New Troyer Vertical Gourds Well Occupied

[Steve Kroenke]

New Troyer Vertical Gourds Well Occupied

This season I added 12 of the new Troyer Vertical Gourds to my colony. I am also using Troyer Horizontals with tunnel/porches, Troyer Horizontals with cling plates, Super Gourds and Excluder Gourds.

As of April 9, 2010, there are 11 ASY pairs of martins in my Troyer Verticals and the remaining one is being dominated with several other gourds by a possessive male martin. I am really pleased with the Troyer Verticals and will most likely use more of them next season. I posted an in-depth review of this gourd on the Forum and here is a link to that article:

http://purplemartin.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15120

If you haven’t tried the new Troyer Vertical Gourd, I would recommend these high quality opaque gourds. They come with a tunnel/porch and are constructed from dense plastic. A really fine product! You can order these gourds through the PMCA’s online shop.

Steve

Here are two photos of Troyer Verticals with martins in residence.

This photo shows an ASY female martin sitting on the porch of a Troyer Vertical. All my Troyer Verticals swing from side to side which is what I prefer for gourds with tunnels. This keeps the gourds from tipping down in the front. All my regular verticals like Super Gourds and Excluders swing front to back. I also drilled four vent holes under the neck canopies in the top of the Troyer Vertical.



This photo shows an ASY male martin sitting on the porch of a Troyer Vertical.

[leroy]

Hey Steve- glad to hear that the martins are readily accepting the Troyer Vertical Gourds. I am trying to re-establish a colony at my site and have 4 of these gourds to add to a new rack along with Super Gourds and a few Excluders- also have 2 TG-12s which I have modified this week. I have had the 2 Trio houses for several years and the starlings have never showed an interest in them until I modified them- but they are in for a surprise tomorrow because today I also modified my .22 Marlin with a Bushnell scope and can pick em off right from my open window as I am shooting .22 short quiet rounds sighted in at 80 feet. Thanks for the updates!!!!! (It will probably be a few weeks before I can expect to see any birds as the established colonies in the area are just starting to see their first arrivals)

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Leroy,

I sure hope you manage to re-establish your martin colony. You are using some good housing types and taking care of any starling problems.

I will try to take some pictures of martins using the Troyer Vertical gourds and post them.

I have the Troyer Verticals on three gourd racks with a variety of commercial gourd types. There are four Troyer Verticals per rack.

Steve

[Donnie Hurdt MN]

Glad to hear that the new gourds are working out well for you Steve. I hope that the ones that I have will help attract martins at my daughters new place and I have one of them at my neighbors coloney will watch to see how soon it is taken.
We saw our first ASY male yesterday!

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Donnie,

I hope your daughter attracts a nice colony of martins and your neighbor's colony continues to prosper. I always hope you will attract martins at your place.

And you saw an ASY male martin yesterday! That is indeed great news! Those martins are making their way north.

Steve

[Allan Day]

I've got 36 naturals. 36 troyer verticals. 12 horizontals.
So far, I've got about 20 pair and they've only taken the naturals?
It was the same way last year. All the naturals filled before they expanded to the Plastic.
I'm trying to convert to all Troyers, but the birds are making me think twice.
The troyers would be easier to care for, trapping is easier, and I'd like to eventually convert to SREH.

[Robert Richerson]

I have 64 of the new Troyer Verticals, mainly because of Steve's evaluation. I am quite happy with them. Their slender and deep cavity allows for more gourd space on racks.

The break down at my colony is 64 Troyer Horizontals with Conley 2 Tunnels.
64 Troyer Verticals with Conley 2 tunnels.
67 Natural Gourds with Conley 2 Tunnels
16 Super Gourds modified with Conley 2 Tunnels.
11 Super Gourds with crescent entries and metal porches.
2 Excluder Gourds with Conley WDC entries.

Other than a slight preference of martins at my site for the Troyer Horizontals, martins have readily accepted the Troyer Verticals.

I will now phase out natural gourds. I am tired of fooling with them.

[birdy girl]

We ordered 6 vertical Troyers but so far no martins have taken them or even been in them. They have looked in but not entered. I sure hope they decide to use them because they appear to be good gourds. These are the only Conley II entrances we have so the different entrance may have them baffled. We probably have at least 100 (maybe more) martins here and new ones are arriving daily. They will probably be taken when the SY martins arrive. We have them on different gourd racks and all racks have martins in them but so far none have chosen the vertical Troyers. Hopefully they will soon.

[Sandy - NC]

They have taken to my TVG gourds as well. I don't know how many of the 12 are occupied, but I will on my first nest check. Of my 100 gourds, I have gone to all plastic except for 3. The gourd of choice here seems to be THG. I have a mixture of Supergourds, TVG, THC, Naturelines, and a couple of Excluder gourds.

Allan, I removed 36 naturals this year because I got tired of fooling with them. If your colony is well established, it won't matter what you have up.

[Steve Kroenke]

I am pleased many folks are having success with the new Troyer Vertical Gourd.

Birdy Girl, like you say maybe the different entrance is baffling the martins for now. I have talked with other folks who use the Conley II entrance and martins are readily entering them. So maybe soon!

Allan, I removed my last natural gourds (32) from my colony this season and replaced all of them with Super Gourds and Troyer Horizontals/Verticals. The martins have readily moved in. If you have an established colony, martins will usually nest in what you provide them. I know it will be easier for you to use all plastic like the Troyer gourds.

Robert/Sandy, I too have grown tired of fooling with natural gourds though I still like them very much! I may just be getting lazy or too old to clean, paint and modify them! The good quality commercial plastic gourds like Super Gourds, Troyers, and Excluders are so much easier to work with and martins do well in them.

Steve

[Robert Richerson]

Unless you can grow your own hard, thick gourds, imo manufactured gourds are more cost efficient in the long run and certainly less work.

As you can see my gourd breakdown above, I have almost went exclusively with Conley 2's. Before, I offered mostly crescents and a few round holes. But I have found that martins need little learning curve to master the Conley 2's and I am very happy with them and eliminated all round holes.

I have heard about some issues with wing entrapment, but I have not witnessed any issues as of yet.

[Davlyn]

Hey Steve , I have 9 of the TVG and 5 have already been claimed ! They have the conley II and the martins slip right in . Thanks for the update !

April

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey April,

Thanks for sharing that good news about the Troyer Verticals! I still have only one that does not have a permanent pair of martins. The possessive male and his mate control several Super Gourds and this Troyer Vertical. Now she may eventually decide she wants the Troyer rather than a Super Gourd.

Steve

[Steve Kroenke]

I updated this posting with two photos of martins using Troyer Vertical Gourds.

Steve

[Robert Richerson]

Yes, they are fine gourds as this shot from my site also indicates and this one is a shot of an occupied Conley 2.