The Trendsetter line of aluminum purple martin houses is my favorite commercial multi-room housing though the Trios are running a close second. I currently have two 12 room Trendsetters that have been in use for several years and are well occupied each season by martins.
For the 2014 martin season, I decided to go for the ultimate Trendsetter house and bought a beautiful 28 compartment system from the PMCA. I also got 28 Trendsetter nest trays to go with the house.
The big 28 compartment Trendsetter is a beautiful well-made martin house with three floors and four sides with six compartments per side, 24 rooms total. The attic has four rooms, one for each side. The house has offset and straight line entrance holes and both are appropriate with large compartments though I like the offset a little better because such entrance placement provides good protection from hawks and owls; the martins are hidden off to the side. The compartments with offset holes are 6” by 12” and the straight line rooms are 6” by 11”. The four attic rooms come in two sizes: 6” x 11” and 6” x 9”. Each compartment has an internal vent hole that can be opened and closed. The roof is insulated with a type of Styrofoam. Removable wire mesh sub-floors come with the house for placement in the compartments. These are supposed to help keep the nests dry but they have never worked for me on my older Trendsetters. Water can still easily wick-up into the nests through the mesh. I now use Trendsetter nest trays which have worked well. There are porch dividers to help minimize nest domination behavior by possessive martins and keep nestlings from moving along the porch to other rooms. The porches are wide and provide good overhang for minimizing rain inflow into the compartments. Each porch has a railing where the martins can perch in front of their nests. The rooms are accessed by removable door panels. On this large Trendsetter one door panel will access four compartments on the floors and each attic room has its own panel. The 12 room Trendsetter has separate door panels for each compartment and do like this arrangement better. The 28 compartment Trendsetter comes with a 14 foot two inch square single section strong steel pole and brake winch. The pole is placed over an iron ground stake.
I was very pleased with my new Trendsetter but even the best can sometimes be “tweaked” to make it just a little better! And after studying my new Trendsetter, I saw some areas that could be modified to improve the looks, functionality and even safety of the system. I am always thinking of ways to improve my commercial gourd racks and aluminum houses. While I can often see what I want or needs to be done, I am really not that mechanically inclined to actually implement the modifications! That’s where good friends who have the mechanical skills can come to the rescue and do what is needed to get the job done!
Fortunately, a good friend, Robert Jernigan who has the mechanical skills and modified my two 12 room Trendsetters after a storm damaged them in 2011 came by to visit one day. He looked at my 28 compartment Trendsetter, had an “epiphany” and he too saw some of the same areas I did which could be “enhanced”. So with little protest from me, he “kidnapped” my new Trendsetter and took it to his “man-cave” for re-modeling! And re-model he did!
Robert is a wizard at working with metal and extremely creative in building beautiful martin gourd racks and houses. He knows how to bend and cut metal and make it actually fit just right! So I knew my Trendsetter was in good hands.
Robert worked his magic and improved the look, functionality and safety of my Trendsetter. Some of the modifications were more cosmetic while others related to improving the attractiveness and safety of any martins nesting within. I was very pleased with Robert’s enhancements and believe some of these changes could possibly be incorporated by the manufacturer when houses are being built.
Here are a series of photos of my 28 compartment Trendsetter showing the modifications Robert made. I discuss the areas that Robert and I believed needed to be modified or enhanced and describe what he did to implement the revisions to the house.
The following photo shows my Trendsetter before any changes were made; Robert took this photo. The house is a beautiful creation but there were a few areas that we believed needed to be modified. Most of the changes involved the porch dividers but there were other modifications. The four attic compartments did not have porch dividers at the corners and this would allow large nestlings that came out to move along the porches around the house and enter other nests.
The porch dividers on the door panels that open appeared to me to be too small would probably easily allow nestlings to move over or around the dividers to enter other nests. Also these dividers may not provide enough “privacy” between the rooms to discourage nest domination behavior. I believe the reason for this porch divider design was to make it easier to remove the door panel.
At each corner of the floors, the divider did not attach flush to the door panels thereby leaving a noticeable gap. This gap could be dangerous to martin nestlings or adult martins when fighting on the porch because the martins could get their heads or wings wedged in the opening. You can see the gap between the dividers and corner ends of the house in the photo. Plus the gap just didn't "look right" and by having it flush against the door panel was more appealing to me.
The porch dividers were painted white on one side and left unpainted on the other; my two other Trendsetters are the same. This is a “cosmetic” issue. The unpainted side almost looks transparent in the following photo!
The following photo shows how Robert modified my Trendsetter; Robert took this photo. The problem with the attic compartments has been solved by installing porch dividers at each corner of the roof/floor. Robert’s porch dividers completely block this opening and NO martin nestling will be able to move from one side to the other.
The porch dividers on the door panels which open have been replaced with “removable” porch dividers that are larger and provide more coverage between the rooms and should keep any nestling from crossing over to the adjacent nest and may also minimize nest domination issues. The dividers also extend out about an inch from the porch railings. Robert created an ingenious removable porch divider that snaps in and out! Also by removing the porch divider, this makes it MUCH easier to take off the door panel when you want to check the nests. There are other photos below that show these dividers up close.
Robert replaced the porch dividers at the corners with gaps with new dividers that attach flush with the door panels. No more gaps that could have possibly trapped a martin’s head or wing. There is a small gap between the bottom of the divider and the floor and that will allow rainwater to flow under the divider and off the porch. But this gap is lower down and in a location that probably is not a potential safety issue for any martin.
There were six other porch dividers attached to the door panels that do not open. Robert replaced these with dividers that extend out about another inch beyond the railings to give more privacy between the compartments and reflect consistency with the other dividers that extend outward.
And all replaced porch dividers are white on BOTH sides and this is more pleasing aesthetically. The Trendsetter simply looks better with dividers that are consistently white rather than having one side as unpainted aluminum.
Along with the Trendsetter and nest trays I also bought four universal gourd hanging arms. I wanted to add four Troyer Horizontal gourds to the bottom of my Trendsetter. However, I was concerned about the weight of these gourds on the aluminum bottom. So Robert solved this problem by bolting four supports made from dense cutting board to each corner of the Trendsetter bottom. These supports greatly strengthened the aluminum and easily hold the Troyer Horizontal gourds. There is NO bending of the aluminum bottom when the gourds are suspended from the universal hanging arms. Also, Robert added some aluminum strips to the bottom edge of the floors to protect the lip from bending and protect your fingers from the sharp edge. The following photo shows the Trendsetter bottom with four gourd hanging support plates bolted to it. You can also see the protective aluminum strips along the bottom edge of the floors. Robert took this photo.
This photo shows my lowered modified Trendsetter with four Troyer Horizontals. When Robert brought over my enhanced Trendsetter, we put it on the pole. This is a large house but not that heavy, but it is probably best to have two people work together to get the house on the pole and then lift it up to place over the ground stake. I know I could have NEVER done all this by myself!
This photo shows my raised modified Trendsetter with four Troyer Horizontals. The brake winch works well in raising and lowering the house. I hope the two inch square steel pole will be strong enough for such a large house during strong winds. I believe this pole is stronger than a comparable aluminum pole. I have talked with another friend who has a 28 compartment Trendsetter and he said the pole has done fine so far. But I can always lower the system if necessary during potential bad weather.
This photo shows a close up a gourd hanging support plate made from cutting board. You can see how Robert bolted the plate to the bottom corner of the Trendsetter. This is a SOLID support foundation and the Troyer gourds hanging below show NO bending impact on the aluminum bottom corners.
This photo shows a close up of the inside of a compartment where the support plate is bolted underneath. Two bolts are placed at the door panel and inside divider to give maximum holding strength to the support plate. The other two bolts hold the gourd hanging bracket to the support plate and also provide holding strength to the support plate. So the support plate has four bolts holding it to the house bottom.
This photo shows a close up of one of Robert’s removable porch dividers that inserts in a door panel slot. The divider is firmly held in place when it is pushed inside a piece of aluminum that is riveted to the door panel. What a creative enhancement!
This photo shows a porch divider that has been snapped out.
This photo shows a door panel that has been opened and you can see the nest trays in the four compartments; there are six door panels that open and each allows access to four rooms. I paint my nest trays brown to help protect against water damage and increase the darkness inside the compartment. I will still keep the wire sub-floors and the nest trays will be placed on top. This elevation off the floor will help to keep any rainwater from settling around the wooden nest tray.
The 28 compartment Trendsetter is a beautiful and well-made commercial aluminum house and so are the smaller 12 compartment houses. And even the best can sometimes be enhanced to be even a little better! I am most pleased with Robert’s superb and creative enhancements to my 28 compartment Trendsetter. His enhancements/modifications increase the attractiveness of the house aesthetically, may help to improve occupancy levels with more effective porch dividers that reduce potential problems with nestlings moving to other nests or martins being caught in divider gaps and strengthen the house bottom corners with sturdy support plates for adding gourds. You can't beat a combination of the Trendsetter’s outstanding quality and Robert’s excellent enhancements to make that quality even better! A big thank you to both Trendsetter and my good friend Robert!
Steve
