Build a backyard bee house in 4 easy steps
Sara Fraser | CBC News | Posted: November 12, 2016 12:00 PM | Last Updated: November 12, 2016
'Without the bees, we don't have food'
Did you know wild bees need our help to find a place to live? Canada has hundreds of species of wild bees, many of which could be buzzing around your P.E.I. back yard.
The Stratford Watershed Group is holding a workshop on — and providing the materials for — building an easy DIY bee house, which attract solitary bees.
"You go on the web, there's all sorts of plans," said Winston Maund, chair of the non-profit group. "We're working with a basic plan."
Maund is creating "kits" for 12 participants in the Saturday workshop. They consist of an approximately 40-centimetre high chunk of non-chemically-treated wood with a slight angle cut on one end, and a flat board for a "roof" with a couple inches overhang on front and sides.
Here is Maund's step-by-step tutorial to build you own bee condo:
1. Cut a length of wood
Cut an approximately 40 centimetre (15 inch) tall, 15-centimetre square (6 by 6 inch) or even a 4-inch square piece of untreated wood, found at your local building supply store.
2. Cut a slight angle
Cut a slight angle on one end of the chunk of wood, so rainwater will easily slip off the roof you will nail on next.
3. Add the roof
Nail or screw on one 30-centimetre or foot-long — here Maund uses two boards glued together — board for the roof, with a couple inches overhang on the front and sides for the bees to get out of the rain.
4. Drill holes
Drill holes about half a centimetre (a quarter-inch) wide and about 3 inches deep, about 2.5 cm (1 inch) apart, all over the front of the bee house. The bees will happily use the holes as temporary homes.
You can even drill holes in a pattern — like a bee shape — Maund notes.
Hang your contraption proudly from a tree or post near flowering plants or bushes in your garden using a bit of rope or wire.
Go wild
The materials are being provided with help from a $1,200 grant from the World Wildlife Fund's Go Wild fund.
This weekend's event is being held Saturday at Stratford Town Hall at 9 a.m.
"The bees are there to pollinate everything we have," Maund stressed. "Without the bees, we don't have food."
Register for Saturday's 9 a.m. session by calling (902) 367-3605 or by emailing stratfordwater@gmail.com.
If you missed this session, don't worry — the group plans to hold another bee condo workshop in the new year, and will also instruct Stradfordians in building butterfly hotels and birdhouses.
And for those worried about getting stung, Maund said the bees won't bother you if you don't bug them.
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