Bird Box

[Benchwayze]

I noticed that since my neighbour put a feeding station and bird boxes in her garden, my plot gets sparrowhawks. (And one hawk that didn't hang around long enough to be identified... It was blue-grey on the back and had the 'fletch' marks on its tail.)

So I am happy to see these rarities in my 'little acre'.!

John

 

[doctor Bob]

Do you have a market for them or are you just hoping to sell them once made? Looking at the internet prices, about £6 a box you need to turn them out fairly rapidly to make a profit.

 

[Harbo]

Female Sparrowhawks fit that description.
If it's as large as a Buzzard maybe a Goshawk but they are quite rare?

Rod

 

[Benchwayze]

Thanks Rod,

I found pictures of the Hobby, which looked much closer to what I saw, but they too are quite rare. So on balance it must have been a sparrowhawk.

We do have buzzards around here now, and in Brum there are Peregrines that have taken up residence in condemned blocks of flats. I never thought when I was working on those flats in the 60s that I was helping to build the world's biggest bird box!

John

 

[joiner_sim]

Do you have a market for them or are you just hoping to sell them once made? Looking at the internet prices, about £6 a box you need to turn them out fairly rapidly to make a profit.

Well, it's firstly just an attempt to make a bit of extra cash from offcuts as already said. I can do all the cutting at work, I cut out 7 boxes last week in about 20minutes at max on the panel saw. The assembly... well I'm not sure how long it takes, I have only assembled the one in this topic photographed. And as it was the first and typically a one-off probably took longer than it will to do a batch of 7 in one go.

Although the hole on the box in question photographed isn't sized for the likes of a blue tit, it is sized large enough for house sparrows and nuthatches & possibly starlings - although 45mm is recommended for those. I have just sold it for £5.99 including P&P. Going to see how well it is recieved first, also check how much of that money I recieve after charges and then I'll adjust my pricing accordingly for the next 7 to be made. If they sell well, more will be made. I'm also in process of designing a wall/fence mounted feeding table & if you have looked on the general forum, you'll see I'm making a bird table for a neighbour too, that will be out of timber though! - I have a few decent 220x19mm & 44x44mm & 95x95mm offcuts, but not as much as the ply thats going!