Bat House Forum

[Terry Lobdell]

Here is a box I mounted at our local Conservation District that can be raised and lowered with a hand winch. I ended up having to mount 2 smaller boxes on the opposite side of the pole to balance the load.

The main box has a door on each side which can be opened for people to view the bats through plexiglass.

I have had several experiences where I've found bats to be very tolerant of being viewed as long the the structure they are in is not bumped or jarred in any way.......

[cloudman75]

Great photo Terry, but I can't see the details of how the winch works. I suppose it has a pulley at the top with a cable
that goes over it in the groove and down to the rig that goes up and down around the post. I have looked at martin
poles with winches and got some good ideas, and thanks. I had come to the conclusion that I would need two houses for balance going up and down. All my bats are still here, just checked a few minutes ago. We had 97 two days in a row.
It is 82 at 12:50 AM

Frank

[Terry Lobdell]

I cut a slot in the top of the pole for the pulley.

[Terry Lobdell]

Here is a view of the hand winch. I got it from Andy Troyer who designed the system for purple martin houses. He lives only about a half hour from me.

The dark blocks on the pole are for the box to rest on when I lower it.

In this picture I have a lock and chain on the winch so vandals cannot disturb the box at night.

[Terry Lobdell]

A view from the bottom.

[cloudman75]

I get the details after viewing the photos Terry.
BTW, it was 103F here yesterday and the little browns with a few freetails are still hanging around, pun intended.

Thanks,

Frank

[Terry Lobdell]

Frank have you ever observed an outside temp where the little browns leave the boxes? The little browns up here are very tolerant of high temps even in boxes with little or no ventilation. I have observed big browns fly out of boxes during the middle of the day and roost in a tree though......

[cloudman75]

I have not observed at what temperature, but these same little browns left my unventilated darker house in June and have not come back. It is empty right now. It's just my opinion that they found it too hot, could have been something else.
It is about 30 ft from where the other two houses are. They now come to the entrance on extremly hot days. In the past all have left in August for a couple of weeks, but then return and stay until about mid Nov when the insects go. I shined a light up last night and observed a tiny bat so small that it looked like a pup. It may just be a runt, but have not seen one that could fly that was so small before. I am really having an unusual season this year. It did not like the light so I could not get a photo. My new camera has not arrived yet, but should be here in a few days. I will try to take some clear photos
with it and see what I have in the boxes.

Frank

[Terry Lobdell]

I stopped and checked these boxes yesterday.......was excited to see a bunch of guano on the ground! So we carefully cranked the the boxes down, opened the door on the viewable box and looked in at 3 little brown bats!

The other 2 boxes on the opposite side of the pole had a lot more........maybe as many as 20 or 30 but they are mounted back to back with an open access/vent crevice in between. No doubt that's why more bats were there since it was a very hot humid day in the high 80's.

I was not expecting this much usage this early. I've only had the box up a little over a month.

The bats seem to be very tolerant of the box being lowered as long as it is not jarred suddenly.......

I am very thankful for the Crawford County Conservation District staff here for letting me try my bat house experiments!

[Terry Lobdell]

We lowered this box, opened the doors on both sides on Aug. 12th and had 10 little browns inside! I was really pleased because I only expected use by one or two bachelors since this it has only been up for 2 months.

What I am learning from this site and others where I have a little brown bat maternity colony is that once you get little browns using bat boxes a few years, they will investigate new boxes right away.........

If the bats have not ever roosted in a bat box it can take awhile........even a few years..........it all requires patience.......

[Terry Lobdell]

Checked this box today, Aug. 27th, and it still had 10 - 12 little browns inside! What is amazing is the fact the I lowered it about 10 days ago to about 4 feet off the ground and they are still using it!

It seems like once bats are established in a certain location they will roost in most boxes at that site.......

Another thing which surprised me today was all the bat bugs in this box..........it was loaded with them! I hope to get some more pictures on here soon!

[Joe Spencer]

Love the bat house winch design. Terry, you mentioned and as we all know that bumping bat houses or their poles disturbs bats and can occasionally make them leave. After you lowered the boxes via winch to look at them and then raised it, did you notice if any had left after that? Since they will be leaving soon anyway for hibernation this is hard to judge at this point. You may be lucky and have hibernation spots closer to you? I see you're still using the PVC divider spacers that you and I are fond of. Looking forward to feedback on multiple lowering and raising of this next year and potential before and after bat counts in late summer which is optimum since young are on the wing yet it is a few weeks prior to leaving for hibernation. Would you say late mid-late July as optimum for your area? Nice work and congrats on this. Simply fantastic!

Joe

[Terry Lobdell]

Joe, the first time I lowered this box one little brown did fly out from the space separating the 2 boxes mounted in back.........I have lowered it 3 times since and no bats exited. The last time I lowered it (about 2 weeks ago) I left it down, only about 4 feet off the ground in case the staff at this nature center wanted to show any visitors. I've since opened the box in a middle of the day and had 10 or 12 bats inside. They did not seem disturbed at all. I hope to post some more pictures soon showing how the east and west sides open allowing a view of the bats roosting inside.

I've not noticed any decrease in use from this box after the raising and lowering process.......although the 2 boxes in back have not been used as much..........but this time of year it's hard to judge preferences because all bats seem to move around to different boxes on a daily basis..........

Based on my observations here at home the past few years, I think pups may be more tolerant to disturbance.........I often mount unfinished boxes temporarily just to get them out of the way and when I take them down to complete them they often have one or two bats (I am fairly certain they are pups) inside. The bats almost always remain inside while I work on finishing the box. This usually involves covering the roof with aluminum.

According to a map, there are 6 hibernaculum locations in the county just south of us here.......only 40 or 50 miles away at the most........

From what I've seen pups start flying around July 15th and are all flying by about July 20th.

Barring losses from wns, I am guessing I should have about 150 little browns at this site next year.........

[Joe Spencer]

Fantastic. Great feedback Terry. Looking forward to future info on this site and setup.