Bat House Forum

[VANVW]

I dicided to go with grooves for the inside of my first bat house. I don't want to ever have to take it apart after all the work of building it and putting it up on a post(mesh/screen will eventually break down). With all the plans on the internet, I see groove spacing anywhere from 1 inch down to 1/4 inch. Which one is it? More info about bat houses and location: 2 - 4 chamber bat houses on a wooden post 14 feet up, one facing north and the other south in Marietta, GA.

[William Bagwell]

One inch is a bit wide, 1/4" probably over kill. Think mine ended up being 3/8 center to center. 1/8" wide grove with a 1/4 flat in between.
http://alt-config.net/modifiedjointer.html

[cloudman75]

I am just a few miles down the road from you in Lithia Springs. I have built four houses so far. Three were with rough boards used as baffles no screening.
The bats have no problem holding on to the rough boards. I used 3/4 inch spacing between my baffles except for a few at 1 inch spacing. The bats have accepted these very well. The one bat house I bought with grooves for baffles were spaced at 3/4 inch. This suits all sorts of bats in our area like little browns, big browns, freetails and smaller unknow species which I see sometimes. When you point a bat house North here, the back receives a lot of sun. When you point it South, the front gets a lot of sun. I have bat houses facing South, East West and North at times and all have been used. As you know about July it gets very hot here and the sun is needed less for heat. They do like a south facing house in late March or early April at my place. I have posted some photos of the bat house building in progress and completed in past times on the forum. Also if you need some plans, just let me know and I'll hunt up a link to the ones I used off the net which have been successful and will post them on the forum. Glad to have you helping the bats.It is my belief that a bat house should be at least three chambers for a maternity colony. I don't use grooves as I have no router. I use 3/4 inch board spacers.

2011-bat-house-t920.html

Frank