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birdhouses
- Thread starter keets
- Start date
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
Not sure if there is a big impact, but if I was building bird houses for species that are insect eaters I might not put those in my orchard area. Insects are necessary for good pollination.
Yes I think it would help the birds but it would also add to the enjoyment of the farm. A bluebird box or a tree swallow box that you can open to view the babies and watch the parents bringing in food is like listening to a bullfrog. I have put up dozens of boxes and most are used the first year if you do a little research on what the species likes. Kids love checking out the eggs and chicks, my bunch never gets tired of it. Birds are territorial so you would just need one box in the orchard and I think with one box there would be plenty of pollinators left, besides most fruit blooms before the chicks hatch and they are using the box. Do it
Telemark
5 year old buck +
I do the exact opposite. I kill big mature trees so hawks and owls have places to sit and hunt. I don't want birds or rodents in my orchard at all. I also fell old beech trees near my fruit trees to make the cavities unattractive to raccoons and cavity nesters.
Lots of birds eat insects, many of which are beneficial to fruit trees. Rodents like voles and mice like to burrow under mulch and snow and eat the bark off apple trees. Rabbits are very efficient tree killers too.
Woodpeckers will strip a cherry tree of fruit in a day. Thrushes and magpies eat my cherries and peck holes in my apples and knock them off the trees. They also eat my gooseberries and currants. And they love to do all this right before the fruit is ripe.
And don't forget the arch nemesis of fruit trees, the yellow-bellied sapsucker, is a cavity nester, so any birdhouse in an orchard would be a dream come true.
I did, however, build a few dozen birdhouses through the years and put them in the forests and grasslands to encourage more birds to live near the places I used to frequent. I might some day put up a few more bluebird houses with tar-treated roof boards to see if that might help me see more of them. The last few "birdhouses" I built were actually mallard tubes for the neighborhood and the local Hunting Association's terrain.
My indoor free time in winter is generally spent reading about hunting, habitat work, and guns and trying too find bargains online. Otherwise I'm in the garage cutting up pallets, cleaning up, and practicing welding.
Lots of birds eat insects, many of which are beneficial to fruit trees. Rodents like voles and mice like to burrow under mulch and snow and eat the bark off apple trees. Rabbits are very efficient tree killers too.
Woodpeckers will strip a cherry tree of fruit in a day. Thrushes and magpies eat my cherries and peck holes in my apples and knock them off the trees. They also eat my gooseberries and currants. And they love to do all this right before the fruit is ripe.
And don't forget the arch nemesis of fruit trees, the yellow-bellied sapsucker, is a cavity nester, so any birdhouse in an orchard would be a dream come true.
I did, however, build a few dozen birdhouses through the years and put them in the forests and grasslands to encourage more birds to live near the places I used to frequent. I might some day put up a few more bluebird houses with tar-treated roof boards to see if that might help me see more of them. The last few "birdhouses" I built were actually mallard tubes for the neighborhood and the local Hunting Association's terrain.
My indoor free time in winter is generally spent reading about hunting, habitat work, and guns and trying too find bargains online. Otherwise I'm in the garage cutting up pallets, cleaning up, and practicing welding.
Telemark
5 year old buck +
Oh I forgot about those viewing type birdhouses. I recently inherited one with a camera. I need to dig that out and get it running. Not sure what species it's for, though. I'll put it out and see what I get. Maybe I can get a pair of great tits to watch this summer. We have a lot of great tits in Norway!
And before you ask, great tits are birds:
Great tit - Wikipedia
Feelslikefar.
5 year old buck +
We all have different reasoning. lol
I put up a bird house (that I had laying around the house for years) along the trail on my property, basically as a sign to the locals and trespassers that this isn't just some abandoned piece of land.
I put up a bird house (that I had laying around the house for years) along the trail on my property, basically as a sign to the locals and trespassers that this isn't just some abandoned piece of land.
Telemark
5 year old buck +
TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
It was 2 weeks ago for meI'm all for the birds and bees, but there is a time and a place!
I cleaned out 7 wood duck boxes,7 blue bird boxes and checked 14 colonies of bees
bill
Jerry-B-WI
5 year old buck +
I would guess it wouldn't matter much if you put the bird houses near a food plot or orchard.
The pollinators are going to be concentrated by their source of food and that's where the birds would go for their concentrated food source.
Let's not have bait piles or food plots because that would concentrate deer in one area and make it easier for their predators to prey on them?
The pollinators are going to be concentrated by their source of food and that's where the birds would go for their concentrated food source.
Let's not have bait piles or food plots because that would concentrate deer in one area and make it easier for their predators to prey on them?
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
Would be bad for my home orchard. I spray. I also stopped planting clover around the trees for the same reason. Mainly Malathion, copper in the late winter, and actara.
I like bat boxes.
Like telemark, I have a few roosting spots for hawks. I leave extra open room for them too. Also helps dry out the leaves quicker preventing diseases and makes insects more visible to birds.
MY real orchard problem is yellow jackets. I prefer yellow apples and thick skinned ones too.
I like bat boxes.
Like telemark, I have a few roosting spots for hawks. I leave extra open room for them too. Also helps dry out the leaves quicker preventing diseases and makes insects more visible to birds.
MY real orchard problem is yellow jackets. I prefer yellow apples and thick skinned ones too.
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Telemark
5 year old buck +
They're easy to get rid of if you locate their nest. Last autumn a raccoon or something dug up a yellowjacket nest and ate some of them. It was only a few inches under the surface. I would just spray wasp and hornet killer down the hole in the evening or early morning. Dunzo.
Telemark
5 year old buck +
Interesting. There are some skunks around, so that makes sense. i was able to find a picture on my other phone:
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
It is a great idea!
We have had bluebird houses out since we bought our places, have at least a dozen put up at each farm.
I have built a couple, bought some on eBay and we pick them up at sales in the area when we see them. Bluebirds are the first to move in early spring and they sometimes nest twice, then the tree swallows use them, and a few get little native sparrows using them by end of summer.
The bluebirds are just great to see/hear, and the tree swallows nonstop are swooping around catching flying bugs all day long.
I clean them out good late fall to discourage mice using during winter, it always amazes me seeing the stacked nests inside from the different species using them. We get 100% usage from all of ours, I face all of mine to the east.
Telemark
5 year old buck +
How do you mount them, other than facing east? Are they on field edges? Mounted on t-posts? How high off the ground?
I think I'll go ahead and build a few this summer. My parents have taken to feeding and watching birds in the winter. I'd like to put winterberry and beautyberry shrubs outside the windows and see if that offers some winter interest.
Telemark
5 year old buck +
Can you give me the details on your wood duck houses. If I'm going to make bluebird boxes, I may as well build some woodie houses. Can I just mount them in trees along a creek or river in the forest?
