Bee Hotel

[Dave Lehnert]

Anyone built a Bee Hotel?
What design did you use, did it work, Make any changes?

https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/bee-hotels-are-open-business

[Richard Coers]

Just saw an episode of Growing a Greener World on Create Channel on TV. I was really enthused about solitary bees. Thought it was wonderful. But then priced buying some bees. Kinda pricey to get started, but Crown Bees will buy back cocoons in the fall. Seems like a wonderful way to help nature along. I think the paper tubes might just be the way to go for their nesting, if you want to harvest them in the fall. Less issues with pests and disease when you throw those away each year. https://crownbees.com

[Dave Lehnert]

Just saw an episode of Growing a Greener World on Create Channel on TV. I was really enthused about solitary bees. Thought it was wonderful. But then priced buying some bees. Kinda pricey to get started, but Crown Bees will buy back cocoons in the fall. Seems like a wonderful way to help nature along. I think the paper tubes might just be the way to go for their nesting, if you want to harvest them in the fall. Less issues with pests and disease when you throw those away each year. https://crownbees.com


Thanks for the link. I will check it out.
I was reading that Sunflower stalks make good nests. I raise Sunflowers so I would have a good supply

[kent borcherding]

I have plans for Mason bees also bumblebee bungalow . If you send me a PM email glad send you copies of plans. Also bees like radish bloosoms for pollinating .

[Bill Dufour]

In California rental bee hives are huge business. Is it common in your area? I mean they bring in a truckload of hives for a month for bloom season then move onto the next crop. At least one truck flips over on the highway near enough to hear it on the news every year.
Bil lD

[Jim Becker]

Bill, honey bees are brought in for pollination, especially for the Almond crops. That's a completely different "housing" situation than the type of accommodations that the OP is asking about which is for solitary bees, rather than colonies like honey bees live in. (We keep honeybees here, but to-date only on our property. But a friend takes a truckload down to Florida for their almond crop annually...big bucks)

Dave, I encourage you to build something like this. We have a small commercial one that was purchased years ago and is about at the end of its life due to deterioration from weather, but even so, it has nearly "no vacancies" for the winter at the moment. I plan on making a replacement.

[Richard Coers]

Here's a link to that Growing a Greener World episode. https://www.growingagreenerworld.com/mason-bee-revolution/

[Jim Becker]

Here's a link to the first video for Timothy Wilmots uber-nice setup for pollinators...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgm326U77Qg

[Jim Becker]

And part two...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AR3JimjIyo&t=8s

[Rod Sheridan]

I'm glad Jim posted a link to Timothy's insect hotel.

I was going to build one a couple of years ago and asked my friend who is an Entomologist about what size tunnels I should drill for local species.

He actually talked me out of building one and into planting more local flower species instead of the decorative flowers. Apparently in the city proper plant species were scarcer than housing locations.

We started with milkweed and now see Monarch butterflies. We have to keep an eye on the milkweed as it does try to take over the garden.
Next year we'll add more local species.

One thing Al mentioned was that if I were to build one, to put metal mesh across the front a couple inches away from the nests. This prevents the insect hotel from becoming a woodpecker feeding station.

Regards, Rod

[Thomas L Carpenter]

Dave, as a preliminary experiment I drilled various size holes in a 8 inch piece of 2X10 and put it in an area sheltered from rain. The holes were in the 2 inch side and on both sides of the 2x10. Within a few months all holes were filled with a waxy material and then much later they were all open again. did this several years ago and can't remember the time of year When i started the experiment. Always meant to follow up with a better looking version but never did.

[Bill Dufour]

Bill, honey bees are brought in for pollination, especially for the Almond crops.

I had no idea Almonds were grown commercially outside of California. At least in the USA. California grows something like 75% of the worlds almonds and about 85% of that is within 50 miles of me. Almonds is a bigger crop then wine in California, and we have the worlds largest winery in town. Surprising since the trees are replaced on a twenty year cycle.
So you can see bees are a big thing here. I do not think the non hive bees get much respect in the central valley.
Bil lD.

[Jim Becker]

Bill, it's true that the largest part of the world supply comes out of California, but there are other places, too. Florida has a reasonable crop apparently because there's got to be good incentive for a guy here in rural SE PA to put hundreds of honeybee colonies on a truck (20-50K bees in each) and truck them down to Florida for a few weeks specifically for the almond crop and then bring them back up here to pollinate other crops throughout the year. He used to sell honey. No longer. Now he sells bees and gains a lot of his income from pollination. He shut down his HVAC business to focus on the bees about year and a half ago or so. So far, he's not sent any to the left coast, but there are beeks here in the east that do.

[Richard Coers]

I had no idea Almonds were grown commercially outside of California. At least in the USA. California grows something like 75% of the worlds almonds and about 85% of that is within 50 miles of me. Almonds is a bigger crop then wine in California, and we have the worlds largest winery in town. Surprising since the trees are replaced on a twenty year cycle.
So you can see bees are a big thing here. I do not think the non hive bees get much respect in the central valley.
Bil lD.
It's not about why even bother with minor bee species, it's about biodiversity and addressing a world shortage of pollinators. With big ag, biodiversity takes a hind seat. Large banana plantations are one step closer to a disaster with a fungus now showing up in Central America. One plant species in hundreds of acres makes disease control incredibly difficult. The same goes for just one species of bees. In some places in China, people climb into the pear trees to hand pollinate the blooms since it is cheaper to hire people than rent bees. If the minor species of bees continue to decline, and colony collapse gets out of control with commercial bee producers, we'll all be in a world of hurt!

[Günter VögelBerg]

I have never built one, but we have one and it definitely works. We have mason bees here in northern utah.