Purple Martin Forum

This guy was also "loose" earlier when I was dealing with the first. There is a small 4' tree near these racks, and he was in the grass at the base. I knew cause daddy came and fed him there. As the day wore on he sought shelter up higher in the leaves. It is almost 100 today. So I just checked on h...

So the little guy is on the porch, and a pair or adults came to check on him. The male was making quite strange chirps. The male even fed him. All I have to do is figure out which gourd they are using, and put him back in. Keeping the grass low under the gourds is a good way to spot jumpers. Keeping...

Saw a pretty good size jumper on the lawn under a rack this AM. After much swawking it settled down enough so I could examine it, and saw several little red mites as I stroked it's hack with my thumb. Now I have 2 problems... Mites! All I can think of is I let a pair of sparrows have a gourd and the...

I have read that you need more than 4 gourds to start with. If you have room to hang them, try adding some Big BoV2 from S&K, with porches.

Pre nest with pine straw (with a tad of sevin), and good luck.

That's sad. I hate seeing dead birds. I was messing with my gourds this afternoon and found one with a pair inside - dead. No mites, no injuries. My guess is there was hardly any nesting inside, and they couldn't get out the SREH porch entrance. On this gourd the porch was a little higher and angled...

This thread has my info if anyone wants seeds. It may not be too late in the year to plant. I sent a pack out today. Postage is usually $3 and please use a padded envelope. These will get nice and big if you put the nutrients to them, and have good neck shapes. A guy sent me a pic of some gourds he...

This thread has my info if anyone wants seeds. It may not be too late in the year to plant. I sent a pack out today. Postage is usually $3 and please use a padded envelope.

These will get nice and big if you put the nutrients to them, and have good neck shapes.

Brad, were you one of the people I have sent gourd seeds to a few years ago? I remember someone complaining about the shape of the gourds they made, and the ones in the pic( a 2 axle trailer full) that they put up looked fine to me, mostly. As for argueing, I really could care less. I have a great c...

You could have gently picked up the bird, and holding it loosely in your hand stroked it's back with your thumb. You will feel the bird grasping your fingers with the claws. That stroking seems to soothe them. When they are ready, they will fly away, hopefully. I hit a Kingbird with my truck near th...

When I pre-nest my gourds, I always put some Seven dust on the pine needles. Mites haven't been a problem. The Seven does no harm to the birds.

I have read that jumpers jump because of mites. No idea, cause my jumpers don't have any that I can tell.

I need to straighten up my 3 decoys, all are skewed from being hit. They work!

Put some bluebird boxes up in the fly-around area. a 6" x6" base, 1 1/2" hole. About 4'up, and TS love them. I also do not have issues with TS boxes within 30' of each other. PM and TS and BS, all hang out together just fine. I put mine on the telephone poles and the sides of buildings, with the hol...

I use natural and Big Bo V2 gourds, all with cleanouts and porches. We just had a big wind gust event from an approaching thunderstorm. I use 3" PVC tee racks, The 3' rods go through the horizontal tee parts, and a gourd is mounted on each end. so much better than dangling. I can get twice as many g...

My barnies are the most concern now. One lone bird on the porch nest, when the pair I have had would have eggs by now. TS are from 10 to about 6, and There are still a lot of gourd vacancies. Maybe 50 birds now, give or take. I am not sure if the teenagers are here yet either. Bugs galore. Did somet...

The tree swallows showed up first about like normal. PMs started rolling in a couple weeks ago a week or so behind the TS, but the numbers feel lower so far. No barnies yet. PMs and TS usually arrive at the same time.

Lotsa bugs in the air, freeze threat seems over. I miss my front porch barnies.

My last crop were all volunteers from the year before, probably from the little runt gourds I leave in there that still make seeds. I didn't fertilize or water, yet I got a bunch more gourds. I think the 11-13" dia make a good size. The birds will add leaves and mud to suit and the bigger gourds can...

That looks pretty good. You can make a little water deflector with a bead of caulk - like an little awning - over the entrance. If you do decide to add porches, please use a rod to mount the gourd instead of dangling the gourds. The porch will act as a sail and dump out eggs and babies. S&K sell gou...

The backhoe bucket of chicken poop I put in my garden and the resulting gourds disagree, but still those are nice looking gourds you have. Just like the natural ones I put up, and the birds love them. My 60 gourds are lot of work... you have your hands full.

I meant in the previous post - and pass those seeds on. I have sent out seeds to anyone who has requested them with a SASE. Those gourds look very similar... with some of course that you would not keep seeds on.

Could you please post up a pic of examples on each strain of good shapes?

Those look pretty good Brad, very similar to the gourds I have. Genetics of the seeds are everything. The guy who developed the seeds I run spent 30 years in selection. I think gourd size is dependent on ferts and early germination Here is how I get paint to stick. Step one is curing the gourds in a...