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Kent
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Posted: Sat Jul 17th, 2004 05:14 am |
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The BCI economy bat house is an inexpensive bat house to build and has proven to be a successful bat house.
May help to build several of the economy bat houses and mount them on east and west side of the same tree.
!5 ft. high would be high enough. Once bats began to use any of the houses you will have bats in all the bat houses.
I am still working with the theory that air movement and air currents are a big factor in which bat houses bats will use. Air movement could be one of the factors why bats like to roost under bridges and octogon roofed gazebos will always have bats roosting under the roofs.
I keep some very detailed records of my occupied bat houses and the bat houses where bat colonies are increasing the fastest , are where there is a air movement.
This fall I am going to talk to a weatherman and see if he will loan me some equipment to monitor and record the air movement , barometric pressures and anything else that may be useful.
If I have to rent the weather equipment I will. Some equipment I will use to monitor my most successful houses where colonies have increased in large numbers. I will also place some equipment where the colonies are not as large and not increasing.
This year 2004 will be the last year I will use any plywood in any of my new bat houses. Plan to began using all 2" exterior wood and solid wood baffles . The reason is it is difficult to get much over 15 years from plywood bat houses.The Medex wood bat houses have proven to be long lasting, but I want to build more large bat houses that will have bat capacity 15,000 to 40,000 bats. It would be difficult to construct these size bat houses with Medex wood.
I don't want to make this to long , but will be trying some new designs also.
I am sending some bat houses to a person south of Atlanta to put up and try. The houses are a different design that seems to work in high summer temps, over 100 F.
Also I do travel in the Atlanta area if have some extra time I would enjoy stopping in your area.
Kent Borcherding
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The Captain
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Posted: Sat Jul 17th, 2004 03:24 pm |
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I would enjoy having you here anytime. Do you think Kent that a 3/4 inch spacing of chambers is that critical? Also, if you view the photo, you are looking due west. The treeline in the distance throws shade over the house in the hot afternoon. Joe's idea of making houses out of pine lumber from the sawmill with the bark intact sounds like it would represent a more natural cavity. Maybe my house is to man-made. Perhaps I could apply pine bark to it exterior in some fashion. In S. Ga, they harvest and process a lot of Cypress lumber that might work even better due to the natural tendency of that wood to resist decay.
If I had it to do over again, I would get serious about Joes idea and cover outside of house out house of the bark attached scrap pieces from a lumber yard. (free) One thing for sure, I live in an insect rich/ bats a plenty area, 3 city blocks from a 10 acre lake that my sub-division is built around. I do have lots of bats. I note 2 kinds from observation. the first is a small bat that flys in erratic patterns. The second is a medium size, bigger, and flys more straight and fast. My backyard is like a huge hollowed out place from the trees that I believe is a major feeding grounds for the little guys. I appreciate your time and help. If you ever are in ATL, give me a shout. Cap'n http://www.allatoonastripers.com
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Joe Spencer
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Posted: Sun Jul 18th, 2004 03:10 pm |
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The Captain wrote:Maybe my house is to man-made. Perhaps I could apply pine bark to it exterior in some fashion.
Hi Captain I'm not sure if too man-made is an issue for we do often find so many bats in awnings, closed outdoor umbrellas and most abundantly in shutters all of which are man made. Of course the natural bark is always good to experiment with. I wasn't specific in my post when I meant pine but what I was referring to exactly is just the 1"x12" rough sawn mill boards for the interior partitions. I believe I recollect that Kent has mentioned before somewhere here or in another forum that his most successful houses were interiors/partitions that measured 2 ft high and anything more would be overkill. If you could confirm that Kent that would be great. Captain here is a design that has been very successful below One is the university of Florida Bat House and another smaller similar design. The UFL bathouse had 20,000 bats a few years ago and I believe has far more now and is next to a lake:
More photos for above house http://www.afn.org/~ufbat/
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The Captain
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Posted: Sun Jul 18th, 2004 03:50 pm |
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| Now if I could just get my wife to sign off on such a structure....
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