Bat House Forum

[flyin-lowe]

I am totally new to bats and bat houses. I had some scrap lumber left over from a purple martin bird house I built a few years ago. I wanted to buy a bat house but after some upgrades to my martin colony this year I have spent enough money and am using what I have around. I have looked around at some pictures and done some reading and here is what I have come up with so far. I started a 3 chamber house. Each chamber itself is 24inches by 24 inches. The Back wall will be a little over thirty inches to give me pitch for my roof and about a 5 inch landing zone. I used 3/4 inch strips to make each chamber 3/4 inches apart. I also took a cut off wheel and carved horizontal grooves all over each chamber for grip. I also plan on leaving a couple inches free space in the top so the bats can get from chamber to chamber. On the front I left a gap in the boards about 1/3 of the way up. I have also used caulk to seal all the seems up. So far I have the chamber built and the front on. I am going to have to go to my fathers to finish up with his table saw as I need to rip a few boards. Any other thoughts or advice. I hope I am making something that they will like.
As far as my site goes I live less then 300 yards from a 1000 acre lake and state park. There are lots of bats here. I spoke with the local utility company and they are letting me put the house on one of their poles. It is open to the south with no trees and it is not a pole that they climb so it won't ever need to be moved. I am going to put it facing south and also adding a coat of brown stain. I think I mentioned everything I have done so far. If you look close you can see the groves I carved in the chambers for grip. I live in east central Indiana

[po boy]

Flynn,

The groves look great. However i don't see a landing area. I am not an authority on bats, but i think you mIght want to ad a landing area....

You can add that by attaching a groved area the same width as your bathouse and about 8 inches high. Cut an 1x10 the same width as your house, grove it and attach to the back.
Look at this for an example;;

See the area that extends from the back. Bats need that to land on and crawl into the House. Secondly, they need that area to crawl out onto if it gets to hot in the house.

[flyin-lowe]

I don't have the back boards put on yet. The back will be a few inches higher then the top to obtain a roof pitch and then the back board will hang down 4-5 inches lower then the rest of the house. Will grooves in the landing area like I put in the rest of the house be ok? I would rather do that then the screen so I don't have to worry about replacing it.

[Dave M]

Looks good to me except one thing... You mentioned leaving a couple inches on top for the bats to climb over to get from one crevice to the next. Be careful about wasps, if your space is too big they might build a nest in there. I'm not sure how much space the bats need to get through there, or how small it has to be to prevent wasps. I'd probably make it about 3/4 inch like the rest of your box, but anywhere from 1/2 to 1 inch might be ok. Hopefully somebody else will chime in on this.

[po boy]

Yes, the same grove method should be fine for the landing area.

[flyin-lowe]

How dark should I go with the color and what is the best thing to use? A good exterior paint or is stain more common. Also I thought about painting/staining it a little lighter color on the bottom half and get darker as I go up. Anybody ever done this? Or should I just get one color and go. The house will get full sun as there are no trees near the pole it will be on.

[Terry Lobdell]

I've seen a lot of boxes with 2 different colors.........I've never tried it.........I try to get the temperature variation through ventilation, plenty of height in the box size and multiple crevices that provide the bats with a different temp in each crevice......

[flyin-lowe]

It's hard to tell from the pictures but the bottom board has a gap from the middle board for venting. Should I add some venting in the top too? I thought about a gap in the top under the roof overhang so rain can't get in. What is the standard way to vent a house like this?

[flyin-lowe]

I forgot to ask about a decent way to mount this house to a telephone pole? I have four big "lag screws" that I was going to use. I was going to drill and run two screws through the bottom part of the house and then two through the top part of the house. Is there any other way that is easier or more sturdy for mounting to a round wooden pole?

[Terry Lobdell]

Lag screws are a real good way to mount a box!

For ventilation, the lower third of the box is a good place to put it........if you look through the pictures on this site you will see a variety of good ventilation designs.........

[flyin-lowe]

So in a 24x24 box in Indiana will the vented bottom third be sufficient or is a higher vent a must also?

[Terry Lobdell]

If you vent all the crevices at the lower third of the box that will be perfect......

If you mount it on a pole you most likely will get little browns......

Little browns don't require as much ventilation as big browns.......

[cloudman75]

Hello flying -lowe,
Your construction procedure is somewhat different than what I am used to seeing. It appears that you built the baffles and don't have sides yet or may not be planning on them. Here is a link to the steps I used on the five houses I have built and I am certainly no carpenter.
http://www.floridabats.org/BatHousePlanPhotos.htm

I usually cut the sides with the roof slope, then attach the back with landing provided on the back board or boards as shown in the photos from the link. Then using the 3/4 spacing strips, the baffles are added until you get the number desired. Put the front on, and roof and you are done. It is easy to me and you may consider it next time you build one. You could write a book about what I don't know about wood working, I just follow directions LOL. Your grooves , etc look like they will work very well and the house size should hold a good size maternity colony. I hope that you will post your finished house photos and welcome to the Forum.
As for paint or primer, if it is latex, water based it should be fine on the outside.
Stain is OK also if it is not oil based I have read. Don't paint the inside. I have two houses with darker colors on top and lighter toward the bottom just as an experiment. The bats liked the scheme just fine. I used Kiltz white latex on my largest house I built this winter for the roof and sides. My photos are posted on the Forum. Good luck, maybe you will get some of the rare Indiana Bats, but like Terry
said most likely Little Browns. I usually bore 3/4 inch holes in the baffles to allow travel between chambers. Why 3/4 because it is large enough and I have a 3/4 bit, no other size for wood. Seems to work OK.

Frank

[flyin-lowe]

Thanks for the link, if I build again I might go that route. Knowing my carpentry skill (lack there of) I just decided to build the chambers first and then build the exterior around that. I cut my back boards today and am going to attach them in the morning so I will attach some more pictures. With my back boards on the top back board is a little higher then the front to add slope to the roof. The bottom board extends 4 inches lower for a 4 inch landing strip. Once those are attached I can cut each of my side boards to finish the edges with a smooth look. I couldn't find any free plans that I liked before I started, and using scrap lumber I had to go with what I had. I hope that bats aren't picky about looks. Plus I am just using a circular saw and don't have quick access to a table saw to rip a lot of boards. So I designed it around the scrap I had on hand. The chambers seem to meet specs and I have vents and a landing strip so I hope they will take to it. It is starting to warm up in Indiana so I want to get it up this week.

[cloudman75]

I am a circular saw and drill man myself, no wood working skills. The bats have accepted my houses very well and they will yours also. They are not fussy
except about locations and sounds like you have a great location. Good luck, and I will be anxious to see your photos and hear about your bats in the near future.

Frank