It's Time to Hang Up Your Bee House!

Oh boy! The bees are back in town! Well, they will be... soon. I just received my March Newsletter from Our Native Bees (our local native bee specialist in McLean).

If you'd like to attract beneficial (and non-stinging!) Orchard Mason Bees to your yard, then it's time to hang up a bee house! This is sure to be a fascinating, educational, and fun activity for both adults and kids.

Don't have a bee house? I highly recommend the "Plan Bee" house from Our Native Bees! It's made right here in Virginia, so you're supporting local economy- which I'm all about! You can order from the website, and a few nurseries and other garden centers have them, too (Merrifield carried them last year).

On Our Native Bees' Bee House Shop page, you'll see why I recommend this specific bee house: Years of research went into making it the perfect home for local native bees. Denise (owner of Our Native Bees) even created this extremely informative video that explains why this is the perfect home for solitary bees:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0dkN7s3pTc

The "Plan Bee" house has an overhang to protect the tubes (thus, the bees!) from the elements. It also fits tubes that are the ideal 6" in length. Bonus: This bee house comes with removable cardboard tubes and paper nesting straws. The cardboard tubes can be used for years, and the paper straws can easily be changed out to keep the bee nesting sites fresh and clean.

There are lots of other bee houses, too; but as-is, most aren't ideal for solitary bees. No matter what kind of bee house you have, make sure the nesting tubes have an inner-paper liner. This is important because you'll want to change out those inner-liners each season.

Changing the paper straws helps keep the bee nesting site more sanitary and healthy. You can add the paper liners by cutting pieces of parchment paper and rolling them into a tube slightly smaller than the hole diameter, push the tube in, and let the parchment paper expand on its own to fill the hole. Any bee house also needs to be super-sturdy (or hung in a very sturdy way) so it doesn't bang around and dislodge the bee eggs from their food supply.

The Bamboo Bee House from Gardener's Supply is one most of us have seen pictures of on the internet, sometimes even as an example of a bee house you can build yourself. Ideally you want your nesting tubes to be about 6" deep, and these are 5 3/4"... which is close. However, the tubes are different widths, and if the tubes are too wide, the bees won't use them- or if they do, they'll have to line the inside with loads of mud to make it the proper width. That takes a lot of energy!

Also notice there is no overhang to protect the tubes from rain. This picture doesn't show the back of the house, and you want a good, closed, solid surface back there to prevent squirrels or birds or even ants from disturbing your baby bees.

And how does this bee house hang? Will it blow around in the wind? Also, in the "specifications" section, this house is designed to last only 1-2 years. However, if you already own this bee house, you can make it work! Roll parchment paper tubes to insert into the reeds. Try to hang the bee house securely (from the top and bottom) on a wall or other flat solid surface, under some sort of overhang.

Simple wooden blocks with holes drilled in them are very common bee houses sold online and in many stores. I've noticed these bee houses tend to only get 1-star (out of 5) when reviewed online, mainly due to them not being deep enough. You want those drilled holes to be at least 6" deep- and that is very hard to find!

You also want your bee house to have an overhang to protect the developing bees inside the tubes. This one is a good example of a wooden block house with the proper depth, an overhang, and even a back that opens for cleaning and bee-maintenance: Bee House by AnimalHouseCreations on Etsy (And, of course, be sure to insert rolled parchment paper liners into the drilled holes.)

Here are a few tips for hanging your bee house:

- Be sure the house is already loaded up with clean paper nesting straws. I rolled my own new paper straws with parchment paper. It doesn't take much paper to roll a straw, and it took me just a couple of minutes to roll 6 straws.

- Choose a spot with bright morning sun- Orchard Mason Bees are dark green, and their dark colored bodies absorb the sun's heat. This helps them get up and moving in the morning. I mean, you probably don't like to get out from under the covers when it's cold in the morning, right? Then you have something in common with these bees!

- Hang the house at approximately eye level to keep animals from disturbing it- and so you can easily watch the bees, too.

- Hang the house on a secure spot, like a wall or post, to keep the house from moving around too much. You can hang it on a wooden fence, too- but try not to hang it near any doors that will be swinging shut and rattling the bee house around. I hung mine on my shed.

Please note: I do not own or work for Our Native Bees; it's a great local company with an owner who really knows her bee-stuff! The bee house series of my blog on Patch is based on my personal experiences, and this is the bee house that I own and the newsletter I read. Even if you don't own a bee house from Our Native Bees, you can sign up for the newsletter to see what you should be doing to attract bees to your yard and your bee house!