Building Bat Houses

[dbsam]

My husband and I are helping our children’s class build bat houses.  The teacher prefers the children do most/all of the construction, but we are going to precut the wood – I am fine with them using drills but power saws with a bunch of 6-9yo’s scare me!  (one on one w/b fine; it is a class of 37)  We will probably start the drill holes for them.  Anyway, we’ve read a bunch of sites with plans, info on why bat houses fail, http://www.batmanagement.com/Batcentral/batboxes/whyfail.html  

But any advice from someone who has built a successful bat house would be appreciated.

I believe it w/b best to build the houses out of cedar, but the cost savings led my husband to purchase plywood.  I am hoping the stain will help the boxes hold up in the weather.  (Yes...6-9 yo’s using black stain – I need to find some small latex gloves and cover ups.)

We are building 3 or 4 three-chamber houses to hang at the school and will be using this plan.  http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Plants_Wildlife/bats/pdfs/pasmbatboxplan.pdf

TIA

edited to add...advice from anyone who has done a construction project in a lower elementary classroom w/b appreciated too!

I had trouble inserting the links...hope they work.

Edited by dbsam - 11/1/11 at 8:48am

[dbsam]

I'm updating my own thread in case anyone else is interested in building bat houses with a class, scouting troop, etc.  (or at home...we are going to build one for our house too.)

We made the houses using the plans linked above.  They turned out really well and the children enjoyed doing it.  Hopefully we can get them all hung before the weather turns bad...and the bats will move in this spring.

[FarmerBeth]

My older two kids are in an outdoor leadership (think trails plus community involvement) program and last year the group went to the municipality and got funding for birdhouses (which they built) for the parks.  Interest in bat houses came up, too.  I'll take a look at the plans and pass them on to the group.  I think they'll love it!

[dbsam]

Originally Posted by FarmerBeth 

My older two kids are in an outdoor leadership (think trails plus community involvement) program

I wish we had a co-ed group like that around here.  My son is in Cub Scouts (I do not care for the organization and some of their beliefs.  I did not want to support them but his leader is great and they have done a lot of nice things so far.)  My daughter is in Girl Scouts and she and I are really disappointed.  I was in GS until HS but this troop is not active in a way we would like.  (The meetings consist of worksheets, a craft and singing a song.  The 'field trips' are not very good either.  Nothing outdoors and no community service.  She wants to join the boy scouts!  Luckily the BS allow her to tag along.)

Anyway, your children's group sounds like something we would like.  I hope they get to build the bat houses.  After researching this project, I have a newfound appreciation for bats. 

[FarmerBeth]

Originally Posted by dbsam 

I wish we had a co-ed group like that around here.

Do you have a 4-H in your area?  They can vary a lot from club to club, depending on who the leader is, but public speaking and community involvement of some sort tend to be common to all. And they are co-ed.  It's good your daughter's getting to join Boy Scouts as the Girl Scouts isn't suiting.

The outdoor leadership program is a spring and summer one.  I'll post later and let you know how the bat house idea goes over.