On Sun, 02 Jan 2011 06:53:42 -0500
William Bagwell wrote:

snip
Have seen one design where the landing zone (typically the very back baffle
which hangs down 6" below all the other baffles) was covered with a slab of
real bark. Very attractive to us humans though I doubt the bats care. Want to
experiment with a wire brush but I suspect that any plywood soft enough to
raise a gripable grain is going to be too soft over all to work. Or in the case
of quarter sawn boards be readily available already rough sawn as you suggest
below.

I think you have a lot more competition in making/selling bat houses
than you think...

This outfit did some studying different designs (I took a class taught
by one of the owners many years ago) early on and ended up using a mesh
affixed over the wood. See:

http://www.batroost.com/bathousesand...ouseplans.aspx

http://www.batroost.com/meshtobuildabathouse.aspx

I would explore finding a local source for this stuff or similar if I
was going to try making very many of them...

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
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