Orchard Training Home School Garden Club - Nest Boxes and Nest Box Week

During half term it was Nest Box Week, we had a hard time picking our meeting up time what with Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day and a number of other days falling in the same week. We managed it eventually and we came together clean out the existing nest. Boxes we had and then we had a lovely time at the garden centre choosing 3 new ones. I am not quite sure what the other (more elderly) visitors made of our gaggle of teenagers spending so long discussing the merits of the different options of bird boxes. As the teacher, I was really proud of the discussion you had around the cost vs. value and the style over substance conversation.

Nest boxes do three jobs in the Orchard Training Garden Club. The first two are for the benefit of the birds, the last one is for our benefit. One is to provide nest sites for the local birds in early spring and we have put ours up in good time for them to be investigated and checked out.

The second is during winter providing protection from the wind and weather. By providing the nest boxes, we are giving the birds with a safe place to breed and protection from natural enemies and the weather. This increases the survival rate of the young birds; this helps stabilise the local populations, in time this supports and maintains the species long term.

The third job is to bring the birds in to our home school garden, so we can enjoy them and do lessons on and about them.

With all three factors in mind, we have placed the nest boxes at the back of the garden behind the shed where it is quite and safe, well away from the weather and any local cats who might fancy a snack or two!

In the past, we have found that it takes time before the birds move in, so we won’t be checking them every 5 minutes to see if they are there.