Pulley System to raise and lower large nest boxes

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Lee Pauser
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Pulley System to raise and lower large nest boxes

On August 29th, 2018 Santa Clara County Park's (CA) Natural Resource Coordinator Kyle and I installed a pulley system on a Barn Owl nest box mounted on a 2" diameter metal pipe. The system enables the raising and lowering of similarly mounted large nest boxes from the ground thereby negating the need to lug a ladder to the nest box in order to access it. A lock is used to secure the box in its raised position.

Although a Barn owl nest box is shown, the system will work with a similarly mounted kestel nest box.

Videos of Kyle using the pulley system to single-handedly lower and raise a pole mounted Barn Owl nest box are at:

https://youtu.be/V8p6pICfSiU

https://youtu.be/iXThYzRiF3g

The attached photos provide some insight into the make-up of the system.

Lee Pauser
San Jose, CA

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Nu-Sun Cinema
Nu-Sun Cinema's picture

Great Idea, but you could add a small winch on the bottom to crank up the nest box.

Some photos are attached.  Have a nice day, Nu-Sun Cinema

Lee Pauser
Lee Pauser's picture

Due to interest in the pulley system, I have recently finalized a plan which can be downloaded at:
 

https://www.birdsfly.info/Bluebird_Trail/Original/Build_a_Pulley_System_...

The plan's introduction states:

Accessing large nest boxes is a problem of varying magnitude. Merely getting to the box with a ladder and servicing supplies can be difficult unless they can be carried on a vehicle. Due to habitat restrictions, some of my large nest boxes require carrying the ladder and supplies to the box by hand. This is usually done once a year when the box is serviced after the end of the nesting season. Additional access may be required for the purposes of banding or to intervene in a problem.

This begs the question “is there an easier way to access the nest box”?

To address the question, I developed a pulley system to easily access a nest box mounted on a 2” ID galvanized metal pipe (pole). Specifically, the system enables the raising and lowering of a large pole-mounted nest box from the ground thereby negating the need to port a ladder to the box. A lock secures the box in its raised position. The pulley system is most beneficial when used with boxes that are remote and accessible only by foot.

accipiter