It sounds like you've really done your homework and are doing your best to set up a really attractive, safe house for the Chickadees. Everything sounds great to me except the placement. Is there any chance you could place the box a bit further out from where you think a squirrel could access it? Squirrels will raid bird nests, and will eat the eggs and sometimes the young birds. Also I'm thinking that if a squirrel could jump on it from a tree, snakes or cats may also be able to reach the nest box. Often a few feet can make a big difference. You can leave the box empty. I've never put anything into my boxes and the Chickadees have nested successfully. Best of luck to you.

Gosh Paul, you have sure done some research and thought it all out. I hope that you get nesting Chickadees as soon as you put the house up! My Carolina Chickadee boxes are mounted onto my front porch posts, and they happily nest there each year. I wouldn't put anything into the box. They have to do their thing with the thick layer of green moss on the bottom anyway. Best of luck!~~Angie

Do squirrels really raid nest? I don't have red squirrels, just the gray and fox ones. They appear totally uninterested in eggs. As an experiment, I left an egg for them once and they totally ignored it. They seem to spend most of their time trying to get to the bird feeder.

I am more worry about raccoons, but I don't think they can jump very far.

Paul

I assume what you left out for your experiment was a chicken egg. I think they prefer the smaller eggs of song birds. Here is a link to the PMCA with a picture of a gray squirrel climbing a pole to access the PUMA nests.
Link to squirrel climbing pole

Chickadees like to excavate their own holes however if you want to put something inside the box for them to take out it would not be sawdust, a few tiny woodchips yes, sawdust no. Plus filling it to the hole would probably discourage anything from nesting there. I have heard that some Dees will not readily nest in a box with a 1 1/8 inch hole. Some start with a 1 1/2 hole and add a reducer once the Dee is committed to the box. Dees do prefer the nestboxes to be by trees vs in the open where Blues boxes usually are. I would worry about squirrels though. Oh and yes raccoons can jump. I have the wobbling stovepipe baffles and they do work for raccoons. Good luck! The Dees by me prefer to excavate old woodpecker holes to my nestboxes, crazy little birds!!

Donna

I went to the store to purchase a pole, but they were defective. The guy at the store said he hasn't heard of any squirrel attacks. I looked up the page for gray squirrels and they indicate bird nest attack only occurs if they are really hungry. With endless feeders around the neighborhood. I suspect that isn't going to be a problem.

He did warned that in 30 years he said he only had two customers with nesting black cap chickadee's and chickadee just don't go for bird houses. Majority of the customer had the most success with Wrens, but I have never seen a wren in my area.

Paul