I recently cleaned out bird houses and started monitoring them for the year. It has been very cold, with some late snowfalls, so I have not had to start monitoring until now. In a normal year, the blue birds would be back around March 31st. It is important you monitor your houses every week so that you can address any problems right away. Top-opening nest boxes make monitoring easy. Checking the boxes will not cause the birds to leave as some people believe. I have found using 1/2" EMT conduit for poles works the best. Cut one 10-ft. piece of conduit in half and you have 2 poles that are just the right height. Next, cut a 10-ft. piece of 1/2" rebar in half and drive it in the ground and slide the conduit over the rebar and use a conduit coupling to secure the conduit to the rebar. I weld a small flag on the rebar to keep the whole thing from spinning. This setup is easy to put up and is relatively predator proof. You can wax the pole with car wax to make it harder for predators to climb the pole. You will want to put screw in the back of the bird house so it doesn't slide down the pole, secure the house to the pole with 2-hole conduit straps. Mount your houses in open areas, with at least 100 yards between houses. Happy birding!
 |
| Front view of the nest box |
 |
| Rear view of the nest box, mounted to conduit. |
 |
| Rebar with flag welded to it. |
 |
| Coupling on bottom of conduit. I added a longer screw to the coupling to get a better grip on the rebar. |
