Purple Martin Forum

I had a hunter scarecrow dressed up in a florescent hunting coat that I moved around. It did nothing. I have six flood lights in the back yard facing my martin houses and gourds. I leave them on all night so I can see what's going on. I could almost read the owls mind, laughing at me and my silly sc...

There's been alot of people on the forum that have used the blinking night guard lights over the years. Most people have not had good luck with them. But who knows, maybe they will work for you. When owls know there's a lot of fresh meat in a small area, it's real hard to stop them.

Dave

Owls are smart and are not scared of anything. They may not bother you for a few nights using motion detector lights or flood lights or scarecrows but that's it. I have not had any luck using any of the above ideas. I stay up all night and walk out of the house when an owl is present and yell at him...

Dried meal worms is all that I use. I've never had to flick them into the air. I placethem on a feeding station along with oyster shell and pine straw. Sometimes I rehydrate, sometimes I don't. I usually leave some on the station all summer. I think the majority of the birds use them with the straw ...

I touch up my trio houses with Hunter Green gloss. It's pretty close to the original color. I don't use the rope system on my mini castle, got rid of that years ago. THe winch that I use is the same one on my castle. Works fine. Forgot to say that the paint is from Rust-oleam.

Dave

I have a trendsetter 26. I use four pieces of 2x4 inch wire. Bend each to fit each sideand bend them sothat there is about 10-12 inches in front of each porch. I cable tie one side to the corner upright and use large binder clips on the other corner upright so that I can swing cage sideways. I check...

After the season I pull out the nest material and throw away in the trash. I hose them down and use a sponge to get most of the gunk out and hose again. I dunk the gourds in bleach water for a few minutes then rinse. They are not spotless but I think good enough. I store them in 55 gallon barrels in...

Years ago when I was looking at fencing to use on my system I ended up using 2x4 inch by 72inch long wire. I needed that length to cover the houses and the gourds below the houses with one piece. I did not want to tie two pieces together to get my length. I never could find goat fencing that was tha...

Google April's owl guards. She has some nice looking cages that go up and down on poles.

Dave

I've done motion detector lights on top of poles, scarecrows, bird spikes, radio noise, flood lights shining on the houses and gourds, and wire cages. Nothing works well for me. Barred owls are usually the problem but last season it was the great horned owl.

Dave

Anymore I seem to lower my housing more than cranking them all the way up because of thunderstorms. So building a cage on top of the pole is worthless to me. It would not protect my birds. The added weight is not good. The poles can't handle extra weight on top during storms. A cage on top of a pole...

I use sevin dust inside the compartments, about 1/4 - 1/2 tsp. under or sprinkled into the nest walls when eggs are being layed. I also use liquid sevin outside compartments like around entrances or around the gourd caps. Works great. Mites usually gone in a day.

Dave

Hanaho, never thought the T 14 I built was to small. The birds seem to have plenty of room, even with 6 sometimes 7 chicks. By enlarging the house, you are adding a lot of weight. You may have to beef up the pole. My T 14 is around 130 lbs and that's following the plans to a tee. I used cedar boards...

Hanah, I have built the T14 and a North Star out of wood. Both have gourds below them. The combo works well. They are usually full of birds. They are very heavy. The T14 is around 130 lbs. , the North Star around 100 lbs. You will for sure need a winch and cable set up. I built the laminated post, 4...

If there were piles of martin feathers and an occasional owl feather below your colony, you have owl problems. If not, then something else happened. Drop your houses every five days and check the birds. They get use to you and you know exactly what's going on.

Dave

I write down what I see, 0 young.

Dave

Thanks everyone. I still would like to hear from folks that built cages for their gourd racks and how difficult it was to do. Dave

I'm thinking about taking my trendsetter 26 house down and replacing with a 12-16 gourd rack next year. I'd like to know which racks are easy to do nest checks and which ones are easy to add a cage for owl protection. I'll probably use the 2 inch ground stake in ground that was used for the trendset...

I drop my houses and gourds every 5days to check the birds and keep records. I drop until the last baby has fledged. I use the sock and string method to plug openings of birds that are almost ready to fledge. I haven't had much trouble dropping my systems throughout the season because the birds get ...

Bill, I use the dust under the nests and the liquid 7 on outside surfaces for mite control.

Dave