Purple Martin Forum

Your the Man, Steve. I know you spend a tremendous amount of time with your Colony and not just while the Martins are here. Setting up the gourds, prenesting, and cleaning them out after season takes a lot of time. I appreciate you guiding me to the Troyer Horizontal gourds. They have doubled the am...

In the future, it's always good to have the concrete stop 4" to 6"s below ground level, just for this reason.

I have found with the Troyer Horizintal Gourds the owls do not have access to the Martins. With the vertical gourds they can reach into the Gourd at night and pull the Martins out. At this time I have 82 Horizontal Gourds and 3 Gemini round Gourd racks and (after adding 3/4" vents) have had no probl...

I leave the gourds up for at least a month after the Martins leave. Allot of Martins migrate south through here and sometimes they will come in at dusk and stay the night then leave before sunrise the next morning.

Just lower the Gourd rack and put 1/4 teaspoon of 5% dust in all of the gourds. That will solve your problems with the jumpers. I'm glad the adults came to check on the baby and you were able to identify the Gourd that it went in. Same trick may work with the 2nd one. Martins body temperature is 104...

Thanks all, FYI, yesterday I removed an empty horizontal gourd, drilled and added elbows. With no nesting material, the outside temp was 92 degrees and the inside of gourd was 98.......later in the day the temp dropped to 88 and the inside of the gourd was 83. I would do this with an empty Gourd an...

Did you have a severe late cold front that could have chilled some of the eggs so they wouldn't hatch?

The Martins will sometimes discard of infertile eggs or roll them to the edge of the nest.

I sent you a personal message with my contact info.

I live in Gladewater, Texas and can assist you with your Martins and setup.

Call me or send me an email.

I changed over to these gourds over the last 5 years, 82 gourds in all. In my experience they are the best gourds you can offer. What Whippy said is true, there may be a small amount of water come in the entrance in a wind blown rain but it will drain quickly and not damage the nest. But they offer ...

That's one of the primary reasons we do nest checks every 7 days or so. To identify where a Fledgling is missing so he goes back in the correct Gourd. He will keep jumping until you get the correct Gourd or starves. Parents aren't going to feed a baby at that age that isn't theirs. I don't mean to s...

Everything posted here is true. Just make sure you purchase 5% Sevin dust.

A quarter teaspoon in each Gourd will reduce your jumpers dramatically.

If you ever get mites on your arm for just a few minutes you will realize the aggravation the Fledglings are enduring.

Why do you take the trap out at night?

I would just leave the trap in there until it does Its job.

This is one of the primary reasons that we do nest checks and document the results. I have had 3 fall to the ground this year. Well one of them has fallen out twice. He only has sight in one eye and the other side does not have an eyelid. I know in nature he is probably doomed as they feed on flying...

You should feel fortunate!

Master Banders are hard to find, I've tried to get Martins banded for years with no success.

In Virginia it may not be a problem, but in the southern states I would be concerned about heat buildup.

Sometimes it depends on how safe the adults view the site. Their are Owls, Cooper's Hawk, raccoons, and snakes among others. Some predators you will see, some you will never know were there. If the adults are happy with the security they may bring the Fledglings back at night for a week. Some adults...

Male Martins are like expectant fathers, they have nothing to do during incubation. Some will continue to bring leaves to the female all the way until the eggs start hatching. Some males bring in a tremendous number of leaves during this period and the eggs will be difficult for the female to keep t...

I have 3 of the round Troyer Gemini Gourd racks with 82 gourds. I have transitioned the Martins from living in wooden houses that I built many years ago to Troyer Horizontal Gourds. I would take down a house and replace it with a Gourd rack every few years. I still have one of the wooden houses, the...

I live down south and our Martins feed for a long time before they start nesting and laying eggs.

I've never really noticed any difference in egg size.

I feed Martins egg shells once they start laying eggs. When you see them taking green leaves into the gourds. I know Ed supports oyster shells but our Martins just wouldn't eat them no matter how small they were ground up, so egg shells it is. I did learn quickly the eggshells have to be white, Mart...