Chickadee houses can be mounted at eye level (or generally between 5 and 10 feet high.) Hang them from tree limbs or poles or secure them to tree trunks. The entrance hole should be 1-1/8 inches to attract chickadees yet exclude house sparrows.
Wrens are notorious for filling up any nesting cavity with twigs, whether they use the nest or not. Male house wrens build several nests for the female to choose from. Wrens, too, like houses that are hung or attached to a post or tree (most other types of birds don't like to swing). Hang several nest boxes at eye level on partly sunlit sites. Wrens are sociable and will accept nest boxes quite close to your house. The entrance hole can be no less than 1 inch.
Houses mounted on metal poles are less vulnerable to predators than houses nailed to tree trunks or hung from tree limbs.
Use no more than four small nesting boxes for any one species of bird or one large box per acre. Put about 100 yards between bluebird boxes and 75 yards between swallow boxes. (If you have both species in your neighborhood, "pair" the houses with one bluebird box 25 feet from a swallow box. Put a second pair 100 yards away).
Don't put nesting boxes too close to bird feeders. The activity around the feeders will discourage nesting. Also, don't put more than one box in the same tree, unless the tree is extremely large or the boxes are for different species.
To protect against overheating during summer, face the entrance holes of your boxes north or east. Also try to avoid having the house face west as most of our storms come from that direction and you don't want the rains blowing directly in the hole.
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