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BatMan
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| Joined: | Wed Jul 28th, 2004 |
| Location: | Florida USA |
| Posts: | 129 |
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Posted: Thu Apr 12th, 2007 10:37 pm |
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Terry,
Your talking about the 10 chambered house right ? I used 3/8'' plywood on the baffles and 1/2'' on the exterior. If your talkin' about the 4 chambered rocket I used 1x's
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BatMan
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| Joined: | Wed Jul 28th, 2004 |
| Location: | Florida USA |
| Posts: | 129 |
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Posted: Wed Jun 6th, 2007 12:38 am |
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Update-
I have made some minor changes to this mega rocket. I didn't like how the seams looked on the exterior so I used some 3/8" plywood on the exterior. I hope to get it up this weekend and I'll post the pics of it.
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Joe Spencer
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| Joined: | Mon Feb 11th, 2002 |
| Location: | Massachusetts USA |
| Posts: | 481 |
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Posted: Wed Jun 6th, 2007 12:49 am |
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Great! We'll look forward to them. Thanks 
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BatMan
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| Joined: | Wed Jul 28th, 2004 |
| Location: | Florida USA |
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Posted: Mon Jun 18th, 2007 11:13 pm |
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Here they are. It took a little longer because the first 16' 4x4 snapped about 3' up from the bottom when I was erecting it. It had a knot in it that took up a third of 4x4. A very weak point, glad I found it before it was in the ground.
http://home.comcast.net/~mh701/wsb/html/view.cgi-photos.html-.html
Last edited on Mon Jun 18th, 2007 11:15 pm by BatMan
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Joe Spencer
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Posted: Tue Jun 19th, 2007 07:55 pm |
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Fantastic! Now that's well done! Looking forward to photos after erection should you provide them. We'll keep our fingers crossed for Floridian occupancy.
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BatMan
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| Joined: | Wed Jul 28th, 2004 |
| Location: | Florida USA |
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Posted: Tue Jun 19th, 2007 09:54 pm |
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| Thanks Joe, There are photos after I put it up, you just have to click through all of them.
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Joe Spencer
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Posted: Fri Jun 22nd, 2007 02:59 am |
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| Ah thanks for bringing the oversight to my attention. Really nice work! I like the vent in the attic. Are you planning any temperature monitoring? Do all dividers/chambers meet at the roof top creating separate and slightly different temperature regions? Thanks again!
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BatMan
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| Joined: | Wed Jul 28th, 2004 |
| Location: | Florida USA |
| Posts: | 129 |
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Posted: Sat Jun 23rd, 2007 09:38 pm |
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There is an interior roof, all the chambers stop there. I have drilled (12-each chamber)1/4" holes in the interior roof in the 3 outer chambers, so they are vented up into the attic and then out the roof vent. Should be plenty of ventilation.
I didn't install the temp probe in this one, so for now no monitoring. But if I do get inhabitants it will be extremely easy to install one.
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BatMan
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| Joined: | Wed Jul 28th, 2004 |
| Location: | Florida USA |
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Posted: Sat Dec 1st, 2007 01:17 am |
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I just went out for the hell of it to check my houses in the back yard here in NE Florida and I finally (after years of building and experimenting) have 4 bats in my mega rocket . They looked extremely small, maybe Evening bats. I'm going to start researching to see if I can figure out what species they are.
They are in the house at 9:00PM and it's about 60 degrees currently, why would they be in the bat house right now ? Two of them are grouped together and the other two are separated but all are in the inner most chamber.
This is friggin' awesome, I finally have bats !
Last edited on Sat Dec 1st, 2007 02:48 am by BatMan
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Joe Spencer
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Posted: Sat Dec 1st, 2007 04:20 am |
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Fantastic! Your diligence and patience has paid off! I was optimistic that the adding of vents (for air flow) and multiple chambers might prove worthwhile. Can the bats change chambers internally utilizing the holes without having to go downward? Looking forward to your potential species confirmation. Maybe they're in the bat house in a small state of torpor. By placing something on the ground which can catch/monitor guano accumulation, you will be able to know whether they're actually feeding or are currently in a more torpid state. We'll look forward to your feedback and congratulations on your achievement!
"A common species found throughout the state is the evening bat. These dark-brown bats are small, making people think they are young when they come across them. Evening bats are found in temperate deciduous woodlands or mixed woodlands and open areas. Roosting preferences are tree hollows, especially in cypress trees, but they have adapted also to using manmade structures."
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BatMan
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Posted: Sun Dec 2nd, 2007 01:54 am |
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Thanks Joe.
I made 1.5" holes in every partition (all 4 sides ) so they can move freely around and through all chambers. There are also flagstone rocks under the house which I would assume would catch the guano but I have yet to see any significant amounts.
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BatMan
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| Joined: | Wed Jul 28th, 2004 |
| Location: | Florida USA |
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Posted: Sun Dec 2nd, 2007 10:15 pm |
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| They are active, I just saw 2 of them fly out at dusk. One is still in the house.
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IowaNate
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Posted: Mon Dec 3rd, 2007 02:11 am |
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Awesome that you have bats! Hopefully that mega rocket will support a fairly good sized colony. My first large houses were occupied by a few individuals at first, but within a month after first occupancy there was close to 25! By the time I replaced the houses (as you know from my former posts) one house had 250 bats. I don't know too much about bat activity in Florida this time of year, but bats in December has to be a great sign.
I will be looking forward to hearing about the bat counts in your house!
Happy bat housing!
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BatMan
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| Joined: | Wed Jul 28th, 2004 |
| Location: | Florida USA |
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Posted: Mon Dec 3rd, 2007 11:05 pm |
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Yeah, I can only hope more show up. Although my count is down already from 2 days ago, I'm only seeing three bats now. I hope they aren't migratory bats like the ones my parents got last year at this time, they stayed all winter and as soon as it started warming up they disappeared.
I'm finding myself wanting to constantly look up in the house, I have limited myself to doing that once a night and there's always one loner still in there. Is there a rule of thumb to how much you can disturb the bats with a small flashlight. I need to break down and buy another "bat cam" (first one is installed in 1 of my parents bat house)http://www.lonestarwoodcraft.com/camera.html and install it so I don't disturb them.
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IowaNate
Member
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Posted: Tue Dec 4th, 2007 01:28 am |
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| Batman, how far is the nearest source of open water from this rocket? And is it a pond, lake, stream, or river?
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