Hi. As spring is slowly arriving I'm thinking of making some bird boxes for the people in my locality and on Facebook. My question is. Would it be ok to make the bird boxes out of treated timber eg 4x1 or 6x1 or should I make them out of untreated timber as I've seen on the net that it may harm the birds? Any advice would be appreciated Many thanks Tom️
Good advice here. https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/read-and-learn/helping-birds/nestboxes/ I use make them from exterior ply,& a piece of felt covering the ply roof, but I see nowaday, they no longer use felt. Around here I have to put metal plate around t its nest boxes hole due to squirrels. You might be lucky & get them using it in the first year.
Made dozens of bird boxes over the years mainly out of exterior ply, have found that birds do not like treated timber boxes, raw (untreated)wood which will last for several years with no problems.
Thank you kiab. And astramax. I suppose I could make loads out of a sheet of ext ply glue them and nail them together
I was think of doing this to use up all the off cuts of timber I produce. The saw these in my local Costco and realised there wasn't much money in it http://www.costco.co.uk/view/c/food-wine-household/pets-wildlife/wild-birds
Yes I know sospan but I'm also going to make planters and window boxes just for a bit of extra money and something I enjoy doing in the lighter nights ahead. I've already got 2 boxes to make on the weekend
Just had a look, this one stood out as being really cheap for all the detail. http://www.costco.co.uk/view/p/garden-bazaar-prairie-farmhouse-bird-house-30-x-25-x-36cm-148913 Somebody gave it a 1* rated, saying its poor quality, look at the price!!!, what did they expect, Buckingham Palace.
Remember to put a link to this website in the bird box so that the bird can visit this site in case he needs to fix something!
I have seen them in store, they are quite good quality and robust. It is one of those things looks like a good idea to make then when you price them up in terms of labour and materials and the number sold per week, doesn't add up to much and the low end is only £8 and easily available
Think I may have house sparrow nesting in front porch, made some repairs to slates. The gap between the verge board and under slate wasn't filled in at the time as was planning on re-tiling using natural slate. Have seen a sparrow on a number of times going into the void which is about and inch deep.