FAQ

Each Birdies Villa, Chalet, Cottage or Mazot model is unique and handmade by its designer, with a technically sophisticated ventilation system to ventilate the egg-laying chambers, a floor system to keep each cavity dry, and an interior balcony. The materials and types of natural wood are meticulously chosen for their aesthetic appeal and durability. All the wood used is PEFC-certified, giving you a number of guarantees in favour of ecology and biodiversity. Our nesting boxes are made from rot-proof wood, either untreated or coated with linseed oil or water-based varnishes. The roofs are made from plywood shuttering panels and filmed to ensure that each room is completely protected from the elements.
When you buy a Birdies Villa or smaller model, you are buying hundreds of hours of work and research to obtain a product of incomparable quality.
One or two operations are required to install the Birdies Villa, the largest model: the hotel’s mast is erected on a metal base plate, which in turn is secured to a ground anchoring system or a concrete foundation.

The Birdies Villa is then installed and prepared at the top of the mast.

All the work involved in these several-hour operations is detailed in our estimate.

• If you live in a condominium, you can propose the installation of a Birdies Villa to your managing agent and your neighbours so that it can be discussed at the building’s general meeting.
  The price will be divided by the number of co-owners, and you’ll be able to enjoy it every day.
• If you have a private garden, you can sponsor a friend, school, hotel, architect, property developer, town hall or any other establishment that might be interested in a Birdies Villa. We’ll give you 10% off your personal quote for each referral.
  If you refer 5 people who validate their quote, your quote will be halved. If 10 people contact us on your behalf and validate their quote, your Birdies Villa and its installation will be offered to you! This offer is only valid for the large Birdies Villa model.

The 17 rooms in your Birdies Villa will certainly not all be occupied at the same time!
Birds of the same species cannot live close together, except for certain species such as house sparrows, which can occupy rooms 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9 of your Birdies Villa together if they wish. Swallows also live together, but they make their own nests, usually under a roof.
However, it’s not impossible for families of different species to nest nearby. We observed a blue tit and a great tit occupying two different rooms in a Birdies Villa during the same winter, even though they were very close to each other. The creation of their nests was certified by a bailiff, whose report is available on the site’s home page.
The birds will take it in turns to nest in your Birdies Villa, season after season. Birds that feel at home in a nesting box may come back every year!
You can be sure that everyone will be there for the meals! And the show is guaranteed around the feeders!

Birds need peace and quiet if they are to feel safe and secure in the rooms of your Birdies Villa. But you also need to be able to enjoy your nesting box.
Choose a location that is as far away as possible from your daily routine, and that will remain visible from where you live.

It is generally advisable to position a nesting box so that the flight hole faces away from the prevailing winds; an east or south-east orientation is recommended. However, as the Birdies Villa is accessible from all 4 sides, the question of orientation does not really arise. On the other hand, you should avoid placing it in the middle of a plot with a strong draught or in a position that is permanently exposed to the sun. The best compromise is to place it close to a tree, but far enough away from any branches that could be used as an access bridge by a cat!

Once the feeders in your Birdies Villa have been filled for the first time, the birds will have understood your intentions and will be waiting for you to come and fill them. They will get used to your presence, but it will be up to you to decide over the seasons whether your visits are too frequent. Birds may be reluctant to occupy a room if the feeders are filled too often and all the birds in the garden are partying on the ground floor!

The upkeep of your Birdies Villa is fairly straightforward; it’s not compulsory, but the better you look after it, the more likely you are to see birds occupying it. You need to clean it at least once a year to make sure it’s clean. If you fill the feeders frequently, a quick wipe down at the same time will be just the thing to keep your Birdies Villa courtyard welcoming.
We’ll provide you with a maintenance manual with recommended maintenance periods.

All our nesting boxes are made in the same way, using the same materials. We chose Douglas fir because it is naturally rot-proof and resistant to mould, weather and wood-eating insects. The various finishes that we offer extend the life of the wood and can be applied many times throughout the life of your nesting box. If necessary, the roofs can be changed as they are not glued to the structure of the nesting box. The few screws and metal plates are made of stainless steel, to prevent rust.
The ground fixing of your nesting box to its post is also designed to last for many years, even several decades.
We can’t give you a precise lifespan for your Birdies Villa, but we can guarantee that it will still be there when your small nesting boxes from supermarkets or other shops are thrown away!

It is possible, but it is preferable to choose your location well before the first installation to avoid two future interventions.
We will have to reseal and dismantle your Birdies Villa before reassembling it on its new base, with all the costs that this entails.

The Birdies Villa was not designed to offer our cat friends an aperitif. The base of the nesting box has 45° sloping sides, making it very difficult to climb. Of course, we tested it with several cats who didn’t even bother to try it out, and so ignored the presence of the villa, which for them had become a natural part of their territory without them paying any more attention than that. The cat, unable to climb the pole in any case, concentrates its hunting instinct on other numerous and accessible places in nature.
If you’ve called your cat MacGyver, we can also offer you a system of sliding plates to be installed high up, on all 4 sides of the post, making it absolutely impossible to reach the nesting box. You can also plant rose bushes at the foot of the pole, so your cat won’t run the risk of falling in!
If your nesting box is suspended, the question obviously does not arise.

You can, of course, provide cat or dog hair or any other natural product such as nest stuffing, but this should be placed outside the rooms. Birds make their own nests and prefer to choose the twigs they will use to build their nests. We can offer you a nest tamping dispenser to place on the Birdies Villa so that the birds can come and help themselves. Alternatively, you can make your own using a spring from an old bed, for example.

You can come and see us at trade fairs to get a better idea of what our nesting boxes look like. If you would like to see a Birdies Villa installed outside, you can go to the Verrerie industrial estate in Alex 74290 France, 10 minutes from Annecy. A Birdies Villa Toscane has been installed by the side of the main road, just before the reblochon roundabout.