make birdcages and capture tools were discarded waste, including copper wires from tyres and bicycle spokes.

He said that the materials needed to make a birdcage basically included rattan, iron or copper, copper wire and nylon rope. Other than rattan and nylon rope, he got all other materials from discarded waste.

When being asked whether anyone has come to learn the craft, he said that many people are not willing to learn it as making a birdcage is a complicated process. One must possess high interest with enough patience in order to master the technique. (Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE/Sin Chew Daily)