Are Southern States Too Hot for Metal Houses ?

[Bird Brain]

I've found 2 websites that suggest that they are. They claim martins and martin eggs can "cook" inside metal housing in southern states. Any truth to this? Or is this fake news ? Here are the 2 links...

www birdhouseinfo com

https://wingardsmarket.com/purple-marti ... -carolina/

Scroll to where it says "Houses/Hotels."

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Seems to me that they would get very hot, but I always used gourds or wooden houses. If you decide to use them, you probably should insulate the roof and western sides of the metal house. I quit using houses because they really do attract sparrows, I only use gourds.

[clivia98]

Hi,

I have a trendsetter aluminum house that has an insulated roof and a ventilation system. Last year all 8 compartments were occupied and all but 4 birds fledged. I simply opened the vents when it started to get warm/hot. All seemed to work OK. In Louisiana we go from winter to summer, it seems, so having the vents helps once it begins to get warm.

Jerry

[C.C.Martins]

Birdbrain,
I remember this coming up last year...fake news. Anyway, Iv got an aluminum house, filled up last year. no cooked chicks or eggs, sounds like an advertising stunt...and heat index was 108-110 degrees here deep in South Texas. I do vent and enlarged the compartments, did some insulating but didn't have any of that the first year and the four pair that did stay successfully fledged just fine.
A friend of mine has a very old colony, they have aluminum houses, no enlarged compartments or venting; no cooked eggs or chicks.

Pretty sure Louise Chambers nailed it last year: "My personal choice of housing is gourds, but I know that thousands of landlords, from Florida to Texas and north of the gulf as well, use metal housing with great success. The birds and eggs do not 'cook' by any means. I have worked with Trio and Lonestar houses in particular, and know of two mega colonies in Texas that use metal housing exclusively and successfully. I wanted to reply mostly because there is a lot of bad information being circulated about metal housing, intentionally, by a retailer in Texas - he promotes the gourds he sells by promoting negative myths about metal housing".

Do what you can with an aluminum house just like a wooden one, vent, enlarge compartments etc but id take it with a grain of salt. I too like gourds and will eventually go with them totally but for now Ill enjoy the house as well. I know the martins do.
Tom

[James Strickland FL]

I had 4 Mk12 that were full every year in South Fl and never had a issue with the heat.

[Anthony Neira]

Here in San Antonio it gets Very hot at times, that's why I changed my Trio "Flat Top" Metal roofs with "Hip" Roofs with an "attic" space with vents, even then I zip tie Foam Board Panels on top of them & where the sun hits them the most on the sides. BUT, MOST of all, I have ALL my house (8, 6 rooms each ) entrances & my 16 Gourd ( all vented with 2-3 PVC elbow vents ) entrances ALL FACING the South East, so that they get as much of the constant summer breeze we get from the Gulf Coast !

[Jim Ray]

Here in the High Plains of Texas we have had losses of martin young in metal houses to heat- mostly young bailing out to escape the heat, but the same thing happens in plastic gourds. My recommendation to folks here is to shower the houses for a few minutes every hour or as often as they can when the temperature is over 100. I have seen colonies make it through the heat spell when this is done while neighbors lose all their young. It seems to me that the problem only occurs when the high exceeds 100 for more than a day or two, and the chances that young will "bailout" are even higher if mites are particularly bad.

That all said, the expansion of martins into this part of the world likely would not have occurred as early as they did without the Trio houses (available and manageable). (FYI, if and when I need new housing I will stick with gourd housing; see https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.co ... 02/wsb.941).

I hope that you all are doing well!

[C.C.Martins]

Well said trio makes a good house. When temps get up above 100 here one saving grace is the sea breeze thus venting becomes important. Venting is important reguardless and judging by the amount of gunk left in the vent it works. Anything to make them comfortable.

[zatn02]

I am in Oklahoma where it gets very hot in the summer. I have several aluminum houses. I have added PVC vents to my Trio M12K expanded houses, I also added insulation to them and I use shade panels on top during the hottest part of the summer. The Trendsetter 16 has internal vents and has an insulated roof. I also ordered vented doors for that house. My Trio Mini Castles have nesting area doors that I have added a 2 inch vent to each of those doors, No issues yet with losses due to heat in any of my aluminum houses. My gourds all offer vents or cooling caps.

thank you
Anita Harp - Keystone Lake Oklahoma