Good [insert whatever your local time of day is]!
Does anyone have any experience to share with the Barn Owl boxes sold by, e.g., barnowlbox[.]com (or similar sites)? Are they safe for the owls and sturdy? Would the pole-mount option actually be suitable? To someone like me at first glance they seem decent enough, but I don’t know what I don’t know.
Alternatively, if I was going to build one myself, what would be a safe, long-lasting material? I assume treated lumber is out of the question since it’s chemically adulterated, but what about composite “lumber”, cedar, or something else? This probably wouldn’t be my first choice since I’m not super good at building things.
Thanks in advance for any insight!
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This is what my state’s game commission recommends. (US, Pennsylvania)
Barn Owl Trust in the UK offers all this guidance.
If you need more specific info, let me know. If you provide me a general location, that may let me give you geographically specific advice also.
Thanks! I sent you some info. The UK Barn Owl Trust is a great resource (and also has some pretty great owl cams!)
The pole mounted boxes are 100% suitable. Can’t say if that brand is good or not though.
What they primarily require is a dry roost as wet wings are very bad for silent forging. They tolerate human activity, including roosts in houses, so no need to exclude buildings as an option. Just keep them away from public roads unless very rural!
For nesting, a minimum 70x70cm floor space which chicks can’t fall out from is ideal - the floor can be well over 1m lower from the entrance so no max wall height. Entrances can be as small as 7x7cm, but wider better.
Re material, any will do short term, but long life is obviously ideal, especially as they have high fidelity to roosts, and old roosts will be favoured by new individuals even if unrelated to the last inhabitants. Marine ply would probably be easiest for a self a build - cedar is great but heavier. Remember you’ll need to lift the box up high and mount it!
(I’m currently studying the UK bat owl trust course BTW!)
Thank you! I was exploring the pole mount options as our building mount options are a bit limited by roads, which, as you mentioned, should definitely be avoided. I had also been reading about their nesting habits and seeing that barn owls often use a nest box for a long time, so that was some of my impetus for wanting something that would last them a good long while.
I checked out the Barn Owl Trust and there was a lot of great info there - thank you again and best of luck to you in the course!
Thanks & you’re welcome! Sounds like you’ve done some good research already. Hope you can attract some owls with whatever option you choose.
Haha well if it sounds that way it’s only because I got tons of great info from you, the resources at the UK Barn Owl Trust you mentioned (which is an absolute trove of info), and our friend anon6789 here!
Rest assured if I can get a little owl family to move in, this will be the place I post it!
That is awesome you are learning from them. Their site has so much great stuff on it, I can only imagine all the extra things you will learn from their courses.
What are you planning to do with your owl knowledge?
I’m a consultant ecologist by profession so it will mostly be put to use for work (planning/renovations/new builds). It’s another string to my bow of knowledge!
The course is very good, what I’ve done so far, & is designed to cover pretty much everything Barn owl! I have a great big book to go with it too!
Oh wow, that sounds like a very important job! I hear about projects that run into issues due to specific animals or ecosystems being where they want to be, so now I know who those people are. 🙂
The course sounds really exciting. Those guys give away so much info on their site as it is, I may have to look into grabbing that book. I would think there would still be tons of great info in it even if I’m not in England.
Best of luck to you doing your part for nature, and if you learn anything exciting, be sure to share!
