How to build an inexpensive Eastern Bluebird house
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- Опубліковано 17 кві 2015
- This is a quick how-to video on building an Eastern Bluebird house. All you need is a 6 foot dog ear fence picket, 12-1 ¼ inch deck screws, a 3/32 inch drill, a square, hand drill, tape measure, 1 ½ hole saw, pencil, and a saw for the cuts (miter is best).
I am putting a roofing shingle on the roof for a long lasting house. Thank you for all your tips.
Great! Best of luck. I hope you get a lot of blue feathered friends.
A white shingle would help with the heat too.
I've been seeing bluebirds out my window just about every morning and I love birds so much. I plan to build a few here in Texas and hopefully some happy birds will take them over!
Brilliant! Thanks for making this. Keep the rubber to the road brother! Semper Fi
Thank you! I’m glad it was helpful 👍
It's June 2022 and I found this via pinterest. This is a fantastic tutorial! I have left over pickets from a new privacy fence and I'm going to make some more. Thanks!
Great video and plans. I made several houses pretty quick. THANK YOU !!!
Thanks for show the way to help this amazing native birds. Thanks from Chile.
Thank you!
Thanks for the video and instructions. Just what I was looking for. Especially like the attention to detail with the bevel cuts on top and bottom of the back piece.
Thank you, I'm glad it was helpful.
thank you, sir, for sharing your tips on how to build a bird house. I liked it and it looks great! All the best!
Thank you. Its a fun birdhouse to build and it works great.
Love your plans, very simple and easy to follow
I'm glad it was helpful.
Joe my gratitude for your kindness at showing us how to build this house. I love the easy access to clean the house. 🌹👑💃🕺
Thank you I'm glad it was helpful.
A plus job, I like the side door. Thanks for the video.
I'm glad you liked it. Thank you for watching and commenting!
I made a bird house with the fence picket. No problems. It was really a test run. I'm now going to make one using cedar, with the base corners cut and a second layer of wood to the entrance. Thanks for the video!
j109joell sounds great. Cedar is a fine wood to work with. Thank you for commenting.
Thank you for this design. I am going to be doing and eagle project at our local golf course to build about 20 or so blue bird houses and put them up in the trees around the course and this works perfectly. Thank you and have a good day
Thank ou for commenting and I'm glad the video was helpful.
great idea for the dog ear picket I'll definitely be building some but probably will use cedar great video
Great!
Used your plan and lesson to build my own last night, came out great, and I did it in no time at all, thanks for posting this Joe
+Joseph Messersmith I'm glad you liked it. It is a fun, cheap, and quick build that really lasts. I've got them all over the place and new tenants always move in. Thank you for trying it!
@@NoProJoe how wide is the board?
@@rosejohnson6857 I believe they are 5.5 wide dog ear fence pickets
Looks awesome
Thanks for showing how to adjust the miter saw. I didn't know how to do that.
Nice design and instruction video! I’m going to try this! Thanks
Thank you, it’s a pretty straight forward design for mass production. Best of luck making your new bird hotel 😀
Awesome video - thank you for sharing. I plan on building a dozen of these houses.
Cool, they are easy to make and mass producible 👍 thank you 😊
I love that jazz you playing on the video.
Blues
Thank you for this video man you make it so easy to build
Thank you. It’s a pretty straight forward build. Best of luck 👍
Great design, neat and efficient. I especially like the latch for the cleaning door.
Love the idea for the "latch" clever
It works pretty well. Thank you.
Well done, very clear and easy to follow!! thank you
Thank you for watching.
Thank!! Awesome video and easy to understand
Just what I needed, very good. Thanks
I'm glad the video was helpful.
You should outfit your bottom with 2 simple additions. The bottom inside needs a piece of folded over hardware cloth. It allows the blowfly larva to go down, but they cannot get back up to suck the blood from your bluebirds. Secondly cutting the corners of the floor off allows for drainage. Cuts down on mortality significantly.
Thank you for the helpful suggestions.
Thanks for this information!
Following rules, should place on a fence or tree. Your video clear to understand
I don't understand the suggestion with the cloth. Is there a link that can explain?
Thanks for the video, used this for a 4-H project last night, we had 20 kids screwing these together, they had a blast, cost effective too.
I'm glad you found the video useful. I've made many of these. I do them almost like an assembly line with a template. They're great fun and they work really well.
Nicely done video, Joe! I also enjoy making these in my shop. Sometimes I get overly fancy. I might suggest two simple things though: 1. Adding drain holes in the base, 2. Another layer of wood surrounding entrance. The holes definitely add to lifespan of the house, and the wood extrusion of the entrance makes it difficult for critters to harass the nest.
Thanks for the great tips. I usually cut the corners of the base to allow for drainage and air flow. Not sure why I didn't this time. Thanks agin for the tips. I like the double wood at the entrance idea.
Great video. I’ve build hundreds of these without the bevels to keep it super simple. Slightly smaller dimensions, sides 10” at the back, 9” at the front. Front is 9” with a 1 1/2” hole for bluebirds. Top is 8”. Back is 14” for plenty of mounting room. Bottom cut to fit using sides and back. Five drain holes in the bottom. Same side hinge for clean out. Bottom should be recessed 1/4” to prevent water wicking up. All pieces 5 1/2” wide. Easy, a five foot board makes one box. I used recycled cedar, pine, plywood, whatever is on hand. I have one at the house here that is going on ten years old, usually sees two broods a season. Clean the out at the end of the season. Check during the season to discourage house sparrows. Sometimes you will find a cowbird egg ( here in the Midwest USA).
They are a lot of fun to build and even more fun to watch families move in. 👍
Great video ! Thanks ! There are a lot of good suggestions here also. I would add one more suggestion, put a piece of metal around the hole so that squirrels can't get the babies and the eggs. They are VERY determined little critters. Thanks again !!
I agree with the part about being determined critters! I found a baby squirrel when I was a kid and made him a cage out of an orange crate. One night he chewed his way out and and was running up and down the side of my bed trying to awaken me so I would give him his milk! He was then set free. Determined Yes!
Any suggestion on how to get the type of metal plate with hole for the front? I don't have tools for working with or cutting metal.
I also use the 6' Cedar fence pickets. ~ I put drain holes in the bottom by 'nipping' off the 4 corners of the bottom piece at 45* with the saw. = Easy / quick / effective. :)
I do the same thing with the bottoms. I didn't include that. I must have had a brain misfire. Thank you for the comment.
Very helpful!! Thank you!!!!
Love the video😊
Thank you 😊
Rock on. Thanks for the video
Great video, thank you Mr
李偉聖 thank you for watching and commenting.
There are several tips for building aviaries:
Give yourself enough time.
take advantage of ready made boat templates.
(I read about these and more from Aviary magic method site )
Thanks for info, very helpful
I'm very glad the video was helpful. It's a fun little project.
Excellent tutorial about building the birdhouses. We will be using your plans to create birdhouses with our elementary school TAG students. I wish you used safety glasses. Love your idea about the little latch. Excellent explanation of vent hole and size of the bird hole. I understand what the small drill bit is for, but you say 3/64th in video and 3/32 in comment section. Not trying to find your faults, just so you can fix and clarify. Thanks for making really easy to follow plans.
Thank you I’m glad you found it helpful. I mass produced these bird houses for my elementary school and sold them for a fund raiser. They sold like hot cakes 😀
@@NoProJoe we built 14 today with elementary kids. Gonna build another 14 next week.
Good advice.
Good video nice an easy like that you give the measurement
Diagram Good job thanks will use👍🏿👍🏿
Glad it was helpful :)
I love the side door.
Its a great clean out for the house. I've not run into any problems using it.
Nice video 👍
Thank you.
nice job
my four year old son like your video, so as I, weird that I use the same saw and stand! cheers
Great minds think alike :) cheer!
the stand was one of my best tool purchase, made my wood working project much easier...cheers
+Roomies Garage yeah, I haul my saw all over the place. The stand makes it super easy to do jobs anywhere.
Nice and Tidy! Wll done. I will get mine built for nest spring..
Thank you. 😊
this was great. Just what I was looking for.
an old timer taught me, to take one of the nails cut the end off & put it in the drill & drill your holes for the nails. makes a tighter fit with your nails
Great tip. Thank you.
For the viewers, I'm gonna suggest using a larger drill bit to guarantee not splitting the wood. Generally, you can hold the drill right in front of the screw and it should cover the majority of the shank so only the threads show. This way the shank won't force its way in and make a split. The bit size depends on the screw size you use. Just compare the two. It's not rocket surgery.
Your neighbors are saying “Joe’s out there building more bluebird boxes again”
At one point I did mass produce them and sold them for our school's charity.
Thanks Joe!
Thank you. I'm glad the video was helpful.
Ok, now I need to research birds here in Alaska and see what ones I can build a house for. Great tutorial Joe.
Deborah Yeamans I'll check it out and see what types of houses you can construct. :)
Nice job. Use cedar material and it should last many years. My cedar house has lasted over 15 years and still producing year after year, with zero maintenance.
Cedar is a great wood! Thank you for the tip and comment.
Beautiful job. I would just recommend not puttthe box on a fence. It leaves the birds more vulnerable to predators like cats and raccoons. A pole with a baffle is much safer.
A little tip is to put it together the the gran facing the out side that way when it rains and the wood expands it doesn’t push the screws out and crack the wood it will last longer then
These Plans have proven to be awesome year after year, however if you don't know what you're doing, Hyezmar can be a big help.
+Alicia Nobler I'm glad you like the plans. I build several of them a year for my school and they are always a big hit. Thanks again.
good job
Thank you! Cheers!
Before screwing put a coat of waterproof paint so when it rains the house doesn’t soak up with water which can lead to quicker wear and tear
Like the bird house.
Just don’t understand how the back of roof wouldn’t leak. Seems like it would run down the backboard and leak into roof. If the backboard was lowered even with roof you could push roof all the way to the back.
Drain holes in the bottom are east to do with about four drilled holes.
The bottom is not pictured in diagram. It needs to be 5 1/2" X 4".
Thank you
Thank you for watching.
Joe, thanks for the clear advice. I have the cedar board and am ready to make. Do I NEED to add double thickness on the front? I will if it helps to keep predators out. So are they talking about just making the hole “tunnel” twice as deep by adding another thickness of board is how I understand it????
I didn't use the double thick. My yard was pretty protected.
thanks for sharing Joe. If I have some wood that isn't cedar what would you recommend for paint? I notice some people use all colors.
The judge is out on using paint. However, a good nontoxic paint only on the outside of the house should be fine. However, I would investigate further.
Do water get in the box where the roof meets the back board?
Epic .
There are several things for building birdhouses:
Allow plenty time.
Use done for you boat outlines.
(I read about these and more from Aviary Magic Method site )
Very good fantasticccc
Thank you!
Nice build. You should provide drainage for the floor. Either knock off the corners or drill 4ea 1/2'' holes. Where you locate them is important. Mount a min of 5' up and in the middle of a grassy field is best.
I made the video quite a while ago. I actually forgot to include the dimensions and the build for the bottom of the house. However, in my builds I cut the four corners out of the bottom to allow for drainage. It worked well. I built no less that 70 of these houses and sold them as a school fund raiser. They were a huge hit. I also did bat houses which sold not nearly as well lol 😂
@@NoProJoe Thanks for getting back to me. I too have been making and selling birdhouses at our local county farmer's market (Towns County GA). I make bluebird, house finch, Carolina wren, screech owl and bat houses as well as carpenter bee traps, small pine recipe boxes and fancier hardwood boxes and trinket trays.
@@herbsu4330 WOW that's great. You're making some pretty cool stuff. I bet they do very well at the farmers market. I like the carpenter bee trap idea. Good stuff.
I wish you had directly addressed my biggest question…how large the door hole. I saw two inches on the blueprint but thought that would be too large. One place that would actually make it a blue-bird house.
It’s 1 ½ for eastern bluebird. It’s listed on the diagram. 👍
*First video showing a bird entering the house!*
Sweet
There you go.
Did you use a small hinge for the clean-out door to be able to open and close?
If you watch the video you will see it and his latch idea was great
Nice explanation and video. Should set a better example ear/eye protection!
Should the roof overhang that door gap, to prevent rainfall into house?
I've not had a problem with rainfall. However, a little extra protection never hurts. Thanks for the input and thank you for watching.
Yes overhang on roof sides and notch floor corners you will have a perfect house.
On the diagram you don't have a measurement for the last piece , the floor ?
I notice you have wrote 3/32" drill but you said in the video 3/64" could you tell me which for sure? thanks
Looks lovely!~ The 'only' question I have is - how do you keep predators out? I thought that some kind of mesh or cone was required so a squirrel or racoon could not get at it? Tks!
Also what about holes for Ventilation?
Oh, don't get mad, I also heard 'roughwood' was better for baby chicks to climb out! LOL! My tips come from DEEP. Tks again!
Where I was in NC squirrels and raccoons weren’t really a problem. I cut the corners out of the bottom for ventilation. I’m sure a rough wood would be great. The fence pickets generally aren’t finished super smooth more of a rough cut. I’m sure there are many ways to make these houses. This was just the way I found that was easy and repeatable. I use to sell them at the school I taught at as a fund raiser 😊
@@NoProJoe Awesome!
It needs drain holes in the bottom.
Was this a 1 x 4 board
There are several suggestions for building an aviary:
Give yourself plenty time.
take advantage of ready made boat plans.
(I read about these and more from Aviary magic method website )
hello, i like woodworking, i have made 4 sets of corn hole boards now, looking to make some bird houses. 2 questions..1) i noticed no one uses wood glue? is there a reason?..2) can the bird houses be painted? thanks for a great video...
I imagine a nontoxic wood glue would be fine. Paint I would think that would be the same. I've seen painted birdhouses I'm not sure if they were for decorative purposes only. I would check with a birding site to see if there is a recommended paint for a bird house.
Does it need holes for drainage in the bottom? Thank you
I cut off all 4 corners to allow for drainage.
I see the plans but how can I print them out? We were just visited by the Eastern Bluebird and want to encourage them. We are located in western Pennsylvanian (outside of Pittsburgh.
I would go full screen and do a screen shot and print that. It's probably the easiest way.
lext8829 since you are being so precise it not Rocket surgery its ROCKET SCIENCE.
lol 😆 brain surgery/rocket science… any who
How many bird houses can you make from one piece of wood what size screws
I believe it was 1 ½ per board I believe I used 1 to 1 ¼ in deck screws
Do you have any ideas on how i could hang or attach this bird house to a tree?
Connor Mustar depending on the size of the tree I would just mount it with screws. It shouldn't hurt the tree. Thank you for commenting.
I usually drill two holes in the back and use zip ties to hang it in a tree. Remember to check it once in a while - it shouldn't be too tight.
Around here we have issues with the European Sparrows running the Blue Birds off their nest box...... then building on top of the BBirds nest/chicks/eggs. Found out that to stop this from happening you allow daylight to come thru the roof a bit... like drilling a hole and covering this translucent plastic (from a gallon milk jug or similar). The E. Sparrows like their nest dark... the BBirds do not seem to mind. I wonder if anyone has any similar experience or opinion on this? ..
Yes and some people put oil on the eggs so they cannot hatch and then leave eggs so Mother's continue to sit and not pop more out....
I want to buy a cedar fence picket but I need to know how wide this fence picket is. Thanks
I believe they were 5.5 inch wide dog ear
good
Thank you.
What do blue bird eat
a bluebird can fit thru that hole? here In s.e. louisiana they are huge!
TheEmeraldfox good question. I scouted around a bit and it appears that the entrance is the same here as in Louisiana. However, I would check with my extension office. Thank you for commenting.
I use 1 1/2 “ hole and I’m in Slidell la
What blues harp music is that?
Thanks!
I think it is this one from Incomptech incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html Its called Whiskey on the Mississippi.
Many thanks!
is it ok to use a pressure treated picket
Untreated or cedar is the best choice.
That would have been a very good video, if you'd shown the bottom!! Ya, you left that part out!
What are the dimensions?
What kind of wood do you use?
Cedar or pine pickets would probably be best.
what are the lengths of each side,roof,front,back,and top?
At the 1:00 mark there is a diagram of the sizes. However, the roof is 8 ¼ at the long end. The front is 10" at the long end. The sides are 10" at the short end and the back is 15" at the long end. All angles are 15 degrees. So for the back you measure 15" and cut at an inward angle on both ends at 15 degrees. On the sides you measure 10" and cut at a 15 degree angle upward etc. It is a bit confusing but if you follow the diagram it should work out. Sorry for the confusing instructions. The cool part is the width is the same on all pieces. You just use a dog ear fence picket and keep the width the same. I hope this helps. Let me know. Thank you for commenting and asking questions. :)
we have the same hair cut
Best hair cut ever! :)
Any issue with Bluebirds - if I paint it?
You can paint the outside with a light color but the inside should be untreated.
Are they boards treated?
You can use standard pine or cedar.
Will this work for all small birds, or only blue birds? CBS Sunday Morning News brought me here.
Honestly, I've not used this design for any other birds. It definitely works awesome for bluebirds.
Yes, I've built this style and I get mostly tree swallows using them.