Purple Martin Landlords….let’s get those houses back up!

[Mudslinger]

Found out the hard way that Top Fence rail WILL NOT hold up a PM House in heavy winds! It bent the rail and put the house on the ground. Now it is attached to a big corner 2 3/8" post so if this one blows over, part of our house will probably be gone! Have not seen any scouts yet. Eastern Bell County!

[Rubi513]

Ok if my gourds are free hanging or need to be rigid? Seems the birds are going to have a heck of a ride first time the wind kicks up.

Have any pics of your setup?

[RascalArms]

Purple Martin Landlords….let’s get those houses back up!

Ok if my gourds are free hanging or need to be rigid? Seems the birds are going to have a heck of a ride first time the wind kicks up.

Have any pics of your setup?

Yes, show us some pics. I try to hang mine "tighter" to the pole or cross piece that they are attached to in order to minimize too much sway. But they still take a pretty good ride in strong gusty winds.
Did you buy the Heath's as you mentioned above? Just be sure they hang to where they don't swing "vertical" and the eggs or little fledglings can fall out of the entrances when they sway.

[Buckshot-73]

No scouts yet at my place. Only have one house up so far... two more to go...

For sparrow and martin control, I have my houses all oriented in such a way that I can shoot the sparrows/starlings off the porches/perches without shooting the houses... Plus that orientation makes it so all the openings are either East or West... no north or south facing holes.

On a side note, it appears the bluebirds have recovered nicely from last year's big freeze... Have about 4 pairs hanging around the houses in the back yard... the bluebird houses are singles and only about 18" above my cedar fence... The martin boxes are about 12 feet above them.

Charlie, I had 3 survivors last year, only cause I kept plenty of peanut cakes... I ran out of seed 3 days in the snow.

I normally feed 500 mealworms in a week to 10 days.

[toledo]

Have any pics of your setup?

[rut-ro]

Will Martins interfere with a hummingbird population? my parents love to watch the birds and they have about 50 hummingbirds that frequent their feeders. I would not want them to run them off.

[Rubi513]

That looks good to me.
You may snug the nuts up if the wind is blowing them around a bit.
Nice setup!

[txhunt7]

in Katy, say a super good looking blue bird yesterday. Martins have not arrived. I lost at least 4-6 last year so I guess the early birds were taken out and my late comers should be arriving soon. They've never arrived this late so I guess they're not taking chances this year

[SaltwaterSlick]

Will Martins interfere with a hummingbird population? my parents love to watch the birds and they have about 50 hummingbirds that frequent their feeders. I would not want them to run them off.

We have at least 50 hummers too. Now I do have most of my hummingbird feeders in the front yard (only because we can sit in the family room and watch them outside the window), but I do have feeders in the back too. Have plenty of hummer, martins and bluebirds, even wrens in the back yard along with cardinals and such... by mid-Spring, most don't even fly when a sparrow or starling explodes on the fence or off the martin house porch... Heck, the bluebirds will jump on the dead starlings in the back yard when they fall inside the fence...

[RascalArms]

Good looking rack Toledo. I would personally go ahead and remove the little perforated section around the entrances and make them round hole entries. Without a "porch", new martins may shy away at first and you want to make it easily assessable to your brand new birds.
Keep an eye out for sparrows and starlings of course.
Good luck [emoji106]

[SaltwaterSlick]

Had my first scout today. He went in one of the holes too right at dark to roost. Same time they showed up last year.

[Rubi513]

Had another show up today.

[RascalArms]

Congrats to you guys with the visitors. Still nada here. Kinda glad too…..it’s gonna be a cold mutha up here for a few days.

[BTLowry]

I cleaned my house out yesterday and plugged a few of the holes.

Sparrows arrived early and took over last year. Have a sparrow trap on the fence below house so going to try and thin the sparrows.

[SaltwaterSlick]

These are my sparrow thinner... they work on starlings too!