Building for bees

Instead of adding a beehive to the garden think of the other bees. Honeybees aren’t native anyway. Native bees don’t live in hives, they are mostly solitary insects. Bees can be attracted to the garden with several manmade living situations.

Many bees nest in decaying trees either by excavating a hole or using premade holes. Removing dead trees will eliminate bee habitat. Bee blocks are just wooden blocks with holes drilled in them. Untreated scrap lumber chunks can be used or pieces from a tree being removed also work well. The larger the bee blocks the more bees they can support.

Some bees nest underground. Bumble bees can sometimes form colonies of ground nests. The bees need bare ground in loose soil to excavate a nest where they are not disturbed by foot traffic. Mulching every inch of garden soil can eliminate the type of habitat some bees need. Sand boxes can make good nesting areas for some bees.

Vertical stems also form nesting opportunities. Bees can lay their eggs in the stem or overwinter in there for protection. Some native plants that have nice hollow stems are blackberry, hydrangea, elderberry, cup plant, milkweed. Cut pieces of bamboo can be bundled and placed vertically or horizontally for bees to occupy.

Built bee houses do better if they have protection from the elements. They can be tucked under the eaves of the roof or placed under a deck. I like to keep mine on the front porch so I can watch them traveling in and out.

Predators might also find built bee habitats easier to exploit. When all the bee nests are close together it is easy for a woodpecker or racoon to cause a lot of destruction. Putting wire fronts or bee blocks can help protect them. Keeping bee houses in high traffic areas, like next to the front door, also reduces predators.

Bees come in all sizes so they will want a wide variety of hole widths to choose from. Larger width holes will need to be deeper to accommodate more bees. When bees use a tube to lay eggs, they place the female eggs in the deepest part of the hole with the males towards the outside. If the holes are not made deep enough, they will only hatch male bees, and we need females to continue the population.

Find out more about how to make bee houses and what size holes to make at

https://www.xerces.org/sites/default/files/2018-05/12-015_02_XercesSoc_Nests-for-Native-Bees-fact-sheet_web.pdf