Raising the Bat House
Yesterday was a good day. We were able to help our neighbor raise a bat house in his backyard. I’m all for that, more bats means less bugs. This particular style house is a rocket box and you can find the plans to build your own at: Rocket Box Bat House Plans.
First, the bat house had been mounted on a 16x4x4 pressure treated post.
A 3′ hole was dug where the house was to be located.
Some cement mix and water was poured in the hole before the 4×4 mounting post would go in it.
The bat house was raised! Yippie!
Temporary braces were nailed to the post to keep the house level while the cement dries. The base of the mounting post had been set in a thick plastic trash bag to help keep it dry. This is not mandatory.
Before securing the braces, the men checked to make certain the post was straight.
With the post level, the men then filled the rest of the hole with cement mix and water.
All straight and braced.
After a few days the support braces will be removed and the plastic trash bag trimmed to ground level.
A job well done.
More Information:
For installing a bat house and bat house placement, please visit the experts at Bat Conservation International.
For questions about bats in general, please join the Bat House Forums. The bat community is a small one but here I have found very experienced bat hosts. It’s a very friendly group and all of my questions have been answered by people who have been doing this a long time.
Delightful! Bats need our help, right about now. I’ll be checking out the bat house plans.
I am loving the look of this style house, and it’s been very successful with the fish & game dept tests. My only question is cleaning wasp nests out of it but we shall see. Bats are in trouble. I’m concerned about how many return from hibernation this year. Been watching.
wow I just love anything to do with bats – your new home for them looks so impressive – I hope it doesn’t take too long for word on the street to get out about a new place being available for lodgings.
Awesome! I haven’t seen the ‘rocket-box’ style before. We have oodles of bats here, and I love to sit out right at dusk and watch them zipping around. With two creeks that get quite low in early summer, they have plenty of mosquitos to eat…so the more bats here the better. I hope this new house has some tenants soon!
The rocket box house is amazing! How lucky your neighbors are to have you (..and the bats, too)!
I’m really surprised you need only a 3′ hole to support such a tall post.
Guess what a friend recently gifted to my family? Yes, a bat house. I’m still trying to figure out where to put it… more reading required.
I have a really unusual photo of bats on the photo section of the bat forum. Take a look if you like. It is the same bat house of the previous photo I sent you some time ago. This one was taken summer of 2010. I would have emailed it to you but have a new computer after my previous one crashed the hard drive. I lost a lot of info.
Frank in Lithia springs