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  • From: "Rick Williams" <mrfarm AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] OT: Bird house building and marketing
  • Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 17:58:03 -0600

Tom at Lime Rock wrote:
> We have wanted to start selling similar items, maybe will finally get it
> done this year.
>
> Which items, type of items do you find sell well? Do you make the
> birdhouses yourself?

Last year we sold gourd birdhouses. I realize that is a bit of a stretch to
claim that they were produce:) These types of birdhouses are actually not
very good for the birds. In fact, most birdhouse designs are not only bad
for birds, but often are designed in such a way as to insure the offspring
will frequently not survive.

So we went with the improved designs as we have a very large supply of old
weathered and nearly clear 1" pine boards of varying widths. So we are going
to try selling some at the market.

The things to consider for a safe and healthy birdhouse:

1) Proper dimensions for the species and proper hole diameter.

2) Double thick hole entrance. This is accomplished with an additional
square of wood with the same diameter hole place over the existing hole. (It
actually looks like a diamond, since you turn the square with a corner to
match the roof line.

3) Absolutely NO perch at the entrance! This is the way many predators kill
the young.

4) Extra oversized roof overhangs in all directions which keep the dwelling
cooler and at the same time make it difficult or impossible for predators to
perch above the entrance hole and reach in to kill the young. Also, adequate
vent holes in the base and the wall/roofline. Many young birds are literally
cooked to death in the typical birdhouse:(

5) Some way to mount on a difficult to climb post. We are trying one method
of mounting a one inch EMT (Electrical Metallic Tubing) flexible conduit
junction box compression fitting in the center of the bottom of the
dwelling. It is a friction fit plus using outdoor epoxy glue (e.g., marine
type). It is probably best to NOT drill the hole all the way through, but
rather use a pre-sized circle cutter and cut only part way into the wood
base. Then you can use a router to remove the inner wood. This may sound
complicated, but if you leave the hole, it might be a problem with nesting
material and worse, young that could fall into the conduit, and they could
never get out.

A one inch EMT can then be mounted in the fitting and we will try hand
tightening for a pretty good grip. Unless you are gentle, if you tighten
with a wrench, it may break the glue bond and I think it will work OK with
hand tightening. The customer has to buy the EMT tubing at a typical home
building center. Since it comes in 10 foot lengths, I have thought about the
possibility of cutting some at the preferred length of 5 1/2 to 7 ft. which
gives you 18" to 24" of ground depth and allows for the often recommended
finished height of 4 to 6 feet. There would be a lot of left overs. Also,
there is some problem with cutting the tubing with hacksaw etc and leaving a
sharp and jagged edge. Then what you could do is use a splicing compression
fitting to connect two shorter EMT's together and would be much easier to
transport. I know that this is done for other fairly heavy duty exterior
projects such as homebrew vertical antennas so it might be OK in this
application as well.

6) No painting of any kind on the inside and probably best to leave as
natural as possible.

7) No cedar or other dangerous woods that contain toxic chemicals. Old
weathered wood is ideal since it has off gassed the volatiles and often will
still last for many years. Remember that many kinds of wood vapors and dust
are now recognized as carcinogenic and can harm wildlife as well as humans.

Sincerely,

Rick Williams
Misty Ridge Farm
Direct marketed dairy beef and produce
(also dairy heifers and beef stockers)
Viroqua, WI





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