Neopyte, I had my dh make my hole reducers, he has a drill press?? at work and used cedar. However I know you can purchase them also, hopefully someone else here will chime in with the where on that one. I had chickadees building last year but was a day late on the hole reducer, the HOPS ran them off. The box they had chosen wasn't one I could put a van ert in and I didn't, at the time, have a spare nestbox to use as a trapbox. Luckily the dees didn't get harmed but I was sad to see them not nest there, coincindentally the Blues ended up nesting in that same box, by that time the HOSP had either been eliminated or left the yard. They usually say to not put the reducer on until the chickadee lays the first egg as they don't care for the 1/8 hole as much but can get into it fine. If you have HOSP around though, I would do it before and hope for the best. Better to be safe than sorry. As far as seed the chickadees love sunflower seeds, hearts and chip or BOSS, the also like peanuts and suet around here. Also it isn't a good idea to put a nestbox near the birdfeeders, too much bird traffic that way. The closest nestbox I have to a feeder is about 50ft, the rest are much further away than that. It is best to point the hole of the nestbox away from prevailing winds, preferabbly towards a tree but away from the way the direction the rain usually blows during the summer months. Donna

Cathy (and all), Thanks. The boxes are out in the open for the most part. This is my first time for tree sparrows and chickadees alike. Here is my update: I believe I had two successful nestings. I watched the chickadee take small green catepillars to her (or his) nestlings several times. She let me get pretty close---I happened to be standing pretty close and that is when I notice her in a blueberry bush. Several times I saw the tree sparrows flying in and out of their box. I was not sure when they laid eggs or how old the nestlings were, so, I never actually opened the box after first observing the nests (chickadee and tree sparrow in seperate boxes, of course. :)) I was out of town for a few days so I didn't get to see any of them fledge. I did, however, open the boxes after a reasonable amount of time to be sure they were not still inside. Both boxes were empty which was a relief to me. I was a bit concerned about the chicadee's nestbox because it was in more sun than I realized and we had a few days in the 90s. I cleaned out the chicadee nest---very easy with a stick. Not very messy. I dumped the mostly moss nest onto a bare spot and pressed the moss into the ground. It was green and seems to be taking over now. The tree sparrow nest was much messier and I cleaned it out, wiped it down with bleach solution and rinsed it well. Now for the best part: I moved the chickadee's box to a more shaded location and shortly after have a wren of some kind---possibly house wren.--It is a native bird and has caused no problems yet. At first I thought it was just filling the box with sticks to keep other birds out, but it does seem to be nesting there. It has left the other box empty. So, after a week or so of monitoring the second box and always finding it empty, I was suprised to see a full nest in it today. No eggs yet. I had to share the news and asked my partner to come out to see the nest. Right before we starting the trek out to the box, we saw a bird fly in its direction. With the backlighting, I couldn't tell waht it was. He said he saw it fly from the lawn to the box. He was certain it was a bluebird. We walked out to the box and waited. We didn't want to open it while the bird was inside. It didn't take long for the male bluebird to fly out. Seeing is believing, I guess. I was thrilled to know that we now have a bluebird in the box. I had to come right in and share it with the forum. Sorry I'm so long-winded! David

Most winter roosting boxes do have the hole at the bottom because the huddled birds generate enough heat even in the coldest weather to pull them through. Supposedly, blues do not roost but pile up on the floor to keep warm, so putting the hole at the bottom won't work. Any boxes I build in the future will have a very large roof overhang and face away from prevailing winds. I may paint the roofs black for more solar gain. I got various plans off of the internet but hesitate to share them until I'm sure they work. Materials were rather expensive and I put in quite a few hours (and nervous sweat) building them-I'm no finish carpenter and these boxes need to built tight. I'll keep you informed of what works but for the blues alone, you could just tape over or plug the openings in a regular NABS. Most predators should be in hibernation but since so many adult birds could be lost, I'll watch these boxes very carefully. Kathy-I have property in Allegany. Even though Green Ridge surrounds it, I'll put up a box there also. Hopefully, the local black bears will be hibernating all winter and leave my birds and feeders alone.

If you decide on a three-wire service, then I believe you'll need to run 2-2-2, not 2-2-4. A true equipment ground--not a neutral--can be a size lower (#4), but I don't believe that's the case when neutral and ground are combined. [Since you'll have more than six breakers, I'm guessing that a good number of the circuits will be 120V. As Brick noted, if you had only 240V loads, no neutral would be needed at all, but that doesn't seem to be the case here, and usually isn't with multiple-circuit outbuildings.] I know for certain that the three-wire service you're proposing would not fly in my county, but that is because local restrictions here (not necessarily the NEC) won't allow it. (My jursidiction doesn't buy into the "no other connections" exception for 240/120V service.) Perhaps they figure that sooner or later someone's going to run a phone line or intercom or water pipe, and anything like that--any other connection!--instantly puts the wiring out of code. I can't speak for your area, of course, but that begs the question of whether you plan to pull a permit and have this installation inspected. In any event, it might be a good idea to consult with your AHJ to verify that your plan meets local code. For a variety of reasons--not least the flexibility of adding things in the future--you really might be better off with four-wire service (2-2-2-4). As noted above, you'll probably need 2 ground rods driven at least 6' apart. While it is true that one will suffice if it can be demonstrated to have a resistance of 25 ohms or less, don't bank on that. I've put in three ground rods in the past six months in three different states (Virginia, Maine and California) and none of the three passed the 25 ohm test, but that depends upon local soil conditions, moisture etc. at any given time. Use #6 wire for the ground connection and avoid any splices! (That's one of the problems with adding a second rod "after the fact".) I've also run into the problem of not being able to find subpanel "main" breakers under 100amps with the code-required lockdown feature. Keep in mind that you can use a larger breaker there (i.e., 100amps) because it is serving simply as a disconnect rather than primary overcurrent protection for the wiring and your box is rated at 125A. With #2 wire coming in, it'll probably fit easier into a 100A breaker as well. The one slight disadvantage is that if the "main" does trip, it'll be the one in the house not the outbuilding. But this is not something that should be happening often. (We hope!) Just out of curiosity, how long will the service wiring run be? I ask that because you might want to price #4 (or possibly even #6) copper instead of #2/AL for the sake of comparison, if you haven't already. There's no question that #2/AL will do the job (unless it is an inordinately long run), but #4/CU (with #6/CU ground) would be a good bit easier to pull and work with. Still, I know that copper's gotten very expensive in recent years, so YMMV.