Martin Colony History: 2010-2014 located in Slidell LA. Gourd rack with 16 gourds. Max of 2 pairs during this short period in Slidell. Plenty of fledglings.
2014-present.. moved to Broussard LA. Same Gourd Rack but added a 6 room house (modified from a 12 room)
2020: after a long drought of nothing, 4 pairs and 4 nests, 23 eggs total. 6 fledges.
2021: 9 pair, 47 eggs 36 hatchlings 30 fledged
2022: about 12 pairs.. many eggs, all fledged.. only had one hatchling die.. probably because of our schnauzer. :(
2023: 16 pairs. So far about 60 chicks with about a dozen eggs to go.
I finally filled in my lower arms and now have all of my gourds ready.
2 are Bo11, 6 are Big Bo, and 8 are Bo 9 gourds. All have tunnels with Crescent openings and all have cooling caps. I removed a Bo9 from the bottom and have a special made HS TRAP built by my friend Joe Zorn using a Spar-o-door. I call it the Little House of Horrors- it works so good.
Right now I have a pair and a third male showing off to females.
Martin Colony History: 2010-2014 located in Slidell LA. Gourd rack with 16 gourds. Max of 2 pairs during this short period in Slidell. Plenty of fledglings.
2014-present.. moved to Broussard LA. Same Gourd Rack but added a 6 room house (modified from a 12 room)
2020: after a long drought of nothing, 4 pairs and 4 nests, 23 eggs total. 6 fledges.
2021: 9 pair, 47 eggs 36 hatchlings 30 fledged
2022: about 12 pairs.. many eggs, all fledged.. only had one hatchling die.. probably because of our schnauzer. :(
2023: 16 pairs. So far about 60 chicks with about a dozen eggs to go.
Here's a photo of the gourds after adding cooling caps to the Big Bo gourds. The modification was easy.. I cut the top of the gourd off right below original mounting holes and then drilled new mounting holes below. Then just add the cooling cap.
In this photo some of the BigBo gourds I modified are right in the middle of the top rack. They came out really nice. And will work well in the hot summer.
I also like that little sparrow trap, I think that is the very best way to catch nesting sparrows, and the spar-0-door is a very good trap, the location is perfect. One really nice thing about the spar-o-door trap is that the entrance is too small for a martin, but the sparrows have no problem entering. That small hole allows you to hang the trap right among the gourds. The sparrows seem to like a small wooden box more than a plastic gourd.
Martin Colony History: Started with Amish copy of Trendsetter 12 room house, added Trio Grandpa with expanded rooms, and North Star 8. Taking Trendsetter down this spring and adding gourd rack.
Where did you get these "cooling caps"? It looks like a great idea. Thanks for the tip!
Pete
2020 - A pair of SY birds with three nice chicks. Lots of visitors all year long.
2015-2019 - A few lookers.
2014 - ASY male and SY female fledged four chicks.
2013 - Several visitors but none stayed to nest.
2012 - Lots of visitors all season long. We had a pair of sys but no chicks survived.
2011 - New location - A few visitors
2010 - First year – Poor house location.
I have these on my gourds too. They're by S&K. Quite nifty actually. It's my first year with them, so I can't tell you how effective, but they seem quite promising.
Tiffeny N. - Horn Lake, MS - PMCA member
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Since 2012
i have these on my bo11p too;;the hole punches out in the top of neck of the gourds and you put the cap over the neck that has high places around it and the air like comes up from bottom of cap around the neck and up into the gourd;;i think they only fit s&k gourds and think it is probably as good as putting a elbow vent in one??????jr2
PMCA member; s 2011 2 pair fledged 3; 2012 3 asy pair,4 sy pair,2013 8 asy pair,6 sy pair;2014 19 asy pair,2 sy pair
The best place for vent is the highest place in the gourd. The highest place is the top of the neck, so the caps will fit any gourd that has a small enough neck, and if they are mounted the same way as the S&K gourds..
Since I use a lot of natural gourds, I use a cover over the top of the neck instead of a cooling cap. In the attached photo, the neck is too large for a cooling cap on the Troyer vertical gourd, so the hole was drilled into the top of the gourd, and the pvc cover was attached.
I like to have the vent in the top of the neck, so my method of hanging the gourds allows me to attach the cover.
Martin Colony History: 2010-2014 located in Slidell LA. Gourd rack with 16 gourds. Max of 2 pairs during this short period in Slidell. Plenty of fledglings.
2014-present.. moved to Broussard LA. Same Gourd Rack but added a 6 room house (modified from a 12 room)
2020: after a long drought of nothing, 4 pairs and 4 nests, 23 eggs total. 6 fledges.
2021: 9 pair, 47 eggs 36 hatchlings 30 fledged
2022: about 12 pairs.. many eggs, all fledged.. only had one hatchling die.. probably because of our schnauzer. :(
2023: 16 pairs. So far about 60 chicks with about a dozen eggs to go.
A cheap alternative is to use caps from aerosol spray cans. My buddy Joe uses them. Cut the very top of you gourd off, and place the cap over the hole so there is about a half inch or so gap between the cap and the hole.
Yes that sparrow trap works excellent. Also, a BB WILL NOT fit either. 99.9 percent of the time the bird trapped will be a HS. I love this trap. I have caught a small sparrow of some sort before but it was only one time. Everything else was a HS.
