In North America 4 THOUSAND types of bees are disappearing!
Some are extinct already.
This is a NEW method to make bee habitat.
Colony collapse disorder is hard to blame when most bees are solitary!
Thats right, most types of bees live alone.
One big reason that they are disappearing is habitat loss.
This instructable suggests ways to provide solitary bees with brood space and overnight shelter in an attempt to replace some of that lost habitat. So far it is working much better than I expected.
Some are extinct already.
This is a NEW method to make bee habitat.
Colony collapse disorder is hard to blame when most bees are solitary!
Thats right, most types of bees live alone.
One big reason that they are disappearing is habitat loss.
This instructable suggests ways to provide solitary bees with brood space and overnight shelter in an attempt to replace some of that lost habitat. So far it is working much better than I expected.
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Signing UpStep 1: Cob and rods and stems and things
I have worked on since spring is to make blocks of cob (sand clay water and straw mixed to a gooey constituency and let dry. What I did was to get various different sizes of metal rod and push them into a block of wet cob and then let it dry for a couple of days. Before it is completely dry, I take out the rods and this left holes for the bees.
I show a couple of the blocks here.
It worked and there are at least 4 types of bees living in the block.
I recently discovered that solitary bees burrow inside old raspberry canes!
So one really easy thing you can do to help the bees is to bundle up old raspberry canes and leave the bundle in a dry south facing location. I am sure the bees will find them, burrow into some and leave some bee babies to hatch out next spring.
I show a couple of the blocks here.
It worked and there are at least 4 types of bees living in the block.
I recently discovered that solitary bees burrow inside old raspberry canes!
So one really easy thing you can do to help the bees is to bundle up old raspberry canes and leave the bundle in a dry south facing location. I am sure the bees will find them, burrow into some and leave some bee babies to hatch out next spring.
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Not a bee cam, just a few minutes with a mini dv camcorder but as you can see, they are using the vase! The really neat thing to me is that the bees are doing unexpected things. I did not know that they would go into the dill stems. (But I put them in anyway) I certainly did not expect that some bees would PREFER to tear out the pith from dill even thought many of the easy to occupy holes are just sitting there waiting to be used. A year ago, I did not even know that these little black flies were bees! And 6 months ago, I thought wool carder bees were wasps. Useful experiment and it has expanded my knowledge. Hopefully it will do the same for others. Brian
Brian
Also, do the holes have to be circular? Will solitary bees use hexagonal or triangular holes?
Brian
I SO want to do this. Thanks for an amazing diy. What better excuse is there for playing in the mud at my age?
He found the samples on his walk home from work, brought them in to the lab, did a genetic test and they did not match the types that were already identified. So even if your backyard bees "look" like some bee in a reference book they may be unrelated.
They may be a new species! I am not asking people to catalogue everything.
Just assume that it is precious and worth saving for the next generation.
If YOU don't do it, do not expect your neighbour to do it. You really ARE the last hope for the native bees in your area.
If people want to submit their exotic theories about honey bee extinction, please do it somewhere else. I will look into getting the spam deleted.
This is about helping the thousands of other kinds of bees which polinate flowers. Many of these bees have become extinct in the last decade, some before they even got an official name. I did not even notice! half the bee species that live and work on my property until I started making this bee habitat.
For added protection stake a wire into the ground and connect it to your foil lining.
A large galvanized or stainless steel nail or screw hammered into the ground would do the trick. Other metals would do fine but might rust sooner. Copper and iron tend to corrode. You'd have to replace them eventually if they do.
Instead of foil, you could use a fine-mesh metal screen or some sheet metal if you so choose. I just say foil because you 'prolly already have some in your house.
Make sure it's secured so the wind doesn't blow it off, say with some weatherproof caulking or other weatherproof glue.
I would 'prolly look for something like 100% Silicone. If it says "safe for food contact" or it's made for sealing aquariums, that's cool. I'd think it to have less of the industrial solvents in there that might interfere with a bee.
If you use a metal that is prone to rust, be sure to paint it where it's exposed, but make sure the metal on the lid can touch the side without any paint in the way. Leave that bare so it makes contact.
Be sure to leave enough space for the bees to get in and out, and be certain to leave enough space for ventilation. Air is good. We don't want to suffocate them in there. They can regulate the temperature if you let them.
Bees can always fill in gaps if they need to, but they can't make the air gaps any bigger if you don't make 'em big enough to begin with. This is especially true in the wintertime, as moisture can freeze in there.
The idea of the foil wrap is that the electromagnetic radiation will stay outside of your box, especially if you connect this to the ground. Look up "Faraday cage" on Google or Wikipedia.
Yes, I have issues with being stung and hating wasps but it's mostly just yellow jackets and the giant black wasps that are a problem-just remember that there are plenty of helpful wasps too.
Consider getting chicken wire, folding it over on itself to the holes don't line up (make the spaces in the wiring as small as possible), and cover the front of the tubes with a few inches of clearance. I've already had issues this year with birds getting at the bees, and I'd hate to see someone else have to go through it.
Brian
I have a video of the little black bees using the beevase at a link above. If solitary wasps use it too, I am not concerned. I am only concerned if it becomes a "monoculture" with only one type. I have seen the black ones, green ones, yellow ones and 2 large brown types. That is good for starters.
Brian