sreh enterances

[jeff gregory]

im getting ready to replace my round holes on my super gourds to crescent enterances. i bought the plastic crescent replacement plates from the pmca. has anyone used these ? do they work ok ? i just wanted to get some advice before i go to cutting on my gourds

thanks

[John Miller]

Not sure this can be done well...maybe. the plates usually are placed on houses. Crescents generally need a porch below to help martins enter, or a rough cling plate. porches should be one-fourth inch below to near flush, and placed inside and out.

If you can secure the plate well and add a porch -- inside and out -- it may work okay. A better option would be to purchase SREH tunnels and insert those, cutting out the round holes to a snug fit for the tunnel and caulk around it. I make my own tunnels or buy from Entrances from Sandy. Troyer's tunnels would work too,

John

[~Ray~Gingerich]

Here is how I modified a supergourd using a short piece of 3" sewer pipe and a conley2 plate. First I marked the outline of the pipe around the entrance hole and cut that part out. Next I fastened a strip of wood inside the tunnel and glued the cut out entrance piece into place inside the tunnel. The remaining piece of plate was glued on top of the tunnel and a porch installed on the outside which is made up with another strip of wood and a piece of plastic, this was glued to the entrance plate and supported underneath by a wood screw threaded into the strip of wood inside the tunnel. I used PL construction adhesive which did a pretty good job of holding everything in place. You can't tell by the picture but the porch is 1/16 below the hole and the tunnel has a slight downward tilt to drain water off plus a small overhang at the top of tunnel.

[Martin man RI]

I had two male martins that could not enter the crescent holes.
I had to remove and add round holes on aluminum house I have
put Conley holes on my aluminum house that i was given in the fall.
I have many crescent gourds there have been no issue with them and
they all have porches.

[John Miller]

Here is a photo that can serve a couple of how-two purposes: owl guards, , and super gourds -- probably originally round holes - converted to caulked-in SREH tunnels. I think one manufactuer also now makes a "collar" attachment to help secure the tunnels but I've just always caulked my in a snug hole. You'd enlarge the original round hole with a jig saw to fit. the photo is by Larry Melcher and his back yard.

John M

http://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/o50 ... 82b83c.jpg

[Dave Duit]

Ray,
I modified my supergourds and they look very similar to your modifications. I used a pattern of locking tabs around the hole of the supergourd and used 4 inch PVC sewer pipe with matching interlocking grooves for the hole and pipe to twist and lock into place. Once I get better with posting pics I will share this method with everyone. I'm also inthe process of developing a feeding tray that allows martins to feed; but robins and starling with be excluded.

[John Miller]

When making tunnels, if you run a small slat of wood -- I prefer oak or cedar, full length inside the bottom of the drain pipe and leave sticking out the front a few inches, it will provide a support outside for the porch and provides traction inside. I glue it in but can bolt too if one prefers. The slat base is how Emil makes his tunnels I think and that's where I learned it. I'll try to make one this winter and post some photos here. We really don't have good how-to link, in my opinion, of how to make pretty simple and strong gourd tunnel. John

[~Ray~Gingerich]

Dave the locking tabs sound interesting, will it work with 3"pipe? I like to use 3" as there is less chance of wing entrapment. Really curious as to how you exclude starlings at your bird feeder.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

I make tunnels out of 3in lightweight sewer and drain pipe, the base is cedar for traction that has a groove cut on each side. Any type of entrance can be attached

[John Miller]

Emil

What is the width of your slats? I use ones more narrow I think --1.5 inches -- as I'm using them as a support for a porch that I overlay on them. Just using the slat as the porch would be less steps involved, but depending on the SREH type I've felt martins may need a wider porch to enter.

John M

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

John, I make them various sizes from about 1.5in to 2.5inches, but I never even measure them. The larger they are, the smaller the height, but changing the width somewhat makes very little difference on the height

You can make them whatever width you want the porch to be

[John Miller]

Emil

I may be getting too technical, but have concluded that martins need a wide porch to enter excluder II entrances, which I have used a lot on my home-made tunnels and sometimes found martins had difficulty entering. The martins have to slightly open their wings to enter these entrances,and maybe WDC entrances, and may need wider surfaces for balance. I've been retrofitting wider. I'd think a fairly narrow slat of two inches or maybe 1.5 would be fine for martins to enter clinger or crescents. John