{"id":6061,"date":"2022-03-08T15:08:06","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T14:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chateau-brown.com\/en\/?p=6061"},"modified":"2022-03-21T10:43:10","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T09:43:10","slug":"150-nesting-boxes-to-bring-bats-great-tits-and-blue-tits-back-to-chateau-browns-vineyards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chateau-brown.com\/en\/150-nesting-boxes-to-bring-bats-great-tits-and-blue-tits-back-to-chateau-browns-vineyards\/","title":{"rendered":"150 nesting boxes to bring bats and titmouses to Ch\u00e2teau Brown\u2019s vineyard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Combating pests through biodiversity is Ch\u00e2teau Brown\u2019s strategy for limiting its use of crop protection products, but it is also driven by a desire to manage its water, soils, energy consumption and carbon footprint.<\/em><\/p>\n

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75 bat shelters and 75 nesting boxes<\/strong>\u00a0for great tits and blue tits were installed at the beginning of the year.
\nThe aim of this is twofold: give a habitat back<\/strong> to two species that feed on insects, but also increase biodiversit<\/strong>y and thus boost the estate\u2019s resilience by limiting serious pest infestations (in particular vine moth larvae<\/strong>, which winemakers dread).<\/p>\n

Ch\u00e2teau Brown is the ideal setting for this with its twelve hectares of preserved forest and a six-hectare park, surrounding the plots of vines laid out in a single stretch. Tits and bats live in the wild on the estate, but primarily nest in forests where there are more hollows available. They generally settle in areas that offer food and shelter. The vines are pruned every year so do not have this \u2018forest\u2019 element, and these animals are also cavity nesters that need hollows where they can shelter and nest. And so, the estate turned to Brice Le Maire<\/strong>, founder of the Agri-Nichoirs company<\/strong>. These little shelters mean that the creatures will be able to live permanently in the vineyards.<\/p>\n

The tit nesting boxes are 100% made in France, environmentally designed, biosourced, and made from reed produced in Brenne regional nature park. The bat shelters are made of \u2018Douglas\u2019 wood from sustainably managed French forests.
\nThe nesting boxes are created from biomaterial, namely reconstructed reed. The reed bed is in France. The reeds are naturally occurring, do not use any agricultural production areas, and are sustainably managed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"nichoirs<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Their presence keeps pest populations in check over time. Bats, great and blue tits complement each other and are effective in different areas: the birds come out during the day and hunt insects in their crawling stage, whilst bats attack flying creatures after night falls.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

However, Brice Le Maire offers a reminder that the most important element is to have a complex ecosystem: <\/strong>\u2018Bats, great and blue tits are not the solution on their own. Creating a strong and resilient ecosystem requires the greatest possible diversity. Seeking diversity and trusting life are both key ways of resisting climate change, for example. An ecosystem\u2019s wealth can be viewed as a toolkit. The more tools you have, the more solutions you have available to fix your problems!\u2019<\/p>\n

That is truly Ch\u00e2teau Brown\u2019s philosophy!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018We will\u00a0promote biodiversity in the vineyard as far as possible by planting vegetation cover, hedges, various trees, and bird nesting boxes to counteract the negative effects of monoculture and offset the carbon footprint of our activities.\u2019\u00a0\u2013 Jean Christophe Mau, manager of Ch\u00e2teau Brown<\/strong><\/p>\n

The question of effectiveness is always complex. It is always difficult to determine how effective prevention measures are. Ch\u00e2teau Brown is not seeking to achieve pest regulation results at any cost \u2013 instead, it is primarily looking for a biodiversity preservation tool. It will take a little time for the titmice to want to start nesting amid the vines! Occupation rates are very variable and depend on numerous factors \u2013 not all of the 150 shelters erected will be used. This is very much a long-term project.<\/strong> We are recreating a habitat, but occupation happens gradually over the course of three years. We are hoping for 10% occupation in the first year and 50% within three years. All of the nesting boxes have been georeferenced. Monitoring is very important to ensure that the equipment remains relevant. Brice will be monitoring and checking the occupation rates of various shelters in August 2022, after titmice have nested and during the peak bat activity period. Depending on the results, others may be installed in future years.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"nichoir<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Combating pests through biodiversity is Ch\u00e2teau Brown\u2019s strategy for limiting its use of crop protection products, but it is also driven by a desire to manage its water, soils, energy consumption and carbon footprint.   75 bat shelters and 75 nesting boxes\u00a0for great tits and blue tits were installed at the beginning of the year. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actualites"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chateau-brown.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chateau-brown.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chateau-brown.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chateau-brown.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chateau-brown.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6061"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.chateau-brown.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6985,"href":"https:\/\/www.chateau-brown.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6061\/revisions\/6985"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chateau-brown.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chateau-brown.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chateau-brown.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chateau-brown.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}