# Just a Bird House?



## DonkeyHody (Jan 22, 2015)

A few years ago, we fell in love with Bluebirds. Bluebirds will happily nest in a box that any 6th grader can knock together with hammer and nails. However, I just couldn't bring myself to give someone such a rudimentary bluebird house. I decided on an octagon house with a cone-shaped octagon roof. 

Many of us can put together an octagon, but a cone taxed my trigonometry skills to the max. A while back, I built a spreadsheet to calculate the compound angles involved in a tapered bucket. That same spreadsheet will calculate a cone if you set the small end diameter to zero. 

My Wixey tablesaw angle gauge was just the ticket to accurately set the angle of the taper jig. 

The challenges aren't over when you get the pie-shaped pieces cut. I had endless frustration the first time I tried to hold a cone together for gluing. Finally, I saw a video where someone used masking tape to hold pieces together. It worked like a charm. Even my strap clamps wouldn't hold on a cone. So I wrapped the whole thing in a spiral of electrical tape to add some pressure.


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## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

That's nice. Just hope the hole is the proper size. I found out some years back that some birds are very particular about the hole size in bird houses. Somewhere there is even a list of what size holes for what birds. Who would have thought?


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## DonkeyHody (Jan 22, 2015)

JOAT said:


> That's nice. Just hope the hole is the proper size. I found out some years back that some birds are very particular about the hole size in bird houses. Somewhere there is even a list of what size holes for what birds. Who would have thought?


Why of course the hole size is right! It's 1 1/2 inches diameter, which is recommended for Eastern Bluebirds. Western Bluebirds are slightly larger, and prefer a 1 9/16 inch hole.


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## jj777746 (Jan 17, 2015)

Hi Andy, that is a very nice nest box you've made.Hope you don't mind me poking my nose in with a bit of advice that you already know,but if the birds don't seem to want to live in it you could paint it a more natural colour.We don't have Bluebirds where I live so I cant suggest what would be the best colour but the less conspicuous the better.
Best wishes, James.


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

I wouldn't care if the birds moved in or not, they would make splendid yard ornaments, Make a whole bunch different sizes. A wonderful exercise in mathematics. Thanks for posting.
It even has a door in the front with hinges and hasp.
Herb


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## DonkeyHody (Jan 22, 2015)

jj777746 said:


> Hi Andy, that is a very nice nest box you've made.Hope you don't mind me poking my nose in with a bit of advice that you already know,but if the birds don't seem to want to live in it you could paint it a more natural colour.We don't have Bluebirds where I live so I cant suggest what would be the best colour but the less conspicuous the better.
> Best wishes, James.


The experts say you're right. But this new birdhouse is a copy, including the color, of one I have had in my yard for 3 years. We have had 3 to 4 clutches of babies raised in the painted house each year.


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## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

DonkeyHody said:


> Why of course the hole size is right! It's 1 1/2 inches diameter, which is recommended for Eastern Bluebirds. Western Bluebirds are slightly larger, and prefer a 1 9/16 inch hole.


Well, I figured you had it right, just had to check. Really, 1/16" difference? Who checks this kind of stuff? We have southern bluebirds around here, wonder what size hole they would want? 
:grin: Out of curiosity, how long did it take you to make that? 

What amazes me is that people will pay good money for a birdhouse, then keep it in the house as decoration. Makes a lot more sense to me to put one outside so you can watch the birds.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

I'm preaching to the choir here I know, but the houses should have an easily removed bottom, and the houses should be thoroughly cleaned at the end of the nesting season...parasites winter over in the nesting material if you don't.


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## DonkeyHody (Jan 22, 2015)

JOAT said:


> Well, I figured you had it right, just had to check. Really, 1/16" difference? Who checks this kind of stuff? We have southern bluebirds around here, wonder what size hole they would want?
> :grin: Out of curiosity, how long did it take you to make that?
> 
> What amazes me is that people will pay good money for a birdhouse, then keep it in the house as decoration. Makes a lot more sense to me to put one outside so you can watch the birds.


I believe the Bluebirds of the Carolinas are also Eastern Bluebirds. They would also like a 1 1/2 inch entrance hole, I'm sure. 

I built this house in a couple of evenings, probably 3 hours total, not counting the painting. But I had the advantage of already having built one a few years ago. The first one took many experiments and scrap wood. I'm fairly good at spatial relations, but those tapers and compound angles really vexed me at first.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Bird house stuff:
Bird House Dimensions Chart for Bird House Plans by Species
https://www.spokaneaudubon.org/page-280285


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Andy you really could have just nailed something together and made this easy. Provided you were never going to see again of course. That was a clever use of taper jig and inclination gauge. I'm curious if you used a compound cutting angle chart to get the angles. I found one a while back and tried it but it didn't work and there no illustrations to explain the use of the values in the tables so I must have been doing something wrong.


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## DonkeyHody (Jan 22, 2015)

Cherryville Chuck said:


> Andy you really could have just nailed something together and made this easy. Provided you were never going to see again of course. That was a clever use of taper jig and inclination gauge. I'm curious if you used a compound cutting angle chart to get the angles. I found one a while back and tried it but it didn't work and there no illustrations to explain the use of the values in the tables so I must have been doing something wrong.


Several years ago, I built this spreadsheet when I was designing a 12 sided bucket with tapered sides. I've used it for several other things, including both the body and roof of the bird house. To make a cone, just set the diameter of the small end to zero.


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## hawkeye10 (Jul 28, 2015)

DonkeyHody said:


> Why of course the hole size is right! It's 1 1/2 inches diameter, which is recommended for Eastern Bluebirds. Western Bluebirds are slightly larger, and prefer a 1 9/16 inch hole.


Andy, I have built several bluebird houses in my time but nothing like yours.


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

Thanks for the PDF. I love the birds. I buy 50 lb bags of shelled sunflower seeds and set them out on the ground and in a couple of feeders. We often have 30-50 birds there in the morning. I haven't successfully set up a birdhouse, but I've discovered the little tweeters like to nest on a board set just under the eaves of the house, although they seem to prefer the dense foilage of a line of cedars that lines the property. Hard to imagine the little things are so fussy about the opening, but I guess they don't want some large raven or other larger bird poking their heads into the nest and murdering their brood.


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## DonkeyHody (Jan 22, 2015)

DesertRatTom said:


> Thanks for the PDF. I love the birds. I buy 50 lb bags of shelled sunflower seeds and set them out on the ground and in a couple of feeders. We often have 30-50 birds there in the morning. I haven't successfully set up a birdhouse, but I've discovered the little tweeters like to nest on a board set just under the eaves of the house, although they seem to prefer the dense foilage of a line of cedars that lines the property. Hard to imagine the little things are so fussy about the opening, but I guess they don't want some large raven or other larger bird poking their heads into the nest and murdering their brood.


Do you have Bluebirds? They'll eat a little peanut suet at certain times of the year, but their favorite food is mealworms. They'll eat dried mealworms,
https://www.amazon.com/F-M-Browns-F...d=1517889204&sr=8-17&keywords=dried+mealworms

but their favorite by far are the juicy live ones. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009VI0QJ...ac9e-8eca2f98c4a4&ie=UTF8&qid=1517889369&sr=1

I buy them 1,000 at a time online. I have a special feeder that only the bluebirds and birds smaller than them can enter. I whistle for them when I put out a handful of live mealworms, and they quickly learned that my whistle means good chow! 

We also put out Niger Seed for the Goldfinches when they pass through in January thru March, and Sunflower seeds for everybody else. Oh, and sugar water for the hummingbirds all summer, especially in August and September when they are headed South for the winter. It's a slippery slope, feeding birds is. Who knows what I've spent on them.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

regular bird's paradise..
KUDOS...
but what do you do to run off the squirrels...


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Thanks Andy. When I tried the other one I found I was trying to make a Pagoda roof shaped top for a small box. I'll have to give this a try when I get a chance to see if it applies.

I was going to mention before that I saw an ingenious way to keep cats and squirrels away from bird feeders the other day. A facebook post showed a feeder on an arm off a steel pole and they had mounted a Slinky hanging from the top of the post. As soon as the squirrel tried to climb the Slinky it lowered the animal back down to the ground relatively gently.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

I managed to find video of it: Slinky solution devised to keep squirrels from bird feeder | abc7.com


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

Cherryville Chuck said:


> . As soon as the squirrel tried to climb the Slinky it lowered the animal back down to the ground relatively gently.


now if it loaded them into an air powered launcher (think potato gun) or a catapult/trebuchet we'd have something...


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## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

Stick486 said:


> now if it loaded them into an air powered launcher (think potato gun) or a catapult/trebuchet we'd have something...


I can fly, I can fly, I can fly.
This is one of my favorites.


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

We used to keep sweet water for the hummers, but the sugar drew ants. Once had a hummer build a nest on a branch in a window so we could watch the tiny birds go from eggs the size of jelly beans into chicks the size of the tip of a little finger, until they left, near full size a very short time later. Stick, we don't have squirrels, we have chipmonks, which like squirrels and cute rats. They love sunflower seeds, which is their downfall. I set live catch traps for them with sunflower as bait and cleared out a dozen on my property. My neighbors got another dozen. I relocated mine, but the neighbors weren't so kind. Now the dogs keep them away. My property is a real haven for critters--but the rabbits have eaten all the edible stuff and moved on. We have a number of slightly larger birds, but they like the wilder places. Hawks, woodpeckers, jays come around, and so do flocks of ravens and even sea gulls, which circle the area in graceful aerial ballets. Living in the desert has its compensations.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

What a wonderful job Andy and a terrific photo-shoot, what a pity that more members don't show HOW they made their project.
I'm sure that a set of MITRESETS would make the cutting of angles very simple.


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## jj777746 (Jan 17, 2015)

Thanks for showing how it's done Andy,I will be making a few of these nice nest boxes to place around our back yard like Herb suggested.Even if they don't get lived in they sure will look good.


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## DonkeyHody (Jan 22, 2015)

Stick486 said:


> regular bird's paradise..
> KUDOS...
> but what do you do to run off the squirrels...


Bentley's main goal in life (aside from riding with me on my tricycle) is keeping the squirrels in the trees and off the ground. But when Bentley isn't around, squirrel baffles keep them from climbing the feeder pole.


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## DonkeyHody (Jan 22, 2015)

Cherryville Chuck said:


> Thanks Andy. When I tried the other one I found I was trying to make a Pagoda roof shaped top for a small box. I'll have to give this a try when I get a chance to see if it applies.
> 
> I was going to mention before that I saw an ingenious way to keep cats and squirrels away from bird feeders the other day. A facebook post showed a feeder on an arm off a steel pole and they had mounted a Slinky hanging from the top of the post. As soon as the squirrel tried to climb the Slinky it lowered the animal back down to the ground relatively gently.


I like it! And entertaining too!


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## DonkeyHody (Jan 22, 2015)

harrysin said:


> What a wonderful job Andy and a terrific photo-shoot, what a pity that more members don't show HOW they made their project.
> I'm sure that a set of MITRESETS would make the cutting of angles very simple.


I never knew there was such a thing as MiterSet. Thanks! I already have an Incra Miter Gauge

https://www.amazon.com/Incra-MITER1...pID=41oQZ7Wkk3L&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

Don't know how I ever got by without it. 

The cutting itself is easy enough once you get the process in your mind. All the pictures I see of the taper jig show the wide end of the jig toward the user. It was a Eureka moment for me when I turned it around the other way. 

The hard part of the cone is calculating the compound angles once you've decided what the dimensions need to be. That's why I built the spreadsheet to do that.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

DonkeyHody said:


> Bentley's main goal in life (aside from riding with me on my tricycle) is keeping the squirrels in the trees and off the ground. But when Bentley isn't around, squirrel baffles keep them from climbing the feeder pole.


Did YOU build the recumbent bike Andy?


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## DonkeyHody (Jan 22, 2015)

harrysin said:


> Did YOU build the recumbent bike Andy?


No, the Recumbent Tricycle is a Greenspeed GT-20 built in Australia. 

GreenSpeed GT20 Trike

The trike and luggage rack are stock, as delivered. I did build the box on the back for Bentley. It's just a 3/8 plywood bottom with 3/8 dowel columns and aluminum angle for the rail at the top. It fastens to the luggage rack with zip ties for easy removal. I have since covered the aluminum rail with the round foam insulation meant for water pipes. It gives Bentley some traction when he puts his paws on the rail to get his face in the wind. 

The dog tends to wag the tail of the trike when he moves suddenly back there. With the quick go-cart steering, that can be a little disconcerting when going downhill at 25 MPH.


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## TenGees (Sep 12, 2012)

DonkeyHody said:


> ...All the pictures I see of the taper jig show the wide end of the jig toward the user. It was a Eureka moment for me when I turned it around the other way...


Andy doesn't the work want to move away from the jig and thus bind on the blade?

I like your birdhouse. The button on top is a great way to finish the peak.


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## DonkeyHody (Jan 22, 2015)

TenGees said:


> Andy doesn't the work want to move away from the jig and thus bind on the blade?


Yes, that is a little more of an issue when the taper jig is set up the "wrong" way. I have a push-stick with a rubber tip that I use to hold the workpiece tight against the fence. If I were making them more than one at a time, I'd build a carrier sled so I could clamp the workpiece down to the sled.


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## OPG3 (Jan 9, 2011)

My wife is an avid birdwatcher and therefore I am her "gofer" and helper. I was crippled for 14 years - flat on my back. My method of going from point A to point B was to crawl to the car. Then I met Dr Thomas Price (yes, the former secretary of HHS under President Trump) and he urged me to seek his help for my very serious lower back injury. He said mine would take surgery and a miracle - it was one of the worse he had ever seen and I was very near lower body paralysis! Lying on my back, I was inventing things and had employees come to me for drawings of what to build next. After my surgery, I came-up with an idea of how to tie a knot up-in-a-tree anywhere in a tree that an athletic person could throw a softball. I remember having my guys come-over to see what I had developed. They initially thought I had over-dosed on pain medicine, but I got them to bring me some specific hardware and 1/4" diameter rope as I laid there and showed it to them.

It is told that when Native Americans went to build a long-span rope bridge, they first had one of them positioned on each side of whatever gorge they planned to bridge. Each person had bows and arrows. First man shoots a thin string to the other until eventually they have progressively sent increasing diameters of ropes across the gorge. So forth an so on - and I used the same principle to have the 1/4" diameter rope hanging over the preferred tree limb. Then, I instructed them on using my method of tying a knot (as high as one needs) with one's feet never leaving the ground! In this manner my daughters (very young at the time) were able to let-down the feeder to ground level, fill it with bird seed and then send it up as high as the supportive limb! We've been feeding birds ever since that time and I guess it reminds me of those years that I was crippled.

Bluebirds (I'm in Georgia - so we have Eastern Bluebirds) prefer a nest box about 5 or 6 feet high on a post (not on a tree), with a 1.5" diameter hole on one side. Bluebird nests should not be closer than 150 feet apart - they like their privacy. Our Bluebirds don't eat sunflower seed (while dozens of other bird species do), but rather have a preference for mealworms. I raise mealworms (_Tenebrio molitor_) year-round and it's extremely easy to do. Since I have a reptile collection, I have numerous cylindrical ceramic bowls and I simply place a couple dozen mealworms in a bowl in my back yard and quite soon the Bluebirds will consume everyone of said mealworms. Often only the male picks-up the mealworms to deliver to his "wife" - it's really interesting to see them do this. Another interesting fact about Bluebirds is that the ones that hatched and fledged from the first clutch work to help with the hatchlings from the second clutch! Someone mentioned here three or four clutches, but all we have observed here were two clutches per season. Bluebirds are a lot of fun and do learn to recognize and appreciate calm and non-threatening households and they will fly to Joy or I to accept food from bowls that we place nearby.

Otis Guillebeau from Auburn, Georgia, USA


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## DonkeyHody (Jan 22, 2015)

OPG3 said:


> My wife is an avid birdwatcher and therefore I am her "gofer" and helper. I was crippled for 14 years - flat on my back. My method of going from point A to point B was to crawl to the car. Then I met Dr Thomas Price (yes, the former secretary of HHS under President Trump) and he urged me to seek his help for my very serious lower back injury. He said mine would take surgery and a miracle - it was one of the worse he had ever seen and I was very near lower body paralysis! Lying on my back, I was inventing things and had employees come to me for drawings of what to build next. After my surgery, I came-up with an idea of how to tie a knot up-in-a-tree anywhere in a tree that an athletic person could throw a softball. I remember having my guys come-over to see what I had developed. They initially thought I had over-dosed on pain medicine, but I got them to bring me some specific hardware and 1/4" diameter rope as I laid there and showed it to them.
> 
> It is told that when Native Americans went to build a long-span rope bridge, they first had one of them positioned on each side of whatever gorge they planned to bridge. Each person had bows and arrows. First man shoots a thin string to the other until eventually they have progressively sent increasing diameters of ropes across the gorge. So forth an so on - and I used the same principle to have the 1/4" diameter rope hanging over the preferred tree limb. Then, I instructed them on using my method of tying a knot (as high as one needs) with one's feet never leaving the ground! In this manner my daughters (very young at the time) were able to let-down the feeder to ground level, fill it with bird seed and then send it up as high as the supportive limb! We've been feeding birds ever since that time and I guess it reminds me of those years that I was crippled.
> 
> ...


WOW! What a story! We just never know what lives each other have led unless we share. So glad you were able to get help after all that time. 
I use a slingshot to shoot a heavy fishing weight that's hooked to 4 pound test line on my ultralight reel to get a rope over a high limb. I can shoot better than I can throw. 

My particular pair of birds seem to be exceptionally prolific, even for this area. They start nesting much earlier than other bluebirds around here. They have a nest under construction today. They often have a couple of eggs in the first clutch of the season that never hatch. Maybe cold weather? But they've raised 4 clutches a year for the past 2 years.


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## DonkeyHody (Jan 22, 2015)

DaninVan said:


> I'm preaching to the choir here I know, but the houses should have an easily removed bottom, and the houses should be thoroughly cleaned at the end of the nesting season...parasites winter over in the nesting material if you don't.


I monitor my Bluebirds' activities carefully. As soon as each batch of fledglings leave the nest, I remove all the old nesting material, take the birdhouse into the shop and wash the inside thoroughly with hot water and a scrub brush. I leave the door open with the house in the sun to dry it out until evening. Then it is ready for the next nest, although it will usually be a week or so before they start building again. 

Update on another comment: Someone advised against the bright colors and I basically said the birds like it just fine. Here's the REST of the story: 
It's well known that Bluebirds are very territorial and won't nest closer than about 100 feet from another Bluebird nest, although they don't seem to mind some other species being next door. I've even seen them nesting in Purple Martin houses alongside the Martins. 

My nesting pair allowed three young males from the last clutch of the fall to hang around all winter. So, I knocked together a traditional Bluebird house of unpainted western red cedar fence boards. I set it up across the yard from the blue house and out of sight of it. 
This being the Deep South, I figured maybe Mom and Dad would let Junior and his bride live in the house trailer next door. Within the last couple of days, Mom and Dad have sent all three Young'uns off to seek their fortunes. And Mom and Dad moved into the unpainted shack next door.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Maybe they like the 'new house' smell?


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## Knothead47 (Feb 10, 2010)

I passed up a book at a used book store about building various types of birdhouses and a set of spec's for hole size, etc. Should have bought it. Who would have thought building a wood box with a hole in it would be so complicated?


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## DonkeyHody (Jan 22, 2015)

Knothead47 said:


> I passed up a book at a used book store about building various types of birdhouses and a set of spec's for hole size, etc. Should have bought it. Who would have thought building a wood box with a hole in it would be so complicated?


I don't know a lot about other species, but I've done a bit of research on bluebirds. Some avid bluebird watchers have actually conducted experiments where they placed houses side-by-side that were identical except for hole size. Then they'd see which house the birds actually used. They've also tested other variables such as box size etc. I'm guessing others have done the same sort of experiments for other species. The main thing about hole size with bluebirds is to keep larger birds, especially starlings, out of the box, but still allow the bluebirds in. Truth is, I don't think the birds themselves are all that fussy until they are offered choices. They certainly don't require an octagon shaped box with a cone-shaped roof. That was just me showing off.


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## DonkeyHody (Jan 22, 2015)

I put the Bluebird House up last Friday outside the windows at my Physical Therapy facility. The therapists said bluebirds were checking out the house within 10 minutes after I left. This hopeful fellow was still hanging around this morning. I feel sure we'll have a nest under construction within a week.


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## jj777746 (Jan 17, 2015)

Hi Andy, every picture tells a story & what a beautiful story your picture tells. The Bluebird atop your (his) nestbox is claiming ownership right now. This story, to be continued..James.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

DonkeyHody said:


> I put the Bluebird House up last Friday outside the windows at my Physical Therapy facility. The therapists said bluebirds were checking out the house within 10 minutes after I left. This hopeful fellow was still hanging around this morning. I feel sure we'll have a nest under construction within a week.


dude...

..


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Colour coordinating your tenants and their new apartment; how classy is that!


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