Bat House Forum

[Terry Lobdell]

Kent,

Do any of your bat houses have sand or any other kind of thermal storage?

[redbud]

Kent,

what type of house are you building  with the 2" lumber? 

Can you give me a brief description - size, number of chambers etc?

Thanks, 

 

Mike

 

 

 

[kent borcherding]

Terry, I have used pieces of Medex a very dense manufactured wood placed in the attics of bat houses to hold heat and act as a heat well. Several years ago I did use a lot of Medex wood for bat houses , worked great and would hold nightime temps 5 degrees F. higher than plywood houses. Problems did develope at some state park sites where vandals would use sling shots to shot stones at the bat houses. Where the stones hit the Medex bat houses the Medex would began to seperate in places. Medex is great material for bat houses - but I have 50+ bat houses in state parks and at some sites the amount of damage from sling shots hitting the Medex bat houses was becoming a problem.I do field test bat house designs for 4 -5  companies - have field tested a number of designs for Marvin Maberry including the Belfry where sand is added to the top. The Belfry with the added sand was very successful. Some people have doubts about sand as a heat well due to the fact that deserts cool rapidly after the sun goes down and nights are chilly in the desert. One very large new bat house design {15,000 bats}I am working on I will use gravel for  a heat well. i have obtained a private funding source for bat houses and have completed designing a totally different bat house design using the triangle pyramid design the can be expanded to 20,000 - 40,000 bat capacities. Us  ing the triangle principle because I still strongly believe air movement in and around bat houses is key to success.  When bat colonies are in building -especially barns always seem to be near peak where there is most air movement, I have spent many hours observing batcolonies and taking notes on thrier location in the barns and movements. in barns.Redbud- designs I have used the  2" and 1" lumber in are  3 chamber Penn, state 27" fronts - 18" fronts - 15" fronts -- Oregon wedge and rocket boxes.You are both welcome to e-mail me , e-mail works best because some days I am on the phone for up to 2 hours discussing bat house designs and placement, e-mails I can print out and keep remember what was talked about with which person. 

[Joe Spencer]

Kent the thicker/thermal wood houses your mentioning, are they mounted on poles?  If so given their weight are they on pivot poles or are you using my approach without pivots and inserting the bat house cores/chambers separately from the outside shell to make mounting easier?  Basically what I'm asking is: Have you had to overcome any challenges with the heavier bat houses when mounting.   Thanks Joe

[Terry Lobdell]

Kent,

By air movement do you mean fresh air along with their desired roosting temperature? I always wondered when they are roosting clear at the top of a crevice if there was enough fresh air up there. I drilled some 5/32 holes in the sides of some of my houses mostly used by big browns because they were leaving in very hot weather. These were multi-creviced houses with venting only in the front.

I would like to see your plans. I'd also like to hear more about what kind of air movement bats prefer. Thanks!

[kent borcherding]

joe - when mounting larger houses I use a tractor with a  lift platform to stand on to mount bat houses and also to lift bat house for mounting. The heaviest bat houses I have are 200+pounds and capacity around 800 bats , made from 3/4 Medex wood.Tilt post I now use are 2 post on the sides appr0x 8 - 10 feet out of the ground . The main mounting post is usually 12 ft. in lenghth between the side posts- bolt is thru the 2 outside post abot 6 ft, high and thru main post. 6 feet is the balance point of the main mounting post. Should be no problem rasing 400 - 500 ponds of bat houses, Secret is to tilt mounting post at the top instead of the bottom. A friend has a digiital camera will take some photos of a tilt post and have you post them.Terry - if you run your baffles all the way to the roof and have the roof overlap the front of the box several inches and than drill some holes at the top of front of box  air movement will cool the box . If you use 2" inner roof and 1" wood for front of box with holes at the front behind roofline shouldn't have a problem holding big browns.Best to always run your baffles to the top of the box, otherwise wasps will build nests at the top space very hard to knock down, to make it easy for bats to move between baffles just drill some 1" holes in a couple of the baffles.There is  a company interested in purchasing the  new bat house design , so to be fair to them cannot share it at this time.