Martin Houses??

[Bearbarrow]

Hello everyone,

I am new to the Martin forum and this is will be my second year to put up a martin box. I have bought a new heavy duty pole due to the high winds here in Dallas but I have not yet bought different houses. I am going to mount 4-gourds on the pole and 2-houses the questions I have is as follows:

1) Aluminum or plastic houses?
2) If aluminum which is better a Coates "Waters Edge" or a Trendsetter "Sunset Inn"?


Any other info that yall think I might need would be appreciated. Thanks for all the help.

Respectfully,

Bear

[Guest]

See the PMCA shop above, they sell a house "Heritage Quad Pods", it is one of the strongest houses, also very expensive, but well made, and the martins use it locally, so it may be a good choice in windy areas.

[James Strickland FL]

Welcome Bearbarrow to the forum. I have both of the houses you are looking at and the trendsetter houses are the best, dollar for dollar. Also the trendsetter come completely assembled.

[KathyF]

I too have the Trendsetter-12 house. It's not the Sunset Inn, but it's made by the same guy - the quality is very impressive and I love it! I love the 2" square pole and winch even more - it really withstands the winds very, very well.

I think Gus - aka Fotoman - has the Sunset Inns so he could give you a better assessment of them.

[klcretired]

Hello Bear ,
I emailed you but never heard back from you, Please email me at my email address below or call me at 972-642-2025.
I would love for you to come by my house and see my setups before you buy anything and we can talk.
Your Martin friend
Kenny

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Bear,

There are many good quality aluminum houses which are available from the PMCA. Aluminum is durable, opaque, lightweight, easy to maintain and well liked by martins in many parts of North America, particularly in the Deep South.

I use the Trendsetter, Sunset Inn and Trio brand and all are fine aluminum martin houses. I have also used Lone Star brands with great success. We have some friends who use the Coates houses and the martins do fine in them. I also have a friend who lives in the Dallas area and he uses a heavy duty multi-purpose pole with modified Trio M-12s and Troyer Horizontals.

A multi-purpose pole set-up with two Sunset Inns or two modified Trio M-12s and naturals, Super Gourds or Troyer Horizontals underneath is a great system. You could also have two Coates houses or even a combination of different brands. I have three multi-purpose pole units using Sunset Inns and Trios.

Good luck in 2009.

Steve

Here are two photos of two of my multi-purpose systems:

This photo shows one of my multi-purpose poles with Sunset Inns and natural gourds underneath. This is the standard 2 inch pole.



This photo shows one of my multi-purpose poles with modified Trio M-12 houses with porch dividers and Troyer Horizontals gourds. This is a standard 2 inch pole.

[Bearbarrow]

Thanks everybody. Mr. Steve that is the heavy duty multi purpose pole that I ordered. I also ordered 4-of those Troyer horizontal gourds with the front porches on them they are called the "Colony II" starling proof. I am looking forward to getting this up and this year plan on doing all that needed on taking care of the martins.

[Tim Mangan-Kansas]

Bear:

I also have and use both the Coates and Sunset Inn houses. I have two of the Coaes Watersedge Suite, 8 compartment houses out on my multi-purpose pole and last season had 15 of the 16 cavities occupied and successfully fledged their young. My Sunset Inn house was put up for the first time last season on a seperate pole and I did not open it up till the SY's arrived. It drew a pair of adult martins who also successfully fledged thier young.

The Sunset Inn house by Trendsetter is a much better built house. It is constructed of a stronger gauge of aluminum and as already mentioned, it comes completely assembled. The only thing the Sunset Inn does not have is divided compartments for each nesting cavity. I modified mine by placing aluminum in each compartments to divide off the cavity.

Tim

[KellyG]

I bought 2 Sunset Inn's this year for my multi-purpose pole. I have not installed them yet, but the quality is awesome.

[Matt F.]

Just a reminder - the Coates houses are now available already assembled from the PMCA store. Even though the pricing option for assembled units is not listed on the PMCA store's webpage yet, they are available there.