Predator guard in wisconsin

[nbaum]

I have a colony with 30 compartments. Its on a 16' aluminium I beam pole. I do not have a predator guard and have had no problems with predators climbing the pole so far. My question is this: What predators do I have to worry about in Whitewater WI? Are there snakes here to be concerned about? I'm on the water but its difficult for me to believe that a raccoon or mink could climb the metal pole. I don't want to find out I am wrong and have a bad experience. With the warm weather and south winds the martins have been piling in the last couple days. All adults no youngsters as yet.

[vman]

Snakes are not an issue here in wi. , however, raccoons can climb pretty much any type of pole, a gaurd for them is needed.
Jim

[Ed Svetich-WI]

You don't indicate how many martins you had last year. Assuming that you have an active colony, you probably worked to attract them as we all did. You indicate that you have an I beam pole. Can you raise and lower your 30 compartments for nest checks? If not, how do you know that predators have not already climbed your I beam?

You don't purchase insurance after an accident. You need a predator guard to prevent something from happening. Without it, you may be starting over. Although, as you say "so far", nothing has climbed the pole. Racoons prowl every night along the shoreline. Squirels will also inspect a martin nest. Maybe tonight is the night.

Keep us posted.

Ed

[nbaum]

I did work hard and long to get my colony. 10 years of nothing but Last year I fledged about 125 from two houses I have near each other. Both houses can be lowered and I have done nest checks on both. My pole is an aluminium Beam used for concrete forming. That house is a T-14 with 16 gourds attached to it. That's quite a load up 16 feet so I needed something strong. I would post a picture if I could figure out how to do that! I do have a T-14 predator guard I used when I had a wood pole. I just need to figure out how to get it on with all the gourds hanging.

[TheSmiths]

Attaching Photos: Make sure your photo is not too large; 640x480 tends to be a good size. Directly below the box where you type your text you should see a blue shaded area. There are two tabs, one labeled "Options" the other is labeled "Attachments". Click on "Attachments" then click the white "Add files" button. A window will pop up where you can navigate through you own files to select an image. After selecting your image you will see a green progress bar showing the file is being uploaded to the website. (Sometimes it goes very quickly so you might miss it if you blink). After the bar disappears click either "Preview" or "Submit" depending on which action you want to do.

[nbaum]

My T-14 in full dress!

[BillieJR]

Awesome picture!!! Thanks for sharing!

[Ed Svetich-WI]

Impressive. I encourage you to protect them from climbing predators. That is a very attractive inducment for raccoons. How about a removable pole guard?

On an unrelated note, have you considered reducing the weight and surface area by moving the gourds to a separate rack? With spring and summer storms, I worry about damage to my two gourd racks and lower them (if I am home). The bigger the obstruction, the greater the risk. Even after I lowered them last night, they were swaying quite a bit with the storms that went thru.Have you calculated the total weight?

Have a good season.

Ed

[nbaum]

I had a wooden pole originally. Two years a go in mid August a storm came through and snapped the pole at the ground. It was 10 years old at that time. Martins were still around but most had fledged. I propped the house back up again and the Martins were back again last year. In early spring last year I moved the house over 18" and imbedded several steel channels into a poured concrete base. Then I got the aluminum beam from the business I own. I reconfigured the T-14 to fit the beam. The steel channels come out of the ground about 4 feet so that limits the bending on the Beam. I'am an engineer can you tell? I also added a 2500 LB Harbor freight electric winch. Cost $70. Its remote controlled so I can raise or lower the house remotely from my house. It has an automatic locking brake which makes it work fine. Been using it for a couple years now.
I own a T-14 predator guard that I think I can reconfigure to fit the aluminum beam. I can do that and add it. That's more weight and wind resistance however. Maybe I should come up with a different design.

[flyin-lowe]

My T14 has a rather large pole also. It's a piece of 3 1/2 inch galvanized water piper I repurposed. A friend of mine works construction and he got me the pipe as well as a 12 inch piece of thick walled PVC pipe. I split the PVC in half and put two hinges on one side and two buckles on the other. It makes a good predator guard. It serves me two purposes....It is big enough it goes around the pipe and the winch at the same time. I have 2 children plus a lot of nieces and nephews so they cannot get to the winch either. I have a 48 inch gap between the top and bottom hinge/buckles so a climber cannot use them to reach up. I've had this set up for many years and so far so good. From time to time I will find some muddy raccoon prints part way up where they have tried to climb it but they can't. Ill see if I can dig up some old pictures of it.

[Purple Man]

I will just say ,"There is A L W A Y S a fox around a hen house" Period