More boxes under eaves

UPDATE 2018: On returning to the house after 6 years away, Sean & Moira found 7 pairs of Swifts in residence!

UPDATE July 2015 
An inspection of the boxes found that 2 were occupied by Swifts.

UPDATE 8th July 2012
A pair of Swifts has been seen entering and roosting in the box to the left of the drainpipe.

UPDATE 20th June 2012
This demonstrates that the Box of Swifts attraction call playing is working:

This unfortunate prospecting swift has fallen into the drainpipe funnel. There was no way it was going to get out of here unaided. The bird flew off strongly the following morning. In hindsight, we should have spotted this hazard. The funnel is now covered.

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Contributed by Dick
These tailor-made boxes were installed in Chippenham, Cambs at my son and daughter in law's house. This is another example of eaves with joists, this time supporting a fascia board.

2 single and 2 double boxes. The Box of Swifts speaker is
installed on the double box next to the drainpipe

The gap between the fascia and the wall was 225mm, plenty wide enough to accommodate a Swift box. At the top of the wall there was a narrow ventilation grill, so the backs of the boxes do not extend to the top to avoid blocking the ventilation. A single box was placed between two joists 460mm apart, but most gaps between joists were 550mm.

4 boxes (6 nesting places) before installation

So for three of these 550mm gaps, we built two double boxes and a long single box. The dimensions of the double box nesting places were 255mm x 210mm, which should be big enough. The separating wall in the double boxes does not extend to the top, allowing light from one entrance to shine through to the opposite box.

All of the boxes were installed by removing the bottom, a single screw into each adjacent joist, then replacing the bottom.

The installation was finished off with a Box of Swifts.

#openeaves