NEWBIE ...My poles are moving in the wind

Chad24 · Thu Mar 22, 2018 4:42 pm

I just placed my two houses up. One is from my deseased father in-law and I have no clue the name brand but it came with a round pole and is lifted by a pulley and rope. My new house is a S&K on a triangle S&K telescopic pole. Both are concreted in the ground 21" down. My question/concern is that both sway a little at times with wind. Will this keep any PM from nesting in them ? I also have a decoy on each. Thanks in advance. Chad

eyeamtheman · Thu Mar 22, 2018 5:28 pm

Won't hurt a thing

rrmartins · Thu Mar 22, 2018 5:46 pm

Cut some pipe insulation foam and put it between the house and pole, at the bottom. I have a wood house, so I use a wood wedge, but wood would probably crack your plastic house. I just lower mine some and use a six foot ladder to put it in. Good luck.

Chad24 · Thu Mar 22, 2018 6:00 pm

Thanks for the info. The house is not moving but the telescopic part of the pole is. I'll have to come up with some way to secure the pole at the end of each section when it's completely raised. Again thanks for the info and I will take any suggestions you might have to fix the issue or info on it moving and if it actually bothers the PM's .

John & Linda - KY · Fri Mar 23, 2018 2:38 pm

The swaying won't bother the martins. But with the S&K Tritel pole a strong (think spring storms) wind will bend the pole enough to make it difficult or impossible to raise and lower it. What I've done is to lower the top section down into the middle section so just enough to hold my gourd racks sticks up above the second section. I secured the top section where I wanted it by drilling a 5/16" hole through the pole, from a flat section to and through the opposite corner, and using a 5-16" bolt and nut or wing nut as a stop. That puts the gourds at about 9 - 10 ft. high and my martins have been fine with that height. Another option would be to lower the top section only when high winds are expected, just don't forget.

Also, the plastic buttons that hold the sections up are prone to failure. S&K offers optional metal buttons or you can drill holes all the way through and use bolts for that also. -- John