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Purple Martin landlords??

Posted By: FurFlyin

Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/12/21 03:23 AM

Any Martin landlords on here who have Martins already back? If so, and the weather turns out to be like it's predicted, they're going to die unless you feed them. They can only survive, on average, for 3 days without food. Feeding Martins isn't anything remotely like feeding other birds. They eat flying insects, so you have to feed them "flying" insects, or at least you have to train them with crickets that yo flip past them with a plastic spoon. I have fed mine before, many years ago and fed them each year so they'd remember, but once we bought our business I didn't have time to continue that. I'll have to train them again. Once they're trained, you can switch them over to scrambled eggs. If any of you want more info, PM me for my cell number. I have 1000 crickets arriving at the local bait store tomorrow.
Posted By: SouthBamaSlayer

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/12/21 03:35 AM

This may be a dumb question, but how do they survive the rest of the year without you feeding them?
Posted By: FurFlyin

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/12/21 12:30 PM

Originally Posted by SouthBamaSlayer
This may be a dumb question, but how do they survive the rest of the year without you feeding them?


They migrate to Brazil in late summer. They only come to north America to breed and raise young.
Posted By: SouthBamaSlayer

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/12/21 01:06 PM

Originally Posted by FurFlyin
Originally Posted by SouthBamaSlayer
This may be a dumb question, but how do they survive the rest of the year without you feeding them?


They migrate to Brazil in late summer. They only come to north America to breed and raise young.

Right. I get that they are a migratory bird, but why do you need to feed them these next few days? Don’t they find food every other time of the year on their own?
Posted By: FurFlyin

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/12/21 05:16 PM

Originally Posted by SouthBamaSlayer
Originally Posted by FurFlyin
Originally Posted by SouthBamaSlayer
This may be a dumb question, but how do they survive the rest of the year without you feeding them?


They migrate to Brazil in late summer. They only come to north America to breed and raise young.

Right. I get that they are a migratory bird, but why do you need to feed them these next few days? Don’t they find food every other time of the year on their own?


Because the temps are going to be low enough that insects won’t be flying for over a week. If insects aren’t flying they have no food.
Posted By: Wade

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/13/21 03:41 AM

Fur,

I had to work on some of my mom’s gourds this afternoon late and to my surprise I ran one scout out of a gourd. Was not expecting that. Only one in the gourds. Not sure if there were any in the houses. Maybe he will make it. I must have pissed him off because he buzzed me pretty good on the ladder near the end. 😀
Posted By: FurFlyin

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/13/21 03:20 PM

Wade unless the weather forecast is wrong he’s not likely to make it. I only have one here too. I was able to get him trained to take crickets yesterday. Only took about 30 flying by before he caught one. He ate 5 yesterday and ate 3 just a few minutes ago. I’ve read that they need 40-50 crickets per day to sustain them.
Posted By: jacannon

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/14/21 01:45 PM

Honest Question. What kind of insects would equal 40 crickets? They fly over a dry marsh near my house during the summer.
Posted By: FurFlyin

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/15/21 12:33 AM

They eat all sorts of flying insects and dragonflies are among some of the most common forage. I read yesterday that it takes 5 crickets to equal one dragonfly. I've seen them bring every conceivable flying insect back to the nest to feed their young, including house flies, wasps, yellow jackets and the like.
Posted By: Wade

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/15/21 06:10 PM

Thanks Fur. In the grand scheme of things to do the first weeks after deer season is out, bird feeding 50 minutes away is pretty low on the list. Heck, I still have to get up 18 more gourds first. On the other hand, I wonder how many honey bees a purple martin eats per year? I might feed them #8's instead. smile I probably don't want to know the answer to "Do you want honey or do you want martins?" to my mom. You do have me curious. I am going to try and feed them crickets just to see what they do this summer .
Posted By: FurFlyin

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/15/21 11:02 PM

Wade they won’t take them when they aren’t in dire need of food. Not untrained ones anyway.

Regarding the bees. As you know I was a beekeeper and I raised queens every year except the first year. I had way better success raising queens than most people do. I ran over 95% success rate. Purple Martins do eat a lot of dragonflies. Perhaps dragonflies prey on bees? I don’t know that I’m just guessing.

The gourd racks at the barn are less than. 200 feet from where most of my hives were and my Queen raising nucs were on the edge of my garden in my backyard, Literally in the shadows of my gourd racks.
Posted By: FurFlyin

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/18/21 09:19 PM

Been feeding my little buddy 7 days straight now. At least 2 weeks ago.
Posted By: Rutabaga

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/19/21 12:19 AM

Cool Beans
Posted By: FurFlyin

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/20/21 12:43 AM

Originally Posted by Rutabaga
Cool Beans


Thank you sir. I've been reading reports of many dead Martins at colonies all over the south. From AL to TX. Meanwhile, mine has a full belly and is sleeping in his gourd.
Posted By: jb20

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/20/21 01:04 AM

Havnt seen the 1st and I'm glad cuz I aint throwing crickets 😀
Posted By: FurFlyin

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/20/21 04:21 AM

Originally Posted by jb20
Havnt seen the 1st and I'm glad cuz I aint throwing crickets 😀


Don't knock it til you've tried it. It'll be a few more days before I get any more.
Posted By: jb20

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/20/21 05:29 AM

Originally Posted by FurFlyin
Originally Posted by jb20
Havnt seen the 1st and I'm glad cuz I aint throwing crickets 😀


Don't knock it til you've tried it. It'll be a few more days before I get any more.

Naw it seems really cool I just aint got time..I'd love to try it tho
Posted By: birdcarver

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/23/21 01:07 AM

Had 4 come in today ,this is at my house, may have to feed them
Posted By: FurFlyin

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/23/21 12:48 PM

Originally Posted by birdcarver
Had 4 come in today ,this is at my house, may have to feed them


I had 4 more come in Sunday. I might have had more come in yesterday, I didn't get home in time to see. If we do have a cold spell, PM me for my cell number and I'll walk you through what I think I've learned. To train them to eat, it's not as simple as flipping crickets up into the air. It's not complicated, but it would be easier to tell you than to type it.
Posted By: Turkey_neck

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/24/21 04:08 AM

Saw some in Montgomery today.
Posted By: Geezer

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/24/21 12:01 PM

I have lived here for over 17 years and for the life of me I can’t get any Martins to nest here where I moved from I had a bunch of them
Posted By: FurFlyin

Re: Purple Martin landlords?? - 02/24/21 12:30 PM

Originally Posted by Geezer
I have lived here for over 17 years and for the life of me I can’t get any Martins to nest here where I moved from I had a bunch of them


I would think down where you live you could get them easily. If you've got a good open area, I don't know how you couldn't get them.


Originally Posted by Turkey_neck
Saw some in Montgomery today.


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