When I was building my shed a few years ago I briefly thought that the gables would be a perfect spot to place a bat box. At the time I assumed bats were not that common where I lived. We're in the city on the coast of Canada and I had never seen any evidence of bats in our area. This changed last year when I was in my living room watching TV. Something fluttered in from outside and at first I thought it was just a fly, then it seemed bigger and I assumed a butterfly. Things got dicy as it got closer as it was now more bird sized but flying in a rather erratic matter. It was a bat! My gable and local wildlife were now coming together for my next project.
I am not a bat expert and I only just built this so I have no idea if it will be successful or not. I got the basic design from www.bcbats.ca. I took two of their plans to come up with my own design. My criteria were
1) I wanted it to have chance for success so bigger than a single chamber.
2) I didn't want it too big.
3) It was going to be installed on my shed so I wanted the back piece to help with the install in a way that would not damage my siding.
4) I am a woodworker so I wanted there to be slightly more craftsmanship than some of the plans I was finding online.
The back piece is about 38 inches long by 18 inches wide. This allowed for a roosting space of about 18 by 24 plus the top triangle bit for attaching at the eaves where I have some trim that I can easily patch if I remove it. It also allowed for a landing strip of a little over 4 inches at the bottom. The back piece is 1/2 inch plywood and I had a scrap piece of 3/4 inch plywood for the front. The interior slats are 3/8 and the sides are made out of 2x6s. I felt I would end up with a much longer lasting product if I did 2x6 with dadoes. I also dadoed the back piece where the roof attaches. This should help make it more waterproof.
I cut grooves in the bottom landing strip as well as the first couple inches of all the partitions and front piece. All areas are 7/8 inch wide. I figure once the bat gets in the tiny space they need less grip. It's all rough saw plywood so they can shimmy. I also included some holes in the top of the partitions so they can move between chambers. I was lucky enough to have some charcoal coloured paint from a previous project so it heats up in the sun. The last item was the most important part. The bat signal. How else will the bats know it's intended for them? The whole project took about 4 hours from start to finish. Looking forward to shining a flashlight inside during the day and seeing beady little eyes.
