OK so another non -bee related post but I thought it would be interesting. The Wife and I were watching the David Attenborough series on BBC “Secret Gardens”, exploring the nature inside British gardens. We really liked the idea of a barn owl box so I set myself the challenge of making one. They are really expensive to buy and i had a weekend at home solo parenting my 5 year old, so it was a good little daddy son activity.
Step 1 choose a design. We really liked the triangular ones and found some ideas and sizes online.
Key dimentions are to have a base of 500 x 500 mm minimum, a depth to the hole of at least 450 mm, a shelf to sit on for the fledglings and a cover to stop rain coming in through the entrance hole.
Step 2: Get some wood. My go to place was closed as it was the weekend so I resorted to Travis Perkins. 12 mm hard wood ply sheet 2400 x 1200.
Step 3: Cut out all the pieces. 2 x rectangle for the sides, 2 x triangles for the front and back and a rectangle for the base. In the end I do 600 mm by 600 mm and 900 mm tall.
Step 4: Using some old 3×2 inch beams I cut the supports. 25 mm x 25 mm square section allowed me to screw the sides together neatly without having to screw ply wood to ply wood.
Step 5: Cut the hole in the front and a hatch to clen them out.
Step 5: Final assembly.
Step 6: Now it is time for some paint. We chose to give it 4 coats of dark floor varnish, making sure to put extra generous amounts on the edges of the ply wood. This gives a really waterproof coating to protect the wood. Outside only. but we also did the floor on the inside to prevent that from rotting whit wet. We then painted 2 coats of clear UV resistant exterior varnish on top to protect it from the sun. I also had an old roll of roofing sealant just to fix and seal the apex.
Step 7: How to hang it? By building a frame I can attach to both the owl box and the side of the garage, we should have a secure and solid mounting system.
And there it is. more than 10 feet up with a open expanse in front. now all we need is an owl. 2 to 3 inches of wood shavings in the base and…
And… The best bit is the green feathers bird box camera that sits inside. this was wired into the garage and runs off the WiFi from the house. Cant wait to see if we get a visitor.
