Photos Of Horizontal Gourds With Offset Holes Cut In Neck

[Steve Kroenke]

Horizontally Deep Elongated Gourd With Hole Cut In Neck And Producing 90 Degree Offset Angle Entry

This type of horizontal gourd design creates a very protective environment for purple martins because the nesting chamber and inhabitants are COMPLETELY out of view from the outside and located deep inside the gourd. Just plain horizontal depth where predators can see directly inside the hole all the way back to the gourd may create a false sense of protection. Owls can easily see these martins and scare them out of the holes right into the talons of death. In addition, such gourds provide excellent protection from rain inflow.

It may be difficult to find gourd shapes that are suitable for horizontal suspension. Such gourds are usually more elongated than round and tend to have smaller girths. In these gourds, you cut your entrance hole in the neck so that a martin will enter and then turn at around a 90-degree angle to ?waddle? down to the vertically sloping nesting chamber. The curvature of the gourd and the way you hang it produces the amount of vertical decline realized. The foyer area around the entrance hole tends to be narrow and martins like this as it creates more protection and seclusion. Such an entrance configuration somewhat replicates that found in woodpecker cavities as these birds excavate their nests with a narrow entrance area that gradually enlarges toward the bottom.

In 2005, I used six horizontally deep gourds with offset holes on the necks and the depth varies from 12 to over 15 inches. All were occupied and successful. Martins enter the round hole and then hang a sharp turn to reach the gourd end. Plus there is a gradual vertical decline to the nesting chamber at the end of the gourd, which gives more protection to the martins. Vertical depth is modest and varies from about four to six inches. The girth at the nesting chamber portion of these gourds is from about eight to ten inches. In these types of horizontal gourds, girth is not that important as the depth. Martins like to completely disappear deep inside the gourd and be as far away from the entrance area as possible and out of sight. Think of this horizontal gourd as a woodpecker cavity turned on its side.

Steve

[Guest]

Steve, I agree with the side entrances on the neck. Not having the nest directly viewable from the outside is a good idea. I think I am going to do that next year.

[Steve Kroenke]

Samuel,

I have used this "offset" hole approach in multi-compartment houses, too. Such a hole placement is better, in my opinion, for protection of the nesting martins from predators and rain inflow. Also, since the female martin selects the nest site, she is looking for the safest cavity for her young. I believe martins, like most cavity nesting birds, prefer a darker and more secluded site so that they and their babies are less visible to predators. My three gourd designs that maximize vertical/horizontal depth tend to create such nesting environments: vertically deep woodpecker gourd, horizontal gourd with offset hole, and funnel gourd. All these tend to minimize visibility inside the cavity and produce a more secluded nesting environment.

Steve

[John Miller]

Steve

As you 'luv them birds, you are fortunate to be there in northwest Louisiana.

I was starting work on a half dozen gourds last evening for next year -- traditional approaches -- but had an idea. What if on a larger gourd, one put a baffle of some type inside. I fiddled with a few pieces of cardboard across the middle. If a martin entered and went over to the back side, it would be hidden from view. Don't know how to secure the baffle, but just brainstorming a bit.


John Miller,
St. Louis, Mo

[Steve Kroenke]

John,

I used that approach on some of my old wooden houses back in the 80s. I would place a piece of wood just inside the entrance hole to create an interior block. Martins could enter and then go to the left or right depending on how wide the baffle was. I also used exterior blocks of solid pieces of aluminum attached to outside porches to obscure the entrance holes on my hexagonal houses. So, this approach is a way to create an interior blocking method to minimize visibility inside nests. I am sure you could do something like that with gourds. It might be a little difficult with the curvature of natural gourd bottoms. But that is something to consider and I hope you will work on it!

The double nesting chamber approach with Trio houses and the double plastic gourds also minimize visibility inside the nesting chamber. The nesting chamber is isolated and not visible from the entrance hole.

Steve

[Steve Kroenke]

With the approach of the 2006 martin season, I thought I would re-activate my posting on my horizontal gourds with offset entrances and photos of martins using them. These are excellent cavities for martins and well liked. I always have a hard time finding such gourds! These gourds tend to be elongated and "penguin" gourds are perhaps the best candidates.

Steve

[Guest]

Steve,

I'm bringing up an old thread to ask a question. One of my Penguin gourds looks like the one in the fourth pic from top (nest to the bottom). I was thinking of making my gourd with the same layout (meaning hole in the side of the neck and hung horizontally.....well there will be a slight drop to the rear of the gourd when hung is what I was thinking) since it's the smallest one I received.

Questions, how do you attach the wire to the rear of the gourd? I'm not sure how much water could enter the gourd if the wind blew the rain in from the side so how long will gourds configured like this last? Do you take any precautions to hang these type gourds with the entry facing away from the predominate weather patterns?

Thanks for posting these pics as they sure help.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

To know where to hang the gourd so that it will be positioned correctly is easy, if you do it this way:

Take 2 sharp objects, like ice picks (I use 2 small sharpened screwdrivers), put them into the gourd where you think the wires belong, just deep enough to lift the gourd. Keep the holes horizontal.
If the gourd does not hang right, move them and check the gourd again. Keep moving the sharpened objects until the gourd hangs exactly like you want it to hang. This works on horiztontal gourds or on vertical gourds.

When you find the place that the gourd hangs exactly the way you want it to hang, mark the spots where the holes belong. Drill the holes for the pipe, wire, tubing, or whatever method you use. The gourd will hang right always! Before you drill the holes, make sure the two places are horizontal.

You may also want to add a little weight to compensate for the nesting material or martins, but I usually do not even do that

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Hogwild, do you mean something like this, if not, maybe Steve will answer you...

To know where to hang the gourd so that it will be positioned correctly is easy, if you do it this way:

Take 2 sharp objects, like ice picks (I use 2 small sharpened screwdrivers), put them into the gourd where you think the wires belong, just deep enough to lift the gourd. Keep the holes horizontal.
If the gourd does not hang right, move them and check the gourd again. Keep moving the sharpened objects until the gourd hangs exactly like you want it to hang. This works on horiztontal gourds or on vertical gourds.

When you find the place that the gourd hangs exactly the way you want it to hang, mark the spots where the holes belong. Drill the holes for the pipe, wire, tubing, or whatever method you use. The gourd will hang right always! Before you drill the holes, make sure the two places are horizontal.

You may also want to add a little weight to compensate for the nesting material or martins, but I usually do not even do that

I never have considered the predominant weather directioons, but you may if you wish

[Guest]

Emil,

I'm guessing you are describing how to hang a gourd using a single attachment point. You've given a good method for testing balance.

It looks like Steve has a wire attached at the neck and also at the rear. I was trying to figure out how he attached it to the rear of the gourd......with small pvc pipe etc. Do some folks run a 1/2" PVC pipe through the top of the nesting cavity? That why I'm trying to figure out what he did. This one small gourd will be different than the others.

[Steve Kroenke]

Hogwild,

Here is how I attach the hanging wire on the rear back of my horizontal gourds. I drill two holes about the same diameter as No. 10 plastic copper coated wire anywhere from two to four or more inches apart usually toward the end of the gourd where the nesting chamber is located. My wiring system allows a gourd?s entrance hole to point straight out or slightly downward. I insert No. 10 piece of copper coated wire through one hole and then bend it to push it from inside the gourd through the second hole. I make sure there is enough wire to easily attach to my gourd cable system. I then reach inside the gourd access port and push the wire that curves out from the two holes as close to the top as possible. The farther the wires are apart, the easier it is to do this! After that, I may attach the two wires that are protruding upward from the back of the gourd to the hanging cable. I just create a hook on each end and then bend them tightly on the cable. Or, I may attach one of wires to the second and create a single wire hanging system. No real preference here. I have been hanging my horizontals on cables on my Lone Star racks. You can also hang such horizontals on crossbars. I also caulk around the holes to minimize any rain inflow.

Of course, there are other ways to attach the hanging wire to horizontal gourds. You could possibly attach eye bolts to each end of the gourd and then hang the gourd with wires through the bolts from a cable or crossbar.

My horizontals face all directions and do a great job of minimizing rain inflow to the nesting chamber. So, I am not considering any kind of directional variable when hanging horizontals on a gourd rack.

I really like these gourds and so do the martins. It is just hard to find suitable candidates at times. The ?penguin? gourds should make excellent horizontals. Remember: it is the horizontal depth that is most important and not the girth of the gourd. You could have a gourd six inches in diameter but 12 or more inches in length and still have a great horizontal nesting cavity.

Good luck and let us know how your horizontals turn out.

Steve

[Guest]

Another question (hope I'm not wearing out my welcome), what material do you use for your rain canopies? You posted earlier how you attached the canopies to the gourd, but I couldn't find what material you used.

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Hogwild,

I use aluminum sheeting you can buy at home improvement stores. For my last batch of canopies, I bought 24 from the PMCA and they were PERFECT! I have been attaching my new canopies with an adhesive called Lexel which you should be able to buy at most home improvement stores. I bought my Lexel from an Amish gourd site in Pennsylvania. It is kinda expensive, but sure works GREAT.

I now have all my gourds ready but still have to install my two new WatersEdge houses on a multi-purpose pole.

Steve

[Guest]

Thanks Steve, I didn't realize that the PMCA offered rain canopies. I'll check that out.

I may have another question but I will need to post a pic to describe what I'm talking about.

[Guest]

Well, I'll try describing my question. I have a second gourd similar to yours pictured in the 4th photo (second to last) above. I also was considering an offset entry hole in the side of the neck. However, the neck on this gourd forms a U shape and almost points back toward the rear of the gourd.

When the gourd is hanging in the position I like, the neck curves around horizontally toward the side of the gourd. If I placed the entry hole on this side of the gourd, the martins could perch on the neck near the entry hole. My question, will the curved neck interfere with the martins entering/exiting the entry hole? About how much clearance is needed between the end of the neck and the entry hole?

[Steve Kroenke]

Hogwild,

I don?t think the curved neck will interfere with the martins entering and exiting the entrance hole as long as the neck does not block their access. In fact, the neck that functions as a perching area is a plus.

I have cut offset holes anywhere from 2.25 to 4 inches from the end of the neck of a horizontal gourd. The important factor here is the girth of the neck area where the hole is cut. Of course, it needs to be wide enough for a martin to enter the entrance and then hang a 90 degree turn to go to the nesting chamber. I like that area immediately behind the entrance hole to be around 3 inches deep. Martins can easily slide into these areas and disappear deep inside the horizontal gourd. On most of these horizontal gourd necks there is a funnel shape where the gourd diameter gradually widens as it transverses to the nesting chamber. This makes it easy for martins to enter such gourds.

Here are the measurements for my 6 horizontal gourds reflecting the outside distance from the hole to the end of the gourd neck and the internal inside girth where the hole is cut in the neck. Gourd 1: 3 inches, 3 inches; Gourd 2: 4, 3; Gourd 3: 2.5, 3; Gourd 4: 4.25, 4; Gourd 5: 3, 4; Gourd 6: 2.25, 3.25.

All these gourds were successful at both my Tallahassee, Florida colony in 2004 and my current one in 2005.

Good luck with those horizontals gourds.

Steve