Two Little Savages: Swallow boxes

I have always had a fascination with birds. I remember as a child watching the barn swallows diving in and out of the barn at our old farm house on Fairy Chasm Rd , just north of Milwaukee. The swallows would land in the driveway and pick up something and then swoop gracewfully into the big old barn. We were not supposed to go in there because it was so rickety, but the swallows entered in and out all summer long.

As an adult I had the chance to live along the Columbia River. In the spring swallows come when the Chinook Salmon start arriving in the Columbia River Gorge. 20 years ago I bought a swallow box for my home. I placed it facing east 10 feet off the ground. The first year it was up it had the first family. After that every year they would come back and have a batch of babies. It was part of summer to watch the birds raise their families.
Tree swallows have white chests and iridescent green backs. In some countries it is considered good luck to have swallows living on your house. I do not know about that, but I sure like it.
Here is an amazing utube video about swallows in a house in Japan.

I prefer my swallows outside in a nest box. So this winter we bought rough cut ponderosa pine and started making tree swallow houses. We made 35 boxes. We got carried away and next thing we knew we are selling them on . This springwe plan to sell them at the farmers market here.

The design has a small hole that only a tree swallow can fit in. Also the boxes have a way to be taken down easily. They are cleaned once a year. Every couple of years one flies into the house by accident and I just calmly throw a towel over them and gently hold them til they are outside. Swallows live where there is water near by or plenty of insects. We put up 3 boxes on the cindercone this spring and two of them got swallows. Both these boxes were 15 feet up in the air. The sound they make is delightful.

Okay, so obsessed is an understatement, but here is a series of u tube videos about a nest box.Check it out.

Nesting

Getting Comfortable

Five Hatchlings

Hungary Now

Leaving home

So tree swallows are fun to watch and you only have to clean their box one time a year. They are easy keepers and there are lots of them that need a safe nest box.
Here are some pictures of the box we built.