Gourd Attachment

[Thomas Maddox]

A friend graciously gave me a few S&K gourds. I don't have any others, but have a 16 compartment house with four 6" aluminum perch rods attached. What's the best way to attach the gourds to the house? Thanks!

[C.C.Martins]

Thomas, can you attach the gourds to the perch arms? Maybe not, suppose you'd want to have the house take the weight without dragging levels down. Can you attach longer perch arms? Think lowes sells them in 3 feet length, run it the length of the house, place them on the ends?

[jhcox]

You could always hang them from the bottom of the house.

[Phil01]

I hung mine from the bottom of my Sunset Inn house. PMCA sells UGHA (Universal Gourd Hanging arms). You can order either Vertical or Horizontal for the hanging arms..,If you’re worried about the bottom floor being too weak you can reinforce it. I used a couple of pieces of cedar 4” x 9”. They are on there solid.
Phil

[John Miller]

On aluminum houses I reinforce the floors to add gourds, using strips front to back of 3/4 inch angle aluminum, 1/8 inch thick. Can get at home centers in 36 inch lengths, so one strip can be cut into two. Attach to the floor with short 1/4 inch stainless bolts and washers. Then, I get the gourd hangers from Troyer (come in two orientations) and attach two per house to the strips. (could do four, but I try to keep weight down) Now with 3/4 inch, the tips of the gourd hangers extend a little long, and I cut them off. One could use 1 inch angle aluminum -- I'm just trying to keep weight down.

(If I can remind myself how to resize and attach a photo, will try. )

[Thomas Maddox]

Thanks. Does it matter how much gourds sway?

[C.C.Martins]

Thomas,
I don't like them swaying, but some of my natural gourds do just a bit. Martins don't mind. Want to keep the swaying down, especially front to back. Side to side seems ok.
I really like johns fix!

[Martintown33]

Thomas , I mount them on the arm, from front to back to prevent the entrance from drooping down. I also put sleeves (if not already built in) through the gourd mounting holes, to prevent rain water from running down the arm and into the gourd.
Rob

[defed]

when i had an aluminum house, i did similar to john but used a strip of wood attached across the bottom of the floor ( i believe right under where the edge of the porch was bent over) to distribute the weight. it worked fine for a cpl of years i had that house up.

[deancamp]

Nice modification John. I'm trying to figure out if that mounting arm will work on a s&k boaxis gourd. Can you tell me the dimensions?