When is a gardener not planning ahead? I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t thinking about preparation for the next season- for our chickens, our bees, or our garden. I learned from a wonderful older neighbor, Joanne, years ago that a gardener should always be thinking ahead and readying for the next. That’s true when it comes to planning for the next season for the flock, the colony, or the garden.

The upside to our shifty (I mean shady) winters here in Northwest Arkansas are the warm spells we can have splattered among the blizzard-like days. These warm spells give me time to do a ton of preparation for spring! One of the things we’ve been really looking forward to this spring is creating more of an inviting habitat for blue birds. I’ve seen them here and there on the property, but we’d love to see them more, so we decided to establish a couple of blue bird boxes in anticipation of our (hopefully) new tenants this Spring.

In doing the research, we learned we need a bird box with a relatively small opening. We also need to create some sort of deterrent for small animals like raccoons and snakes that could raid the nest. We also needed to be mindful of making sure the house was level and didn’t take on water inside.

We stretched this project out over several months, just because this wasn’t urgent, but I’m so glad we got both houses up and in time for Spring.

If you want to try a similar project- here’s what we did

Parts List

Nature’s Way Cedar Blue Bird House - We opted for a ready-made house with the clean out access on the side rather than the front. We figured this was slightly less invasive. The Nature’s Way bird house also comes with what they call a ‘predator guard’ which is the thicker piece of wood surrounding the entrance hole. This is designed to deter animals from chewing their way inside the bird house. Link to purchase.

2x4 cedar posts- We picked up a couple of 2x4 posts from our local big box store. These are sold in 8’ lengths.

Concrete- We used two bags of quick setting concrete per post and some varying sized stones to create a level base. My husband Patrick made a small square form for the concrete, used and stones and mixed the concrete according to the package instruction. You’ll need to be mindful of the temperature when you mix the concrete so it sets properly.

Post backets- The post brackets were also picked up at our local big box store. The reason for the brackets is to keep the post feet from sitting in water after a rain. This will help the the posts last longer.

Scrap wood- We used some scrap wood from another project to attach the bird house to the post- we painted this black to match the roof. If you don’t use wood, you’ll need another means of attaching the house to the post.

Baffel- We think this baffle is essential for deterring carnivorous animals from climbing the pole to enter the bird house. While we don’t anticipate a problem from squirrels we think this will deter the many snakes we have on our property from gaining entry into the bird house. If you use a 2x4 be sure the baffel is designed for use with the post. Link to purchase.

Streamers- This next option caused a bit of disagreement between Patrick and me. Research suggests using streamers to deter sparrows from moving in to the bird houses. Silver streaming thingys aren’t the cutest, but you got to do what you got to do to protect the blue birds, right? Link to purchase.

I’d love to know what you think? Are you planning a blue bird house build? How did it turn out? Comment below.