I am presently a Purple martin landlord and going to try to establish a bat colony for the second time. My first unseccessful try was with a store bought bat house attached to the rear of my house. No occupants after 4 years. Now I've built a 3 chamber house 21" W x 26" H x 3/4" cervices inside dimensions.
I want to mount this box similar to my gourd racks -- On a 1 1/2" diameter 21 foot length of steel pipe and use a brake winch to raise and lower to monitor and maintain it. I do get some sway when the winds blow on the gourd racks. Will the movement bother the bats? I'm all geared up with whole saws and material to use the 1 1/2 dia. pipe and 2" PVC for the slide.
Little brown bats are around. I've had them stay behind a piece of OSB board leaning up against our outside wall under our deck last fall and this spring . Also had a cute little fellow stay a few nights in a PVC Gilbertson Blue Bird house late last fall.
IowaNate Thanks for your welcome message. Great area along the Ceder River. You probably have handled your share of the pipe I use for my gourd racks. 3 racks with 24 gourds each houses a lot of Martins. I'd like to help the bats as well.
Is there a spell check button on this message board?
Rich
Last edited on Sat May 17th, 2008 01:56 pm by Richathome
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on the far upper right of the post/reply box. It will not appear for other browsers. Bat houses have been successful on poles but anything you can do to minimize sway is helpful especially on smaller diameter poles. Here are some specific tips for bat house mounting on poles: 
