Trying to solve porch dominance in vertical housing.

[frushaj]

This for new landlords trying to establish colonies. I know this is not a problem with established colonies. This is my third year as a landlord. I started with an old Trio 12 the first year with one pair. I put up a Lonestar Alamo-14 with 4 gourds. I had 4 pairs.
I gave my Trio which I had added porch dividers to a friend and he had 6 pair the first year he put it up.
I had observed that I had one pair on each side of the Alamo except the back side which was least desirable because it had the least clear flyway. One pair was in one of the gourds.
Each pair on the three sides would establish a compartment then hang out in one of the above compartments and dominate the whole side. I made some metal plates for this year. they are about 16X8 inches and attached to the bottom of the entrance platform. This acts as vertical porch divider for all the compartments. If a PM is in the compartment above he can not see the compartment below. I also shortened the perch to not over hang the plates. If this works I will add some pictures. If I get at least one more pair per side I will feel it is a success and worth others with the same problem to give it a try.

[M.Stephens]

Hello John , yes I and am sure others who have the Alamo and t-14 would be interested in knowing if your experiment works...please keep us posted. thanks.

[flyin-lowe]

I know many members on here who have T14's that are 90-100% full. Porch domination can be a problem but I think if you have enough martins in your area to fill up the house they will stop each other from moving in above and below each other.

[RC Moser]

IMO t-14 Porch domination problems have been solved by offsetting entry holes from Left side, middle then right side. Basically you only cut one hole in the front door and two in the sides. This also offset then entry on 75% of the holes making the compartment L shaped. This blocks off any vision from owls looking straight into the nest cavity. You can also build nest tray baffles to even further hide the nest.
IMO the best design T-14 is the GHOST HOUSE. By far light years ahead of any othe design in domination and predator protection.

[M.Stephens]

RC , where can you get plans for the GHOST HOUSE?
I eventually would like to change my T-14 to the offset entrances.
I currently haven't had martins nest in my T-14 yet , so I am in no hurry to change it out.

[RC Moser]

The GHOST (great horned owl safe T) house provides the Maximum protection from owl attacks and IMO anything else that flies. It was in the Purple martin update few years ago (vol 16(1) winter 2007). It's kenny fecker design from OH. as the article states.

Basically all you got to do is put the entry holes at the back sides, reverse the nest trays and make a porch that can be fenced in. (Copy the picture)

When you think about it there is really nothing more thought out. Nest trays at the front when you open the doors the babies are right their, L shaped entries hides the nest chamber form anything trying to look in. Screen in porches so no hawks or owls can come close to the entry hole. Several escape routes.

maybe Louise can paste the article or send it too you? If you got to have it Email her.

[Sam Harris]

RC,that is one of the best houses I have seen. How many rooms does it have? I am hoping my pair come back from last year and bring friends.
I gave my S&K barn to my dad. This year I will have Three Trios. I found a couple of MSS-12s on E-bay to go with my Pioneer.

[RC Moser]

the one in the picture has 14, just depends on how many cavities you want and how strong you pole is to hole all the weight. this picture was scanned out of the PM update. The update shows some with 28 cavities and gourds at the top total of 32 cavities on one pole but these were not GHOST designs. The article shows how the old design was getting brutalized by Owls and to save a huge colony he redesigned the houses to stop the owl attacks. Al least that what I got out of the article.