Putting Up Bird Boxes This Week

It’s been a full week on the farm.

We’ve been sowing extensively — trays filling up, beds being prepared, the season properly underway.

But alongside all of that visible activity, we’ve also been doing something quieter.

We’ve been putting up bird boxes.

Not Just Decoration

Bird boxes might look like a simple addition, but for us they’re part of how we grow.

We use a mix of boxes with different entrance hole sizes, alongside a few open-front boxes. Each type has a role.

Some have 25mm holes. These suit smaller insect-eating birds that specialise in aphids and small caterpillars — common early pests on leafy vegetables and flowers.

Others have 28mm holes. These attract slightly larger birds that take on bigger caterpillars and beetles, which often affect fruit trees and more established crops.

We’ve also installed several open-front boxes lower down along hedge bases and near rough ground. These are for birds that hunt at soil level, helping with slugs and larvae.

It isn’t about putting up as many boxes as possible. It’s about getting the right mix.

Strategic Placement

While we’ve been sowing into trays and direct-drilling into beds, we’ve also been thinking about where birds will feed once nesting season begins.

Most of the entrance-hole boxes are positioned around the edges of the mixed veg and flower plot, facing inward. Birds forage close to their nests, so that positioning encourages feeding activity over the crops.

Fruit trees have their own boxes, mounted directly onto trunks where early-season pests start life.

The open-front boxes are lower and more sheltered — along hedges and near compost areas — targeting pests that emerge from soil.

It creates a layered system:

Crop level - Tree level - Ground level

Why It Matters

When birds are feeding chicks, they work constantly. A nesting pair can remove thousands of insects in a season.

By putting boxes up now — before nesting begins — we’re planning ahead rather than reacting later.

Spraying, even organically, reduces insect life broadly. That can create short-term control, but it disrupts balance.

Encouraging birds builds resilience instead.

Growing With Nature

The sowing this week is exciting — it’s visible progress.

The bird boxes are quieter. But they are just as important.

They’re part of the same mindset: building systems that improve over time rather than relying on intervention.

As the season develops, we’ll start to see who moves in.

And when we do, the real work begins.