How to Make a Mason Bee House for Your Garden
Gardeners know that having bees in the garden is a big help. Some gardeners are even turning to urban beekeeping to bring industrious pollinators into the yard (and reap the reward: honey). If you’re not quite ready for full-on beekeeping, you can still get into the game by attracting solitary bees with the mason bee house, which gives the mason bees a place to breed. These species are usually native as they are not farmed for honey and can still be industrious pollinators.
What you need to make a mason’s bee house
The materials for this project depend on the type of bee house you plan to make, but you will need one or more blocks of wood or planks, such as 2 by 4 trims and 1 by 6 trims. In addition, you will need a hacksaw, a nail gun, and nails or good old hammer, drill and tape measure.
Stone bees nest in tubular places, so it can be quite easy to build a house for them. All they need is some tunnels drilled into the wood block and a roof to keep the entrance dry. Some test tube instructions use paper liners in order to keep the interior of the nests clean and prevent fungus, but this is not required. Bee Inns that open up to be cleaned between seasons are more convenient but a little harder to build, so let’s not worry about building them for now.
How to Build the Roof and Construction of a Mason’s Bee House
First you need to create an overhanging roof for your bee house. To make a gabled roof, cut two pieces of one-by-six or similar material with a 30-degree angle on one edge. Make sure the roof is wide enough to cover the entrances to your planned home. You then need to join the two pieces together at a 30 degree angle to form the visor.
Once you have a roof, you can build a square bee nest box. The box should be large enough to hold your nests, about 5 inches deep and as high and as wide as your roof. You can use several 1×6 boards (or similar) to build a rectangle 5-1/2″ deep, about eight inches wide top and bottom, and as high as you like. Next, cover the back of the box with a 1×3 cloth (or similar) and place the roof over the end of the box with the opening facing out. Nail it. This is the structure that your bee nests will go into.
How to make tubular nests
To make the simplest nests, you can drill holes in 2×4 blocks with a 7/16″ bit. First cut the blocks to 5 inches in length. Then use a very long drill bit to drill holes from the end of the block to the end. It is important that the holes are through so that the bee nests can be cleaned with pipe cleaner or water between nesting seasons. If you use this method, you can place the blocks with the holes facing out and your bee hotel is ready to be installed.
To make tubes that are a bit more difficult but easier to clean, you will need a router and a ½-inch round end cutter. Use your router to cut ½” by ½” channels into the boards you use for nesting. These boards can be 2 by s6ix or 5 quarter by 5 inches and should be cut to fit inside your bee box. Trim the channels about an inch apart from the front of the bee box to the back. Then insert them into the box, one on top of the other, and they form bee tunnels. When it’s time to clean out the bee box, you can slide them out and open the tunnels, which saves you some hassle.
How to keep a mason bee at home
Your bee hotel should be ready to set up with whatever type of nesting tunnel you choose to use. Check with local guides to find out when the weather is warm enough for bees in your area, and set up your bee hotel outside to attract pollinating friends. As soon as the weather is cold enough for the bee cocoons and there are no live bees left in the house, you should move the bee house to a garden shed, unheated garage, or similar protected area, but don’t clean it yet. Once it’s time for the bees to hatch, you should put the bee hotel back outside and let the nesting bees come out of their cocoons before cleaning. Finally, you should thoroughly clean the bee passages and dry them thoroughly to prevent fungus. Leave the cleaned nest tubes in their structure for the new bees.