Bat House Forum

[cloudman75]

I did an exit count last night on my unvented bat house. All but maybe 4 bats have crowded into one house to have pups. I counted 116 last night.
Some were left in the house and I thought that they were probably in labor or feeding pups. Tonight after exit I shined a light up and saw several pups and also some bats still in the house. It finally turned warm here again, 86 degrees today.

It was a sad sight when I spotted a dead pup with the cord still attached. Either the mother missed him when born or it was knocked loose from overcrowding.


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Frank

[Emersombiguns]

Yes, Sad indeed, I had a total of 3 at bottom of house 2 weeks ago. Then didn't see any for days. My house is also full, and only 1 moved in to other house. One had no fur at all, 2 had fur, none on abdomen, and eye's just starting to open. I had over 100 in there, so probably not bad...Randy

[cloudman75]

I found three more dead pups the next day after the photo was made of one dead pup for a total of four. I have not found any since and the pups left are growing fast and crawling around in the box. I have had some bats move out, but only have four in other houses. I don't know where the others went and took their pups with them. My exit count last night was only 59. Still no freetail bats here. Weather is hot with bright sun., so the pups are plenty warm now.
We have a bumper crop of insects this year.

Frank

[LarryH]

That is so sad to hear. We have been having an extremely cold and wet spring, and the bats still are not back in the numbers we had last year. It is beginning to concern me because they normally start having their pups in early June, and we still don't have the houses populated. I checked the nursery house today and there was only 2 bats in it. An exit count on the main houses last evening only had 21 bats, which is way short of the over 200 last year. I hope we are not seeing heavy loses due to WNS.

[Terry Lobdell]

I am thinking of mounting a pup catcher on a box where I often have pups falling..........big browns seem to fall more than little browns......I do have a couple large boxes that are so full this year that I am afraid of losing some pups to overcrowding.....