Other Birds, "Well, not really birds"

[Fred Kaluza~MI]

More like "Bats". I know lots of people who have either made or bought Bat Houses. The kind with multiple "baffles" inside to provide snug little partitions for the bats to nestle together. The instructions say to paint the box flat black and position it somewhere where it gets early to mid-morning sun so like SE to S? Apparently Bats like it pretty warm. Even though I see the occasional "Little Brown Bat" flitting around at dusk in the Summer, my question is...Has anyone in the Midwest ever been sucessful in getting a Bat colony started in one of these commercial houses? Seems the only folks around here with Bats have them in their attics! Maybe it's time for a better Bat-House design?

[CUL Lou~Mich]

Fred. A couple of things. I don't personally know of anyone who has started a colony in man made housing, except like you, in folks attics. I've had a couple bat houses for several years, and only get an occasional visitor to them. Probably males, since they are loners. The thing is this. If somone blocks them out of their attic, then my bat housing is in place for them to move into. As for a better design. Perhaps you could go to http://www.batcon.org and see what they have to offer. They have been for years, and presumably still are doing tests on new designs. You could also pick up the booklet "The bat house builders handbook" which has some of the newer designs, and probably links to some of the testing being done. I just looked through my Bats book (Which one gets along with membership) and I see they are trying out cement houses now, to try to get bats into them to counter act the loss of big, old trees, which are getting cut down. The reason the bats like their housing plenty warm, is because most colonies are female. They have their babies in them, and since they do NOT build any nest, they need to have plenty of heat for the babies, which are born hairless. So here in Michigan, yes, they need to be facing East, SE, or South, for solar heat. They should also be painted black, so as to attract more solar heat. Good Luck on trying to attract them. Oh ya, a membership might be good, since that helps Bat Conservation International with their continuing studies, and protecting the Bats. CUL Lou