New house!

[Kandacarlson]

Hey all, first post but I have lurked the forums for a while. Always manage to learn something, so thanks for that!
I've been a martin landlord for a few years at our island and cabins in central Minnesota. My dad put up a hexagonal 12 room house before he passed and it was mounted on a swivel-down 4x4 post. This arrangement was OK, but last fall after the birds had left for warmer pastures, I decided to replace the post as it was getting quite soft at the bottom.
I used a company out of Canada, and a regional dealer out of Fargo to install a helical pile as the post. Overkill? Probably. It's rated for 20,000+ lbs of vertical loading, but honestly, for the cost of install it was pretty inexpensive considering what I got, and it required zero effort and zero excavation, and zero concrete. Technometalpost is the company if anyone has interest.
I put the old house up temporarily for the winter on the new pole in case I didn't get to the cabin in the spring before the birds got back.
The old house was not predator proof, and I have personally fed a few Cooper's hawks martin flavored snacks over the years out of it, so I decided I needed a new house this winter with bigger boxes and predator guards on the entrances.
Luckily, I ended up getting a whole trailer full of lumber for free from a guy and there was enough cedar and cypress in there to build a new T-14! I used the plans from Chuck's purple martin page as a template, but did modify a few dimensions to fit the materials that I got for free.
Since I had all winter to work on it after work, I sorta geeked out on it, and decided it needed hand-split cedar shingles and copper ridge caps. I made the ridge caps and other trim out of scrap m-type copper plumbing pipe I had laying around that I cut and hand-hammered into shape.
The helical pile is 3.5" OD, so I fabricated a pulley assembly out of a pulley I had laying around and then decided that the pulley wasn't that attractive, so I built another two layers of buildings on the top to hide the pulley. Those top two layers keep the mechanism out of the weather and the "holes" are actually just vents to keep moist air from accumulating in the top covers. The finial I also made out of various pieces of copper pipe I had around the shop. The whole assembly attaches together with a piece of allthread that is welded to the top bracket of the pulley assembly and the nut that cinches it all down is hidden inside the removable top piece of the copper finial.

Anyway, just thought I'd share as I couldn't find similar pictures of such martin house construction madness online.
I'm going up to the lake to install it on top of the post at the end of the month if the lake thaws by then and I'll post an updated installed picture at that time.

Thanks for the insight on this forum. Hope my contribution inspires someone else to help out our martins!

[Jones4381]

Welcome to the forum and great looking housing. I hope the martins take to it immediately and looking forward to some follow up photos.

[C.C.Martins]

Lots of work and detail! I like the small shingles and your bell tower touch to hide the pulley. Yeah there is a martin house madness that lurks out there. Only cure is more martins, hope you full up!
Tom

[Kandacarlson]

Thanks for the encouragement!
The old house has been at half capacity for a few years, and due to the smaller compartments I think, usually the nests often have only two eggs, though one had 3 last year that fledged.

Also, I see a lot of people talking about tree swallows and how they don't coexist with martins at their houses. I often have both tree swallows and martins in the same house many years, and they seemed to coexist well, at least at our place. Some of that may be because the location has ample food, water and resources, so everybody gets along just fine. I don't know. I personally like both species so I'm glad to have them both around. I even let the barn swallows nest in my boatlift every year and it's fun to watch them as well. They poop a bit in the boat now and then, but that's the price of encouraging nature.
Our island is a bit of an oasis I think. We're all organic, and thus have tons of beneficial insects, whereas many of the property owners on the shore of the lake serially have mosquito spraying services visit. That stuff doesn't just kill mosquitoes of course. It kills everything. Then new mosquitos hatch the next week and they still have bug problems on the shore lots despite all the investment in chemicals.
Our shore neighbors always marvel at the fact I have few mosquitoes and so many birds and dragonflies (biggest natural predator of mosquitoes at all life stages) when they stop out for a visit. The martins eat tons of dragonflies, so everyone is happy. Sometimes you just have to let nature balance itself and the results are usually quite amazing.
My plan for the old hexagonal house is to relocate it to a tree swallow-friendly location and hope that they take up residence in there when I put the new Martin house up in a few weeks. We'll see!

[C.C.Martins]

really does sound like an oasis! I hope your hard work is rewarded by noisy martins.

understand about spraying, when those guys come by to get us to buy in I point at the gourds/martins and decline. hate when the city trucks start fogging; thank God the martins are in by then.

[Jones4381]

Good stuff Kanda! I'd recommend a single gourd for the Tree swallows as they will only allow 1 pair in a specific area size, so having multiple rooms for tree swallows is a wasted effort as they are territorial like Blue Birds and many other avians and will not allow another nesting pair of trees nearby. My concern would be house sparrows will overrun it if it's not monitored but you've probably got a plan for that but that's my 2 cents from my experiences. Good luck and let us know how it all turns out as the house is very creative and beautiful. Couldn't agree more on natures balance and pesticides...good luck.

[Kandacarlson]

I just got out to our place on an island in MN early this morning with plans to put up my new T-14. The lake thawed late this year and I usually get to the cabin right after the lake thaws but it was a couple weeks later than normal after a long cold winter.

As I said in earlier posts /pictures I put my old house up temporarily on the pole last fall just in case the birds got there before I could.
Well, my old house is already occupied with happy martins on my arrival! They are super busy arguing and chattering with each other this morning about all manner of things, so that's good! But.....now I wonder if I should disturb the already occupied house today and take it down and put up the new one?
Or should I leave the colony alone and let them enjoy their old house this season and wait for the fall when they leave and install the new house then?

Opinions requested.

[Kandacarlson]

After watching the colony for a day I decided to leave them alone this spring and wait until the fall to replace the house after they head south for fear of running them off. The birds seem super content with their current house despite my desire to get them into a bigger and fancier home.
The old house is not predator proof, so hopefully the hawks will find other things to eat this year. The martins don't seem concerned, so maybe I shouldn't be either.

[Jones4381]

After watching the colony for a day I decided to leave them alone this spring and wait until the fall to replace the house after they head south for fear of running them off. The birds seem super content with their current house despite my desire to get them into a bigger and fancier home.
The old house is not predator proof, so hopefully the hawks will find other things to eat this year. The martins don't seem concerned, so maybe I shouldn't be either.

I believe you did the right thing. Why not put up the house as an additional option now? It would allow the existing martins to get used to it and new birds to notice it for next season.

[Thomabear]

After watching the colony for a day I decided to leave them alone this spring and wait until the fall to replace the house after they head south for fear of running them off. The birds seem super content with their current house despite my desire to get them into a bigger and fancier home.
The old house is not predator proof, so hopefully the hawks will find other things to eat this year. The martins don't seem concerned, so maybe I shouldn't be either.

I believe you did the right thing. Why not put up the house as an additional option now? It would allow the existing martins to get used to it and new birds to notice it for next season.

Jones4381 brings up an excellent point. It's common knowledge that replacement housing of a different design should be placed alongside the original one for a season to allow the martins to acclimate to the new style house while having the security of their old one. Replacing housing cold turkey with a totally new design carries the potential of site abandonment.

[Thomabear]

After watching the colony for a day I decided to leave them alone this spring and wait until the fall to replace the house after they head south for fear of running them off. The birds seem super content with their current house despite my desire to get them into a bigger and fancier home.
The old house is not predator proof, so hopefully the hawks will find other things to eat this year. The martins don't seem concerned, so maybe I shouldn't be either.

I believe you did the right thing. Why not put up the house as an additional option now? It would allow the existing martins to get used to it and new birds to notice it for next season.

Jones4381 brings up an excellent point. It's common knowledge that replacement housing of a different design should be placed alongside the original one for a season to allow the martins to acclimate to the new style house, while having the security of their old one. Replacing housing cold turkey with a totally new design carries the potential of site abandonment.

[Thomabear]

Duplicate Post. Mods, can you please remove?

[Kandacarlson]

Well, I didn't take y'alls advice on putting up both at the same time. Mostly because I'm on an island and didn't have another pole. I put in the pole last year and just put the old house on top of it for a temporary in case the birds got to the island before I did. Which, in fact, they did get there early. They had a good year and I wasn't able to do any nest checks due to the temporary arrangements, but there were plenty of hungry chicks and I watched quite a few of them fledge over the year.
Anyway, they left Minnesota for Brazil in the last few weeks giving me the opportunity to replace their house today!
I hope they'll like it!

[brent]

Kandacarlson, I have to say that is beautiful. Hope it’s full next season. Wow, just awesome. Brent

[Dave Reynolds]

After watching the colony for a day I decided to leave them alone this spring and wait until the fall to replace the house after they head south for fear of running them off. The birds seem super content with their current house despite my desire to get them into a bigger and fancier home.
The old house is not predator proof, so hopefully the hawks will find other things to eat this year. The martins don't seem concerned, so maybe I shouldn't be either.

I believe you did the right thing. Why not put up the house as an additional option now? It would allow the existing martins to get used to it and new birds to notice it for next season.

..
.

Jones4381 .. That a great idea.. I would never replace a house or houses on the Martins for the next season, unless it was exactly the same as the old house and in the same place. I wanted to replace my old gourd rack with a new one, but decided to leave the old rack up and just added a new rack beside the old rack. The Martin moved right in the new rack with no trouble, and also fill the old rack as well.

Dave

[Kandacarlson]

Usually this time of year I start to really miss the cabin in the north woods (and the martins) so today I was perusing photos from the summer to fuel my desire for long days and warm temperatures, so i thought I'd share.

I got the new T-14 up at the end of the season after the birds left and donated my old hexagonal house to a neighbor a few miles away. Photos attached of me rigging the lift mechanism and new deluxe house in place. I ended up orienting the T-14 to the cardinal directions as my wife and kids often ask me while at the cabin which way is straight north/south/east/west, so they can just look at the house and not bother me with such trivialities. Lol. The mechanism I made seems to work pretty well and the house goes up and down with the winch as designed.

One interesting thing happened this summer while working there in July.
As I said before, the old house had quite small compartments and usually pairs only lay 2 eggs in each I think because they know there's not enough room. Well, this year, one pair had 4 chicks.
In late July, the 4 chicks were out of room in one of the compartments. I watched as the parents forcibly pulled one chick out and literally kicked it out of the nest. With some serious arguments and chatter both parents got the bird out and forced it off the porch and finally got it to fall to the ground. It was fledged, but not quite ready to fly. It was on the ground for a grand total of 3 seconds before my dog noticed (she's a bird dog and loves nothing more than a bird to chew on and bring back to Dad when we're hunting). She ran over to try and eat it and I was able to shoo her off before she could get it in her jaws. The little Martin was obviously quite stunned with his recent eviction but was content to have me pick it up and save it from the dog.
I know not to interfere with nature and maybe the parent birds were kicking it out for other reasons rather than space limitations in the house. But, I figured I'd intervene anyway as the bird did not otherwise look ill or abnormal. I got a ladder and put the bird back up on the house porch and it tried to go back into it's nest box. I got down and the parents flew back and kicked it out and threw it back on the ground. I collected the bird again, much to the dismay of my dog who was convinced this was a delicious treat from heaven.
That little Martin then hung out with me the whole day. It rode around on my shoulder like a pirate's parrot, and seemed to be having a wonderful time in human world. I caught a few bugs for it which it heartily ate out of my hands. It seemed completely content with me saving it.
This went on all day and it would sometimes take short flights from me to various perches in the yard, then wait for me to come get it and put it back on my shoulder. Honestly, it was all pretty amazing.
Near the end of the day, the martin was sitting on my hand and gave me a couple of odd looks, tilting it's head back and forth and looking down at my still salivating bird dog. It made one jump and took off and soared across the lake, finally deciding that it was capable of unhindered flight and perched near the top of a big basswood. I waved it goodbye, asked it to come back in the spring, and wished it luck on its long flight south. It was truly magical.
Can't wait til spring!

[dcronwell]

Great looking house! Like the cedar shake roof detail.

I built a T14 two years ago out of recycled roof boards after Hurricane Michael took the roof off my neighbors house five years ago. It's all painted up and sitting in the garage still, and the pole and ground stake and rest of the set up is lurking out in the utility shed. I might set it up not too far from my gourd rack later this year, depending upon whether it looks like it will be needed in the future.

Excellent story with the fledgling. I had a different kind of fledgling interaction two years ago. The first one of my gourds fledged but the family came back each night for a few nights, then they didn't come back, so I thought. Turns out that one of the fledglings returned to the next door gourd that had babies a week or so younger and smaller with dutiful parents feeding them. The earlier fledgling took up residence with the new family and dominated the food intake. I watched them each day at lunch and after work and grew concerned about the smaller babies not getting to the opening in time to get nourishment. The wife told me to let it be, but I was torn. After two days I did a check and there was the fledged bird at the "window" and the other four babies tucked up in the back. I could tell that they hadn't gotten enough food, so I gently took the fledgling out, called him a naughty bird, and let him go. He flew across the pond and didn't return. The other babies caught up and did fine. I think I intervened just in time.