Bat House Forum

[mightymickers]

Hi
I am very new to bat topics. My husband and I decided to purchase a bat house which we did but have not assembled it as of yet. We purchased it from Batcatalog.com which states they are Bat Conservation International. I purchased a DIY single chamber house (that holds 50 bats). The finished dimensions are: 28 1/2" tall x 18" wide x 2" deep. We live in Central Washington state and a huge lake is about 300 feet from our house. We live in a very rural agriculture small town. We have read all about painting it black on the exterior (latex paint), hanging from a post 15 feet from ground, etc. The house is made out of plywood....
Okay, here is the question....I am concerned from reading extensively on the internet that a single chamber bat house is doomed to fail! Is this true? Are we wasting our time, building, painting, installing and hanging the house and no bats will come? We have over an acre piece of property so the surrounding is condusive (I have never seen one but I am sure they are out there as we have owls, ducks, deer, coyote, etc) to bats. Please advise!!!! Should I return it?

thank you!!!
Dawn

[Terry Lobdell]

Based on my experience here in NWPA a single crevice box will work well mounted on a building but not so well on a pole.........reason is it will cool off at night too much on a pole......You could try it and see what happens.........another thing.......for those serious about attracting bats, the more boxes you have mounted the more will get them investigating.........I have a few sites in my area where I am seeing this first-hand........I'm thinking the more options you give them the more likely they are to stay.........

Also, I should mention after 12 years of building bat boxes I don't make anything with less than 3 crevices........even the smaller boxes I still have 3 crevices...........

Hope this helps!

[William Bagwell]

Note to self: Read all of the new posts before replying!

[IowaNate]

A single chamber house with the dimensions you mentioned does have potential as long as the chamber is no more than 1 inch and preferably 3/4 inch. Although as it has been posted already, single chamber houses tend to fare the best when mounted on a building instead of a pole for thermal stability, but there have been a few successful single chamber houses mounted on poles and trees with sparse branches that receive over 6 hours of direct sunlight.