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Erik’s Hand-Built Bat House Erik’s Hand-Built Bat House Erik’s Hand-Built Bat House Erik’s Hand-Built Bat House Erik’s Hand-Built Bat House Erik’s Hand-Built Bat House

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Erik’s Hand-Built Bat House

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Erik Whitmore

Hand-built by Erik Whitmore

★★★★★ 4.8 (180+)

🦇 Hand-Built in the Hickory Nut Gorge, North Carolina

Erik Whitmore, 71 — thirty-one winters counting bats in the gorge caves, and the roost he builds so the survivors have a cool, safe place to raise the next brood. 74 left. When his shoulder ends the work, there is no second batch.

“Everybody wants to build them a little mansion. A bat doesn’t want a room — it wants a crack.” — Erik WhitmoreBat Cave, North Carolina

What Arrives at Your Door

🦇
The Bat House
One hand-built untreated-wood roost, ready to hang
🔼
Open-Bottom Entry
The only way in — bats climb up into grooved interior slits
📝
Hang-It-Right Card
Sunny wall, 12–15 ft up, near water if you can
☁️
Built to Weather
Fallen locust & oak that silver and last outdoors

Why a Real Colony Moves In — and a Garden-Center Box Bakes Empty

🌡
The Cool-Wall Build
Thick, solid, untreated wood — no zinc, no tar, no dark coat. The mass holds a steady temperature through a July afternoon instead of spiking to the lethal range that cooks pups in thin-walled boxes. A nursery should never get hotter than the bat can survive. Most do by noon.
🦇
The Bottom-Entry Roost
A bat never enters from the front. It drops in through the open bottom and wedges up into the tight interior grooves — a crack, not a room — until its back and its belly both touch wood. That pressure is what tells it it is safe.
🌲
The Bark-Grip Landing
A bat lands low and climbs up into the bottom, gripping its way in. The rough, bark-on wood and the grooved interior give it that hold from the first contact. Smooth, sanded wood is a death trap — the young slide and the colony moves on.
🌳
The Locust-&-Oak Frame
Fallen black locust and white oak — among the most rot-resistant woods in the Eastern forest — let the house survive years of weather with no stain or sealant at all. Nothing to off-gas, nothing the bat has to breathe in a sealed cavity all day.
👶
The Maternity Stack
Multiple crevices give a colony room to spread by temperature — females and pups in the warm pockets, others where it is cooler. It is built to be a working summer nursery, because a population only recovers one brood at a time.
👐
Built by One Pair of Hands
Every house is cut, bored, and grooved by Erik himself with hand tools — most of a day of work in each one. No crew, no machine stamping them out, and no second batch once the barn wall is empty.
“Most people picture bats in caves, but in summer the females gather in warm day roosts to raise their pups, and that is exactly the habitat we have stripped out of the landscape — dead trees, loose bark, old barns. A good bat house replaces it, but only if it gets a few things right: thick untreated wood that will not overheat, an open-bottom entry, and a rough, grooved interior the bats can climb. Get those wrong and the box either cooks the colony or never gets used. After white-nose syndrome, a safe maternity roost is one of the most useful things a homeowner can put up — recovery happens one colony at a time.” Dr. Marian Holt, Wildlife BiologistSouthern Appalachian Bat Working Group

Perfect For

🦇 Little Brown & Big Brown Bats 🦟 Natural Mosquito Control 🌳 Wooded & Waterside Yards 🏡 Backyard Wildlife 🍎 Orchards & Farms 🌿 Wildlife Gardens 🎁 Gift for a Nature Lover 🌙 Dusk Watchers

Quality You Can Check Yourself

  • Thick, untreated wood — holds a steady temperature through summer instead of cooking the colony inside.
  • Open-bottom entry — the safe, predator-resistant way bats actually use a roost, not a decorative front hole.
  • Rough, grooved interior — bark-on wood and hand-cut grooves give bats something to climb and grip.
  • Rot-resistant locust & oak — weathers to silver-grey and lasts outdoors with no paint or sealant.
  • Final batch, built by hand — each house is made by Erik himself. Once the barn is empty, there is no restock.
💙 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
Hang it on a sunny wall or post and live with it for a few weeks. If it arrives not as described, or it simply isn’t right for your spot, send it back within 30 days for a full refund. A simple email is all it takes — and shipping across the US is free.
A Note on Handmade Variance & Wild Tenants
Every house is cut and finished by hand from natural logs, so grain, bark, color, and small marks vary from one to the next — that is the sign of real handwork, not a defect. And bats are wild: hung correctly (a sunny wall or post, 12–15 ft up, sheltered, near water if you can), a roost is often found within a season or two, but the timing is the colony’s, not ours. Put it up by late winter or early spring so it is weathered and waiting before the maternity season.

Product Details

MaterialFallen black locust & white oak logs on a pine backing board
FinishBare natural wood, bark left on — no paint or sealant; weathers to silver-grey
Set Contents1 bat house with open-bottom entry & grooved interior • hang-it-right card
Dimensions (outer)Approx. 13.8 × 9.1 × 5.1 in (35 × 23 × 13 cm)
RoostNarrow, grooved interior crevices reached from the open bottom
EntryOpen bottom — the only way in; bats climb up into the interior
ColorNatural wood
MountingHangs on a sunny wall, barn, or post — 12–15 ft up, sheltered, near water if possible
CareAlmost none — a quick check from below once a year in late fall
MadeHand-built by Erik Whitmore near Bat Cave, North Carolina — ships from the US
AvailabilityFinal batch — 74 only, no restock • 4.8★

Message from the barn:

After thirty-one winters counting bats in the Hickory Nut Gorge, Erik Whitmore’s shoulder and eyes can no longer bore the entry true. He finished 74 houses this last winter — and no more after that.

Each one is built from fallen black locust and white oak with the bark left on, an open-bottom entry, and a rough, grooved interior the bats can climb. When they are gone, there will be no next batch.

Free shipping across the United States

  • Delivery time: 3–5 business days
  • Each house is hand-packed and ships from the US
  • Solid natural wood — carefully boxed to arrive safe
  • 30-day money-back guarantee — just email support@craftkindred.com
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What people are saying about Erik’s bat houses

Customer review photo — Dale Rourke

Hung it on the south wall of the barn in April, half expecting nothing. By late June there were droppings under it like little chocolate sprinkles — that’s how you know they’re home. I sit out just to watch them leave at dusk now.

★★★★★ Verified
Dale Rourke, Asheville, NC
Customer review photo — Karen Maddox

We couldn’t sit on our own patio in July without getting eaten alive. One season after putting up Erik’s house, the difference is night and day — I haven’t bought a can of spray all summer.

★★★★★ Verified
Karen Maddox, Round Rock, TX
Customer review photo — Tom & Linda Schaefer

You feel the weight the second you pick it up: solid wood, real bark, nothing like the flimsy thing that warped on us in one winter. It came with a handwritten note from Erik. We hung it the same afternoon.

★★★★★ Verified
Tom & Linda Schaefer, Roanoke, VA
Customer review photo — Megan Tolliver

I gave one to my dad, who’d spent years trying to get bats into a store-bought box with no luck. This one had tenants by midsummer. He calls me every time he sees them fly out.

★★★★★ Verified
Megan Tolliver, Knoxville, TN
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Untreated Locust & Oak
30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
Hand-Built near Bat Cave, NC