Bat House Forum

[xslingshot66]

Im trying to build a bathouse, Im trying to find a blueprint but I cant seem to find one, I see lotsa designs but I cant find a actual blue print or detailed explanation, Was hopeing someone could help me, If it makes any difference im in Des Moines Iowa, And the house is about. 100 yards from a river to the north of us. Thanks for anyone that can help, If not im sure ill find some blueprints adventually. - Brian

[IowaNate]

 Hello Brian! I am from Cedar Rapids, so we're not too far apart. Here is a link to building three bathouses of my design for about $20 apiece. http://www.batnic.org/forum/forum3/436.html

  I have many successful bat house designs, and this one is very easy to make.

 

   Happy bat housing!

                                          Nate

[IowaNate]

    Your close proximity to water is excellent for attracting bats. I have a few more designs if you only wanted to try a single bat house, and all of my drawings are to scale. You can make a nice three chamber bat house from a 4'x4' sheet of 1/2" plywood and a 4' 1x4, and this house weighs about 15 pounds for ease of mounting.

[xslingshot66]

Im intrested in making one for now, and if I do get some bats then ill be making more. I really appritiate the plans, thank you. If you have the time you could email me some of your other plans if your not busy [url=mailto:xxAces0vr8sxx@yahoo.com]xxAces0vr8sxx@yahoo.com[/url] 0 is a zero Thanks again, -Brian

[xslingshot66]

Oh I understand your design your saying 3 bat houses from 1 plywood I thought you ment 1 for each plywood, Ill definatly be making 3 of them.  What color latex paint would I use?

[xslingshot66]

Ok silly question, How do I get the partians hooked into the bat house? I dont understand all the dividers thats my main problem, I guess im used to bird houses. I know you put the dividers in between the front and back obviously but how do you space them? Do you just screw them into the sides? so The front and back would over lap over the sides then the sides would be evenly spaced in the middle correct? Then what all do you have to cover in the screening? up and down both sides of the dividers and the back of the front and the front of the back. Then do you cover the inside of the roof? How about the part that hangs below on the bottem? Sorry about all the questions.

[IowaNate]

 No problem. This design requires cutting 1/4" deep and 5/8" wide slots into the sides of the house which can be done with a few passes from a circular saw ( keep the slots 3/4" apart). Then the partitions just slide into the grooves and then be attched with two screws from the side of the house. The screening begins with stapling from the top and wrapping it around the bottom of each partition the continuing back up...staple every 3" on the screening including the middle. The back of the bat house gets one piece of screening stapled every 3" and you can put screening on the inside front, but I don't do that. There is no need to attach screening to the roof since the bats will use the partitions. In the front partition include a 1/2" slot running side to side about 6" from the bottom of the house...so basically the front is two pieces.

  As for color, a dark brown latex based paint works well for our climate.

    Feel free to ask any more questions if you have them and I will respond as soon as possible!

                                         Nate

[xslingshot66]

In the front partition include a 1/2" slot running side to side about 6" from the bottom of the house

 

side to side as in right to left? should this go all the way through the wood? 1/2 wide top to bottem and how deep? What is this slot used for? how do the bats get in the house? Do they fly into the back part thats hanging down then just climb up that?

[IowaNate]

 Here is a quick side cut away sketch to scale...each block is 1 square inch. The slot is used to prevent over heating, the bats can move between the vent and the bottom of the house where it will be cooler than the rest of house.

[cloudman75]

This design has been good for me. I would cut the baffle numbers in half for a first attempt. The plan I believe, would give you about six chambers and it would be heavy.

A 3 chamber with this plan will probably be OK for over a hundred bat nursery colony.

Take a look and build it to plan if you want a large bat house.

Good luck

 

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/er/publications/bat_house/part_details_1.htm

[IowaNate]

  My design has a maximum "safe" capacity of about 200 bats per house...with observations of my nursery colonies in my current houses it's a very reasonable number. My largest nursery colony was 250 bats in a house that was just 14" wide and 21" tall with four chambers.

  My formula for calculating the numbers that a bat house can hold is based on my measurements of roosting bats. The average bat in my area is 1.3" wide and 2.5" long when roosting (a good compromise between little and big browns)...so for ease of explaining say I have a three chamber bat house with 13" wide and 25" tall chambers...that would be 10 bats wide and 10 bats tall times 3 chambers. That gives me 300 bats (maximum capacity), but then I take that number times .75, which would give me 225 bats (safe capacity), and this allows for movement in the house between bats and not be overcrowded.

[xslingshot66]

Im definatly attempting to make these on Monday, I work 12 hour shifts all weekend so I wont have the change till then (my next day off) Would it be reasonable  to hope to see atleast 1 bat in one of these houses this summer?

[Terry Lobdell]

Yes, by late summer you should have at least have one or two bachelors roosting given your close proximity to fresh water. My newly mounted bat houses usually don't get much use until late summer.