Question for steve K

[klcretired]

Hey steve,
First i want to say what an impressive PM site you have ....Congrat's , especially after your Moving to a new Location and all ,and then i want to ask you about the Porch divider's for the Goliad Pm house that you have, did you make those dividers or buy them???, the reason i am asking is I also have a Lonestar Goliad PM house but no porch dividers, when i purchased my Goliad i bought originally w/ the round hole entrances but due to my Starling problems i bought all SREH doors and installed them on my Goliad house. a twofold question ,where do i get those dividers and do they help that much in Keeping the Domination down??

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey KC,

Thanks for those comments! Yes, I am very happy with my new colony site. I have never seen anything like this. We are just overrun with martins in this ?neck of the woods?!

Now about those porch dividers?

My neighbor and good friend, Bob, who has a super colony, made those porch dividers from aluminum siding. He simply cut them out, created about a ? inch wide bent area on the side that is attached to the Goliad, drilled two holes in this area, drilled two corresponding holes in the middle of each Goliad door panels, and then attached the dividers using rivets. The dividers are painted white. Worked perfectly and did provide more territorial privacy for the male martins. Plus the dividers look good on the house in my opinion. This was the first year to use the Goliad and it had 6 pairs in the 12 compartments. Not bad for the first season. I believe this house will be fully occupied next season considering how much activity is still going on around it. So, I would recommend you add porch dividers which may minimize male martin nest domination behavior. I also wish these dividers would come installed on the house. I like the perches which can be bought separately.

Hope you had a great martin season.

Steve

[klcretired]

steve,
Thanks for your fast reply , i will probly leave my Goliad house just like it is , but it would be good to know that the dividers would be available if i ever decided to use them, Would bob make and sell them to me if i need them in the future?? ,thanks again for the input & info , you my friend are truely an inspriation to talk w/ and as always i do appreciate your posts altho i may not say alot i do read them and most times copy and save the info just in case i ever need it to reply upon.

[J Getting]

Hi Steve,

Do you use the nesting trays in your Goliad houses? Are they the same length as the compartments? Are they used for easier cleaning only, or so they have better foot traction? Or BOTH!!!
Thanks for listening..

Jim

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey KC,

Thank you for those comments. They are appreciated. I will mention your request to Bob.

Steve

Hey Jim,

Right now, I don't use nesting trays in my Goliad, but I have been thinking about using them. I am not familiar with the nesting trays for Lone Star houses. I do know many folks primarily use them for easy cleaning of the nesting compartments. My neighbor has some trays in his T-14s and they do faciliate the cleaning of his house. I don't recall the size of them, but they are shorter than the length of the nest compartments. Trays probably help in keeping the nesting material intact and not sliding around on the slick aluminum bottoms of the Goliad/Alamo houses. When the females spin to create their nest bowl, nesting material may separate on slick substrates like plastic and aluminum. Sometimes the eggs can be resting on the bare aluminum/plastic surface. I have seen that happen on my Super Gourds.

Hope you are having a great martin season.

Steve

[klcretired]

Xkper2000 & Steve,
I bought my Goliad house w/ nest trays and what i like most about useing the nest trays is at the front entrance there is a Protective barrier to where preditor's can't just reach in and grab anything and the easy cleaning of the House & Nest is a plus, for a long time i had Pic's posted of the Lonestar Nestbox On The Forum w/ all the measurements so any PM Landlord's could easily make them if they didn't want to buy them, you guy's can either email me and i will send you the demensions & Pic's or i can re-post them again,just let me know.

[J Getting]

klcretired

Do you have SREH openings on your Goliad? I did find a web page that showed the dimensions of the nesting trays and the house.
I read somewhere that you should'nt start out with the SREH doors if you're trying to attract martins. This is my second year and no martins so far.

That web page is www.purplemartinhouse.com

Jim

[klcretired]

Jim,
Yes i have all SREH's on both my Goliad House and my Gourd rack and it has helped me tremendously, i had originally bought the Goliad PM House w/ all round hole entrance's but due to a starling problem i bought all SREH door's for my Goliad house ,I made the change and it didn't effect the PM's one bit , they still like the Goliad house, sometimes i'll change a couple of door's so the Larger PM ASY Males can get in w/o a problem you see i have watched them struggle on the sreh entrance's but they do get in w a little effort.another thing that has really helped me get rid of the S&S's is my Repeating trap that i bought from The PMCA it has really helped me alot and i think every Landlord should have one.Over a 4 year period i have managed to control and thin out the S&S's so i have very few to actually come around anymore and whereas i used to catch several S&S's every day ,now only every once in awhile i catch one.In answering your question about starting out w/ sreh's , i lost my whole colony due to preditation and when i re-started again i put in place all new houseing & added a Gourd Rack both Have all SREH's and even starting all over i did get PM's and attract PM's w/ my new Setup's so my advise to you is Please Don't give up, keep trying to attract, Play the Dawnsong,get some Decoy's , do everything that you can to attract....then let nature take it's course.Go to the PMCA archives and Read,Read,Read and Read some more, all the PM info will help you in any given situation and remember we Profit by our mistakes.in the past i have made a ton of em,lol,lol,lol, I hope i have helped answer some of your questions and if you need anything please just let us here on the Forum know.