Purple Martin Forum

Owls could be the problem. Have you noticed any damage to the housing or perches?

Joseph,
There has been considerable discussion on this subject in the past. Bottom line is, either way is fine. I personally chose the vertical option for my 57 cavities and it seems to work very good. Jim

daveh, the cage top and sides stays up top and does not lower. The closed bottom does lower with the houses which causes some problem doing nest checks as the fence bottom is somewhat in the way when opening the cavity doors. I can work with it but a bit of a pain to reach over the fence bottom. I d...

I closed the bottom of the cage and have not had any more owl problem. The 4"x4" size of fence that Kent suggests is definitely a good size for the bottom. It appears important that the martins have the benefit of dropping out the bottom easily. I have a gourd rack with 21 super gourds tha...

I have been warned this may happen but I wanted to be certain as nest checks are a pain with the bottom closed. I have had 2 motion activated night vision cameras monitoring my colony (2 poles,57 apts) since nesting started in May. Fledging started a week ago. 146 chicks were banded 6/19 with 40-45 ...

Louise, I decided to go ahead and protect the bottom sooner rather than later. Just got back from the hardware with materials. I will have it done before the w/e is over. I am thinking to only protect the bottom with about 4"x8" openings so the martins can use easily. The martins really li...

I have a GHO problem so I built a cage around my housing (3 Lonestar houses x 12 units ea on one pole caged & 21 Super gourds on other pole not caged). I bought and mounted 2 motion activated cameras to monitor the colony site. Last night @ 11:24 pm was the first owl visitor this year and looks ...

Nice job on the guard!!! What is the stapled on "thingies" below the 4"x4" openings?

I have used wheat straw only for many years until this last season. This 2011 season I pre built both alum housing and gourd nests with pine straw. I also offered both wheat straw and pine straw in a B&B (platform feeder). The martins took very little wheat straw while they did take mostly pine ...

Thanks to all for your responses! I probably should have researched the fence orientation a bit more. Now it will be a wait and see as to how it works. I do have a plan to close the bottom with fence if needed. In addition to this 36 rooms of Lonestar housing, I have a gourd rack with 21 porched sup...

Thanks to all for your replys! The orentiation of the fencing on my project is 2" wide x 4" high. I really did not think much about it until I see some comments that now make me think about it. I will probably take the wait and see approach as to how well it works in regards to the orienta...

Great horned owl problem has really gotten bad so I am going to try this guard in 2012. I just finished making and erecting this system. The winch system allows lowering of the houses while the fence guard stays up top in place. Question: Is the fence low enough? The bottom of fence is 6" below...