ya all

Dave

Dave, while I appreciate your attempt to sound southern that was a pretty bad attempt. LOL

Y'all
Yall
You all

Just for future reference.

June in Louisiana is way too late to attract Martins. Try again next year starting in February. Kill all the Hoise Sparrows that you can between now and then. If the hose has 24 6X6 compartments, it would be best to enlarge them. Also, large gourds are more attractive to them than houses. You need y...

Buy a permit, buy a gun and shoot the dang thing.

As a last resort, Martins and HOSP CAN cohabitate though it's far from ideal. There is no way I would allow a HOSP to keep me from opening up my Martin housing. You could have Martins and HOSP until you eliminate the HOSP.

I just checked the nests. One was completely destroyed. One was intact with two unhatched eggs. The storm blew rain sideways for about an hour. We received 3 inches. However, I found a snake skin about 20 feet from the nest. If it was a snake it will be the first one. I have had Martins for about 1...

Yes he definitely got more intent on entering. There was one specific time where he could have entered, he just didn't know it yet. He had both "shoulders" in, up to his largest point. All he had left to do at that point was twist his keel bone left or right and he would have been in. If he lives lo...

I don't want people to think that I'm hating on intensive management. If I have come across that way, that was not my intention. Intensive management is not for me. If it's your thing, great for you, but don't look down on me for not doing it. I've had thousands and thousands of Martins fledge from ...

Not trying to sound like a smart aleck or know it all, but that's what I suspected when I watched the videos. They won't try very hard to enter a small compartment. If you'll notice in the videos the bird or birds never tried hard to get inside. Only one video showed one really even attempt to enter...

Betaflame, what size compartments are those?

We don't have an issue with blowflies, and I use Sevin to eliminate mites. There is absolutely no biological reason for people who don't have blowfly issues, or mite issues to do nest replacements. There are warm, fuzzy feeling reasons for people to do them in that case. Writing numbers on a piece o...

I’d agree. 240 active compartments would no doubt produce more Martins than 200 active compartments. Seems simple enough

From now until fall is the perfect time to use a bait trap for house sparrows. Pre bait the area for a week. Use white millet to bait with. Our Walmart carries a mostly white millet bird food. It’s Pennington Finch blend or something of the sort.

Emil, you brought up a good point. Entrance thickness. I have not done any testing with thicker entrances but the thickness of the entrance hole could play a role in whether Starlings can enter. I agree that porch size is definitely more for the landlord than the Martins. I sure with we didn't have ...

Congrats on an awesome start to your colony. I enjoy reading your posts. They make me smile.

I like the idea. I would suggest putting a stop on them so they can't close lower than they need to. For safety reasons.

He won't be able to compete against the older nestlings. I've never raised one but if you intend for him to survive, you'll likely have to finish raising him.

Those look really nice. It's got to be a lot of work to sand that entrance down smooth and to the exact correct dimensions. I admire your determination. I do have an easier way. You would likely be able to get scrap "Sintra" from a sign shop. They may not know what Sintra is, that's a brand name, bu...

I thought everybody called it pine straw. I'm glad you folks are getting educated. :grin: I buy a bale or two every year to prebuild nests with. It costs $4-$5 per bale here. It's interesting to see it baled. The larger commercial operations that I've seen, the ones who supply home improvement store...

duplicate post, I'm not sure how that keeps happening.

Way over half of my birds have already headed to a premigratory roost yet my birds that return each afternoon still fight over the compartments that they chose. They have plenty of vacant gourds to get in. I wish mine would pick up the habits of the ones at your place. Congrats on the good year.

Those entry level red barn houses don't get Martins in them around here. I've never seen one that had Martins in it. It's odd to me that you have larger compartments than your neighbors are offering and you aren't running over with Martins. I assure you, given the chance, Martins will most times pic...