Trio Castle 24 compartment

[Guest]

I really like this house, but I really like the 14 compartment Alamo house as well. Anyone want to give their opinion on the Trio Castle 24.

[Dick Sherry]

We have had one for about 12 years as part of our martin housing. The first few years they tended to ignore it, but once I started making the rooms double compartments, they have used it more and more each year. We had 10 pairs of martins this year, and 6 of them were in the double compartments of the Castle. I don't have any personal experience with the Alamo house, but it looks nice and certainly has a lot of the features that are recommended for martins.

[carlymac]

I use a Nature House castle style house and have had good luck with it. I prefer the six sided design but it comes with about six down sides.

1) The floors must be raised either by subfloors or a nesting bowl to raise the nest from water that sheets in from the porches. This prevents wet nests.
2) The round holes should be converted to crescents or another SREH.
3) Porch dividers are needed to keep squabbling down.
4) They should be converted to double compartments.
5) They can be difficult to keep orientated.
6) They need traction for SREH's

I'm not knocking the castle as I prefer the design over square houses, but these are a few of the problems I've encountered. The Lonestar Alamo is a great house but is a bit costly, so I've never owned one.
I didn't give you much of an answer because the choice is yours. Take my advise and weigh the pros and cons.

[Guest]

Thanks for the input. I will modify any house I buy. I use only SREHs and ensure owl guards are intact. Also in the situation with the castle, I would definetly be converting to double compartments.

What I would like to know is this and I think there may be some truth to this... Do Purple Martins recognize the castle style house? I would think with it being one of the oldest designs, made very popular in 1965, that martins might be more apt to identify with them? Just some brainstorming, but does seem possible.

[Donnie Hurdt MN]

carlymac, why dont you drill a bunch of holes in the floor of your porches that would keep a lot of the water from coming in to the nest area of the house.

[CUL Lou~Mich]

Samuel. I for one definately think you have a good point. The colony that's near me, this is the house they are in. I've been tempted to stop at a different house and ask if I can have the one they have, that's never had a bird in it that I know of. CUL Lou

[Guest]

I had problems with water 'flooding' my compartments on one of my houses and solved the problem by glueing (with silicone) 1/4 x 1/2 angle behind the doors.
I tried raising the nestboxes and found it to be a half gap measure. Holes drilled in the porch area clogged up within a few days.

[Steve Kroenke]

Samuel,

I have used the Trio 24 castle design since 1965 and the martins have done well in them until they are discovered by barred or great horned owls. Once the owls start raiding these houses, the chances of complete destruction of the martins are excellent!

If you use such houses, I would recommend the double nesting compartment approach with the actual nesting chamber isolated from the entrance hole area. If owls are a threat, you also need to install some kind of outside barrier that blocks off visibility to the entrance hole. The wire cage or spaced dowel approach may not do this effectively and owls can still see martins in the entrance holes. I have used aluminum strips about 4 inches wide that attach to the outside porches and block off the front entrance hole panel from view. The martins can easily fly to side, move along the wide porch and then enter the entrance hole. I only use round holes in my Trio castles and srehs are unnecessary in my martin colony. The sreh may not prevent owl predation when the martins are exiting the entrance or peering out. The owls can easily see the martins when they are near the entrance holes. I have seen both aluminum and wooden houses with srehs and large compartments that have been hit hard by barred owls.

I am planning to erect probably three modified Trio castles in 2006, each with double nesting chambers and porch dividers. Bob (my neighbor) has used these houses and other Trio designs with outstanding occupancy levels at his various satellite martin colonies in this area of northwest Louisiana.

Steve

[carlymac]

I thought about just drilling a bunch of holes...But decided to go with the nest insert approach. I used pink foam board to make the nest inserts. They really kept the nests dry this year. I'll continue their use for years to come in my castle. Oh...and the double compartments are a must for space but more so for security. I drilled a 2 1/2" hole toward the back of the compartment that makes getting to the birds very difficult.

[Guest]

carlymac, what is that red stuff on the floor around the opening?

[carlymac]

Thats my nest insert.
It's closed cell polyurethane (foam board) used in home construction.
I just cut it to size and lay in the compartment floor I use a propane torch to melt out the nest bowl. Most likely the red stuff you see is the melted foamboard creating the nest bowl and a little path leading to it. I also painted the inserts with black spray paint. This darkened the nesting chamber and caused a chemical reaction with the foam board that left the insert surface pebbled for traction and waterproof. They worked great this past season for me!