If you want to make your own contribution to nesting help for wild bees, you can build an environmentally friendly bee hotel in the garden area. The wild bee hotel has become so popular that you can even find it on handicrafts markets. Just like a hotel for humans, however, you have to do it well so that the useful insects feel at home. Here are some inspiring examples and advice that can help you implement such a bee-friendly DIY project.
Create a nesting site by building a bee hotel
Solitary bees are not like honey bees living in beehive. As your name suggests, build your nests yourself and put your eggs in tunnels. For example, these would be a dead wood or hard floor. A bee hotel ahms themConditions for beesafter. You can set up your bee hotel as you please, but in spring there are potential residents in line to find the best new place to stay.
On sunny spring days, watch the adult wild bees find your nest. You will know that you nest when the insects wear pollen and form your nests around the tube around cell walls. If you don't have time or the right tools, you can of course also buy a finished bee hotel. However, it is more fun to create your own creation in order to be able to look forward to the results.
In addition, a bee hotel is a collection of hollow trunks and wood that are arranged in a container in which wild bees can nest. There are many types of solitary bees, from hairy flower bees to red wall and leaf cutters. Individual types of wasp also use bee hotels.
Different types also nest in different seasons, but they appear from the end of February to March and continue until autumn. However, not all wild bees nest in bee hotels, but many frequent types will do it if the habitat is available. The bees don't care what the nesting site looks like as long as it is dry. This applies especially in winter and in full sun so that they can feel at home. Replace the hollow stems every year in late spring as soon as new plants have appeared.
Short instructions for the construction of a simple wild bee hotel
A bee hotel is the perfect nesting site for female wild bees, including red wall bees and leaf cutter bees. These solitary bees are not aggressive and it is very unlikely that they stab. In contrast to social bees such as bumblebees and honeybees, such specimens nest individually and lay eggs in hollow stems such as bamboo, kard and sunflower stalks.
So make a wooden box after your dislike and fill it with hollow stems such as old flower stems or bamboo skirts, which you have dried and cut thoroughly. Ideally, the holes in diameter should vary between 2 mm and 10 mm to attract the greatest possible biodiversity. Place your bee hotel in a sunny place, ideally so that it gets the morning sun. To reduce the risk of fungal infections and predators, take off your bee hotel every autumn and store it in a cool, dry place like your dandruff.
Required materials and tools
- An at least 10 cm wide board made of untreated wood or plywood
- Hohle stems such as reeds, bamboo tubes or old flower stems
- Sawmill
- drill
- Screw
- Garden scissors
- A attachment to hang up the hotel
Step-by-step instructions
- First cut the board into four parts to get a rectangular frame for the bee hotel. Drill guide holes for the screws and assemble the frame like a box. Paint the wood if you want and let it dry.
- Then use garden scissors or a saw to cut your stems to the same depth as the box. With thicker stems, a saw of a garden scissors is preferable because the stems are less likely to splinter. Grind all rough edges.
- Then carefully pack the frame of the bee hotel with the stems - only when you add the last couple will the entire grid become stuck. Hang your bee hotel on a sunny wall, protected from rain, and wait until the wall bees research.
Find inspiration and build a bee hotel
It is not necessary to raise a lot of time and money for a wild bee hotel. Even an empty bottle with a cut down floor and abandoned lid as the back can be crowded with a number of different nesting materials and placed on a warm, protected place oriented to the east over eye level. In the example above you can see how an analog television became a bee hotel for local species. The “architects” used various materials for its “hotel room”. As with everything in nature, variety is best, so use a mixture of various material sources. Also put a slanted roof with the hotel with a generous survival. A small bee area would also be desirable. Below you can see some inspiring ideas for bee hotels.
Use old wood and hollow stems
A small wooden bee hotel can simply consist of a few hollow stems. These are occupied and sealed by leaf cutter bees with leaf pieces. Such a beehouse consists of a piece of tree bark attached to a wooden frame. The gaps are filled with hollow trunks. Note the cells used by leaf cutter bees and are sealed with leaf pieces.
Bee hotel with different materials in round containers on a stylish wall
This exhibition consists of a variety of materials, including bricks and stems made of ivy, which are arranged in circular containers on the side of a wall. Together, the containers form a striking eye -catcher.
Wild bee hotel with green roofs
This is another example of a bee hotel made of hollow trunks that are packed under a roof planted with Sempervivum (house root plant). The light lip on the roof also helps to keep the hollow stems dry. This is essential to reduce the risk of infections that could affect some of the eggs and larvae. Sitting on a post, this can be placed in a sunny bed.
Bee hotels on wooden posts
Piles can be a variety ofBee hotels in the middle of flowering plantsSupport in the garden. These stylishly designed houses on piles can also be made from a variety of materials and are suitable for every garden area. In addition, you can surround the bee hotels with many flowers, deliver the pollen and nectar, so that the bees do not have to travel far.
How you can build a bee hotel from roof tiles and pallets
Suitable bee and insect protection can also consist of old bricks and wood as well as branches and pine cones. Such a building offers countless possibilities for wild bees and other insects. Many of the materials are things that you may have lying around or can collect from the garden, including old tiles, branches and tree trunks with drilled holes.
