Adding new housing

[Purple386]

Hello everyone! This is my third year to have a purple martin house and we have 8 nests/pair. I have noticed younger martins still visiting my house. Is it too late in the year to put up another house? The house I have has 12 compartments but seems a little crowded when they all land on the house. If it is too late how/when should I put up another house? I live in Northwest Louisiana. Thank you so much for your help!

[CraigMo.]

You can do now if you want. Just make sure you will be able to mow between your set ups . Your birds will be nosey as heck and will most likely land on it as soon as you have it up. I usually keep mine around 10- 15 feet apart.
Good Luck.

[Purple386]

Thank you! I’ll get one to put up and see how it goes.

[deancamp]

I looked at the scout arrival study for Louisiana for 2019. Someone reported their first sy bird came on 4/20. With that in mind you should have several weeks for the sy birds to keep coming in. Good luck!

[Purple386]

I was able to finally get my new house and put it up today! My original house we bought from a wildlife bird store already assembled so I didn’t know the size of the compartments and being new to martins I didn’t know they recommend bigger compartments. My new house we modified to the 6x6x12 but my original is 6x6x6. Will it bother my birds next year if I expand the compartments when I take the housing down at the end of the year? I saw where you can stack the houses so I’d still have 12 compartments, just 4 stories. Or since I have martins should I leave that house as is? I definitely don’t want to mess up so any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

[Purple386]

Here are some pictures. My new pole is also a couple of feet higher and we bought netting to make a guard. The pictures aren’t the clearest and for some reason they are posting sideways.

[deancamp]

It won't bother them to enlarge the compartments at the end of the season. They will appreciate it next year.