What can I do? OR What would you do?

[JL Murray]

Go for it i think you have a great idea!

[Matt F.]

First of all, no worries about me getting myself in trouble at Angola, I have seen and heard too much about that horror house to incense a prisoner.
They only let the "more gentle" (ha, like there is such a thing) stand outside the fence while selling their items. Most of them are behind the fence and you take your money to a payment window and go back and pick up your item.

So, what if I closed up all 6 of the holes on one side and also the 2 front and rear ones under the gables.....then made some doors on the sides for maintenance and viewing?
I would have to mount the house on a pole, I was thinking a 4 x 4 post , and keep it at a managable height because I would not want to take up any more space with a pole going thru the house......
Also instead of removing the interior walls, just drill a hole thru the middle wall of each cavity.....
Would the cavity sizes be ok?
I could face the closed up side away from my house and there are not even any neighbors behind me for at least 3 or 4 acres that would have to look at the "ugly side".....
Thoughts??

You've got some great ideas Connie.
You figure the current compartment sizes are 4 1/2" wide x 5 1/2" high x 5 3/4" deep.
With drilling nice, large 3" holes in the interior walls, that would give you compartments 11 1/2" deep - very good.
Height is fine at 5 1/2".
Width is a bit slim at 4 1/2", but with the compartments being as deep as they would be, I don't think that would be a deal breaker?
I'd be interested to see what others think about the 4 1/2" width.
An easy access option, would be to hinge the front and back panels.
Here's a link to one of Chuck Abare's webpages, showing photos/plans of a house he designed:
http://www.chuckspurplemartinpage.com/house.htm
Take note of the third photo down, that shows the hinged panels like I'm referring to.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

I tried to modify a pretty Heath aluminum house. I ended up quitting and throwing it about 1/2way thru the project. Modifying the room size, entrance size, problems with doors, mounting on a pole to raise and lower, etc etc..

It definitely is easier to start from scratch if you want to work on a birdhouse.

[Connie]

Matt,
Wouldn't that be problematic if the babies were of all different ages? That sure looks like the easiest way and it would keep the sides from being all chopped up......but I'm thinking some babies near fledging might jump out while I am checking.....you?

Emil,
At least once I have it all messed up I won't feel so bad about tossing it...lol.. right now I think it is too pretty to throw away

[DebA]

Connie,
Don't throw away! Tinker away. You said on another post your hubby drives you batty building for others. Here is my suggestion on that, assuming he likes baked goods. Start baking a pie with a note that says don't eat! for....sunday school class. Next day some cookies for...work or a neighbor. Next day a cake...for a son-in-law...and so forth. Maybe he will get the hint when you are baking for others!

My husband would notice.

Happy remolding! It is a beautiful house, on the outside.

Deb

[jeffwilliams72]

It is a very cool house, personally, I would convert it to an S&S controller. Then you could enjoy the beauty of it, and the functionality.

[Connie]

Connie,
Don't throw away! Tinker away. You said on another post your hubby drives you batty building for others. Here is my suggestion on that, assuming he likes baked goods. Start baking a pie with a note that says don't eat! for....sunday school class. Next day some cookies for...work or a neighbor. Next day a cake...for a son-in-law...and so forth. Maybe he will get the hint when you are baking for others!

My husband would notice.

Happy remolding! It is a beautiful house, on the outside.

Deb

That is a pretty good idea, until I just found out he is starting a fourth house and it is a good ways from home....guess I can't ride him too hard right now.....but I will definitely keep that idea handy...sounds useful for a lot of different things...lol Thanks smart one.

[Connie]

Jeff.....does that mean just attract then shoot the little monsters? Or is there more to making it and S & S controller?

[Connie]

Jeff....does that mean just use it to attract the little monsters then shoot them....or is there more to it than that?


Oops...how do you delete a post? When you highlight the edit button it says "edit or delete" but I can't find a way to delete a duplicate post.

[AvianStewardess]

Here is my suggestion on that, assuming he likes baked goods. Start baking a pie with a note that says don't eat! for....sunday school class. Next day some cookies for...work or a neighbor. Next day a cake...for a son-in-law...and so forth. Maybe he will get the hint when you are baking for others!
Deb

Hilarious!!! How would this concept work with, say, fishing gear? Mine does all the cooking and I'd likely poison him with mine.

[DebA]

Michelle and Connie,
Now if he CLEANS along with that cooking...well even I wouldn't mess with that! Don't rock that boat. Sounds like a keeper.

I sound so smart. I have doctor appts in Tulsa tomorrow. We will drive the four hours home on Tuesday morning. Last night (just trying to lay things out and get him to commit so there's no surprise) I said you know what I want us to do the minute we get home and get all the critter greeting over? He knew but he seemed puzzled...what? Put up my new houses! Of course. He actually said we will see how the weather is. If it's too cold I may not want to. Ha! I am all over this scout report, weather.com, the drought report etc...so I informed him it will be nice enough and in the 60's for a high by Thursday. So we shall see.

I have read and re-read the instructions, and nothing is stopping me. It will be 'anything you can I can do better...mode'. My daddy raised a tom boy and my mother put me in those 1976 polyester dresses! Plus I have an ace in the hole...the nice man Mel, from Hilltop, the makers of my Trendsetter left me a message to call with any installation questions.

My guy will help. He knows what is good for him. Or he will be lucky to get a week of hamburger helper.

Deb

[Chuck Yetter]

I will probably echo some of the other suggestions, but I would close the holes in the back, close off all holes to the gable boxes, drill holes in the middle walls, and then put a hinged front over the six holes as someone posted from Chuck Abare's page. I would then put up a heavy duty pole that has a metal sleeve where you could then raise and lower it by cable and winch. Have someone weld pipe connectors to it, and then you can make a 90 and permanently attach the house to a pipe flange. Weld smaller pipe connectors to the other side to make T's to support some gourds, which will also balance the load. Cut a V in the top two sides of the outer sleeve so that it goes into a bolt in the top of the pole so the house orientate the same every time. I attached a picture of how I did it. It felt so gloomy and cold out today taking the picture and can't believe I only have 28 days until my martins return!!!
OK--i give up on the picture. Couldn't get any below 500mb, even with my old digital camera. I know there is a way to reduce it, but I gave up

Update--had one of my kids re-size the pic for me!

[Siberman]

OK--i give up on the picture. Couldn't get any below 500mb, even with my old digital camera. I know there is a way to reduce it, but I gave up

Join "Photoshop" and upload you pics on there. They have easy image-editing / re-sizing software .

[Connie]

Chuck, thank you for going to all the trouble to explain and post picture. I had thought of mounting it something like that, on the side of the pole, but didn't know about balancing it out. Will gourds have enough weight to do it? I guess just keep adding until it works out. Only thing is I really didn't want my colony to get to big because I have a useless spine that 3 surgeries with all the rods and screws top to bottom did nothing to help. I hate asking for help so I really thought I would just mount it on a 4 x 4 post at a height I could handle with a sturdy ladder. I still don't understand about hinging a door over all the openings. As I mentioned to Matt earlier, wouldn't the different aged babies be in danger of jumping/falling out if all cavities opened at one time?

[Connie]

Michelle and Connie,
My guy will help. He knows what is good for him. Or he will be lucky to get a week of hamburger helper.
Deb

That dang guy of mine loves hamburger helper! lol......I can think of a few other things I could hold over his head though.....

[jeffwilliams72]

Connie, there are plans available for a Troyer S&S controller trap. You can buy the inner workings already assembled from Troyer, this would make the conversion much easier.
I would suggest you do an internet search for this trap. I am not sure if PMCA sells the "see-saw" part of the trap or not.
This is a repeating trap that holds caught birds in a cage. If a good bird gets in,you can release it unharmed. The rest can be dispatched.
If you were to convert your house to this type of trap, it would benefit your colony much more than adding it as marginal,hard to maintain housing.

[Chuck Yetter]

Connie--I think the martins would like the pole a bit higher than it sounds like you are describing, especially if you are trying to get them for the first time. It has also been my experience that you have a much better chance to attract them if you have some gourds available. The molded plastic gourds are actually pretty heavy. I have a really heavy rack that I hooked up to a battery operated winch that has a remote control. Just push a button and it goes up and down. They are similar to this link:
http://www.amazon.com/Northern-Industri ... 159&sr=1-4

[Matt F.]

As I mentioned to Matt earlier, wouldn't the different aged babies be in danger of jumping/falling out if all cavities opened at one time?

I'm sorry I didn't answer that earlier Connie.
You have a good point. When you have a single, large door, that when opened actually exposes numerous cavities, one has to be more vigilant about possible variances in ages of babies in neighboring compartments.
The T-14 even has this issue (though on a smaller, 4-compartment per door arrangement).

[Connie]

Chuck...I have two gourd racks now. I know they are heavy because unfortunately one of my racks is on a tri-pole I can no longer lift. I looked at the winch...I must not be very worldly..lol..never saw one like that before. I am going to have to invest in several though, boy, there are a few things around my house I could use it on. Thanks for the link!

Jeff, will definitely look into it. I have been shooting at sparrows all morning.

Matt...maybe 2 doors covering 3 cavities each wouldn't be too hard to handle..

Thanks fellas