Bat House Forum

[cloudman75]

Hello All,
I counted 72 Little Browns on exit tonight. I shined my light up to see if all had flown out. There were several bats still in the house and about a dozen little pups as a guess running around. This is a 5 chamber larger vented house.
Last year pups were observed on June 2. Also my unvented bat house has had a single Big Brown in it for a week now.
No other bats have used the house so far.
This is the first big brown that I have seen in the several years that I have had bat houses. We have had an early spring here as compared to last year. Last year we had a late frost. I went back with my camera and tried three shots, but did not get a clear shot. 5 bats are hanging right side up which indicates they are in labor. I hesitated to disturb them further.
I just checked the Big brown and it was gone at 11:15 PM. There is one big brown pup in the bat house. Big browns do have pups as a single bat in a bat house. I had no previous experience with big browns and this is a good start for 2009. I suspect the big brown will leave when it gets hot as the house is unvented and painted a dark color at the top half.

[Terry Lobdell]

That is interesting about the big brown.........I had never heard about a mother and pup roosting alone.........

[cloudman75]

Terry,
As I said, I know nothing about big browns as this is my first one. It is possible that it was excluded somewhere and was ready to have the pup so took up residence in my extra warm unvented dark colored bat house. I had built this one
as previously posted to attract bats in spring when my regular vented large bat house was too cold for pups. This one
has all screening on the baffles and a 1 inch spacing on the back chamber. that is where the big brown stays.It is three chambers on a 20 ft metal pole. This could be an isolated happening for a big brown, but I'm happy to have it.

[cloudman75]

Where I had one big brown bat, I now have 3 plus 14 little brown adults in with them.There are four big brown pups running around. They are much darker and larger than the little browns. Would someone please tell me how many pups big browns have on the east coast? I have read that they have two, is this generally the case? All three of my bat houses are in use.
I have not made an exit count on the other two houses but there are more flying out than I have had in the past.
There are little browns for the most part with quite a few smaller than little browns plus the three big browns.
Thanks for any big brown info.

Frank

[Joe Spencer]

Would someone please tell me how many pups big browns have on the east coast? I have read that they have two, is this generally the case? All three of my bat houses are in use.

Frank

Great news there Frank. FYI the usual litter size is indeed two pups in the eastern United States, and one pup in the western U.S.

Joe