Nesting box

A nesting box is an artificial shelter built or arranged by the man making it possible the animals to nest. The most current nesting boxes are intended for the Oiseau X, but the term “nesting box” can also apply to various shelters made for other animal species such as Mammifère S, Amphibien S, or even of the Insecte S. the nesting box is not necessarily manufactured, it can act of a crack in a wall, tiles of ventilation or other natural irregularities of the building. Several animal species need these nesting boxes to ensure their perenniality. Because their natural habitats are impoverished, the dead hedges and trees disappear, birds, Chiroptère S, batrachians and invertebrates less and less find spaces to nest.

However, the construction and the installation of nesting boxes offer only one thin compensation vis-a-vis the disappearance of the natural sites of nesting. The nesting boxes only make it possible to mitigate the consequences and not the causes of the reduction in the natural habitats of the animals. For building nesting boxes in series, it is initially necessary to preserve all the mediums of natural nesting: deadwood, raised mediums and forest.

Nesting boxes for the birds

History

The first artificial nesting boxes are attested in Europe at the 15th century. In Flandres and Holland they are pots with starling X, small terra cotta bottles especially manufactured by the potters. In other areas, the Lorraine in particular, the pots with Moineau X (simple plant pots stuck to the wall) decorates the walls of the farms at the beginning of the 16th century century. These terra cotta pots were mainly used to attract the sparrows and the starlings, which, in times of famine, could come to decorate the meals. According to the areas, all kinds of pots or jugs were thus used in re-employment.

The oldest known representation of bird pots is on the Saint-Christophe of Jerome Bosch. Their representation on folio 164 of the Book of hours Very Rich Hours of the duke of Berry date of the same time.

Paintings of Bruegel show various hung pots and other painters immortalisé various terra cotta nesting boxes and those starting from Calebasse S or gourds pèlerines. Lastly, the discovery with Amsterdam of the sign in sprevpot (with the pot of starling) gives an good image of these potteries to the 17th century century.

Certain nesting boxes were “pigeon” the poor one, seals in the wall in the form of two tiles channel in Poitou-Charentes, of pots of re-employment in other areas. Generally located at the level of the attics, they were accessible from the interior of the building.

Other traditional nesting boxes did not arrive until our time, they are the nesting boxes in Vannerie, wicker, Noisetier, straw of Seigle. Only the popular works of traditions note their existence and the manufacturing methods.

Out of Europe, certain Amerindian tribes built also nesting boxes of terra cotta for the Swallows.

Today, the nesting boxes are not any more used but to increase the availability of the surfaces as nesting for the birds. They try most accurately to reproduce possible the natural habitats in which the cavernicolous birds are accustomed to nesting.

There does not exist universal nesting box able to lodge any bird. Each species has specific needs with regard to the type of material, dimensions, the hole of take-off, the height and the method of fixing, etc One can however give some general rules valid for all constructions (nesting boxes, mangers, etc).

Choice of materials

An special attention must be carried to the choice of materials. Only the untreated materials, imputrescibles and recognized for their natural resistance can be appropriate. The simplest material and the least expensive of the market remains the Bois (Sapin, Mélèze, Peuplier, etc). Its only disadvantage is its limited lifespan. Although more difficult to implement, the Béton of wood is also adapted to the construction of nesting boxes. In addition to its exceptional lifespan, it has a robustness and an interesting lightness.

The principal types of materials used are the following:

  • Terra cotta: pots traditional, flower pots, stuck to the wall with mortar or inserted in a niche or during the construction of wall;
  • Water-bottle S or other marrows, quite dry, suspended horizontally or vertically, bored of an opening of passage of a diameter corresponding to the species of the bird;
  • logs and tree trunks hollow installed horizontally or vertically. In nature the hole dug or increased by the peaks is appreciated by many birds. The Berlepsh nesting box, dug in a log by regaining the shape of the holes of the peaks owes its name to the baron Berlepsh who had the idea to make manufacture this model in logs from 14 to 25 cm in diameter;
  • of wood which must have a sufficient thickness (2 cm preferably, higher than 1 cm in all the cases) to ensure the thermo isolation. The birds needing rough surfaces to which they can be clutched, one thus should not plane or sandpaper wood.

Dimensions

Generally, one distinguishes three types of nesting boxes for the common species downtown.

Pose nesting box

  • Many nesting boxes

The number of nesting boxes to be installed depends initially on food available. In a general way, one can count 100 m ² garden by nesting box, with a spacing between the nesting boxes from 10 to 15 Mr.
  • Fixation: various methods can be considered:
    • a very simple way is to fix a block of wood on the trunk using thin straps (wire) metal or out of plastic, on which one comes to fix the nesting box.
    • the most respectful technique of the tree consists in suspending the nesting box by a metal clamp posed on a branch and protecting the bark from friction by an insulating material, rubber or adhesive tape fabric. A loop in the middle of the clamp makes it possible to prevent the nesting box from taking down itself in the event of storm.
    • One can, if need be, to fix the nesting box directly in the tree trunk, in particular with a batten of fixing. In this case, it is preferable to use coated with zinc points or better, points in Aluminum.
Certain tree trunk, always wet (beech, etc) unhealthy for are brooded, it is better to avoid them.
  • Height of fixing
There still, each species has specific needs. In general, one can pose the nesting box between 3 and 6 m in height. It is always necessary to suspend the nesting box above the vacuum and not to pose it on a branch, in order to prevent that the predatory ones do not devour the broods.
  • Period of fixing
One should not wait the beautiful days to place the nesting boxes, because the birds must “be accustomed” to this new home before settling there. One can thus set up it in autumn or winter, so that the birds can settle there as of the end of the winter until spring.
  • Orientation
If possible, the hole of the nesting box should be directed the south/south-eastern. According to the area, it is preferable to try to avoid the dominant winds, in order to protect the broods from the rain.
  • Protection of the nesting boxes
The protection of the nesting box against the cats and the long pitchforks starts as of the design of the nesting box (overflow of the roof, baffles, etc) One can also envisage specific devices along the trunk to prevent the access to the nesting box, like branches of houx or a protective belt made up of metal mesh which sticks the ones to the others until making the turn of the trunk.
  • Integration of the nesting box in the natural environment

It is preferable that the nesting box is most discrete possible: to avoid the bright colors, to prefer the natural colors so that it merges with the vegetation, to rather place the nesting box in a tree than on a stake or to cover it with ivy.

Maintenance of the nesting box

It is important to carry out the maintenance of the nesting box at least once per annum. It can be done in autumn, once the last flown away brood. The nesting boxes must then be open and carefully cleaned. For that, it is enough to rub the nesting box with the brush. In all the cases, one should not use of insecticide in the nesting box, the toxic fumes could be fatal with the next brood. One removes the old nest to prevent that the birds do not build their nest above the precedent, thus limiting the installation of the chips and other parasites. At the time of the opening of the nesting box, it is advisable to take some precautions, and to avoid for example, to approach the face too much. Indeed, the chips can also prick the human ones. Moreover, the nesting box can have been used as refuge with other tenant: Frelons, wasps, bumblebees, etc
One can also find some mammals: mouse, dormouse, lérot, bats. In this case, one will await the end of the winter to maintain the nesting box. The second maintenance can be necessary right before the laying, when the nesting box was used as night lodging in winter. For the period of nesting, it is necessary as much as possible to avoid disturbing the birds, under penalty of seeing them giving up the brood.

General remarks

  1. It should be known that a nesting box is seldom occupied the first year. The persistent odors of adhesive or lasure often discourage the adults. It is necessary that the birds are accustomed to the presence of the nesting box before using it. It is probable that they start initially by just using it for the night, then for the periods of great cold and to raise their brood there only afterwards. To accelerate this familiarisation of the birds with the nesting box, one can furnish it with a thin layer with peat or shavings.

  2. In the majority of the cases, the nesting boxes are used by not very savage birds (starlings, sparrow, blue tit). Rare are the nesting boxes which will be able to accommodate more discrete birds.
  3. the badly designed or badly thought nesting boxes prove to be genuine traps for the birds. The choice of the place of installation is capital. A nesting box subjected perpetually to the noise, the light or the disturbance in a very attended place will have only little chance to be occupied. It should be taken care that the nesting box is inaccessible for predatory natural birds but also to protect it from the acts of ill will of the men. A nesting box in full sun can constitute a mortal trap if the insulation is not correct or inadequate materials. Lastly, to avoid the rain, it is necessary to take care to make an overflowing roof, to slightly incline the nesting box forwards during the installation and finally, for more safety, one can bore two small holes in the content to allow the residual drainage.

Nesting boxes for the mammals

Nesting boxes for the chiroptères

The bald people mouse are protected by the law but remain nevertheless threatened of extinction for the near total of the species. They already disappeared besides from certain areas. These animals are the proof that classification in protected space is not sufficient. Their survival depends on the projects of conservation to large scales. For more information on the bats, you can consult the article Chiroptera. The bats do not gîtent that in the countryside, one frequently finds them downtown. In the urban areas, they occupy not only the built parts, but also the little attended roofs and attic (See the article Aménagement of the roofs and attics), works of art (bridge, viaduct). However, the demolition of the died trees, exploitation of the underground cavities (speleology,…), the disappearance of the old barns, and the current methods of construction remove essential sources of natural habitat for the maintenance of the populations of the small wildlife. The manufacture and the installation of artificial nesting boxes try to compensate for this phenomenon.

Occupation of the nesting boxes

  • List of the species which one can find in the nesting boxes in France and Belgium
    • Pipistrelle commune
    • Pipistrelle de Nathusius
    • common Oreillard
    • southernmost Oreillard
    • Noctule commune
    • Vespertillon of bechstein

  • In the majority of the cases, the nesting boxes are occupied by only one individual (male), more rarely by some individuals and in very small proportions by a colony of reproduction.

  • the occupation of the nesting boxes is relatively long in time. It is necessary to leave time to the animals to find these nesting boxes and to be accustomed to it. In comparison with the natural lodgings, bat the nesting boxes, too exposed to the temperature variations, are mainly used the summer. For wintry time, they prefer thermically more isolated places (roofs and attic, underground cavities, etc).

  • the other animals

Even if one poses specific nesting boxes for bats, it happens that they are occupied by other species, initially the birds. They occupy these nesting boxes, either to nest there, or to spend the night there. The coal titmouse is most frequently met. The creeper also builds many nests in the bat nesting boxes whereas, paradoxically, it is rather difficult to attract it in the bird nesting boxes. One can also on the occasion to observe the Muscardin, the Mulot and the squirrel (after enlarging of the entry) to also establish nests in the nesting boxes. Very many insects can occupy these nesting boxes: wasps, bumblebees, Frelons, butterflies, etc

Design

There exists several type of nesting boxes for the chiroptères. More the current is one limps very punt, constituting a niche of width ranging between 1,5 and 3,5 cm. It is placed against a wall or on a tree trunk, opening downwards. It is advised not to paint the nesting box and not to sandpaper it inside. Painting is toxic, and roughnesses facilitate the access. Possibly, if wood is clear (pine, e.g.), one can dye his external faces by rubbing them with nut husks, gaillet, charcoal, beet, etc, widespread natural dyeings, not-poisons and without persistent strong odor.

The hollow logs with opening to the bottom are appropriate better for other species.

Under a bridge or stuck a wall has, a hollow brick which one stopped the higher end of the holes will replace like lodging the cavities and the cracks absent from the modern works.

One can find many models marketed (Schwegler).

Pose nesting box

The parameter which influences more the occupation of the nesting box is the Biotope. It is in forest that the occupancy rate is most. Indeed, one does not use there little or not insecticides, the concentration of insects is thus still important there. However, the disappearance of the hollow shafts pushes the bats to use the artificial lodgings. The clearings are also appreciated by the bats, since they are privileged hunting grounds. The neighborhoods of the calm rivers, plentiful of insects, also gain a sharp success.

The bats are sensitive cold, therefore look after fittings, it should not have hole other than there the entry. It is advised to employ the thickest possible wood. You can also fix a dark sheet plate around the nesting box.

It is very important to place this full nesting box southern or south-eastern (on a wall or a tree, in a sunny place), with a height of approximately 3,50 m - 5 Mr.

Maintenance

Contrary to the nesting boxes for birds, the bat nesting boxes do not require particular maintenance. If they are equipped with a removable floor, one will be able to possibly remove droppings from time to time. Generally, it is necessary to avoid touching with the nesting box under penalty of making flee the bats definitively. If it is imperative to touch there, one will await the twilight take-off towards the end of August.

Harmful effects

It would be absurd to affirm that to in no case the bats cannot cause harmful effects. However, it should be recalled that all the species of bats are legally protected. Consequently, the law of July 10th, 1976 and its decree of application of April 17th, 1981 envisage “prohibition, in any time and on all the territory, to destroy or mutilate, capture or remove and, that they alive or died, to transport, use, market all the species of bats ( Chiroptera sp. )”. It thus will be necessary to learn how to cohabit… It is often easy and inexpensive to limit the harmful effects. The first thing to be made is to reserve a space of the house to the bats where they will not obstruct. One will avoid the proximity of the rooms and the kitchen (for medical reasons mainly).

For the inhabitants

Same manner, the bats are not a threat for the inhabitants. They are not vectrices of disease. However, when a bat is captured, it tends to bite to defend oneself. So the best prevention consists in not handling it, as its legal statute of protection envisages it besides. If one is constrained there, it is imperatively necessary to use a leather glove. Rare cases of rage were listed (14 case since 1989 in France), mainly on the common Sérotine. However, the rage remains a fatal disease, it is thus imperative to quickly approach its attending physician and an anti-rabic center in the event of bite by a bat. Any corpse of bat must be announced near a veterinary surgeon. He will be addressed to the laboratory of the Institut Pasteur (if there were human contamination) or that of Afssa-Nancy (in all the other cases) to seek the rage. The particular case of the exotic bats is to be distinguished from the European bats. These exotic bats can be of big size, with a sometimes aggressive behavior. Their bite, which constitutes the risk essential of transmission of the rabies virus with the man, is much more serious than those caused by the European bats. Thus in 1999, in Gard, a Roussette of Egypt transmitted the Rage to its owner, after having remained several days in a animalery of Bordeaux. The importation had been carried out via a Belgian animalery. On the whole, 129 people had to be treated against the rage by the anti-rabic processing centers. The importation of these exotic species in France is prohibited. In addition, it should be taken care that the bats are not present in water collectings intended for human consumption. Indeed, certain bacteria of the intestinal flora of the bat which one finds in guano can be pathogenic for the man.

Dejections

The problems generally appear when they are species of big size (Molosse of Cestonie, Sérotine common, Murine Grand,…) or that the colonies reach an important size. The urine and guano, while accumulating can dirty and/or damage the ground, release a strong odor and attract certain insects. For a colony installed in the roofs, one can cure the problem by posing a plastic cover, which one will clean regularly and which one will change roughly every 5 years. The frontages, the thresholds of window or doors, the glazings, can be dirtied by dejections plumb with the entry, under the board of bank or the cornice. The installation of a horizontal small plank on the boarding of the frontage makes it possible to collect guano. The cases of invasions are fortuitous, rare and often of very short duration. They are often young people, inexperienced who seek a shelter quickly. Their departure is generally done the next evening, consequently way. Guano is a very good natural manure. It can be collected and used after dilution in water or mixed with compost. In the cases of important production, certain companies repurchase the guano of bats near the private individuals to resell it like manure.

Noise

In addition to the Ultrasounds that the bats emit, they push audible cries being able to become unpleasant when they gîtent near a room. These cries are generally accompanied by the noise of trottinement of the bats. This noise is amplified when the animals are in contact with insulator. There exists only little of solutions to this problem. If the noises become really unbearable, one can plan to pose an insulating slab of wood, placoplâtre or out of polystyrene. The evacuation of the colony comes as a last resort. It could be decided with the mediator and will be carried out in autumn, towards a close nesting box of substitution.

If the cohabitation seems too difficult, best is to contact the natural history museum of natural history of Bourges which will be able to give you the coordinates of associations in load of these problems in your area. These mediators will be able to give you all information concerning the biology of the bats, but to also to propose installations you to reduce the caused harmful effects.

Conclusion

A question remains posed: Which is the place of the nesting box in the policy of conservation of the bats? Indeed, it is noted that the nesting boxes are occupied in very great majority by the pipistrelles communes. However the population pipistrelles communes remained more or less stable these last years. One from of deduced that only a very small proportion of nesting boxes is used for the threatened species. However, the nesting boxes remain very useful for the scientific studies and the campaigns publicity.

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Nesting boxes for the other mammals

Nesting boxes for the invertebrates

The utility of the insects is not any more to show: auxiliary insects, first link of the food chain, pollinating, they are in addition to excellent biological indicators of the environmental quality. As for the birds, the insect nesting boxes do not have vocation to replace the natural habitats. However, in front of the growing fragmentation of the ecosystems, these nesting boxes will make it possible to mitigate the lack of natural habitats locally.

Utility of the insect nesting boxes

The insects need shelter to build their nest or quite simply to shelter bad weather and cold. In a natural garden, such as it is described in the article Biodiversité in the frame and the garden, the insect nesting boxes are not essential; they are normally rather rich in varied natural habitats: deadwood, stone low wall, foam, etc Cependant, these refuges can prove very useful in the gardens offering much food but little shelter or in the cultivated kitchen gardens in a biological way. Moreover these nesting boxes will support the observation of the world of the insects.

Installation

As for the nesting boxes for birds, the orientation of the shelters for insects must depend on the orientation of the dominant winds. Under our latitudes, one will be able to thus place them at the south-eastern south/.
The refuges can be to place between 30 cm and 3 m in height, on a stake, a wall, a branch of tree, etc the lodgings will be laid out in mediums very varied to attract a maximum of insects.

With each insect its nesting box

  • the bored log

Many a hyménoptères, in particular the solitary bees and wasps, use the galleries dug by the insects Xylophage S. One can bore a simple log cut into two, of a multitude of variable holes of diameters (from 3 to 14 mm). The log must be out of hard wood (oak, beech, charm, chestnut). Tender wood is to be avoided because it is likely to inflate with moisture. It is not necessary that the holes entirely transpierce wood. This shelter will quickly be colonized if it is placed near a flowered piece, up to 2 m height.

  • the boot of hollow stems

The hollow stems at night represent very good shelters for the day or nidifier. One can thus constitute small faggots from 10 to 20 hollow stems (bamboo, canes of Provence, graminaceous, ombellifères…) of a score centimetres in length and diameter variables (2 to 12 mm), dependant between them by string or wire. It is important that these stems are stopped at least side, either by using the natural nodes of wood, or with clay. One can place these shelters per pair, one horizontal, the other vertical one on a tree, a stake, etc An alternative of this shelter which makes it possible to improve its lifespan considerably is to place it in one limps out of wood. Moreover, it is more necessary only the stems are stopped on an end, the bottom of limps cheek this role.

  • the boot of stems with marrow

This shelter takes again the same concept as the boot of hollow stems but with stems with marrow. That makes it possible the insects to dig to them-even a nest with suitable dimensions. The stems, of about thirty centimetres length can be in elder tree, rose tree, raspberry cane or charcoal. They are laid out between 30 and 50 cm in height, vertically, horizontally or in oblique. These faggots can also be installed in a box out of wooden.

  • the hollow brick

A simple hollow brick stopped with the mortar offers to the solitary bees and wasps a material to dig their galleries.

  • the bumblebee nesting box

The bumblebee lives in colony in a hole of the ground. It generally uses an old nest of field vole or mulot. One can propose a lodging of substitution to him by using a pot of flower turned over that one furnished with straw or in the absence of glass wool, buried and whose hole of opening levels the surface of the ground. The hole of opening can be protected from the bad weather by an elevated plank of wood.

  • the lodging with forficule (earwig)

The forficules or earwig are predatory natural plant louses. They can thus appear very useful. The idea of the shelter is simple: one uses a pot of flower turned over to which one attaches a string which will make it possible to suspend it in a tree. One furnishes it with straw, bark or wood fibers, retained inside the pot by a netting. One can then suspend the shelter on the low branches of a fruit-loft invaded by the plant louses or in a hedge. It is important that the base of the pot levels the vegetation on the ground so that the forficules can move freely. It should be taken care to move the lodging once the forficules ate all the plant louses to prevent that they do not attack the buds, sheets and fruits.

  • the shelter with chrysope (fly with the eyes of gold)

The chrysopes need shelters where they can winter with the shelter of freezing. A nesting box out of wooden can be perfectly adapted, provided that it comprises on one of the faces several fine and long slits. The shelter can be fixed at 1,50 m/2 m of the ground.

Lodgings for Amphibians

The majority of the Amphibiens hibernate with ground during the cold season, then, as of February migrate towards a calm water level, which could be any slow or stagnant water, where they will be coupled and laid. Then whereas the adults of the majority of the species take again a terrestrial life, the eggs will start their metamorphoses, the tadpoles appearing into 1 to 6 weeks following the species and the temperature and the adult stage being reached into 2 to 4 months.

Of this fact they need a calm, slow or stagnant water, not polluted. It is important for their survival to preserve or recreate the ponds and the holes of water in the wet ditches or other places.

Whereas they forsake the forests of coniferous tree, they are liked under the leafy trees and for their hibernation it is useful to envisage stone heaps and heaps of sheets. It is imperative not to remove or burn these sheets before March, if not one is likely to disturb and to even kill out of the still deadened Amphibians (clamping plates and salamanders in particular).

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