native bee house

[boxofdelights]

Last month I went to a seed swap hosted by the People and Pollinators Action Network. I got some native flower seeds and supplies and instructions for making a native bee house. I just put the pictures up on instagram but I want to describe the process so I'm posting them here too.

Some native bees like to nest in small but deep holes. You can drill holes for them in blocks of wood, but hollow stems also work.

Here's Mungo hollowing out some stems that didn't hollow themselves. We also used some paper straws when we ran out of stems.



A plastic bottle or tetra-pak box will shelter the stems from rain. Cut the container with a bit of an overhang, and mount it tilted slightly downward, so any rain that does blow in will drain out. I threaded two bootlaces through the bottom of the box, to tie it securely to a fencepost.



Put modeling clay or glue in the bottom of the box to hold the stems:




Wrap it in a pretty cloth so it doesn't look like garbage. Mount it facing south or southeast.

Comments

[bibliofile]

I had no idea about bee houses, beyond the standard (and classic) beehive shapes. So cool.

Are you going to put this in your yard, or do you have another site picked out?

[boxofdelights]

I sent this one to my husband's house, because I had already bought one of the holes-drilled-into-wood ones. But the handouts I got from PPAN say that the holes should be six inches deep, and I don't think the one I bought is that deep, so I am worried that it won't work. At this point I'm just going to watch and hope.

[boxofdelights]

There are hundreds of native bee species. Most of them are solitary. Only a few species like this kind of hole. Some prefer a bare patch of dirt!

[seascribble]

oh this is clever! there was a wooden one in the garden of my old house.

[beaq]

I dunno what the city thinks, but you can leave up patches of dead plant stems for the bees, too. I like the houses for the predictability and rain shelter, but when parasites find them it's all oops.

[boxofdelights]

Now that I have a privacy fence around the back yard I do what I want!

I do leave dead plants up all winter, but as soon as spring comes I'm all MUST CLEAR THIS OUT! NEW PLANTS COMING! I am trying to train myself into better habits.

[beaq]

Yeah I'm a terror on the bees and the ground-nesting sparrow-things like juncos.

[lunabee34]

Very cool!

[jesse_the_k]

That's beautiful and practical!