Bat House Forum

[IowaNate]

  I am fairly positive that the Nature Center (where I have two bat houses hung) will let me install at least one pole mounted house or houses in the marsh area. It is only 200 yards from the river, and the marsh itself has about an acre of open water.

  I could hang two BCI style nursery houses back to back, or I might try one or two rocket houses. This site is perfect for pole mounted bat house...prairie grass, water within a few yards, woods 50 yards away, and the main river 200 yards away. Since I have already documented the little browns preference for bat houses at the site and have had nursery colonies in both of the existing houses, I want to determine what type of house (houses) I should put up.

  I could do two "mega rockets" like Joe Spencer's design, or two extra wide (24"), 4 chamber nursery houses back to back. My only concern is that I will probably only have one other person helping me install the pole and hang the houses, so light weight and ease of installation is crucial. I also want to get the bottom of these houses at least 12 feet above the ground.

                                 Any ideas??

[Joe Spencer]

Looks like perfect habitat and great for potential colony expansion.  See below for my first rocket bat house at my house which is assembled in 3 separate pieces that are all reasonably light weight separately which are slipped over the post and then each section slips over the other with the roof as the final piece.  I design all my bat houses to be erected by one person.  When you mount a large nursery you can create the shell with roof and erect that and then slip in the partitions separately as well.  I'll often use a two baffles together system and slip in 3 dual baffles creating 6 partitions and 7 roosting chambers.  The partitions can be fastened from the side of the bat house with screws (works best with rough pine and not plywood with this approach since screwing into the side of plywood is unstable) or you can use a wooden stop at the bottom to hold them and fasten it to the back piece and side tucked in the lower corner.  I stopped using a router for partition grooves years ago.  I found that in time the wood often warped slightly and it wasn't easy to pull them out of a tight groove.  As far as a post goes I just use a 16' PT or cedar 4x4 = 3.5x3.5 true and place it 3.5-4 ft in the ground leaving approximately 12 ft. up to the bottom of the house.  Using a Little Giant or (Gorilla Ladder) Home
Depot equivalent step ladders, rockets or most any bat house mounting becomes a breeze.  I'm also starting to believe that creating a base instead of placing the pole in the ground gives you more options such as easily relocating the bat house(s) in just a few short minutes.  Something to consider since my base although nearly touching the ground still shows no signs of rot whatsoever. I just put a few large stones beneath it allowing air passage.  Quick construction of a bottom base made from PVC ensures years of usage and operation.  It may not be as attractive as a post in the ground though.  Not really sure if I've helped much with your question.

http://www.batnic.org/forum/forum5/134-1.html
 

[Terry Lobdell]

Nate, I agree with Joe about mounting bat houses in multiple componants. I did it with a mega rocket by myself and it was pretty easy.

As far as a pole goes, you could use a shorter piece of treated lumber set in the ground then splice on regular lumber the rest of the way up to get more heighth.

I've made hollow poles using larch which is very rot resistant. Dimensions I used were 2x6's sandwiched around 2x4's and 1x8's sandwiched around 2x6's. These poles were made in 2 pieces (with staggered lengths for splice strength) which made it very easy to haul them the site. Once at the site I just set the base piece in the ground, back filled it, then carried up the second piece and spliced it in.

The last one I did with the 2x4's & 2x6's only took me an hour and a half to dig the hole, set the pole and mount the bat house. I probably had another hour and a half at home pre-building the 2 sections. The splices have to fit together perfect so I took my time on that part. This pole had a total length of 18 feet. 3 feet in the ground and 15 feet out of the ground

[IowaNate]

  I just got approved for a Home Depot credit line, so I can finally get a Little Giant ladder. I am getting the model 22 which is a step ladder of 9 feet and extension ladder of 19 feet. This should make my bat house mounting MUCH easier!!! Thanks Joe for the suggestion on ladder styles.

 

[Terry Lobdell]

I just used my little giant a couple days ago to mount a bat house at a nearby state park. It worked great! It made the job go much faster and more safe for sure........

[IowaNate]

   Home Depot was out of the Little Giant ladder, which actually proved good. They had the same style made by Gorilla for $129! I was gonna spend $250 for the Little Giant. I think they might be having a close-out on these ladders since it usually retails for about $200, and they only had three in stock.

   Bat house weight will no longer be a problem, since most of my designs are less than 50 pounds.

   Now I just need to find a way to transport 16 foot 4X4's to the mounting sites.

[Joe Spencer]

Glad to hear about the progress.  I remember a nice relatively new feature on the Little Giant Ladder was that they added wheels to it making it easer to transport.  Maybe the next version of the Gorilla will have them.  Nate you could always make the post out of 2  2x4's screwed or nailed together on site which is only slightly less thick on one side.  They also may last longer since there is more wood preservative on two 2x4's than there is on a single 4X4 post.  You may of course be limited to 12' lengths at many suppliers but I'm not sure.

[Joe Spencer]

I just used my little giant a couple days ago to mount a bat house at a nearby state park. It worked great! It made the job go much faster and more safe for sure........

Terry, did you just get this ladder and if so does it have the wheels on it?

[Terry Lobdell]

Joe, yes it does have wheels on it........it is everything I thought it would be.......really works well!

[Joe Spencer]

Nate, you made a great drawing above to depict the bat house location at the nature center.  Are you also familiar with using Google Maps and Satellite?  Maybe it can be used to complement your drawings or be helpful for those shots which are not needed for closer depiction such as the one below in which two of my rockets are located on each of the two islands below @ 10 Oclock:

 

[Joe Spencer]

Maybe I'll put some ladder wheels like these on the Gorilla ladder for $30:




http://bearep.com/index.cfm?fuseaction= ... ct_ID=1461

[IowaNate]

 Here is a satellite image of the Nature Center's land. The BLUE dots indicate my current houses, the RED dots indicate the sites for my future houses next to the marsh area, and the PURPLE dots are my likely spots for my experimental 5/8" crevice pipistrelle houses. The triangular dark area just to the Southeast of the blue dots is not a pond, but an area that is burned annually for natural prairie grass. The distance between the blue and red dots is 1/4 mile.