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I got to thinking of just when it was that I put up my squirrel house, turns out it was back in 2004. The plans were in a guide that the great state of IL put out and I picked up for free at a state park literature rack. Happens to great source for bird house as well. I think it may be online somewhere as well so if and when I get the time I dig it out for the actual name and search for it if someone is interested.

This tree is near the property line of our back 40 (feet). The house was lag bolted to the tree and you have to keep loosening the bolts as the tree grows, might be a better way to do this but I'm not sure what it is. The hole should face the east or direction of least wind. Top is hinged so it can be cleaned out. Gray paint to make it sort of blend in. Used a vertical distance of about 17' but directions said it should have been higher.

This is a picture just after I got it up:

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Here are a few shots of the second "batch" what we figured were a male and a female based on what we had read about how young males come out first and leave the nest first etc. You don't get to see the young ones until they are like 90% grown so when you first start watching them it takes a while to be able to identify the young from the adults. Soon you can notice the size difference even if they are not together and then there is behavior differences that clearly lets you know which you are watching.

Let me say the photos here are not very high quality and were done with a less expensive camera using a monocular (half a pair of binoculars) by holding the camera lens to the eye piece then attempting to keep it all together while finding the subject...

They first appear at the hole and just look out.

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For the first 7 to 10 days after they are out of the nest they come out and sit and play on the roof.

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This is also when the tingling teeth find things to chew, note by the door and now working on the back board.

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Note that the back is starting to show some wear from the chewing. I think this is the beaver showing up in them. If you make a box and want to keep that damage down you can wire on some branches to slow down the effects. Door way get the brunt if it as it is easier to access as nest bound babies.

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So again if anyone decides to make a squirrel box and wants plans let me know and I do the digging to find the infomation.

Ed

Ok, baby squirrels are fun.
We adopted a few over the years and bottle fed them....


just a baby on puppy formula!


They love to be scratched under the chin

Al B

Thanks for sharing the pictures!

When they are so small they seem to be all feet, I guess they need to develop them early to survive in a tree environment.

Ed

The pictures of the baby squirrels reminded me of my daughter and her husband and the baby squirrel they rescued and raised. Somewhere in the time they had the squirrel my daughter apparently did something to the squirrel that the squirrel never forgave her for.

When the squirrel nearly fully grown my son in law could do almost anything to the squirrel and squirrel seemed to love it. They were buddies. But if my daughter walked into the same room the squirrel would go nuts. It became a raving maniac.

I kept pestering my daughter to tell me what she did to the squirrel and she said all she can remember was once when it still small she was putting it back into the cage and its tail got pinched in the door.

She said it happened quick and she didn't think the little guy even noticed.
In any case this squirrel hated her.

They decided it was old enough to fend for itself so they went out to release it. The minute they open the door of the cage it charged my daughter ran her back into the house and then turned went over to my son in law and after a few minutes climbed a tree and was gone.

I don't know how smart squirrels are but they have a memory and if you pinch their tail they probably will never forgive you.

Great story Ed, thanks for sharing it with us!

Squirrels do seem to have a good memory for somethings. Finding acorns that they have buried is perhaps not one of them. The closest oak tree we have around are blocks away in a local park. I picked up about a dozen acorns and brought them back to our place and left them for the squirrels to find. They were soon gone.

Since then 8 oak trees have popped up, none of them near where I had left the acorns. I believe the squirrels planted them for us or just maybe they forgot where they had stuck them??? To bad they didn't ask me where I wanted them...

Ed

I decided rather then loose the plans for the squirrel house in this thread I would open another with the details of how to get them, and the birdhouse plans as well.

https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=9348

I know that no one has ask for them but perhaps someone in the future will find this thread and wonder about the plans.

Ed

Who is the guy that puts you squirrel houses up in the trees? You would not catch me climbing that high.

Speaking of climbing up high. My father in law has a light post for his garage and drive way. It is about 30+ feet up. I asked how he changed the bulb. Remember he is 80+, well he handed me a picture. It was him with his tractor. He put a fully extended extension ladder in the bucket on his tractor then raised the bucket as high as it would go. Then he climbed up in the bucket and got on the ladder and climbed up and changed the light. All I could do was shake my head. I for one would not have crawled up in the bucket let alone on up the ladder.

Ain't no light bulb that important to me!

I have to say I'm the one who did it. However I would not be the one changing that light bulb you mentioned.

I have a 28 foot extension step ladder and use that to access the roof on the house but I no longer do that. I do clean the gutters which are more in line with the height of the squirrel house.

To get the squirrel house up I set the ladder against the tree then extend to the place where it is going to be mounted. Move the ladder so a branch helps it from tipping, check the angle of the ladder then go up and tie it to the branch then to the top where I might or might not tie it again.

The house is not too heavy, made for a 1" x 12" x 12' pine board but none the less I rope it and pull it up into the tree rather then try to carry it up the ladder. Use the rope to position the house then screw in the lag bolts with a ratchet wrench. You need to reverse this to clean the house, or at least that is the way I do it, mostly due to insect issues. I bag it and then take it down and clean/repair.

You also need to loose the lag bolts to accommodate the trees growth over time.

Ed

Ed in Tampa, thanks for a wonderful and entertaining squirrel story.

One thing that an acquaintance near here does, is to have poles about 20' to 25' and before he sunk part of it in the ground, he put a pully on or near the top. He can raise and lower his lights and bird houses. I suppose to replace the rope, he could tie it on and pull it through the pulley on top. I don't know how the pulley gets maintenance. Maybe, he takes up the pole to do that. Will ask.