Purple Martin Forum

Hi Duke,
If you can supplement feed the martins with frozen and thawed crcikets, place the crickets on their cavity porches or just inside the cavity / house / gourd. If you choose scrambled eggs, don't use oil to prepare the scrambled eggs and cut them up into small pieces.

Continue to use the hand warmers. Lower the house, put in the warmers, wipe of the snow from the entrance, and place crickets just inside the enrance to the side of the tunnell, but don't block their entrance. You need to supplement feed. The hand warmers are a bonus for the martins. The entrance re...

Hi Duke,
You are correct.The martins will sit on the roof shingles to absorb heat. If you scramble eggs in little pieces without using oil; do so and spread them on the roof if possible. The martins are looking for food in addition to heat to survive.

Hi Timber,
It appears that the closest landlords who have reported their martins on the websites scout arrival are: Mark Gore from Marathon and Kelly Scheiderer from Edgar. I hope this info helps.

phldave is so right on his comment about reporting the subbies. The wanna be future landlords rely on this information provided by active colony landlords. I have assisted 8 new landlords here in Iowa this srping in getting everything prepared for possible starts of a new colony. It only takes a lit...

It is good to see a responsible landlord like you. The martins would not survive without assistance from great landlords. Keep supplement feeding and hopefully they will all pull through the bad weather.

Great info everyone, I flip crickets during times when they are in reelatively healthy condition. If my martins wings are really drooping, I place the crickets right on their housing porches. In placing them on the porches they use less energy than flying for the flipped crickets and can store that ...

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Hi glfriend,
Congrats on your first martin. I will pray for a mate to show up and maybe start a colony.

Hi Laura,
Congrats on your SY male. He sure is handsome.

Hi Steve,
This is great news. If the weather holds to be cooperative this year and the population appearing to be on an upswing; we may have made a good improvement on the overall population.

Hi Kegger, Great question. Only about 15% of those babies that hatched out and fledged last season will return to their original colony. Also, This young son would most likely return about 6 weeks after the older parents. The parents are known as ASY or after second year martins. The son or youngste...

Super pic and nice nest. Congrats.

Hi Bret,
Awesome that you are eliminating sparrows and starlings. It is nice to see new landlords like you taking responsibility in their new colony.

Your other martins will be arriving within a few days, so I would open up.

Congrats Brett. The first few years of being a new landlord are critical. I'm sure you will be fine, but now is when you do everything to make their stay safe and healthy. You will be playing the numbers game in the years ahead. 10-15% of the babies will come back to your new colony each year. Best ...

From what I have gathered, you would be better of with the T6. T51 Temper T51 treatment bakes the casting at a low-temperature to artificial age it. The temperature range is between 440˚F (227°C). The casting is heated in the oven for 3-5 hours and then allowed to cool naturally. The low temperature...

Thanks Matt for the update video. Neat to see that great minds think alike. Great design. In the future if I decide to go over the 100 cavity mark, I may buy a few of these.

It always blows my mind when I see eggs way down south and ASY martins are just arriving for migration in South Dakota. It shows us how spread out and over time the cycle really takes place.

Hi ToyinPA, You mentioned hummingbirds and that got me to thinking about an aspect of hummingbirds some people are not aware. To help save hummingbirds in the future here is a tid bit of info: Hummingbirds may fall into a state of stupor, seeming unconciousness on the ground during cold mornings and...