Another Solitary Bee House

I saw a Red Mason Bee investigating a flowerbed the other day, it paid no interest to the solitary bee and ladybord box I hung up last summer. I did a little google research and decided that perhaps the bees just don't like it. Maybe the holes are the wrong size, maybe they just don't like bamboo -it's not exactly a native plant afterall. I guess what's aesthetically pleasing to people isn't necessarily what bees want. My friend who'd drilled holes in some fenceposts was now host to 5 or 6 sets of mason bee brood so I decided to do the same. Except I don't have a wooden fence.

What I did have was a plank of treated wood and some wooden blocks left over from pallets I'd dismantled. They were going to be firewood for a friend but I decided to repurpose them as a bee hotel. Using some zinc plated nails I attached the blocks to the plank. With a 9mm drill bit and a smaller one maybe 3mm I drilled a load of holes in the blocks. Mason bees don't like holes over 1cm in diameter apparently, they also don't like raggy edged holes. The smaller holes were an afterthought really, I've got no idea what random insect life if any will want them.

I figured it was going to need a little protection from the rain so I cut an old slate roof tile to size. Googling how to cut roof slates found me umpteen pages telling me it's very easy to cut slates to size. You just use a slate cutter. Unfortunately I don't have a stale cutter. Instead I used a craft knife and a wood saw, it was hard work. Really hard work. But I got a piece the size I wanted. I used some pond liner adhesive to attach it -partly because it's none toxic to wildlife but mostly because I didn't feel like going half a mile to the hardware shop to get some other glue.

I knocked a couple of nails into the sides to hang it by and attached it it to one of the nails left in the wall from my impromptu bee barrier. Ideally it should be a meter up a southfacing wall but my southfacing wall has a lot of plants growing against it and I also thought cats might damage it or at least annoy any insects living in it by using it as a step when they jump off the wall. The west facing wall it's attached to is near the bee hives and also gets a lot of sun.

Solitary Bee House -hopefully

After this photo was taken I moved it a few feet to the left so it gets more sun. As it's basically made of junk and rubbish and all it's cost me is a few nails and a little time to make I won't be too offended if the bees don't occupy it..