Purple Martin Forum

Head to your local home Depot and look at galvanized electrical EMT pipe and galvanized fence pipe. I'm sure you can come up with some combination that will work for you.

You can get a Troyer deluxe 12 rack with gourds, guard, and sparrow trap combo for less than $700. Still expensive for a beginner who may or may not have success and enjoyment. Most beginners start with a S&K barn house and tri pole, although this has gotten expensive too. Tractor Supply wants 9...

Yep, everything is expensive now days. All things considered, buying from Troyer is around $28.00 per gourd and the price goes down the more you buy.

We have serious winter weather at my location. I store my 12 gourds in 2 boxes in my garage. I also store my Troyer Deluxe 12 rack hanging from the rafters in the garage. Everything is down, cleaned and stored for the winter, looking forward to next year.

Sounds like you are going to be great with all the extra stuff you are doing.

+1, regarding everything CC Martin mentioned. The Deluxe 12 is the best selling gourd rack Troyer offers and this is the one I bought. I started with 6 gourds and used the extra arms for perches until I added another 6 gourds as my colony grew. The rack can also be expanded to hold 18 gourds using a...

Like the time laps on the, eggs, chicks and fledges. Yep, its a done season for alot of folks. Yours sounds like a good one, wish you lots more! Thanks for the pictures, Tom Thanks Tom! The most important part of the picture time lapse is my wife pre-nesting the gourds. That's where all the fun sta...

Sure doesn't seem like the season is ending but all the birds have fledged and it's getting quite, bummer. We had a good season approx. 28 fledges. Hoping for lots of birds returning next year. I miss them already!

Back in 2013 I bought a cottage on Lake Ontario. I never even heard of a Purple Martin at the time. There was a Heath metal octagon house already on the property, but I was too busy working on the cottage to pay attention to the noisy birds flying around as the neighbors had houses too. Finally afte...

Clever design, well done! Thanks for posting the pictures!

Great Pictures! It's bittersweet when the birds start to fledge. Your happy with a successful season, but sad knowing they'll be heading south soon and things will get quiet. Sure is lots of fun!

I have a Troyer deluxe 12 ground rack with a 2" pole 20' from the shore of Lake Ontario and haven't had any problems. The winds of can get crazy here so I keep the rack 1' from maximum height to be safe as it's a weekend getaway and I'm not always there. You will be fine with the 2" pole a...

i was looking closer at the items you are considering. i think i would go w/ the watersedge. it's actually cheaper than the coates, and you wouldn't have to try and modify it to large compartments. the only problem is it needs a telescoping pole, the multi purpose pole PMCA sells, or one like mine ...

Defend,
Thanks for the reply, I appreciate your response. Where in WNY are you located?

I'm enjoying my Troyer Deluxe 12 gourd rack I have placed along the shores of Lake Ontario, and now I'm looking at installing a house on a 200x200 piece of property I own across the street. The property is lawn surrounded by farm fields so there is plenty of martin feeding traffic to justify a new h...

I used 10" sono tube to set my ground stake and went 42" deep required in my area to be below the frost line. I placed 4" of gravel at the bottom of the hole and set the ground stake in wet cement. I also filled the ground stake with wet cement just like the Troyer instructions specif...

I use a 1/4" Brad Point drill bit for drilling plastic gourds. Works great!

Thanks for the pictures. Reminds me why I happily spent 3 hours yesterday fine tuning my systems and getting the up. I finished all of my pre-nesting, sevin dust applications, and replaced worn perches and added perches. The Martins will have a joyous return. Thanks again. I really do enjoy picture...

A few pics from 2020..... BTW- My set up is a Troyer Deluxe 12 with 12 S&K Bo9's

brent wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 13, 2022 7:27 pm

Great shots. Thanks for sharing. Did you use a telephoto lens or zoom? Nice closeups. Brent

Hi Bret,
Astronomy is a hobby I enjoy, so the pics were shot through a small Astro Tech 60ED refractor I use for a spotting scope too. My smartphone hand held at the eyepiece was how I got the closeups.