So I recently made a bee hotel. It’s pretty inexpensive to make, and also relatively quick – in most cases. It might take a few days if you’re using bamboo, simply because your arms might hurt from sawing, and you might wanna take a break. It’s aimed at solitary wild bees, and thus also suitable for regions in which honeybees aren’t native.

These things are great for making them with kids (supervised, of course), and to look at the finished hotel later to learn more about bee behaviour.

 As a disclaimer: I work for my country’s main Nature Conservation Syndicate (I doubt you’ll ever come across it, but if you’re from Luxembourg and see a SICONA post on facebook with the exact same pictures : I dind’n steal them. I took them myself, and wrote said post myself.

This is everything you will need:

• Some sort of container. I used an old washed Ravioli can, but a discarded flower pot should work just as well.
• Bamboo sticks. I got mine for very inexpensive at the garden center, but alternatively, if you have access to, Spanish reed works as well and will actually make your life easier with this project (the reed used in diffusers might be too small).
• A saw. I’ve used a small metal saw because it makes finer and cleaner cuts.
• Drill bits for wood if you’re using bamboo.
• Cotton.
• A bit of sandpaper.
• String or wire.
• Optional: Hot glue.

First thing you’ll need to do is to cut your bamboo. It has to be approximately as long as your container. The metal saw cuts slowly, but the cuts are fine and relatively clean. After that you might wanna go back and sand the edges of your bamboo so they’re smooth, just to make sure that the bees don’t get stuck in them with their wings.

The next thing: Take your drill bits and drill them slowly by hand into your bamboo. This is to carve out the bamboo so that the bee has somewhere to climb into. Shake the dust out.
If you’re using reed you might not need to do this, maybe to make the wholes a bit wider.
This also takes a while, so take it slowly and take breaks whenever you need to.

Then stuff the open ends of your bamboo/reed with cotton. It insulates the whole thing a bit, and bees won’t use open-ended sticks.

Now take your sticks, and shove them into your container, with the cotton-stuffed ends to the bottom. And I mean it when I say stuff that thing. It needs to be so fully packed that the sticks won’t fall out on their own. This makes it more difficult for other animals to go “Ooooooh, sticks!” and just pull them out and steal them.

All you need to do now is take wire or string, tie it around your container, and attach it to a tree branch/fence/wall in your garden. The essential is that it is either hanging/standing horizontally, or maybe even a sliiiiightly bit tipped over, so rainwater can’t enter.

If you want to stand the thing up, I’d recommend hot glueing two pieces of bamboo/reed lengthwise on the bottom of your container to act as feet so it won’t roll away.

“But Rima, bees need sun, the larvae need the heat to develop, but won’t it get way too warm if you put that thing in the sun?”

That’s a very god question! While it is true that insects need the sun to be active, we don’t want them to get fried. I’d recommend putting the hotel in a spot with partial shade. That way they can still get enough sunlight and heat, while also having cooler spots they can retreat to if they want to, or if it gets too hot.