Are you interested in bees and creating an eco-friendly space in your garden? Read on for my guide on how to how to make a bee hotel using upcycled materials. My 8 year old daughter has been learning about bees this term in school. She takes what she learns on board and treats it very seriously so she was really distressed to learn that bees are actually becoming endangered and that several species of bee have already gone extinct.
Why are bees dying out?
Bees are dying out, which would be a disaster for our natural world. A combination of things are causing the honey bee to become endangered. Increased industrial agriculture, pests, climate change and the destruction of their habitat are all reasons why we are seeing such a sharp decline in the bee population.
Why are bees important?
Bees are incredibly important. It is estimated that one third of our food crops are pollinated by bees, so you can imagine the effect that a dwindling bee population would have.
What can we do to help the bees?
There are several things that we can do to help the bee population. You can let your garden grow – long grass and plenty of bee friendly flowers not only look great, they will make the bees happy too.
You can also stop using pesticides in your garden. They might get rid of unwanted pests but they are also very harmful to bees and other beneficial insects. You can look into more natural remedies to solve your problem.
Make A Bee Hotel
You can also make them a little shelter as part of a wider bee garden. We decided to do just that, using bits and bobs that we had lying around the house and garden. To make what we made, you will need…
(some of these are Amazon affiliate links, just in case you don’t have them to hand and want to order them. I will get a small percentage of the sale cost if you use these links, but it will cost you nothing extra)
A plastic bottle
Use the scissors or craft knife to cut both ends off a plastic bottle.
Cut the bamboo into pieces that are a bit shorter than the length of the cut bottle. Sand off any rough edges.
Pack the bamboo sticks into the bottle until they are firmly in there. Block the ends off any completely hollow bamboo sticks using modelling clay. You can use some clay to fix the bamboo sticks into place in the bottle if you need it.
Before all the sticks are put into the bottle, make sure you tie the string / twine around the top so that it can be hung.
Voila, you have a great bee hotel. Pop it up in your bee garden and see what sort of creatures it attracts!
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