Hex bird house

[Ron Altier]

 My wife suggested that I replace some of the sun/hail damaged bird houses. I like to make them out of cedar fencing boards. However, I am stuck at home and must use what I have. I had one nice Pine board and decided to make it a little more complex to make the project last longer. So I made each as a hex house. I cut the boards to length, cut them thru the center lengthwise and ended up with enough pieces to make 2 houses. I have the house bodies assembled and glued with waterproof glue.  The bottoms and tops are removable, as you must clean out each year. I checked a web site that gave hole size and they recommended air holes for ventilation, so I left cracks. If I bored holes, the wasps get in and kill the birds. Happens every year.

I lined the top with nonstick oven parchment paper so the wasps nests won't stick and I put some vaseline down the top sides about an inch also. Now the problem, The wood that I was going to turn the roofs with is gone. Either some thief came in and got them or I've used them. Oh, I'll find something. Even if I have to use the neighbor fence

Edited March 27, 2020 by Ron Altier
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[Cal]

Those are pretty cool Ron.  What type of bird are you hoping will nest in them?

 

[lew]

Cool! I read someplace about putting perches on the birdhouse. It said some birds don't like them and predators use them to their advantage. Not sure if that's really true.

[Gene Howe]

I've seen hawks rob Purple Martin nests of eggs and/ newly hatched birds. They use the little perch. 

[Smallpatch]

Lew I think I agree..

also here the eastern starling lays eggs in a sparrows nest and leaves all the next phase to the sparrows to raise the young. None of our nest we build has perches installed.  20 years ago yes we did add them but someone chewed the perches off.... I didn't sit out there and try to see who did it so I always had my opinions.

  One way to keep the starlings out was to put smaller holes. 

Ron, I would suggest putting different size holes and put the boxes close where you can keep an eye ball on them and see what's happening.

  When we first moved here 21 years ago I think?? I bought and installed the 12 room two story plastic houses way up on long poles and for years we had lots of Martins during the early summer months but they like to leave and go back south when it starts getting real hot so that ticked me off but the swallows stay till it starts freezing before they leave and the only place they build nest is under my dock.... Every where!!!!!!! and all that poop we have to clean up but hey, they do help by eating lots of mosquitoes so I think it is worth the extra time we have to spend cleaning....

  If a person was to buy a metal break from HF and then buy a roll of flashing from HD one could build the same 12 room martin houses.  I built one back when I saw the plastic would not last and that house is still as good as the day I put it up there....Its the one I put on a break over pole so I could take the bolt out and using a rope let it down and clean it out and get it ready for the next year...Texas A&M put out a good book about how to take care of the houses and to cover them up after the Martins leave so other birds would not use them.... because if you don't cover the holes then when the male Martin shows up in the early spring he will have to fight who ever is using the hole he used last year... A and M says the Martins uses the same house and the same hole every year...

 All it takes for Martins to start staying at your place is having a small lake or stream, have lots of trees and shrubs to harbor mosquitoes and insects and have the house as high as you can get it and have a good clear exit for when the young birds jump out of the next the very first time. No obstructions for their free fall might go all the way close to the ground before they flap their wings to take flight.

  They do prefer metal over wood for the metal does not hold an odor like wood does and if all a person only has wood to use then dig a hole and bury the wood pieces for a few days to remove the odor....And its best to cut all the pieces first to size!!!.. I did have only one of the eight houses no Martins ever used and it had lots of bushes and growth under the house so I do agree with having a good clean drop- way instead of a run-of a run way!!!  It happened to be on a short, 10 foot wood pole and in about 5 years something rotted and the house feel to the ground and smashed to pieces..

  I can't lower the break away house anymore for two oaks have grown too much to even try...I didn't proof read this so I do hope it is understandable...

[Smallpatch]

Lew none of the martin houses has perches or holes for perches on the ones for sale for Purple Martins. 

[Smallpatch]

They do have a railing but I think that is for strength since the metal is so thin I I guess the floor outside the nest could be used by hawks....In all the years we have had the houses in the air all 96 nest we have never seen hawks flying around the houses.....they do come to the yard and catch rodents and things on the ground like kittens...

[Smallpatch]

Also thinking about your area there is probably not near as much for hawks to choose for food as where we live. So yes I have heard of eagles trying to haul off very young kids...  

[Ron Altier]

We get alot of Finches, Chickadees and Wrens. I made the holes 1-1/8 ". As for the perch, I've made about 5 or 6 houses using this size hole and with a perch. All the small birds actively use it. My biggest problem by far is the wasps that will occupy and actually kill these small birds. Next is the sun and hail damage. Hail as big as a tennis ball can wreck them.

I also have to make air vent holes/cracks or it would cook them inside. The openings can't be big enough to allow wasps in. When I open them in the fall to clean them out, I've found dead birds and big active wasp nests.

I did solve that problem with some very thin teflon sheets installed on the inside of the roof. However a friend suggested that I use cooking parchment paper because it is so slick. That is what I installed this time. We have a variety of bird of prey here too, Owls and hawks (from small to OMG) There are times when my wife gets the dog in for fear he may look like some big birds lunch.

[Smallpatch]

Ron the strangest thing we have had with wasp, we were in Las Vegas about 1996 and in one of the mauls, all the large casinos have their own large maul with very high class stores, and the only thing we ever bought in any of the stores were lanterns?? they were putting some things on special as we walked in and it so happened we had been looking for a bunch of coal oil lanterns to hang out at the go-cart track to experiment with citronella and coal oil and hopefully this mixture would burn and run off the mosquities and they had about 20 lanterns for like 3.95 so I bought all of them. Long story shorter, we used about ten of the lanterns with the mixture and yes and no for it might have run some insects off but not all …..anyway when we moved here the rest of the lanterns got here somehow so we hung them  under the covered decks only this time I didn't put any oil in them and they hung there for looks....so in the late fall when it is starting to get cold the wasp are looking for a place to go and they start filling up the lanterns and you can see the pile getting deeper and deeper inside the lanterns. They crawl in the little vent holes then can't find their way out? I guess. Or I think that is what happens. I could sure make lots of money if I could just find some one looking to buy dead wasp..

  I never did figure out why a high class store like that had those lanterns in the first place??? Wife said they were used in their decorations with nothing inside the tanks!!!

[Ron Altier]

Never heard of that happening before. No only a great decoration, but a bee trap too!

[Gunny]

I had them in my BBQ grill when I returned from Iraq.  Turned on the gas and torched them, extra crispy.

[FrederickH]

Here's some photos of the birdhouse that I have around our house. There are mostly wrens that us them.... 5 out of 10 always have birds. I made them from some old treated lumber scrapes that I have and, as you can see, the squirrels don't like to chew on them much. The other photo is my old mailbox cover that I converted into a birdhouse. The front panel was white pine, with a wire mesh inside for the babies to crawl up and out. The squirrels love it. I've placed rat traps up on the fencing and have failed to catch even one.

 

Speaking of wasps, we have carpenter bees that will drill into my white pine boards that are stickered outside. I'll post a photo of the jar traps that I have for them later.

 

[lew]

34 minutes ago, FrederickH said:

Here's some photos of the birdhouse that I have around our house. There are mostly wrens that us them.... 5 out of 10 always have birds. I made them from some old treated lumber scrapes that I have and, as you can see, the squirrels don't like to chew on them much. The other photo is my old mailbox cover that I converted into a birdhouse. The front panel was white pine, with a wire mesh inside for the babies to crawl up and out. The squirrels love it. I've placed rat traps up on the fencing and have failed to catch even one.

 

Speaking of wasps, we have carpenter bees that will drill into my white pine boards that are stickered outside. I'll post a photo of the jar traps that I have for them later.

 

That's a cool idea about the wire mesh. 

[Ron Altier]

"Speaking of wasps, we have carpenter bees that will drill into my white pine boards that are stickered outside. I'll post a photo of the jar traps that I have for them later."

 

I had those darn carpenter bees a lot in Ohio. They would ONLY eat unfinished boards. It it is painted, varnished, stained........they would not eat at it.

[p_toad]

I guess you're lucky.   around here the carpenter bees go up into almost any kind of wood no matter the finish.   They selected some of the trim around my garage that was covered in a near-black stain/varnish mixture and made nice perfect little round holes.   Some carb cleaner stopped that nonsense.

[FrederickH]

Every spring I have carpenter bees chewing into the ends/bottoms of my white pine boards that are stickered in the backyard. They leave a 3/8" hole, that leads to horizontal burrow in the wood. I've cut some of these boards a year later and have found live bees.

My wife and I were having lunch at Potomac Grille in Harpers Ferry WV and I spotted these jars hanging from the outside rafters of the deck area. Upon inquiring what they were used for, the server said for the capture of carpenter bees. They(bees) see the hole, crawl in, and then into the glass jar, where they don't escape. On a good day, in the spring, the server said that they have to empty the jars at least once!

Is anyone one here familiar with such a trap? I've gone ahead and have made three of these to try out this idea? Here's a photo of my lumber storage area and one of the traps that I've made. Last year, I had moderate success at capturing the bees but I feel guilty about killing these beautiful insects.

Edited April 1, 2020 by FrederickH

[Cal]

Frederick, is that a pressure treated piece of 4x4?  If it is, I am not sure they would be attracted to it.  I've never had them bore into pt lumber.

[FrederickH]

59 minutes ago, Cal said:

Frederick, is that a pressure treated piece of 4x4?  If it is, I am not sure they would be attracted to it.  I've never had them bore into pt lumber.

Yes, the idea is for them to think that the drilled hole is one that they made, and to crawl up into it, then down to the jar...... where they don't escape. Do you think that the treated wood is keeping them away?

[Gerald]

6 hours ago, Cal said:

Frederick, is that a pressure treated piece of 4x4?  If it is, I am not sure they would be attracted to it.  I've never had them bore into pt lumber.

Yes they will bore PT lumber. I have two fence posts PT 4 x 4 that they just love . I get out with a fly swat and get most . Plug holes with either cotton or a dowel after spraying with carpenter bee killer, yes that is the only thing I have found that works.