Question about closing apartments when purple martins leave

[wpakalka]

Do you completely empty and clean every apartment, even ones in which the martins left neatly arranged beds of twigs? Thanks for any advice.

[flyin-lowe]

I completely empty all my compartments and I take all my housing down and store it in a shed for the winter. The weather can get pretty harry in Indiana some winters. In your case I would guess extra months of sun light could cause things to wear out quicker. I also feel like leaving nesting material in year round in my area would draw in a lot of moisture from the humidity we have. Once they leave I empty mine out pretty quickly. The gourds get a quick spray with a hose and the T 14's just get the nest trays removed and dumped out.

[wpakalka]

Thank you. I am in Houston, Texas, where humidity is crazy high all year.

[Dave Duit]

In addition , I leave mine up for passing migrators for about two weeks after I see the very last of my colony martins leave. Then I clean and store and make any repairs needed for next spring.

[wpakalka]

Thank you.