Mason Bee house

Howdy all!

It's been a long time since we did a post. We have actually been crazy busy in the yard, and haven't had anytime to really post anything! So today we are going to show a recent project for a bee hotel. Mason bees are awesome little polinators, Unlike the usual honey bees, these bees are solitary, laying their eggs in holes. We decided to encourage the bees to visit our yard by building them a little hotel where they can make more little bees.

We based our bee hotel on these two posts:

http://solarbeez.com/category/mason-bees/

http://reallygoodwriter.com/bees/mason-bees-in-the-summer/attachment/masonbeehouse/

For our wedding, we cut up a large number of 2 x 4's to make a giant jenga set. Since then, we have slowly been incorporating these into projects around the house. Below, you can three 2 x 4s, and a piece of scrap wood that will be part of the roof:

Each of the 2x4s were cut at an angle, to give the roof a slight slope:

Here you can see the three 2x4s after they were cut.

They were then screwed together to make them into a large block. Screws were placed at the far corners, so that they wouldn't interfere with the bee holes later drilled:

Another image of the 2x4 block, and the roof.

Here you can see the results after I went nuts with the drill bit! I used a 3/8ths bit, and drilled them a nice little line:

I used an L bracket to mount the bee hotel. It was placed at the top of the hotel, such that the screws would not interfere with the drilled bee holes.

The bee hotel, once mounted on the chicken coop:

I have read that wood peckers can be a problem with these hotels, so eventually I will place some chicken wire, or bird netting around it such that the woodpecker can't eat the bee larva. As well, the bees need mud to close up the holes. I will eventually make a mud tray somewhere in the yard, such that they have all of the mud they need. Now get out there are get pollinating!

M & N