Anyone with misting system?

[robndebby]

I want to set up some misters for the birds as tomorrow is going to be superhot. I tried Southern States and other large chains, no one has anything. If you have a system of some sorts, whether home-made or bought, can you let me know about it as soon as possible? I don't particularly want to run a super long hose from the house to the Martin's house.

[DebA]

I used to use a mister with my S&K houses. I haven't on my trendsetters. In 2011 we had 32 days straight of temps over 100°. Most days were 110-114. Crazy hot. We did run off of a garden hose. We are fortunate to have a nearby hydrant. The mister attached to small tubing that we attached to a female garden hose adapter. The mister tubing was a bit stiff so we ran it up over the house securing with a wire. It had a lovely spray over the house. The adults loved flying through it or sitting on the rail at the corner and having a stream dribble on their head. All of our parts came from the local hardware store.

I also used flexible small ice packs in the compartment. I placed in the entry section, not the nest bowl. I've used them in adjacent empty compartments too. But when it was that hot I stuck them right in. They warn against nest bowl due to possible frost bite to babies. The packs lasted three or so hours. I'd drive home at lunch and place. After work I'd open the compartment to find babies lined up on the melted pack. Ahhh...

Watch for misting and ice pack condensation moisture to the nest. I had some. Which I treated with Sevin for mites prophylactically. I read to worry about spores causing ailments. But at that point the rewards out weighed the risks. Pick your poison. I had zero baby deaths to heat or premature fledging. Now a days my birds seem to tolerate low 100's ok. Good luck!
Deb

[DebA]

I also offered thawed crickets during that time. Put a pile on the porch entrance area. I also fed the young. Swush...swush...noise and when they opened I slammed a cricket home. Gently of course. Or I'd use the fingernail to pry a start open then put a cricket in. Gulp gulp. This was back when I was too girly to touch dead crickets and used tweezers. Lol. My how times have changed.
Deb

[wastrox]

My mentor, Nanette Mickle has a misting system set-up which she credits with having saved her babies a couple years back. She is sometimes on the PMCA Facebook page. You may want to try and private message her there or post on the page and reference her name. She should get an alert if you do so and then she'll likely respond.

[KathyF]

Misting can raise the humidity levels in the gourds / housing and humidity can be more deadly than just heat (my visits to Louisiana in August come to mind), so be very careful if you decide to mist. Two years ago, we had very intense heat here and I had 2 wet nests. When I pulled the gourds down to do banding, half the nestlings were dead and the other half had cases of aspergilliosis (similar to pneumonia or bronchitis) - they had fluid on the lungs, caused by the fungus growing in the damp nests.
Because of the danger of moisture getting in the nests, I don't mist - I just change out the nests to make sure they're dry and provide venting on the gourds. If it's really unbearable out there, some shade panels on your racks will help them also. I also setup a water sprinkler in my yard if it's really horrible.

[Chris B]

I put one of those high pressure nozzles on a hose and made a mist that they could fly through. Even though I have a large pond it seemed like the adults were welcoming the cool water from the areal mist I shot way up in the air. The pond water is hot on the surface.

No jumpers since BTW.

[Dave Duit]

The adults will use a method called belly soaking in which they splash down in nearby water and soak their underside and return to the nest to walk over the babies to leave moisture, the water will evaporate cooling the young.

[robndebby]

Thanks for your help. We did put a hose on one of the gourd rack poles, not as high as the gourds, and they seemed to enjoy it. A few years ago, we had a really hot summer and we did that, plus we only had two nests left with babies so we put ice packs (covered with a kitchen towel) in each gourd and when we went to change them, all the babies were on top of them. We also designed a type of shade for the two gourds which must have helped as they eventually fledged just fine. We have had Martins for about 24 years and that summer was the worst we've ever had. We have ordered a misting system, we won't need the well to use it, and we'll see if that works. If it ends up getting the gourds wet inside, we'll figure another way. We have cut holes in the sides of each gourd and made a pipe-type thing to add ventilation. We also covered those with screen so bees could not get in there. The pipe comes out then turns down. Turning it upward would give better ventilation, but it would also rain into them.

Hope everyone has a great Martin year!