Photo Of New WatersEdge Suites With Round Holes

[Steve Kroenke]

Photo Of New WatersEdge Suites With Round Holes

I am real excited about adding these WatersEdge suites with round holes to my second year colony site in northwest Louisiana. Previously, WatersEdge suites could only be ordered with crescent holes and this, unfortunately, deterred many round hole landlords like myself from using these houses. However, I requested through a vendor of Coates houses that WatersEdge consider modifying their houses to include round holes and the president of the company agreed! These houses are now available with both round holes and crescents to give folks a choice and WatersEdge joins other high quality commercial houses like Lone Star and Trendsetter that do the same. This is indeed good news.

I have attached a photo showing two WatersEdge suites with eight compartments apiece and four natural gourds on a PMCA multi-purpose pole. This set-up has 20 cavities available. However, I have one concern about this arrangement. The four story WatersEdge suites do not firmly attach to the mounting plate included with the multi-purpose pole and both houses ?shake?. The tall and narrow style seems to maximize the shaking effect because of the wind and the thin aluminum bottom of the WatersEdge houses is not solid enough to prevent it and nor is the mounting plate. I believe that four stories may be too tall with that type of mounting plate. I even tried to strengthen the mounting plate with a partial wooden foundation, but the houses ?shake? in the wind and I am concerned about them possibly bending back some with a strong gust. I will try to reinforce the houses and would appreciate any suggestions that other folks may have used to securely attach the four story WatersEdge suites to the multi-purpose pole. Perhaps the three story house is about the tallest you can safely use. My neighbor has used two story Trio houses on the multi-purpose and they work fine. The Trio style is wider at the bottom and this will help to stabilize the house on the mounting plate thereby minimizing the wind factor.

The WatersEdge suites use a double nesting chamber configuration where the actual nest cubicle is isolated from the outside entrance hole. The martins enter the entrance and go into an open foyer compartment. Then they hang a sharp turn to enter a divider entrance hole to reach the actual nesting site. I like this design a lot and it greatly protects the martins from avian predators like owls, hawks and crows. If you use just an open compartment, the martins do not have the secluded and protected individual nesting compartment.

My current colony is now in its second year and last season, the first, I attracted a whopping 81 pairs of martins! I had 130 cavities, including natural gourds, Supergourds, and Lone Star housing and all cavities had round holes. I had a 62% occupancy level.

In 2006, I have 180 round hole cavities available so far and this includes natural gourds, Supergourds, Lone Star houses, and the WatersEdge suites. If Hurricanes Katrina and Rita didn?t adversely impact the ?Louisiana? martins too severely, then I may be able to attract around 150 + pairs of martins in 2006. If I see a large number of martins colonizing my site in February and March through early April, then I may add some additional housing to help with the overflow. This housing would most likely be multi-compartment houses.

Good luck to everyone in 2006.

Steve

[Guest]

Hi Steve, That is a very clean nice set up, I have always admired waters edge housing and the price is right. Your martins will be very spoiled with this set up,Good luck!

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Greg,

This is first time I have used any of the Coates houses. I do like them and they are economically priced. The WatersEdge suites also use the single porch approach with one nesting compartment per floor. This design should help to minimize nest domination by possessive male martins. The holes are also staggered which should help some.

I still need to add my pre-built nests to the each of the compartments in the WatersEdge suites. The suites have sub-floors which make it easy for cleanouts.

Good luck to you in 2006.

Steve

[John Miller]

Steve

It's good to know the company is responsive and took your suggestion regarding an option of round holes.

Re: floor. Are you talking about the entire aluminum floor flexing? I've added rigid strips of aluminum to the floors of taller Trio houses to minimize this.

I've been preparing two Coates Water's Edge Houses past few weeks and would like to discuss other aspects of these with you. I love the basic layout of the side nest compartments. But two areas cause me a lot of concern. 1. the front door is not secure in my opinion. It's held in place with a single raised aluminum catch in the middle of the floor. Can you talk them into making two catches?

2. The door covering the nest chamber is very vented with a mesh vent and a half-inch gap at the top. This is way too much for cool springs in Missouri, but probably works okay in the deep south. I've fully insulated the house with styrofoam, but just think folks north of Dixie need to know how open this style is.

What's your thought on the door latch?

John Miller

[Donnie Hurdt MN]

I also have a Coats Water's Edge (Three story) that I changed to round holes. I have the Coats on a Multipourpose pole along with a Trio Pioneer and have noticed that any visitors I have had wont look at the Coats with the cresent openings. I went through the same vendor as you did and now I see that they are in the PMCA 2006 product book.
I have also changed the 4 Troyer horizontial gourds that I have to round hole entrances too. I have yet to see a starling show any intrest in them, there isnt any real reason for them to, the ones that get interested in my setup dont live long enough to check out the gourds. I havent had a sparrows nest in my housing for several years now, (thank God,) The ones that live through the winter know well the sound of my .22 and stay away from my housing. There are plenty of farmers around here where they can nest realativly undesturbed.

[mbuster]

Steve,

I just got the same setup you did, but with crescent holes. I've got a question about the pole. How long was your ground stake. My parts list said 57" ground stake, but it came with a 48" stake. In the instructions it talked like it was 61.5". Original length to leave above ground looked like 21" but some one wrote 18" over it. I am wondering if I need to lengthen it.

I guess if we don't like the crescent we can order new doors, but really hope they work out.

Thanks,
Mark

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey John,

If you use the mounting plate that comes with the WatersEdge suites and attach it to a telescopic pole, then the metal plate appears to work in stabilizing the house. On the PMCA multi-purpose pole, it comes with its own mounting plate that appears not to work well with the four story Coates houses. At least that is what I have experienced, but other folks may not have a problem. The plate is elevated and does not provide a sturdy platform to attach the houses in my opinion. When I tried to attach the four story house to the mounting plate, the bottom floor around the bolts would flex when the house was hit by winds. I believe a severe wind could possibly bend the house over. It concerned me. Then I tried to add some wood support strips to the mounting plate under the houses and this helped but they still ?wiggle and shake? some in the wind. Maybe this is OK. I don?t know. This is the first time I have used the PMCA multi-purpose pole with a four story WatersEdge house. I believe the main problem is the multi-purpose mounting plate when using the four story WatersEdge house.

The single raised aluminum catch in the middle floor appears to hold well in the houses I assembled. However, I tightened the doors securely so that the doors will stay lifted up when disengaged from the floor catch. The doors should not be too loose. But your point is a good one and double catch system would perhaps secure the doors more tightly.

I agree with you about the panel vents in the nesting chamber area. I believe these are not necessary when you consider the amount of venting at the top of each door panel and the air holes. Plus these panel vents may allow blowing rain to enter the nesting chamber and also increase light intrusion. I blocked all the panel vents off from the inside using black electrical tape. I will share this information with WatersEdge.

Coates WatersEdge is a good company and will listen to folks who use their products. By offering constructive recommendations to improve their martin housing designs, WatersEdge can begin to make modifications that helps the martins and increases the attractiveness of their products to the consumer. I like these WatersEdge suites a lot and just a few minor modifications may improve the design.

Steve

Hey Dhurdtmn,

I have talked with several other folks who have the WatersEdge suites with crescents and no martins will enter them. There is a lady in my area that tried the WatersEdge suites with crescents and the martins shunned the house and nested in her Lone Star Goliad and her Trendsetter with round holes.

I have no need to use crescents or any other kind of sreh at my current colony as starlings are of little threat. If any show up, I can easily control them with shooting or trapping.

Does your three story WatersEdge suite hold up well during windy weather on the multi-purpose pole? Does the house ?wiggle and shake? much? Did you use the multi-purpose pole mounting plate for your WatersEdge suite and did you add any more support for the house?

Thanks.

Steve

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Mark,

I still have 3 more PMCA multi-purpose poles to use at our satellite martin colonies around Shreveport. I checked the length of the ground stakes and they are all 57 inches. I believe my ground stake on the one that holds the WatersEdge suites is also 57 inches. I place my ground stakes around 3 feet in the ground, leaving around 21 to 24 inches out. I like to have about that much length when I insert the bottom of the pole in the ground stake.

I only use round holes in my martin colony and my colony is flourishing. Starlings are of little threat and if one shows up, he/she will meet the Grim Reaper.

Our biggest threats to the martins are raptors like Accipiter hawks, merlins and great horned owls. These predators attack our martin colonies from February until the last martins leave in July.

You can always convert those crescents to round holes should martins shun the house.

Good luck.

Steve

[Guest]

Steve,

What size are the entry holes in the WatersEdge suites? They look bigger to me than the gourds' holes. I'd be interested in the size of the holes in the WatersEdge partititions, too (probably not easy to measure, though).

Tony

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Tony,

The entry and partition holes on the WatersEdge suites are 2 1/8 inches in diameter. My gourd entrance holes are 2 inches in diameter.

Steve

[jonkertb]

Steve,
A real simple solution to your wobbling towers is to take two 36" dowels and lay them across the two houses in the "gutters" of the roof of each house. Then drill a few pairs of holes and zip tie the dowels tight into the "vee" of the gutters. This will tie the two houses together, give more perching space and not interfere at all with the rising / lowering of the houses.
Tom

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Tom,

Thanks for that tip.
\
I was going to connect both houses with perhaps metal strips/channeling between the porches and see if that would stablilize the houses. Your idea is a good one, too. My wobbling WatersEdge suites may not really be a big issue, but I am always concerned about strong thunderstorms and the possibility of the houses bending on the mounting plates.

Thanks again for the idea.

Steve

[Guest]

Hi Steve,

I purchased a multi-purpose system last season and was also concerned about how much the watersedge suites I mounted rocked around. So I got two 1/8" aluminum strips for each house from the hardware store and attached the houses with screws through new hole drilled through the inner wall flanges and the aluminum strips. That really stiffened things up.

The martins love the watersedge houses I have with crescent holes.

Dan

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Dan,

Did you connect the houses together with the 1/8 inch strips to minimize the "rocking" or just attach each house individually with the strips to the mounting plate? If you could describe your method in more detail, that would be a big help to me.

I believe "beefing up" the bottom on the WatersEdge suites and then attaching this stronger foundation to the mounting plate would also reduce the wobbling.

Thanks for the idea.

Steve

[John Atteberry]

Hello Steve,
That is a great picture! Well this past weekend I made a change to the multi-purpose pole set-up! I am going to put two of those MSS-8 Trio Houses(Grandma Houses) that I changed to 4 bigger compartments! On one of the houses I made the holes that go straight back and then the other house I made the holes like the Wateredge houses! So that is only 4 holes each that stagger too! Then I'm going to add the 4 troyer horizontal gourds. Then also I will add 2 natureline gourds and hang them off the side of each house to make 14 holes altogether! The 12 hole DR-12 trio houses that I was going to use had a rod that was 1 inch from the bottom floor in each compartment. Those rods were in the way so that I couldn't convert these houses to bigger compartments! So I through one of them away because I made the holes in the back till I realize the problem! The other one I gave to one of my patient that had 5-6 pairs in gourds and a house. He was real excited! So that is why I made the change! The MSS-8 houses look like the Wateredge houses but only with 2 floors! Thanks Steve for the picture and my stake is also 57 inches! Good luck this year! John!

[Guest]

Steve,

I used the aluminum strips (approx. 1" x 12" x 1/8") to strengthen up the bottom of the house and provide better attachment points for the screws that come with the multi-purpose system brackets. And now that I think about it, I used 3 strips per house. All 3 strips are parallel to each other and straddle across the multi-purpose bracket open area (one large plate could be used in place of the 3 strips if you can find one). One in the middle and the other 2 go over the bracket holes. I used 3 screws and nuts (ends and middle) on the outer 2 strips and 2 screws and nuts on the middle strip (both ends). This allows you to attach 4 of the screws through the house inner wall flanges (the middle screws on the outer strips and the 2 outer screws on the center strip) and the 4 large screws that came with the multi-purpose bracket are attached to the house floor through the strips. I found it easiest to set the house upside down in a cardboard box and drill the holes through the bracket, aluminum strips, and house at the same time to make sure all the holes line up.

I hope this helps. If not, send me an E-mail and I'll send you a picture.

Dan
[email protected]

[Donnie Hurdt MN]

Steve, Yes, my Coats does move around a bit more than the Trio does but I dont think that with just three stories I will have much of a problem.
This afternoon it got up to a balmy 38 degrees here(way to warm for this time of year) so I went out to the shed and put my new round hole entrances on my house. I also diddent think that the extra vents in the nesting chamber were needed up here it dosent get that hot for long periods of time and like you did I closed off the vents with electrical tape. It will also add a little protection against prying eyes and ears of predators.

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey John,

I have used the straight back double nesting compartment approach as well as the offset one. On the Trios you usually have a combination. We use that approach with my neighbor?s Trios at his satellite martin colonies. Both configurations work, though I prefer the offset design for more protection and seclusion of the martins in the nesting chamber. On our Trio Castles, all have divided nesting chambers using the offset approach. We often get 100 % occupancy.

You really sound excited about the upcoming martin season! I am, too though both my neighbor and I are still concerned about the numerous Accipiter hawks, merlins and great horned owls which will no doubt attack our colonies.

Good luck, John and keep us posted.

Steve

Dan,

Thank you so much for this additional information. Your description is clear. It has helped to better understand my situation and given me a possible way to stabilizing my WatersEdge houses on the multi-purpose pole.

Good luck.

Steve

Dhurdtmn,

I think you are correct about the 3 story Coates houses. They should be OK on the multi-purpose poles and perhaps so will my 4 story ones. It is interesting that you did the same as me regarding the vents in the nesting chamber! I will probably just eventually close them by attaching a piece of aluminum on the inside to block the vents. The tape will work OK this first season.

Good luck.

Steve

[e p jones]

Have had very good luck both closing up vent holes and converting the 6 X 6 Coates compartments to 6" X 12" Suites.
Simply cut some aluminum flashing to 3" X 3" squares, drilled 2 opposite corners, then used a pop rivet gun to attach squares to the front door panel.

[Steve Kroenke]

Hey Rick,

That sounds like a good way of doing it. I was going to either bolt a piece of aluminum or even attach it with Lexel adhesive. Rivet gun should work just fine.

Again, I greatly appreciate your assistance in working with Coates to provide the round hole WatersEdge suites! I believe more folks will be ordering these houses now. It is so much easier to have the divided nesting compartment ALREADY prepared commercially than having to re-configure the house yourself.

Thanks again.

Steve