One Finished 16 Left!

[Steve Kroenke]

One Finished 16 Left!

January is the main month for me to get all my purple martin housing ready for the upcoming season. I must confess it is sometimes a “struggle” working on over 300 gourds and five Trendsetter houses to get pre-nests of pine straw built! But once I get going then I get that “fire in the belly” and make a lot of progress!

Well today I finished one of my Gemini gourd racks and have all the gourds on the system. All gourds have pre-nests of pine straw as necessary. I raised the rack just to see how it looks and it looks good! Now it is lowered and will not be raised until later.

I have partially done several more racks but still have 16 systems, including my Trendsetters to completely finish. For the Trendsetters I need to build 80 pre-nests in all the nest trays.

I should have all the gourds/nest trays ready by the end of January and we usually get our first martin during the last week of January. I usually have all my gourd racks and houses raised by the first week of February.

Right now I have two of my Trendsetters raised with PMCA starling traps inside one house and PMCA nest box traps hanging off the sides of another house. Few starlings have been around so far and I have only caught seven since October: five at my colony and two at Bob’s (neighbor) site. I usually catch more starlings by now. My early starling trapping program does a good job eliminating most starling problems prior to the martins returning; I still will shoot and even trap a few starlings during the active martin season.

Here are a few photos of the Gemini that has been finished. This rack has 24 gourds: six Super Gourds with porches; six Excluder Gourds; six Troyer Horizontals with cling plates; and six Troyer Horizontals with tunnels/porches. My old DL brake winch was replaced with a Fulton brake winch and the Fulton raises and most importantly lowers the rack more smoothly.

Photo of the Gemini rack lowered. All my Super Gourds now have outside/inside porches.



Photo of the Gemini rack raised.



Steve

[Rodger Drye]

Steve,
Great job on getting your nest, racks and poles ready for another season. That Gemini Rack does look awesome. I've created a place for one, but it will be next year until I get one. I've got 4 Gourd Poles Systems and they keep me busy. You said you have 16 Systems counting the Trendsetters. That's a lot for any one person. Do you have anyone at all you can call on for additional help? Do you do any supplemental feeding or is temp always warm enough. I will try to do some Supp-Feeding this being the first year. Will start with Crickets and eggs, if successful will add some meal worms. Let us know when you see your first birds. Rodger.

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Rodger,

I have 17 systems but only one is completely ready for the martins. The other 16 systems need to be worked on. Today is nasty and wet outside but I am going to try to build some pre-nests in the gourds.

I do all the work on the pre-nests myself; I am retired and have plenty of time!

Bob, my neighbor, and I have five satellite martin colonies and we work on these together. For one of these colonies, a friend manages the site and does nearly all the monitoring.

We rarely have weather that requires supplemental feeding. We did have some last season and I tried crickets and scrambled eggs but few martins responded to the food. Our bad weather spells seldom last more than a few days and the martins can usually survive these. But if the weather is bad enough, I will offer crickets/scrambled eggs as necessary.

I hope you have a great martin season!

Steve

[Rodger Drye]

Hey Steve,

With that many racks your place should be deemed a Bird Sanctuary. That's a lot of Birds. I'm retired too. Got 13 grand kids that always want me to come to a game or some other function, I stay busy. Trying to teach those interested about Purple Martins and how to care for them. Maybe some day they will become good Martin hosts and Landlords.

I wasn't crazy about them when I was a kid, but all the influence my father had must have stuck with me. If I can pass this legacy down to even one of my grand kids, it will be worthwhile.

Let me know when you get some Birds. Good Luck working on the rest of your Systems.

Rodger

[James Strickland FL]

Steve I really like that Gemini gourd rack. If I put another rack that will be the one I will buy. I cannot know just how much work you have to do. Getting my site ready took several days to get it right for me.

[Cheryl S]

Steve, I have a couple of questions regarding pre-nests. I think I read on the forum somewhere that you use some mud to help form the pre-nests. If I am remembering right, do you still do this, do you do this in both nest boxes as well as gourds, and how much dry time is required? My pre-nests seem to stay together in the gourds real well, but not so well in the nest boxes. Thank you for any information on this subject, as well as for all the great information you share in an ongoing basis.
Cheryl

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Rodger,

I sure hope some of your grandkids will become purple martin landlords! We need to encourage more young folks to take up the hobby of "raising martins" for the long term survival of martins when all of us "old folks" are gone! I became interested in purple martins when I was around ten I believe and that interest has continued to this day.

Good luck with your martin colony in 2016 and I hope some of your grandkids will help you with nest checks!

Steve

Hey James,

I believe you have enough room for at least one more gourd rack! The Gemini would be a perfect addition to your colony and would look so good overlooking the water! As I mentioned in your colony site post, you have a GREAT place for martins with that open space and water. You could have a large martin colony if you so desired.

Good luck in 2016 and please keep us posted on how your colony is doing!

Steve


Hey Cheryl,

I have found it easier, too, to build pre-nests in gourds rather than in nest trays for houses. It is easier for me to pack down pine straw in a plastic gourd than a nest tray. The pine straw frequently is pushed out or easily separated in the nest tray inside my Trendsetter rooms by the martins.

I have used pine straw that has been dipped in a clay/mud water “potion” and well coated with mud. I mix some water and clay/mud together in a bowl/plastic coffee container and create a thick soup. Then take a handful of pine straw, dip it in the soup, take it out and let it drain a little but there is still plenty of the soup on the pine straw. Put the pine straw in a nest tray or gourd and fashion a pre-nest with a nest bowl. Clay binds well to pine straw and helps to hold it together. The moisture makes the pine straw more flexible and you can arrange it better inside a gourd or nest tray. After drying, the nest tends to keep its shape better; pine straw dries well in a few days. Many martin nests will contain mud mixed in the nesting material and the mud helps hold the nesting material together. While the soup does help, you may still see some displacement of the nesting material as the martins move about inside the gourd/nest tray. But my clay/mud coated pine straw usually does hold a pre-nest better together than plain pine straw. It is nasty/messy to deal with and that is a BIG negative to using this approach! I haven’t started on my nest trays yet and I am not sure if I will use the soup approach this season because it is so messy!

I have also dipped pine straw in plain water to make the straw more flexible and that approach can help you to create pre-nest with a nest bowl. The wet pine straw is more easily shaped and tends to stay that way after drying. Pine straw dries well.

And just using soft pine straw is more easily shaped into a pre-nest that stiffer straw. I have used pine straw that had been “softened” by motor vehicle traffic and this straw worked well in creating good pre-nests that held together better than stiffer straw.

Here is a photo from last season showing all my nest trays on the ground with some of them having pre-nests of pine straw. I was working on the nest trays and had painted some new ones. You can see how the pine straw is fashioned into a pre-nest with a nest bowl. All these pre-nests had been dipped in the clay/mud soup.



I hope this information has been helpful. I hope you have a great purple martin season in 2016!

Steve

[~Ray~Gingerich]

Steve, your Gemini looks great!!
Do your dark painted nest trays get the same occupancy rates as the natural colored ones?

[Cheryl S]

Thank you for your reply, Steve. I have already softened my pine straw stock by driving back and forth over it many times in my SUV. No logging roads in my part of Oklahoma to gather pine straw. I have until at least mid-March to prepare my pre-nests so I want to try the mud/clay method on the nest tray boxes this year. Those pre-nests in the photo look perfect.
Thanks again and hope your 2016 season is great.
Cheryl

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Ray,

I painted all my Trendsetter nest trays mainly to preserve them. I had some older nest trays that I didn't paint and the wood started deteriorating. So I paint the nest trays.

I haven't noticed any difference when I used non-painted nest trays relative to occupancy rates. I have had about the same number of martins in rooms with painted and non-painted nest trays.

Glad you like the Gemini. It is my favorite commercial gourd rack!

Steve

Hey Cheryl,

I am glad the information was helpful. I hope you have good success with your pre-nests this season!

Steve