6 Best Bat House Brackets for Barns
Secure your bat house to a barn with time-tested hardware. We review 6 durable mounting brackets that old farmers trust for a safe and stable setup.
You’ve built or bought the perfect bat house, and now it’s sitting in the workshop, waiting for a home. The side of the old barn seems like the perfect spot, but hanging it securely is more than just driving a couple of screws. The right bracket is the difference between a thriving bat colony controlling your pests and a heavy box crashing down in the first big storm.
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Choosing the Best Bracket for Your Barn Bat Box
The biggest mistake is thinking any old piece of hardware will do. Your barn’s construction dictates your choice. A bracket designed for flat wood siding will fail miserably on a corrugated metal pole barn, and vice versa.
Consider the weight, not just of the box, but of the box full of bats. A large maternity colony can add 20-30 pounds to the total load. Your bracket needs to handle that weight, plus wind shear, for years without fatiguing. This isn’t a place to cut corners.
Finally, think about where on the barn it will go. Will it be on a flat wall, a corner post, or a vertical support beam? Each location requires a different mounting strategy to ensure the house is stable, secure, and positioned correctly for the bats.
IronClad Universal Pole Mount for Sturdiness
When you need absolute, unquestionable stability, the pole mount is your answer. While designed for poles, these heavy-duty steel bands can be adapted to wrap around the sturdy corner posts of a timber-frame or pole barn. This method avoids drilling major holes into your primary siding.
This bracket’s strength is its main selling point. In open areas where your barn takes the full force of a prairie wind, a flimsy mount is a liability. The IronClad style uses wide steel bands and heavy-gauge bolts that clamp the bat house on with immense pressure, ensuring it doesn’t move, wobble, or work itself loose over time.
The tradeoff is installation. It’s more involved than simply driving a few lag bolts. You’ll be wrestling with steel bands and tightening bolts, often high up on a ladder. But for a large, expensive bat house or in a high-wind location, that extra 30 minutes of work buys you a decade of peace of mind.
Homestead Hardware Siding Bracket for Wood Barns
For classic wood-sided barns, a siding-specific bracket is the cleanest and safest option. These brackets are typically L-shaped and designed to be mounted directly onto the flat surface of the wood. They often come with specialized lag screws that bite deep into the studs or structural timbers behind the siding.
The key feature is a design that spreads the load across a wider area of the wall. Instead of concentrating all the weight on two small points, it distributes the pressure, reducing the risk of cracking or damaging your old, and sometimes fragile, wood siding. This is crucial for preserving the integrity of an older barn.
Look for one made of galvanized or powder-coated steel to prevent rust streaks from running down your barn wall after the first few rains. While perfect for wood, these are the wrong choice for metal siding, as they won’t sit flush and can create entry points for moisture behind the paneling.
Big Bat Box Heavy-Duty Hanger for Large Houses
If you’re installing a multi-chamber "condo" style bat house, you’re not just hanging a box; you’re hanging a future colony. These can weigh over 50 pounds when full. A standard bracket simply won’t cut it and is a dangerous failure waiting to happen.
The Big Bat Box hanger is essentially a reinforced French cleat system made from thick-gauge steel. One piece mounts securely to the barn wall, anchored into the studs, and the other to the bat house. The house then slides down and locks into place, using gravity to create an incredibly secure connection.
This is overkill for a small, single-chamber box. But for anyone serious about attracting a large maternity colony, investing in a heavy-duty hanger is non-negotiable. It’s the only way to safely support the immense weight and ensure the structure remains stable for the long haul.
BarnSentry Adjustable Mount Kit for Versatility
Old barns are rarely perfectly plumb or square. Trying to mount a bat house so it sits just right for sun exposure can be a frustrating exercise in shims and guesswork. The adjustable mount kit solves this problem elegantly.
These kits feature a mounting plate with slotted holes or an articulating arm. This allows you to make minor adjustments to the angle and tilt of the bat house after it’s been attached to the wall. If you realize it needs to face a few more degrees to the east to catch that critical morning sun, you can simply loosen the bolts, adjust, and re-tighten.
This versatility is invaluable. It lets you compensate for a wall that isn’t perfectly vertical or fine-tune the orientation without having to drill new holes. The extra moving parts mean a slightly higher cost, but the ability to get the positioning perfect is often worth it.
Wildlife Supply Co. Post Adapter for 4×4 Posts
Sometimes, the best spot for a bat house isn’t on the barn wall itself, but on one of its structural posts. Pole barns, lean-tos, and porch supports offer excellent mounting locations that are high off the ground and often have ideal sun exposure. A post adapter is built for this exact scenario.
This bracket is designed to wrap around or bolt directly onto a 4×4 or 6×6 post. It provides a flat, stable mounting surface extending from the post, allowing you to attach the bat house securely. This is a far better solution than trying to drive lag bolts directly into the side of a post, which can be awkward and less secure.
Using a post gets the bat house away from the main wall, which can sometimes reduce access for climbing predators like raccoons. It also gives you more options if your main barn walls face the wrong direction for proper solar heating.
Rural King Easy-Up Wall Mount for Quick Setup
For a standard, small-to-medium-sized bat house on a flat, solid wood wall, you don’t always need a complex system. The Easy-Up mount is a simple, no-fuss bracket that gets the job done quickly and reliably. It’s usually a single piece of bent steel with pre-drilled holes.
The beauty of this mount is its simplicity. You hold it up, level it, and drive in the included lag screws. There are no adjustments to fiddle with and no complicated parts. For a basic installation, it’s often all you need.
Know its limitations. This type of simple bracket is not intended for heavy, multi-chambered houses or for mounting on uneven surfaces like corrugated metal. But for getting a standard rocket box up on the side of a workshop or shed, it’s a dependable and cost-effective choice.
Installation Tips: Height and Sun Exposure Guide
The best bracket in the world won’t help if the house is in the wrong spot. Placement is everything for attracting bats. Your goal is to create a warm, safe, and accessible home.
First, think height. Mount the bottom of the bat house at least 12 to 20 feet off the ground. This height protects the colony from ground-based predators and gives the bats a clear drop for exiting the house to take flight. Ensure there are no tree branches or wires within 20 feet of the entrance that could obstruct their flight path.
Second, sun exposure is critical. Bats need a warm place to raise their young. In most climates, this means the house should receive at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day. A southeastern-facing wall on your barn is often the ideal location, as it catches the gentle morning sun but avoids the scorching heat of late afternoon.
Finally, consider the material of your barn. A dark-colored metal barn can get dangerously hot in direct summer sun, essentially cooking the bats inside. If you have a metal barn, consider mounting the house on a post a few inches away from the siding to allow for airflow, or choose a wall that gets morning sun but is shaded during the hottest part of the day.
Choosing the right bracket isn’t just a construction detail; it’s the foundation of your entire pest-control project. By matching the mount to your barn, your bat house, and your location, you’re giving the colony the best possible chance to thrive. Get the installation right, and you’ll be rewarded with years of natural, effective pest management flying out of that box every evening.
