Bat House Forum

[Wee Wally]

In Canadian Wildlife Federation bulletin fall 2005, there are plans for a bird /Bat house . Has any one build one of these? The only thing I noticed is that there is no landing platform for the Bats. The plans can be seen at  http://www.wildaboutgardening.org   >"for bats" in the link "Digs,dwellings,and Dens"

1st time trying this Forum . Hope I'm doing this correctly?

WEE WALLY

P.S. I wanted to do a workshop here in Winnipeg on building BAT houses any pointers?

 

Lumber: 2 cm x 18.5 cm x 183 cm
(3/4" x 7.25" x 6')

[kent borcherding]

 I am somewhat familiar with a similiar bat house -Johnson design- , it did not have the bird house at the top but the baffles were perpendicular with the front and back.Most baffled bat houses the baflles are perpendicular to the sides. Placing the baffles this way allows the bats to use the inner baffles in warmer weather. Easier to hold big browns in the bat houses.The design may be to small to attract nursery colonies because of the smaller dimensions.55cm approx 21 " overall -bat house baffles 30 cm approx 9.5 " . this is quite small for a bat house.Bob Young from Calgary , Alberta sent me a "Hans Weber " bat house plan approx. 10-15 years ago , I had good success with that design and still have nursery colonies in those " Hans Weber " bat houses.The rocket box would probably be a good choice , but a 4" x 4" post would be best or a 6" x 6" post. The reason in northern climates you hold night time temps higher with thicker denser material.The economy bat house is an easy to build good design , possibly use 2" material for the back.  Reason for the 2" material hold night time temps higher in the bat house.

[Joe Spencer]

Welcome Wee Wally and yes by all means here is a pointer:  Start with the Bat House Builder's Handbook available through http://www.batcon.org or http://www.amazon.com or maybe even from your local library on a inter-library search.  Once you have the fundamentals down try experimenting on your own with new designs using data which has been shown to be effective.  I'll move this post shortly to the BAT HOUSE DISCUSSION category since a bird and bat house combination is intriguing.  Thanks Joe.. :thumbsup1: 

[Wee Wally]

Hi Kent:

Thanks for your ideas. I made and put up a rocket bat house in my urban back yard, it is 26ft above my garage.

As for the combo,I thought people in the city would go for the idea of a Bird house sooner and then to have a bat house also would be an added bonus.

Wee Wally