Bat House Forum

[Gran]

I managed to scavange a telephone pole that the local utility was trashing. It is in good shape and should last for many years. I have a house that I intend to mount on it. I probably will try and mount at least one more on it. I know that you can mount back to back. What about in the vertical dimension? Can you mount them one above the other? I could conceivably mount a half dozen on same pole. Any thoughts?

[brockbat]

Ya good scavenge. I was looking at that option too, but all the poles I found had creasot (spelling) applied to them and I thought this might be toxic to the bats. Hope that helps.

[Joe Spencer]

Sounds like a good idea! Just leave a little space between the bottom of one house and the roof of the bat house below it. I would also strive to have the roofs at 45 degrees to minimize guano accumulation on top of the roofs from bats within the house above it. Can't wait to see your pics if you do it this way. Also given the size of the pole it should act as a heat sink as well to assist with temps..

[Gran]

Now all I have to do is figure a way to stand a 25 ft telephone pole up with out any heavy equipment

[Joe Spencer]

Yup sounds like a daunting task. I used my old car to push 1 of 2 large posts SEE BELOW I had made up and into a hole in the ground. They were probably half the weight of a telephone pole tho enabling erection of my large nurseries. Sadly I had to fell them when I sold home:

[Gran]

I'm hoping to rig up something using a tractor and some comealongs. Not sure if I can come up with enough friends stupid(er ... helpful) enough to try and lift it by hand.

[Gran]

I would hate to exclude freetails from the possible inhabitants. Now if I fail to get the whole post up then I'll start cutting the pole

[Joe Spencer]

Great stuff, I remember photos of some houses which attracted bats which were erected in state parks which were quite low to the ground. Glad to hear of your recent success Kent though I thought I remember you having past success with low mounted houses as well.

[Dave Miller]

Now all I have to do is figure a way to stand a 25 ft telephone pole up with out any heavy equipment

It was a fair amount of work, but I have done it, by myself.  Basically what you do is dig the hole with a post hole digger, then dig a 45 degree slot running down to the bottom of the vertical hole.  Lay a couple of 2x4's in the slot.  Drag your pole to the top of the slot, and on top of the 2x4's.  Place another pair of 2x4's against the opposite wall of the vertical hole, so the butt of the pole doesn't jam into the dirt on the side of the vertical hole.  Now attach your come-a-long to the top of the pole and winch it upright.  If you have at least three strong bodies, you may be able to do it without the come-a-long but this is pretty dangerous.

You will probably need to make an "x" out of two 2x6's to hold the pole in its partially upright position while you re-set the come-a-long after you winch it as far as you can.  This is the most dangerous part and will reinforce how truly heavy these poles are.  Just drill a hole through the 2x6 (2/3 from the end) and put a 3/8" or larger bolt through, and a washer and nut on the other side.  Attach a piece of heavy metal strap about 1/3 of the way up the 2x6 to keep the bottom of the X from spreading and sending the pole crashing to the ground, killing you in the process.

Once it is upright, with the come-a-long still attached, remove the 2x4's from the 45 degree slot and begin refilling the slot.  Once the pole is fairly stable you can remove the come a long and use it to pull the vertical 2x4's out of the vertical hole.  Now get out your level and finish filling and packing the holes.  I used the end of a 2x6 to pack the dirt as I filled.

As I said this is a fair amount of work but I couldn't think of any other way to do it by myself.

[Terry Lobdell]

Gran, I have 5 houses mounted on one utility pole. 4 are mounted in 2 - side by side pairs and one faces the opposite direction at the very top.

I will try to get some pictures on here. The key is if you mount houses underneath each other to have enough space so that when the bats exit the top house they don't hit the one underneath. I found this out the hard way watching a bat hit the roof of a house below when exiting.

I have my houses staggered so there is room underneath when the bats exit. Kind of hard to explain without a picture.

[Gran]

I've been meaning to post this for a long while .  Finally getting around to it

 



 

[Joe Spencer]

Nice!  Have they been occupied?

[Gran]

I've seen a few occasionally but not every day

[kerbat]

Gran, How did you finally set that monster of a pole.

I set one that is about 20 utility and a 8 foot 6X6 hollow PT extension with a rocket built around it. Used two friends a small tractor with a front loader. The rocket is in it's 2nd year and has had 230 free tails frequently since March. Hope they stay the winter.

Now there is a 30 footer  in my yard waiting to be set so interest in how you did it.

Bernie Kerr SE Florida

[Gran]

Thank god OSHA didn't see it.  It was a bit scary.

I dug the hole and then dug one side down so that there was a bit of a slope leading to hole.  I hooked a rope and come a along to tractor.   Lined tractor up so that rope pulled down length of pole.  When I started taking up slack on rope we kept a block under pole.  So we had a person pulling with come-a-long and another lifting on end of pole  and someone else sliding block.  It did finally go in hole and we didn't hurt anyone.