Heath AH-12D: Deluxe 12-room Purple Martin Aluminum Bird House

We had this house full of nests with eggs & baby Martins when the ornamental cap came off in the wind. This left a gaping hole to let rain into the house. In the difficulty of getting the house down to place duct tape over the hole, the house was inadvertently turned & Martins have abandoned all nests. My husband has just had a knee replacement operation & we had to rely on a friend to get the house down so it was a very difficult situation as heavy rain was was predicted in a few hours. As a result of losing all these Martin families, I am very unhappy & believe this house needs a change to design to secure the top Cap. We have one other Martin house of different design is doing well with babies being raised successfully.

I am very disappointed in this bird house. We had several compartments filled with nesting Martins when the top element blew off the house leaving the interior open to rain. We had to pull the house down to cover the hole with duct tape as a rain storm was on its way. In the difficulty of pulling the house down, it may have been reoriented causing the Martins to abandon their nests. I am very disappointed because we have worked so hard to attract Martins & our other Martin house is thriving.

This product is well designed and will last many decades. It was received as a gift to replace our well-served previous 12 room bird house. Assembly was easy but I did not use a pair of pliers. I am fortunate to have a set of small ignition wrenches which made the job MUCH easier than battling with pliers. Perhaps Heath Outdoor Products could supply an inexpensive stamped wrench to significantly ease assembly. The instructions were apparently written by an employee who is intimately familiar with the product. Heath would do well to have the instructions re-written by a person who has no experience with their product so they are easier to understand by an amateur. I altered the assembly from the instructions in two ways. First, I assembled the 6 part roof with the wider opposite sides of the roof overlapping. This provides greater resistance to driving rain. Second, because the plastic pole flange is the weakest part of this entire product I did not want to tighten the bolt against the pole and quite possibly strip it out. The fix was easy! After placing the house on the pole in the proper location I tightened and loosen the bolt several times. This left a mark on the pole telling me where the bolt would be located. I then drilled a hole through ONE side of the pole. This allowed the bolt to be tightened all the way in the collar but most importantly, the weight of the entire house rested on the metal bolt rather than against the plastic pole flange. This entirely eliminated the possibility of the house sliding down the pole. I drilled one hole for both levels of the house. The plastic rails are intended to snap into the holes of the floor. They don't. I fully expect to find several of the rails on the ground during the season. Inferior plastic parts have no place in an otherwise quality product like this martin house. The pole sections slide together perfectly. The pole and key locks from our 30 year old house are still working fine. However, I have always stored the house and the pole in the garage 8 months of the year and that extra effort has no doubt paid off. During installation of this new house one of the key levers broke. Jamie at Heath Outdoor Products immediately sent replacement parts. (In the mean time I held the pole up with simple automotive hose clamps.) Heath could eliminate all plastic parts, include a wrench for assembly, expand their assembly instructions and they would easily have the best product on the market. Proper marketing would support a ten dollar price increase and still increase sales. They could add a ten year guarantee and blow every other manufacturer out of the water! Clean the house thoroughly after the birds vacate, store it indoors and it will easily give your flock 30+ years of use!