Any good suggestions on 1 to purchase? I'm going to put 1 or 2 at my property. Thanks. I probably should just make 1 but am not sure I'm up to it currently.

Don't waste your money. Almost all store bought are too small.

If you must, look up the double chambered rocket box bat house. That and plans are available on the web. I've built and installed dozens. Total occupancy 0.

bobby jameson on here could give the the best information. PM or call him.

I build a mansion for bats at English Camp on the island. Last count buy the Nation park service was flattering......

They are very difficult to get bats to take up residency. Smearing bat guano on the inside of the bat house helps , but still difficult.
Bat Conservation International , one of the most knowledgeable authorities on bats once tested 20 bat houses in different locations with the up most care and science to get bats into the bat houses , I think they were successful on 3 out of 20.

Bats are very , very picky on where they want to live. Location , direction , temperature , sunlight/shade , food sources , wind and much more affect where they will live.

That said , hang some window shutters in the right place and bats will find it.

In summary , plan for failure with a bat house. If it works , you have unlocked the secret code that only bats know.

Or a piece of plywood.....

It seems to me when bats find a window shutter, plywood or other random spot it’s usually one or two bats and they seem “off” to me. I wonder if they have been kicked out of the main living quarters for some reason.

Those are likely the bechelor bats. They seldom roost with females and the young.

I think it takes TIME

and leaving them alone

the ones I see a bunch of guano under are large and in very undisturbed locations and have been there a long time.

I had some friends into building them 25 years ago , visited a couple of their properties and they have some very active ones , but they have been there a while an it is probably 1 in 5 that are active
the most sheltered locations seem to have the best occupancy
as far as I know they were using the WI DNR plans

here is some info and plans , the ones at DNR properties often have a lot of use
they look like rough sawn cedar for the most part and often on the eves of buildings
https://wiatri.net/inventory/bats/aboutBats/pdf/BuildingBatHouses.pdf

They didn't occupy the rocket box???

No, neither of them.

Most important part of a bat box is some type of screen on the inside for them to hang on.

Very interesting

I've seen about 15 bat houses work. Every one of them was mounted on the gable end of the house that had bats in the attic. I always check the ones that are mounted on trees, etc. Bat houses make excellent wasp attractors.

For good positive occupancy you need to do some things right.

Adequate vertical height, solar capacity, good ventilation, room for expansion, ease of access / roosting capabilities and convienent maneuverability once within the house.

Just placing a bat house of any type in an area that you choose chances are it isn't going to be very successful.

A bat house mounted on a structure near a bat entry / exit area and placed before an eviction you will have a very high rate of success. We have had 100 percent success when mounted in such a manner over the last 30 years. We have installed numerous bat houses that we have constructed. Lost count of how many we have installed over the years.

Visit our bat control division website for more specific information. @ wcsbatcontrol.com

It has some "how to" bat house construction photos. These are large construction houses built for multiple years of birthing and housing. They will house hundreds of bats suitable for large or small brown bats. We have some bat house installation sites that are positioned in some State National Parks that are currently housing thousands of bats collectively.

You can certainly scale back on the dimensions to suit your needs but the bigger the better. Design and positioning is all important for acceptance.

Good info so far, thanks.
Where I plan to put mine is at my rural hunting property.

Do bat houses require any maintenance such as cleaning? I looked at a bat house at Ace Hardware & it listed "easy to clean" as a selling point.

We got it built. Now I have to figure out how to mount it at the land

I hope you have success, what plan did you end up using? Links are welcome.

This is a hybrid of about 6 different plans my dad & I studied. If I can find a link I'll post it. Many of the specs came from my local USDA NRCS office. Other aspects of the plan came from what I believe was Massachusette's website I found on google. A WDNR site had some good info. A lot of websites had good info but not necessarily the specs I needed.

Finding a good post to mount it is proving somewhat tougher than making the bat house.

Let us know how it works.