New "Borg" Styrofoam 16 unit House

Bernie Nikolai · Sat May 21, 2011 1:15 am

Well I just got a new digital camera and its been a challenge figuring out how to resize (shrink) the photos from my new Nikon D3100 so they will post here. Hopefully this works and you can see my new-for- 2011 Styrofoam 16 unit house. I named it the "Borg" after the alien space ship on Star Trek, which is a perfect square shape.

I have had extremely good success with Styrofoam housing up here in Alberta. The martins very readily take to this kind of housing as they instinctively know its very warm. The one inch thick walls are the equivalent in terms of insulation value to about 4" of wood!

This house replaces my first Styrofoam house which at 7 years is now worn out. I made enhancements so the new versions will last as long as wood. Specifically the bottom plate is 1/2" plywood, and the central chute where the cable and pole go is made of cedar. The house weighs about 27 lbs. A fully wooden house like this would weigh well over 100 lbs, so the Styrofoam really makes it much lighter in weight.

The Styrofoam is coated with epoxy and fiberglass cloth on the outside. It should be impervious to hail. Inside the floor is coated with epoxy and sand, which gives a very tough, sandpaper like surface that the martins can never scratch through. The inside dimensions are 13" x 7", so there is lots of room. When you add in the length of the tunnels, the compartments are now 15" long from front to back.

And this new design is REALLY tough. We have had howling wind, roughly 30 mph with gusts to over 50 mph for several days a week or so ago. The bottom bolt that goes through the pole was stripped. Before I could get a new one, the wind was so strong that the bottom bolt was pushed out, and the entire Borg house tilted and came crashing down sideways a full 16 feet to the ground and did a "massive face plant". A wooden house would have been shattered.

All that happened to the "Borg" was one single tunnel got pushed into the house. The tunnel was pulled back and glued, the broken porch glued, and the house went back up (with a new bottom bolt and nut on the pole) and looks as if nothing happened! Styrofoam, if fiberglass cloth and epoxy is used as a coating, is VERY tough. After all, they have made pleasure boats with fiberglass cloth and epoxy for many years, and they are pulled up on beaches, over gravel bars, etc. and are fine. The Styrofoam I used was the pink Owens Corning brand.

I'd say my previous Styrofoam houses achieve a near perfect 100% occupancy. You can see a 5 year old one, a 10 unit house, beside the "Borg" in one of the two photos. This 10 unit house has had 100 % occupancy since I put it up in 2006. I expect the new house to fill rapidly this year as well. To do nest checks I added entrance caps, similar to a gourd, for each compartment.

If you live in the north consider building a large compartment Styrofoam house or Styrofoam chalets. But I'd say you MUST use SREH. Starlings find large compartment Styrofoam housing extremely attractive, as do the martins.

Donnie Hurdt MN · Sat May 21, 2011 7:35 am

Good job Bernie, I am sure it will fill up when the martins get to know the house. I would like to see a view from the top down without the roof on to see how the inside nesting compartments look like. Do you have photos of that ?

Tony Lau · Sat May 21, 2011 8:05 am

Hi Bernie, I see the access caps in the middle, which rooms do those go to?

My 20 room foam house only had one nest last year, it looks like it is going to be used much more this year, with claims being made on all sides of it.

SoIndyDon · Sat May 21, 2011 10:29 am

I love your creativity and the functionality of the "Borg". It's got to be messaging to the martins. "Surrender. Resistance is futile."

Bernie Nikolai · Sat May 21, 2011 11:26 am

Donnie, I didn't take a photo prior to finishing it, but the inside compartments are laid out exactly the same as a Northstar. I wanted 4 compartments per level with staggered entrances.

Tony, I recall from the photos you made an excellent Styrofoam house. It should fill up with martins nicely for you this year. I know your colony is just getting going after trying very hard for a few years. Congratulations! Oh, and each entrance cap opens to the back part of a compartment, where the nest will be. So when you open the cap, you are looking in from the side right at the back part of a compartment.

Soindydon, "resistance is futile" for the matins and this new "Borg" house. I've added a photo of their reaction an hour or so after I put the house up and they were returning from feeding. This was a couple of weeks back in the late evening, and only a handful of ASYs had returned. It was comical to watch how they would land on the 10 unit existing Styrofoam house, leave and hover over the new "Borg", but not land. Clearly they were concerned it was from "outer space".

Tony Lau · Sat May 21, 2011 12:51 pm

Yes, mine is a lot like yours, but with one more level and a gable roof. My compartments are drawers that pull out, tunnel and all.

Caroline94535-ND · Sat May 21, 2011 1:08 pm

Bernie...if I were to ever expand...do you sell the plans and directions?

Does this style house fit on a pole with a winch and cable?

I can hear my poor husband now, "You want me to build a w-h-a-t?" "AND put up another pole?"

bbillyc · Sat May 21, 2011 3:49 pm

Very nice Bernie.

Bernie Nikolai · Sat May 21, 2011 4:17 pm

Hi Carol,

I don't have "plans" for these houses as I tend to "wing it" and each one I build is a bit different. Basically you cut a 2'x8' sheet of one inch industrial Styrofoam into four 2'x2' sheets and go from there. You might consider making chalets with a cedar floor for extra weight (or the Styrofoam chalets will whip around too much in the wind) and hanging them on your gourd rack. Martins LOVE individual chalets, either wood or Styrofoam hung on a gourd rack.

Here's another photo of one of my experimental Styrofoam houses. Basically its a single layer with 4 units, plus two Styrofoam chalets glued to the roof and painted yellow to discourage sparrows. The martins don't mind the yellow at all, and this house has been 100% occupied, six for six, for the last few years. The sparrows are repelled, but not stopped totally, by the yellow.

But the point is the martins don't care what the house looks like or what colour it is. As long as the interior is a good size (roughly 80-100 sq. inches) and you use SREH (or you will never be able to keep the starlings out), Styrofoam housing is a big hit with martins up north.