wanting to add supergourds.....question on how to?

[razman]

i have 3 trio houses.....i am wanting to add a couple of the supergourds to my site to possibly make it more attractive to the martins. (i have heard that this is a good idea)

i am wanting to add two of the gourds right below one of my 12 units houses. instead of hanging that extra weight from the house itself, i would rather clamp something to the pole with some type of rods to hang the gourds from. this pole is a telescoping pole, so it wouldn't interfere with the current house. does anyone know of a simple way to do this? any suggestions on how to proceed? thanks, rick

[John Miller]

Trio used to make a house mounting clamp that had two u bolts and a brace that fits against the pole. Not sure if they still use this one, but I once used a single u-bolt from this and the brace to mount an aluminum rod to the pole under the house. I just drilled two small holes through the rod and top to bottom of the brace and mounted the rod right on top of the brace. It's maybe not quality work --but good enough for government, uh, martin work. Just an idea..you might figure out something similar with a u-bolt.

You can drill a hole through the pole below the house and put a threaded rod through, secured with washers and nuts on each side of the pole. You can then tie the gourds to the rod with no. 10 solid strand copper wire, or you can put the rod through the gourds, secured on each side of the gourd with double nuts and a washer.

You can get the perching arms from the PMCA and hang gourds from those...does take up quite a bit of space though.

John

[razman]

well, i had thought about drilling a hole through the pole and bolting a rod in it, but was afraid that it might weaken the pole. especially if i drilled it several times. i also would rather clamp something to the pole so that it can be removed easily for winter storage.

also, is it better to have these gourds rigid mounted so they don't swing or move much, or is it better to have them flappin in dabreeze?? thanks

[John Miller]

As the SGs are pretty heavy, I have found they will not swing enough to bother the martins. I have concerns about light-weight natural gourds "flipping" in the wind...but it's a matter of hanging them so they swing gently -- the hanging techniques and physics as yet elude me. Chuck Abare discusses it his web site (link on PMCA links page). But you should be okay with the SGs.

John

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

I hate gourds that swing. If you can attach them so they don't swing, it would help in many ways, especially owl protection. I wish that there was a standard way to hang gourds so that they don't swing. I pin mine to EMT tubing so that they don't swing

[Donnie Hurdt MN]

razman, I hung four Supergourds from each corner of my Trio house for several years withought any damage to the house just two gourds under yours wont bother them at all.

[razman]

donnie. thanks for the info. exactly how did you attach the SG to your trio house? did you end up getting martins, and do you think adding the gourds made a difference? rick

[razman]

update.....i found an add on gourd rack designed for my round pole from SK products. i ordered it , and it should be here any day. i'm gonna add a couple of supergourds for now, and see if this helps in attracting martins. has anyone else added gourds to their site with good results? rick

[ben_wood]

Here is a picture of my Trio with SuperGourds set up. The house has been modified to 6 double deep compartments with excluder doors. The SuperGourds are hung from the Trio's floor using heavy-duty zip ties (that I change out each season). The gourds have starling resistent doors I bought from Sandy Bunn.