Interest in a squirrel house build?

reible · Post by **reible** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 5:26 pm

It sounds like enough positive postings to take the time to photograph and document this project.

Rather then call it a squirrel house we can go by the official designation of this as a "Nest Box 10". That might keep a few of you happier, right?

Though you might like to see this which on my way to my back 40 (feet).

[ATTACH]16798[/ATTACH]

We are number 34876, no idea what the current #'s are like, this is from 2003.

Ed

reible · Post by **reible** » Thu May 16, 2013 8:14 pm

If you did brave the wild kingdom and build a squirrel house or a bat house that is attached by lag bolts to a living tree I wanted to remind you that it would be a good idea to loosen the bolts a bit to account for radial growth of the tree.

I just finished doing that and clearing way some branches that were blocking our view.

It seems we have a young one moving in the last short while. It seems to like to lay on the roof in the early evening. Later before bed time likes to hang out in the door way.

See pictures below.

[ATTACH]21384[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]21385[/ATTACH]

Ed

tomp · Post by **tomp** » Fri May 17, 2013 12:55 am

Looks very much like the Flicker house I built, and is now the domain of a squirrel.

Tom

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Fri May 17, 2013 1:47 am

Well, the wood house wouldn't do much good for our squirrels. They are Mojave ground squirrels. They live in holes in the ground, but spend a lot of time in the tumble weeds (Russian thistles) foraging for food.

Lately they have found the leftover fallen bird seed from our backyard feeder. I put an old birdbath beneath the feeder to catch the seed the birds knock out while picking out the ones they want. Seems the birds - mostly sparrows and house finches don't like wheat seed very well. So the squirrels and the California quail and doves eat out of the birdbath and also scratch in the ground to pick up more.

All that digging helps so we don't have a small wheat field growing next to the house. Go to it little guys!!!

Ed in Tampa · Post by **Ed in Tampa** » Fri May 17, 2013 10:40 am

reible wrote:If you did brave the wild kingdom and build a squirrel house or a bat house that is attached by lag bolts to a living tree I wanted to remind you that it would be a good idea to loosen the bolts a bit to account for radial growth of the tree.

I just finished doing that and clearing way some branches that were blocking our view.

It seems we have a young one moving in the last short while. It seems to like to lay on the roof in the early evening. Later before bed time likes to hang out in the door way.

See pictures below.

[ATTACH]21384[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]21385[/ATTACH]

Ed

Momma get my gun there is one of them there fuzzy tail rats laying atop the bird house!

frank81 · Post by **frank81** » Fri May 17, 2013 12:30 pm

reible wrote:If you did brave the wild kingdom and build a squirrel house or a bat house that is attached by lag bolts to a living tree

A tip if you're using this as a bat house...they need to get about half the days sunshine to regulate temps where the bats like them so the recommendation is to mount them on a pole (12 ft or higher) rather than in a shady tree. I don't pretend to know much about that sort of thing, a friend of mine is a state biologist who works on most of the bat projects around here and the topic came up.

Road Dawg · Post by **Road Dawg** » Fri May 17, 2013 9:52 pm

We put up a bat house two years ago and haven't seen any bats in northern Illinois because of the white powder disease that has literally been decimating the bat population in our parts. We still have plenty of brown and gray squirrels though. I'll check out Ed's squirrel house - we enjoy watching them.