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Pollinators are essential to our ecosystems and food security, and there are many ways we can lend them a helping hand. One of the most effective ways to create pollinator-friendly habitats is by designing a diverse garden or landscape with lots of locally native plant species. These plants have evolved alongside local bee populations, providing ideal food sources and shelter, ensuring their survival.
Creating a Bee-Friendly Habitat
Native Plants: Native plants are a bee's best friend. They provide the perfect food sources for native bees, ensuring they thrive.
Bare Soil: Leave some patches of bare soil in your garden. These spots are perfect nesting sites for many solitary bee species, which are just as crucial as honeybees in providing pollination.
Water Sources: Bees need water to survive. Ensure your garden has a shallow water source with perching spots, so bees can drink without the risk of drowning.
Shelter: Bees need shelter from extreme weather, predators, and disturbances. Including shrubs, trees and dense vegetation in your garden will provide a safe haven for them.
Year-Round Floral Resources: Bees need a consistent food supply throughout the seasons. By planting a range of flowering plants that bloom at different times, you can ensure bees have access to nectar and pollen year-round.
While creating a natural habitat is the best way to support bees, building supplementary habitats like Native Bee Hotels can be both fun and helpful.
Types of Bee Hotels
Hollow/Pithy Tubes: For stem nesters, cut 15-20cm lengths of hollow stems like bamboo or raspberry canes and arrange them into a cluster.
Drilled Wood Blocks: These mimic borer holes in trees and are perfect for hole nesters.
Mudbrick: Ideal for ground nesters like blue-banded bees. You can make homemade mud bricks using compacted earth, clay, and loam.
Combination: Mix bamboo stems, drilled wood, and mud bricks for a versatile bee hotel.
Building Your Own Drilled Wood Bee Hotel
Here's how to build a simple native bee hotel using recycled materials:
Materials:
A saw
Tape measure
Drill bits and a drill
Marking pen
Gas torch (optional)
Sandpaper
Hard or soft wood (I've used wood from an untreated pallet)
Instructions:
Measure and Cut: Measure your wood to approximately 20cm in length and saw it into blocks.
Mark and Drill: Mark where you'll drill the holes. Use different cavity diameters and depths, such as a 6mm hole 150mm deep, a 5mm hole 120mm deep, and an 8mm hole 150mm deep. Make sure the holes are slightly angled to prevent water pooling and spaced at least 20mm apart.
Sand the Entrances: Sand the holes' entrances to remove splinters that could damage the bees' wings.
Char the Wood: For extra appeal, slightly char the wood using a gas torch. This also helps remove tiny splinters.
Maintain Nest Hygiene: Native bee hotels can accumulate debris, mites, and pathogens over time. Use paper straws to line the holes and replace them between seasons. Clean the holes with a pipe cleaner and water during winter when all bees have emerged.
Bee Education: Building Native Bee Hotels
In our Bee Education and Bee Incursion programs, we explore the differences between European honey bees and native bees. We discuss the habitats and nesting places of native bees and how to build supplementary habitats like native bee hotels to support their populations.
Bee-Inspired Music: Friends With Honey Musical Kids Show
The "Friends With Honey Musical Kids Show Album" includes a sweet and catchy tune that helps children understand the differences between solitary and social bees and their habitat. One of the songs, "Some Bees" talks about the nesting behaviors of bees, from "living in their honey house" to "living underground where they're safe and sound." It's a fun and educational way to engage children in bee biodiversity, complete with a catchy chorus that's perfect for singing and dancing along.
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