Bird Nest Boxes On Farms?

Stigura

I'm not a farmer. But, I know several. And, I can't get the same, straight, story out of any two of them regarding the scheme/s where by they get a grant for putting nest boxes up.

Perfect example; A neighbour asked me, just the other night, if I could make him a Bat Nursery Box. In the ensuing discussion, I asked; 'Did he not only get something stupid, like a few yo for each box?'

His reply was that, " Noooooo! It's Much more than that! " He then went on to explain he'd had to pay some 'expert' €500.00, just to come and see if his farm was suited to bat boxes.

But, yes; Half a dozen farmers. Half a dozen different stories. Just wondered if you people could untangle some truth, please?

Thanks

kollegeknight

Stigura wrote: »

I'm not a farmer. But, I know several. And, I can't get the same, straight, story out of any two of them regarding the scheme/s where by they get a grant for putting nest boxes up.

Perfect example; A neighbour asked me, just the other night, if I could make him a Bat Nursery Box. In the ensuing discussion, I asked; 'Did he not only get something stupid, like a few yo for each box?'

His reply was that, " Noooooo! It's Much more than that! " He then went on to explain he'd had to pay some 'expert' €500.00, just to come and see if his farm was suited to bat boxes.

But, yes; Half a dozen farmers. Half a dozen different stories. Just wondered if you people could untangle some truth, please?

Thanks

They are part of the glas scheme- around €13/bat box per year but there is a limit io numbers.

In our case, we have land for hen harrier segment and can do very little with the place bar graze it during breeding season and for 19Ha my Mam gets €7000 per year.
If you go to the link below, you will see payment levels and also dimensions for the boxes in question.

https://www.agriculture.gov.ie/farmerschemespayments/glas/glastranche1/

Stigura

Fair play on the harriers!

Unfortunately; That link just took me to their annual report sheets. A search on " Nest Boxes " led me to a form for recording what ye doing with the land too.

kollegeknight

Stigura wrote: »

Fair play on the harriers!

Unfortunately; That link just took me to their annual report sheets. A search on " Nest Boxes " led me to a form for recording what ye doing with the land too.

Second file from the bottom is the specifications and fourth from the bottom is the terms for the scheme inclucing costings

Stigura

Thanks. God forbid the birds should ever read that " advice ".

Well, my bat seeking neighbour must have his full quota of proper bird boxes. I have ten starling boxes on his cow shed and various others scattered around the place.

None of that explains his paying €500.00 to get someone to check his ground though

Oh well. I guess it's not really my business. I just make boxes.

kollegeknight

Stigura wrote: »

Thanks. God forbid the birds should ever read that " advice ".

Well, my bat seeking neighbour must have his full quota of proper bird boxes. I have ten starling boxes on his cow shed and various others scattered around the place.

None of that explains his paying €500.00 to get someone to check his ground though

Oh well. I guess it's not really my business. I just make boxes.

Well max payments for glas is €5000/year for 5 years unless it’s a specific habitat like twite or hen Harrier which has a €2000 top up depending on acres etc.

So the €500 fee could net up to €25000 before costs. Again depends on acres and actions that have to be done.

Locally a bat box costs €15 each and then makes €13 per year so could make €50 over the 5 years if not broken or lost.

Base price

The €500 you refer too is a once off cost that is paid to a DAFM approved agri advisor that was required to prepare and submit the farm specific plan in order to qualify for the GLAS scheme.

Stigura

He wants a Nursery box, for the bats. I don't know where he's getting all this from. But, he now has some woman on his back who's being extremely specific about everything.

I'll build him an industry standard Bat Nursery. But, this woman's talking about it having to be a given size and be placed in some window Thank god I don't have to deal with people!

Stigura

Cheers, Base Price. Perhaps he's blowing smoke then, to give the impression he's a poor, hard done by farmer, struggling to do right? Only, the glorious stone wall and magnificent gates he had added to his place, last year, could lead one to suspect .....

I don't care. I'm in it for the wildlife. No one gives me a bent cent.

enricoh

A neighbour of mine has the bat boxes up as part of some scheme.
2 lads from the dept of agriculture came out to check that he had them up n wasnt falsely claiming. He couldn't remember where all of them were n 2 couldnt be found. The 2 lads came back a week later to confirm the two boxes existed.
The two lads were probably on 50k each n mileage allowance. What a use of taxpayers money!

Base price

enricoh wrote: »

A neighbour of mine has the bat boxes up as part of some scheme.
2 lads from the dept of agriculture came out to check that he had them up n wasnt falsely claiming. He couldn't remember where all of them were n 2 couldnt be found. The 2 lads came back a week later to confirm the two boxes existed.
The two lads were probably on 50k each n mileage allowance. What a use of taxpayers money!

I doubt the accuracy of your story because the location of bat and bird boxes has to be marked on the maps that correspond to the LIPP number when the plan is submitted.
A GLAS inspector can conduct an audit without the farmer needing to be present.

Stigura

That's what confuses me, Enricoh. I'm deaf as a post and generally a bit distracted. I probably don't catch half of what most people say to me, verbally. But, I'm pretty certain Noel was saying that he had to pay some lad €500.00 to come check his place, for the bats, specifically.

The added beauty being that this guy didn't drive! So, Noel had to go to Longford, to collect him. Then ferry him back! :eek:

What ever. I was just trying to catch the smoke, out of idol curiosity and because every report I get seems to conflict with the last and next.

Personally, I'm far more interested in pointing out the benefits of starlings, to grass farmers. Then, at least ensuring they have the right boxes, in the right places.

Some of the antics I've seen ~ whether under GLAS or not ~ are just heart breaking.

Dinzee Conlee

enricoh wrote: »

A neighbour of mine has the bat boxes up as part of some scheme.
2 lads from the dept of agriculture came out to check that he had them up n wasnt falsely claiming. He couldn't remember where all of them were n 2 couldnt be found. The 2 lads came back a week later to confirm the two boxes existed.
The two lads were probably on 50k each n mileage allowance. What a use of taxpayers money!

They probably were on 50k a year, maybe more. And most likely got mileage too... But that’s the job - it’s been like that a long time...

And if you think about it even more - they are being paid taxpayers money, to come out to check how you doing getting taxpayers money (SFP, GLAS, etc)
The money we farmers get doesn’t grow on trees, if only...

So, which is the bigger waste of taxpayers money? The farmer getting paid to have bat boxes, or the lad that’s being paid to check the bat boxes?

Birdnuts

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

have bat boxes, or the lad that’s being paid to check the bat boxes?

It would help alot if these so called inspectors had a clue about the right places to put them or had any knowledge of bats/birds at all!!:rolleyes:

Stigura

Nuts nails it!

blue5000

AFAIK a bat nursery box is wider with slots only about 3/4 inch deep compared to an ordinary bat box.

http://baldwinfurniture.com/bat/

Any idea what scheme the farmer was in OP or was he doing it 'off his own bat':D?

Stigura

:rolleyes: His own bat ..... Very good, Blue

No. I've no idea what sort of scheme he's into, in honesty. Like I say; I barely even run into the guy a few times a year. And then only in passing. It's not like we've ever sat and had a pint together.

I just can't get my head around the contradictions though. I mean; I'm sure I read ~ on that GLAS site ~ they're supposed to only hang one box on any tree or building face? And their man will be round to inspect everything?

Yet, only the other day, my boss said how he visited his cousin and the lunatic had Five boxes, hung all over a tree.

The site definitely says ye get €6.00 per box. Is it up to a maximum of ten? Yet, when I mentioned that very point, to my neighbour, the other evening? He went all dark and mysterious and breathed that it was " Much more than that! "

Okay then. Well, let's accept that he has (at least) ten of my Starling boxes. That's €60.00 a year. Well, whoopee!!! The man must be looking at early retirement now! :rolleyes:

And, those ten boxes are all in a row. Closer together than the desk jokey who wrote the conditions states they're allowed to be. Where's the man supposed to be inspecting all this? It's a mess of contradictions.

Anyway; If Noel decides he Does want me to make his box? Of course I will. It's pretty much 'what I do' But, I'll be sure to try and pin him down and answer some questions. If only to stop it making me look like an idiot on fora.

Stationmaster

Slightly off topic but anyone recommend an Irish made bird/bat/owl box please? Looking for a few. Thanks.

Stigura

Stationmaster; Need a bit more detail, please. What species are ye looking for?

Don't imagine ye able to reach Leitrim, are ye?

Stigura

Ooh! Ooh! Hot footing it back to this one! Noel's just swung by again!

Seems he's inviting the neighborhood up to his farmyard on the road, tomorrow. (He has two yards) He said someone from the Heritage would be there. As would " The Bat Woman ". Tea and biscuits on hand

Don't ask me! I won't know anything until I've been up there! But, it seems he's having a Granary done up. I'm vaguely familiar with the building he's talking about. I never even considered what it might be.

So, there it is ~ such as it is. I guess he's restoring some wonderful old building and is getting a kick back for so doing. How bats came into the equation, god only knows!

Can't do me any real harm to show my face though. I've decided to start producing my range of boxes commercially. If you can come to me, collect them? I can absolutely cut the legs out from any other supplier I can find.

Posting them would wreck the whole thing. More to post a box than I'd charge For the box! Don't know about couriers?

But, as I'm really looking at farmers? I have an even Better (Quite ridiculously low, really!) price in mind for ten. Ten being ideal, for a small colony of starlings. And, of course, it fits neatly in with the GLAS grant

So, yeah, any glas registered farmer, taking ten of my boxes, would have a hell of a good harvest! Screw their loaves and a community would come together to order up a shed load; Then pool the petrol money to send a van :cool:

Either way, I'm investing in a Mitre Saw.

Say my name

I'm a bit clueless on the bird boxes.
But I assume the bird boxes made for these schemes, some are made from softwood?

If so they'd really only last a few years before rotting and falling off the trees or buildings, etc.

Anyway just thinking out loud. I'd say there could be an opening for boxes made from stokbord.

ganmo

Say my name wrote: »

I'm a bit clueless on the bird boxes.
But I assume the bird boxes made for these schemes, some are made from softwood?

If so they'd really only last a few years before rotting and falling off the trees or buildings, etc.

Anyway just thinking out loud. I'd say there could be an opening for boxes made from stokbord.

Would it not be more 'natural' to let them rot after a while

Say my name

ganmo wrote: »

Would it not be more 'natural' to let them rot after a while

Yea but the bird mighnt thank you.
Half way through the season and a clutch of eggs and the whole thing falls apart.

https://twitter.com/Borg_Owl_Raptor/status/1110922130936467456?s=20

I see the same crowd now want to try green stokbord.
It's made from recycled plastic if you want to appease your eco conscience.

Stigura

SMN; I make mine out of plain old deal planks. (I believe that's our beloved Sitka Spruce, isn't it?) And the internet is full of dire warnings that that stuff will soak, soften and ~ as ye say ~ fall off the wall inside a few years.

Funny, that. Only; I've had mine hanging off the north facing back side of my stables for Twelve Years now! :eek: No 'treatment' on any of them what so ever.

They're all thoroughly used, year round. All, still, going strong. I have tit boxes dotted around the place too. Never yet had to do a lick of repair to a single one of them. Well, that is, except for screw a new strip of wood across the faces of the couple a buck pine marten tore his way into :mad:

He went away. No problems ever since.


" Stokbord "? Is that what that stuff is? Yes. Someone's already on That bandwagon. Usual, absolutely ridiculous prices. About Forty Yo for a single starling box!!!

I've been into nest boxes for half a century now. Seriously. I wouldn't put up Plastic nest boxes if they gave me a Thousand of the things, just to get my endorsement.

Why not just put up plastic buckets with a lid on? Right sized hole? Starlings would go in them. Build a nest. Lay eggs. Eggs hatch. Young start to grow. Generating incredible body heat. Condensation. Dead young. Fantastic! But, hey; It's Recycled plastic. So it's 'Green'! Yay! Gotta be Green!

Sorry, mate. That might have come across as me having a go at You? Not at all! No way!

It's just that I'm in it for the birds. 100% and all the way. I remember the " Tony Soper Bird Box ". Plastic. Big Mistake! Whole broods found, dead, in saturated nests Now, it looks like history's due to repeat itself.

No. Fifty years of hands on ~ bordering on the level of Obsessive! ~ experience with nest boxes? I'm Still learning. Still eager for new understanding. But; I reckon I've about cracked it that what I personally do works

Say my name

Whatever works for yourself. Works!

From experience I've had a bird box put up in the garden here made from timber. Bought in a garden center. I guess it was softwood because it only lasted three years before disintegrating. So it does happen. In that three years. There was a nest just in the middle year.

I've got starlings nesting year after year in the eaves of modern sheds in the voids between the h irons and the sheeting.
No starling boxes needed here.
I can lend a few to leitrim to teach the local birds how to do it.

uck51js9zml2yt

Stigura wrote: »

Ooh! Ooh! Hot footing it back to this one! Noel's just swung by again!

Seems he's inviting the neighborhood up to his farmyard on the road, tomorrow. (He has two yards) He said someone from the Heritage would be there. As would " The Bat Woman ". Tea and biscuits on hand

Don't ask me! I won't know anything until I've been up there! But, it seems he's having a Granary done up. I'm vaguely familiar with the building he's talking about. I never even considered what it might be.

So, there it is ~ such as it is. I guess he's restoring some wonderful old building and is getting a kick back for so doing. How bats came into the equation, god only knows!

Can't do me any real harm to show my face though. I've decided to start producing my range of boxes commercially. If you can come to me, collect them? I can absolutely cut the legs out from any other supplier I can find.

Posting them would wreck the whole thing. More to post a box than I'd charge For the box! Don't know about couriers?

But, as I'm really looking at farmers? I have an even Better (Quite ridiculously low, really!) price in mind for ten. Ten being ideal, for a small colony of starlings. And, of course, it fits neatly in with the GLAS grant

So, yeah, any glas registered farmer, taking ten of my boxes, would have a hell of a good harvest! Screw their loaves and a community would come together to order up a shed load; Then pool the petrol money to send a van :cool:

Either way, I'm investing in a Mitre Saw.

Since they're farmers, they'll want you to pay them for taking the boxes from you and doing you such a huge favour

Lime Tree Farm

I remember reading this sometime back,( apart from the boast about Christmas offering of a Vacuum Cleaner??).

https://www.farmersjournal.ie/farmer-writes-buying-the-fendt-of-bird-boxes-for-glas-260436

"So I went on the internet and bought some German Schwegler Woodcrete bird boxes, which are the bee’s knees and cost as much as a penthouse suite in the IFSC. But with a guaranteed life of 20 years, they’re clearly the Fendt of bird houses. I hope the Irish birds are impressed but doesn’t every bird like a classy home that’s better than her neighbours?" Gerald Potterton Farmers Journal on 08 Mar 2017

Stigura

Say my name wrote: »

Yea but the bird mighnt thank you.
Half way through the season and a clutch of eggs and the whole thing falls apart.

Guys, behave! Simple fact of the matter is that anyone, putting up boxes For The Birds, will give said boxes the once over, at least once a year. After the nesting season.

Any faults in a box would then be noted. Box repaired / replaced. Anyone allowing birds to fall out of the boxes they've provided them would do better just backing off and doing something else.

Stigura

Say my name wrote: »

Whatever works for yourself. Works!

I'm not saying Deal 'works for me'. Only that it works. Perhaps Cork, eg, has an atmosphere closer to that of a rain forest? Maybe a deal box would react differently there. As opposed to Leitrim, where it's monsoon season much of the year.

Say my name wrote: »

From experience I've had a bird box put up in the garden here made from timber. Bought in a garden center. I guess it was softwood because it only lasted three years before disintegrating. So it does happen. In that three years. There was a nest just in the middle year.

Boosh! I actually PM'd a member, on here; 'Don't, for f'sake, go to the local creamery and buy a boot full of That generic crap!'. Thank You for proving my exact point!

Say my name wrote: »

I've got starlings nesting year after year in the eaves of modern sheds in the voids between the h irons and the sheeting.
No starling boxes needed here.
I can lend a few to leitrim to teach the local birds how to do it.;)

The last great grant built sheds? Yes. We got them here too I love them; Because those H irons provide the perfect cable tie strapping point for my boxes. Thus, I can get about a nest per yard.

How many do you get, 'naturally'? I find most sheds I survey have about One, 'natural' nest per shed. Tucked in behind the iron.

Say my name wrote: »

No starling boxes needed here.
I can lend a few to leitrim to teach the local birds how to do it.

If ye feel ye need no starling (Tit, Thrush, Robin, Swift, Owl, Tree Creeper, sparrow, Bee, Bat, Pine Marten, need I go on?) boxes? Good for you! I promise not to pop up in any of Your threads, arguing that ye should buy them

Stigura

Pedro Old-fashioned Dewdrop wrote: »

Since they're farmers, they'll want you to pay them for taking the boxes from you and doing you such a huge favour

LMAO! Nailed, in one!!!

Stigura

:eek: WOW!!! Just Wow!!! And I am kicking my own behind all over the place ~ because I forgot my bloody camera!!! :mad:

This morning, I went up to see what Noel's been up to. O M G!!! It's bloody Amazing!!! As soon as I saw the Louvre's, I nearly swallowed my tongue! They, alone, were breath taking!

Inside is just ..... Wow! He's taken this second story building, rotting away nicely since the 1800's, and has, basically, brought it back to original condition! That's what the grant was all about! And it's just Breath taking! I'm So glad I've lived to see this!

There's, must be half a dozen windows? Three either side. All but one have wooden louvres installed. There, specifically, to let birds and bats in!

OMG, it's Beautiful though! All the little trap doors in the floor too! I begged them to let me move in! So Gorgeous!

I have absolutely no idea what the craic is with it. I mean; Is it going to be opened to the public? A little tourist attraction ~ like a little museum? Dunno! Should be though!

If, in due course, it is? Then I'd Implore ye all to come and take a look at it. I have Never been so enthused about a building in my life! " Taylors Granary " it was. Built about 1880, as I recall? (They had a slide show of it)

Bat Woman wasn't there (Maybe she only comes out at dusk?) Builder was though. He specialises in this sort of stuff. He was telling me 'They' are constantly moving the goal posts, re Bat Boxes. Reckons ye never know what tweek they'll demand from them next. Think he said the latest thing is that they Must be painted black?

What ever. I'll make what ever they want, how ever they want it! It'll be an absolute Honour! I'll die such a happy man, knowing that I'll have played even the most minuscule part in this momentous project.

I'm just blown away. Did I say " Wow! " ?