Bat House Forum

[Joe Spencer]

Kent Borcherding's new bat house design:

Here is a photo of the new design using 2 -cedar utility poles 8 ft. in
length .

Some grooves are cut into sides of poles and they are mounted in a 12"
wide x 8ft 2 in. long box made of 2"x 12" roof and 3 - 2" x 8' doug fir
sides.

the poles had some cracks in them because of age and weathering -
should be great for the bats.

Capacity approx. 2,000 bats .  Main reason I want to try this design
should help prevent pups from falling form bat houses , especially when
the houses are overcrowded.





Below is a side view of the bat house with the 2 cedar poles placed one
above the other.

pole diameters are approx. 9" in diameter  - bat house is 22" deep - no
landing pad - bats swoop up into the bat house.

painted dark brown - latex paint






This is where one cedar utility pole will be placed for bats.

Box is made from 2" doug fir -  roof is 2" x 12"  8 ft. long side s are
2 - 2" 10"  8 ft. long.

The 2 pieces of wood you see laying on the top are 3/4" sticks so there
is 3/4" for bats to move over the top of the pole.







Below is a bottom view of bat house with single pole installed.

This pole I did not cut any grooves in - wanted to see if bats
preferred grooves cut into the poles





This is bottom photo with sides attached of the 2 pole design -




When Kent has time he may be able to provide some more information on this new design.

[kent borcherding]

These 2 bat houses will be mounted on on utility poles.

The utlity poles will be cut to a length of 18 ft.

Poles will be places 4 ft. in the ground 5 ft apart.

Steel brackest will be bolted to each side of the poles 10 ft. above ground ,and the bat houses be placed on the brackets.

Will be constructing several more new designs this summer.

The bat houses will be capacities of 1000 or more bats. No plywood used in the construction.

Prefer 2" material for sides and top able to control internal temps and hold big browns more easily. By using the cedar utility poles , act as a heat well and bat house will have a higher night time internal temps.

The bat houses pictured should easily last 40 - 50 years with very little maintance.

The material for these bat houses cost $61 and the utility companies give me the poles free, they also delver them and cut them to length for me. Sure appreciate them doing that for me , really nice people.



If anyone has any ideas for a new design please contact me , or if you observe large colonies of bats roosting in buildings.

I am always interested where the bats are roosting ie- high near roof , at the ends of the building , near vents in the roof , if there is a roof vent on the building , if the bats move to different areas in the building.

Also if you have a thermometer and can estimate temps in the building.

[Terry Lobdell]

Kent, that is a really good design........are you going to try building any stacking poles more than 2 high?

And what kind of ventilation do you have for this design?

 

[kent borcherding]

The next bat house using the poles I will probably use 4 poles side by side.

To ventilate these 2 houses I will drill some 3/4" holes on the ends near the top , and will use the round screened vents that will fit into the drilled holes.

[Terry Lobdell]

Kent, on the subject of different bat house designs, I have seen bats roosting under horizontally installed rough sawn hemlock siding.

The one building has at least 100 little browns roosting up under the siding where it has warped in the sun and pulled away.

 This building is mostly in the shade but gets lots of sun on  the southwest corner and that's where they roost.

The siding has a heavy chocolate brown stain/paint.

This building makes me wonder about all the possibilities of  incorporating bat houses into the architecture of different buildings. Kind of like Joe's soffet vent houses.

[kent borcherding]

Could be used for a successful bat house design.

I was experimenting with the idea this afternoon .

Should have a test prototype finished by Wednesday , will be on the road Monday.

I will e-mail a picture when I finish it , thank -you for the idea.

[splaestro]

Kent, even with the pictures and your description I'm having a hard time picturing how this actually looks when installed--do you have photos of the final product?

Thanks.  Brian

[Joe Spencer]

Below are some new photos Kent just sent me.  If he has time he'll elaborate:

[kent borcherding]

Joe ,Thanks for posting pictures for me .

The 2 pole design in the foreground has proven to be the most successful.

It was occupied by little browns summer of 2007.

I may try a 3 pole design in the future .

The bats preferred to roost near the ends on the top of the poles.

I have not placed any sensors in the boxes to record temps , but will in the future.

The 2 inch material used and the poles diameter should help control internal temps and also poles should help hold night time temps higher in bat house.

These 2 houses should easily last years with very minimum maintance other than painting exterior wood .

This design and slanted baffle bat houses should help prevent pups from falling from the houses.

Also next year hope to make the octagon shaped gazebo style roof bat house , possibly with cupalo on the roof for air movement.

[Terry Lobdell]

Kent, How many little browns did you have roosting in this house?

[kent borcherding]

terry ,

my guesstimate would be 25 -50 .

I placed this design near a group of houses occupied by about 800 bats.

I plan to remove that group of older houses in the next few years.

As the bats began using the new 2 pole house will replace the single pole house with a 2 or 3 pole house , before I take down the other group of nearby houses.
.

[Terry Lobdell]

Kent, are you removing those other houses due to deterioration from the weather?

[kent borcherding]

I checked the 2 pole bat house last evening , lots of bats are using it .

Will do an exit count or a dawn swarm count next time when checking this group of houses.

The single pole bat house has very few bats in it , so will probably make it a 2 pole house or make other changes -ie- possibly adding a cupalo or angling the roof with a ridge vent. Still working on the air movement in bat house theory.

Will sure construct and place some more 2 pole bat houses , costs of less than $100 for 2,000 bat capacity bat houses that will easily last 40 - 50 years very low maintance.

Terry the group of houses I am replacing are still in decent shape , prefer to experiment with larger capacity bat houses that are long lasting , reasonable cost .

[kent borcherding]

Large number of bats using the 2 pole design .

Less than 100 bats using the single pole .

I do not plan to build anymore single pole houses.

Plan to build another 2 pole and place this fall , will use 1" black locust wood for box to cover the 2 cedar poles .

Will not paint the black locust ,but will let it age naturally. Black locust is a very dense long lasting wood . US Forest Products Laboratory estimates 70 -75 years .

[Terry Lobdell]

Kent, here in PA black locust is used a lot for fence posts.  I have never worked with it though.

Does it warp much? I'm guessing it has to be drilled for screws? Will you caulk the joints of these houses?