Here you have two wooden posts, supporting a bookcase-like set of shelves, and packed to the brim with twigs, pine cones, and small log cuttings with many carefully drilled holes. All this is held securely in place with a wire-mesh screen. This rather odd structure is called a Bee Hotel. The logs and twigs simulate natural cavities that bees and other insects might use to lay their eggs or for overwintering. 

Some kinds of bees called social bees—including the familiar European Honey Bee and several species of Bumblebees—live in community hives among other bees. Other kinds of bees do not live in hives, but instead live solitarily. They nest in holes and natural wood cavities carved and later abandoned by other wood-boring insects. These include Mason Bees, which do not live together, but do create nests near one another. Solitary bees, just like social bees, are important pollinators. Natural nesting cavities for these bees can be scarce, and so this Bee Hotel, conveniently located next to our pollinator meadow, provides nesting habitat for these often-overlooked insects.

If you want to support solitary bees in your yard, a good way to start is by installing a small bee hotel—maybe 1ft by 1ft square—near a pollinator garden.

Reader: Chris Martin