Who has a cheap effective ideas for Martin houses? I don't want to buy plywood at today's prices.

I have been making bird houses, I have been using weathered barn board, when I can find it. Also have found some old beehives, mostly they are pine. The folks that buy them are happy , with recycled material. Scrounge around construction sites and the dump. Always some there as well as free paint. I have made over a hundred , bluebird houses and donated them to our local hospital. They get up to 40.00 each for them, the more rustic the better. I class some as a bit crappy, but green folks will lap them up. Have fun with your project. old243

Get some balloons, blow them up, wrap with twine, paint, pop the balloon, cut a small half circle hole and hang.

Whats wrong with gourds? Takes a season to grow and time dry down but they last forever if you dip them in cunap then paint.

Gourds are about as trouble free a plant you can grow. Just give them room to grow.

You can find crappy "Throw away" skids (pallets) in most any industrial park.

I don’t know if you have any now but around me it depends on what the Martin’s in your area are use to nesting in. I cannot get them to nest in a wooden house only gourds. I know they are not cheap but the Troyer horizontal gourds with Conley entrance are worth every penny. You can buy direct from Andrew Troyer and save quite a bit.I have 48 and all but a couple are full

That's what people use here the most, especially the Amish.

Here's a link I looked up.
https://gardenandgun.com/articles/build-gourd-home-martins/

A friend has two houses and a bunch of gourds. Only the gourds are occupied.

free pallets have enough wood to build a lot of bird houses. Gourds are still the best though IMHO....

We got ours from TSC. The time saved in building was worth it.

They are time consuming. I put one up and had birds there in minutes, but they have been here the past two years.

Gourds are their favorite. I have 90 gourds and almost all are occupied. I have boughten gourds, natural gourds, and some I have made from 6" schedule 40.

Happy Birding!

Birds produce the year before set up and establish new colonies when they come north in the spring. The first year you can have full house and then the numbers drop the following years and they keep others away and lost in migration/overwintering.
Some bad springs can wipe out entire colonies with cold weather and no insect flight.