John Jordan's site is in Woodbury, MN

I tried to attract martins for 7 years without any success in an older style, but cute house. The nest cavities of this house were about 6" x 6". I then built a new house, a troyer T-14 with deeper cavities. I put my new house up in June that year and hoped to get martins the following year. Within 5 hours of having the new house up I had my first year male bird on the house going into a hole. That year I had a couple of martins nest. Last year, the T-14 was 100% occupied so I put up a new house this year, a T - 26. To me I love watching the martins in the evenings with no wind how they glide about and sing.

I have learned a key to martin success is nest box cavity size, and Starling and sparrow control (S&S).

Above you see the pictures (outside and inside) of an S&S controller that is attached to my garage.

Many friends say I am over the top on S&S control. I have 2 year round traps and 12 other traps just to control S&S.

One year while doing nest inspections, I watched a female martin on eggs. After I lowered the house down, I noticed that she had a band on her leg. After further investigation, I found out that she had been banded by Bob Schneewind a fellow Martineer on this site.

My site is located in my backyard which borders a park and many neighbors continuously thank me for providing the martins a home in their park.