BarnSwallow Question

[MingjoMartins]

What can I say - I am a man who likes challenges. Now that my martin colony is thriving - I'm ready to try my hand at attracting their little cousins onto the farm.

We readily see barn swallows on the property and around the pond, but for whatever reason have never nested in our pole barn. It is relatively new - less than 5 years, and does have a resident barn cat who sleeps in the rafters (which I suspect may be the root cause!).

My question - for those who have attracted barnies, has anyone had success attaching artifical nest cups to the outside of a large shed or chicken coop?

Attached is a picture of the coop where the nests would be attached - peak height where the cups would be located is 7-9 feet above the ground. Artifical cups would be 3 inches under the overhang of the coop which is a 10-12 inch overhang.

Any insight would be appreciated!

John

[Gene Crosby]

I have had barn swallows the past 8 years. All I did was place a cardboard box ( 7" x 10" ) with straw in it on the top of a speaker located underneath my patio. They immediately went to it and they raise two hatchlings each year. I read they mate for life and return to the same nest each year. They do make a mess, but it only takes a minute or two to clean-up. Mine have become nearly tame and do not pay much attention to us even when having parties under the patio. They just sat in the nest and look at us.

They raise their young and teach them to fly for nearly a week before the young actually fledge. I have pictures where they fly down to a perch I made, waiting to be feed before flying back to the nest for the night. I have seen them take practice flights over my pond and returning to the nest to be feed. The parents fly along with them.

The male makes a fuss at me, but every year he does the fussing less and less. I don't use the speakers when they return, usually in March.

The first four years the parents would make the young fly to my front porch as soon as they could fly. They would perch on a beam and they would continue to feed them for about a week. When the first hatchlings fledged they would return to the patio nest and raise four more young, moving them to the front porch as soon as they could.

The past two years they did not move them, just kept feeding them and escorting them on practice flights. They are 2nd only to my Martins.

[Tim Stover]

if this was mine i would add two small corner boards where i marked the corners in orange approx. 6 to 8" from the top not to big and they should build mud nest on top of them this is what i did under my porch

[~Ray~Gingerich]

Tim that's exactly what I was thinking, in the front corners tucked under the overhang.

Maybe open one of those windows about 6 inches at the top so they see the building has a way in. When they check out the building will see the cups under the overhang.

Andy Troyer has a tip in his catalog....using corn cobs for shelves

[Guest]

Any kind of platform for them to build their nest on about 6" from the top would be good.

They look for a little support like a light fixture and even a nail sticking out of the rafters.

We had a drive through shed and when the ran out of spots to build on I took some old 1" by 2" strapping about 6" long and nailed them on the rafters about 6" from the roof. Last year there was more than 30 barnie nest in the shed.

I've see platform on sheds and garages just under the overhang where they built a nest. They would even try to build on top the porch light fixture.

The cat nesting in the rafters will keep them away. I could always tell if a cat or raccoon was in the shed because the barnies went nuts and would circle the shed making a lot of noise.

Like PM they are not afraid of people.

[Doug Martin - PA]

Hi John,

I still attract a lot of Barnies to my egg and oyster shell spot in the yard. Prior to getting Martins I always enjoyed Barnies Treeswallows in my yard.

I think they like a larger overhang than your coop affords. I put up shelves for them in a few similiar locations but never got them to nest.

My brother next door built a new large porch with a high ceiling on the back of his house and had 4 pair settle in there real fast however.

I think a larger overhang may be needed but...facing east is very good around here. They need to be on the side away from prevailing winds and storms.

Here is a nice piece of info

http://extension.umd.edu/publications/pdfs/fs798.pdf

Also your coop is amazing!! Great job building that. Wow.