okay so this year we're having a long cold winter with high winds and sub-zero
temperatures and the birds of course need places to shelter so one of the
things I'm testing out now is these nesting roost boxes that are designed to
be set out and have lower entrances so that birds like chickadees titmice and
smaller birds like that even bluebirds if they show up early can get out there
and we're going to put a game camera inside of it
this one has special lensing so it focuses to a distance of just 18 inches
when we're putting together a 30-inch long box just happen to have this scrap
wood laying around and that's what I'm going to use to make it so it's a
mixture kind of there's some pine here there's some oak and we're using these
hot glue sticks this is hot glue by gorilla and it's supposedly good for all
weather conditions now by the time I'm making this video it's already been out
since December so I'm confident that it holds I'm also using this high
temperature industrial commercial grade hot glue gun this thing worked really
well too I have a smaller cheaper version but it does not keep hot and
fast enough to keep the hot glue flowing when you're doing a larger project like
this these are just myths crews that come with it that I did not use you have
a removable plate that supports it here when it's standing up I take that off
this is the rough it up here and you can see this is rough cut lumber and then I
took these three sixteenths I think diameter dowels cut them off drilled
holes stuck them in again with hot glue and we're going to run these on either
side so that these are perches for the birds once they get inside the shelter
and again just hot glue test fit this shows the positioning of the camera and
I want to see when the birds come in so I'm enclosing this camera with it and
it's perfect focal length is about half the distance I also put predator guards
on here these are inch and a half diameter holes and as you can see there
are two of them and they're down low so that the birds can get in and out and
the birds that are seeking warmth will be up in the higher parts of this
roosting box and I'm using any loop double-a batteries here those are high
power batteries that should last a long time
and going in to set up here on this Bushnell and this thing again this is
December well Christmas Day so we're just gonna get it
out there and I did screw it to the tree it is screwed from the support that I
made here to the box and every joint on the box is nothing but hot glue so I
want to see how well this is going to hold up I'm gonna put this thing
together and close off the end with a zip tie actually several zip ties
connected together and a bushing I did put that little stopping piece in there
but it does fall forward if you're not careful and then we just put the end
piece on here and I glued a little tab on the end of it so that I could use the
zip ties to hold it in place and I have little eye screws here on the sides look
at these I think I put three zip ties together so they would cover the whole
back side of it I'm also using zip ties on some of my birdhouses this year which
is kind of funny and I'm putting those together with a hot glue to do I just
want to see how well this stuff holds up to the weather now remember this was put
up December 25th since then we've had heavy weather 60
mile-an-hour plus wind gusts and it is now February 27th
so this thing is still holding up great I'm gonna leave it out all summer let it
weather and see how it holds up but it did survive the storms and I put the
camera there guess what not one bird has gone in this thing yet other than just
take its hat in to look around none of them have gone in none of them have used
it I have upright versions birds are not using those either other than to look in
and check them out I put some birdseed in debate it and even that they just
grab the seat and fly rabbi count so as it goes right now the chickadees none of
these birds are using these boxes for shelter but I'm going to leave them in
place we're going to see what happens maybe they'll just end up being wasps
nests as summer comes along and if that happens I'll give you updates there -
we'll see what species of wasp move in so what we get out of the whole thing
basically is you can use hot glue by gorilla for construction of these boxes
and it's fantastic rain wind snow freezing
temps and it does not come apart if it does later we'll update the videos and
I'll give you an explanation now these are the natural holes that are existing
out there that the birds are probably using for shelter but for now we're just
gonna see how it goes thanks for watching that's what I'm doing
just an experiment sharing it with you