It is April 16, where are your birdhouses?

[reible]

Here in IL it is starting to be birdhouse season. Well it is for me anyway.

Last fall I took the houses down and cleaned them out. Let them set over winter and finally got at doing some repairs and repainting as needed.

We have a small lot so I have only 8 birdhouses I put up (soon to be 9 or 10). I don't take them down every year and I don't repair them every year but it was time this year.

One of the houses, a natural cedar house was taken over by honey bees one year and then a year later a squirrel decided to try and make it a home.... it was way to small no matter how large of a hole they chewed. Not really sure what they thought they were doing but it needed a new front this spring.

Here is a picture of the house with the 1-1/8" hole it should have and along side the old front that had been enlarged. I have an almost identical house that has been up just as long but nothing has damaged it so I don't know what was so special about this one??

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At this point only two houses are up. The remainder are painted ones and that took more effort. Two coats of finish after repairs and priming of damaged areas. I went with St. James Yellow and white, the same combination I have used in the past. They were out drying on the front steps so I took a picture so you can see what they look like all fresh and ready to put back up.

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I'd like to add two more houses this spring but so far I've had trouble finding the time to work on them. Always so much to do in the spring.

So the question stands, where are your birdhouses?

Ed

[Gene Howe]

Seems that we don't have any birds that like houses...except the Swallows and they construct their own.
We do provide ample shelter in the form of Verbina(sp) and other large, bushy tree like plants. The wrens love them.
We feed them all, though.

[STB]

Do Bird feeders count?

In progress a Band Saw bird feeder. Considering it almost never rains here (Mohave desert) I should probably use some sort of exterior glue to fasten the ends or maybe just a couple of brads. I would think A bandsaw Bird house could be made this same way.
The last picture is some yard art bird houses made over the years.

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