Where Is the Best Place to Hang a Bee House

Bex Cartwright, our Making a Buzz for the Coast Conservation Officer, has written this handy guide on how to create or choose a suitable bee box to make a perfect dwelling house for alone bees in your garden!

Siting y our bee nest box

To maximise the chances of your bee nest box being occupied, careful siting is of import.

• Position your nest box in full sunshine so facing southward e or south
• Place the nest box at least 1 metre from the ground
• You can place your nest box near vegetation only ensure that no vegetation will obscure or shade the nest entrances
• Position the nest box in a stable, fixed position that will not sway in the current of air or exist hands knocked or dislodged.
• Recall, one of the reasons for having a bee nest box is so you can detect the fascinating activities of the bees visiting your garden so make sure information technology is somewhere you will run across it regularly.

Things to consider when choosing or creating a bee nest box

If you are thinking of creating a new bee nest box or buying ane of the many commercially available nest boxes there are a number of things to consider. Many are expensive and some are poorly-designed. Some of the well-nigh ordinarily encountered issues are:

• The length of the nesting tubes or drilled holes is not sufficient. Look for a nest box with nesting tunnels 15cms in length equally a minimum.
• The bore of the nesting tubes are oft too broad. This is because houses manufactured away are built to attract larger species than those we have in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland. It is beneficial to provide a range of bore nesting tubes as this will concenter a range of unlike species. Provide holes of between two-10mm in diameter.
• No protection from wet and windy weather. Ideally the bee house will have a pocket-size overhang to forbid nesting tubes becoming damp. To some extent this can be alleviated past careful placing of the bee firm. Somewhere sheltered but not shaded is ideal.
• Avoid the use of plastic straws or containers. Plastic and other 'non-breathable' materials prevent the movement of air and moisture and can encourage damp and condensation leading to mucus and mould. This will destroy eggs and larvae.
• In full general tunnel and tube entrances should exist smooth and free of splinters although some species will clean out and 'tidy-upward' a tube before nesting.
• Nesting tunnels and tubes should accept a solid back. Bees volition not utilise nesting tubes which are open at both ends.
• The nesting tunnels need to exist accessible and removable and so that the contents can be examined, cleaned and periodically replaced. The virtually successful bee nest boxes are those that are well-managed.

Which bee species will the nest box attract?

The most common resident of garden bee nest boxes is the Crimson Mason Bee (Osmia bicornis), this species flies in early on spring. Later in summer your bee nest box may also attract leafcutter bees such every bit Patchwork Leafcutter (Megachile centuncularis) (epitome above) and Willughby'south Leafcutter (Megachile willughbiella). These species play host to cuckoo bees Coelioxys, as well known as 'sharp-tailed bees' (paradigm correct), fascinating bees which lay their ain eggs in the provisioned leafcutter nests. Smaller bees such as Harebell bees (Chelostoma sp.) and Masked or Yellow-faced bees (Hylaeus spp.) are also attracted to nest boxes

A range of solitary wasps may also use the nest box, these will act as a great natural pest control in your garden, collecting flies, small caterpillars and aphids to provision their nests.

Managing your bee hotel

Periodic maintenance and cleaning will event in a more successful nest box and a healthier population of bees in your garden. With no cleaning, fungi, debris and parasites tend to build upward which can be damaging to the bees.

• Bring your nest box into an unheated shed or garage during the autumn and winter to protect it from damp and wet weather. If you don't have either and then a porch or any covered surface area will practise. It is clammy non cold that destroys larvae. Not merely volition this protect the larvae and adult bees waiting to emerge in the bound merely information technology volition hateful that your nest box will last longer. You lot tin place the box outdoors in the spring, from March onwards.
• If you notice birds predating your nest box or removing nest tubes (woodpeckers and tits often do this) then you can place a piece of mesh or chicken wire across the front. This does not appear to deter the bees.
• If your nest box is congenital of stacked & routed wooden sheets or you use newspaper nest tube liners you lot can make clean it out in wintertime, remove the cocoons (epitome left) and store them until jump.
• At least every couple of years supplant all of the tubes and blocks in the nest box with fresh ones. In spring leave the old tubes in an upturned box or bucket on the ground with a hole at the top (bees naturally orientate towards light) so that the previous year's bees tin can sally merely and then that they won't reoccupy the onetime tubes.

For further information on all of the in a higher place Marc Carlton of 'The Pollinator Garden' has produced an first-class guide to 'Making and Managing a Bee Hotel'. A pdf. version can be downloaded from world wide web.foxleas.com

George Pilkington likewise has a fantastic website and blog 'Nuturing Nature' www.nurturing-nature.co.uk which has a wealth of information on managing bee houses.

For photos and more information virtually the bees and wasps that are attracted to nest boxes the website of The Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society 'BWARS' is very helpful  www.bwars.com

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Source: https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/bee-nest-boxes/

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