Make a Hotel for Bees!
by Floris Books • 14 February 2024 • Children's Books, Crafts & Activities, Extract, Gardening, Picture Books • 0 Comments
In Dawn Casey’s new picture book, The Bumblebee Garden, illustrated by Stella Lim, little Ben helps his Grandpa tend to the garden and learns all about the life-cycle of bees and their importance to the natural world.
When Grandpa explains that bees carry pollen that helps juicy strawberries grow, Ben asks if they can help the bees in return.
One way we can all help our buzzy friends is to make space for them in our gardens.
Invite bees into your garden by making a wood-slice hotel! Taken from our book Spring and Summer Activities Come Rain or Shine, this is a great way to thank the bees for all their hard working tending to our ecosystem.
Wood-slice Hotel for Bees
- Drill holes into the hardwood disc. These holes should be between 3 and 10 mm (¼ – ½ in) in diameter. Do not drill all the way through; the back should remain intact. Try to make the smaller holes approximately 3 cm (1 in) deep and the larger holes approximately 6 cm (2 in) deep.
2. Screw the ring screw into the top of the wood disc.
3. Make a hook out of wire by bending both ends. Push a length of plastic tube onto one end; this is the hook that will hang from the tree. The plastic will stop the wood growing around the hook.
4. Hang the hotel on the dangling end of the hook. If possible, hang this simple insect shelter from a large branch of a tree facing south so that it will catch the sun. You can also attach the disc to the trunk of a tree, to a wall or a wooden beam with a nail.
The best time to hang up your wood disc hotel is at the end of March or the beginning of April, when the first wild bees begin to mate. You will see when the first bees have moved in and started mating, as the holes will be filled with loam.
Find out more about The Bumblebee Garden here.
If you have a wee nature bug at home, here are some more of our books we think they’ll love.
