Bat House Forum

[cloudman75]

The unventilated house I built two seasons ago was abandoned when the temps were about 95 for a week. In a couple of weeks with the high temps still around 90, the little browns came back and have been using the house since then. The house is dark blue on top and light blue on the bottom. I changed the number of chambers to 4 by spacing them closer so that they are about 1/2 inch. One chamber is 1 inch. There are not ventilation holes at all. This house has to be hot I think. I was surprised to have 3 big browns early this spring which had pups in the unventilated house. When the temps got in the mid 90s they left and have not been back. The little browns seem to like this house and pack into the 1/2 inch chambers for some reason. I had hoped to attract more of the smaller bats which look like little browns but much smaller. I have about 20 of these now but they roost with the little browns in my largest house. We think we know a lot about our bats at times then they do something out of character has been my experience.
The large house needs some maintenance. I plan to take it down this winter. It's very heavy and requires three persons to handle the pole. I plan to build a large wide two chamber house over the winter.
It will be 8 ft long (or wide) and 3 ft high with two chambers. I will put the smaller houses in use now on it to attract the bats back and hope that they will use the big house. The following year I plan to remove the small houses if the large house gets some use. I may build this large house in place on its support poles. have not made final plans yet.
I may build it on the ground and winch it up using trees some distance away with long ropes and pulleys hooked to my tractor. I am leaning that way right now. Just thought I would make a post to wake everyone up as things have been slow lately with batting. What's happening?

[Terry Lobdell]

Frank, when you mentioned building the bigger box it got me thinking about plans I have for this upcoming year. I hope to build a larger box in pieces. I am thinking about using some old weathered 2x6's for baffles and attaching 3/4" spacers on each side. I will mounted each baffle section up on the pole one at a time. I will use french cleats at the top to hang each baffle section. This seems like an easy and safe way to build a larger bat box. French cleats have worked well to mount other boxes. I would like to make either a 3 or 5 crevice box this way. Once I have all the baffles mounted I would cover the exterior with either larch or red pine and stain it a dark brown. The roof I would cover with aluminum painted brown. A 5 crevice box of this design, I'm guessing would exceed 100 lbs which should provide excellent temperature regulation.

[cloudman75]

Terry,
Thanks for reply.
I had to read up on French cleats and viewed a video on the net. That is really a neat way to hang something.
They are so easy and simple to make that even I can probably make them. Your house sounds like a large project
and with the thermal mass described should provide the conditions that you are hoping to achieve.
I am thinking of about three different ventilation schemes in the wide house so the bats can select an area that suits them depending on weather. Also there will be some braces to prevent the warping of baffles, etc. I am sure my house will go about a hundred pounds. I have found a source on Craigs list for rough sawn lumber close by,
so it will be thicker and heavier if I go that route. I will be on the project in earnest when it gets cold this winter.
Right now we are experiencing the worst flooding in 100 years. We had 12 inches of rain last night with constant thunder and lightning all night. Tonight it slacked off about dark and I noticed bats flying. They weathered the storms OK it appears. Good luck with your project, and I'll be anxious to hear how it turns out.

Frank