In honor of National Pollinator Week (June 17-23, so, I’m a little late…), I’m pulling out the drill and building my first native bee house for the garden.
We’ve all heard of honeybees and bumblebees, but the real drivers of pollination in most gardens are the smaller native bees — mason bees, leaf-cutting bees and others. Of those hard-working natives, roughly 30% nest in holes that beetles, grubs and other beasties have drilled and then abandoned in dead wood.
Leave a section of log in your garden long enough, and you will be able to watch this all unfold. First, the wood-boring bugs will drill their homes in the log. Then, once they’ve moved on — perhaps a year later — the little native bees will take over those holes. If you ever find a small hole that has been plugged with mud or bits of leaves, you’ve found yourself a native bee nest. Do a little dance of joy: those baby bees in that nest will be next year’s pollinators.
While it’s perfectly acceptable to let nature and wood-boring bugs set the pace in your garden, you can speed things along by adding a bee house for those wood-dwelling pollinators. This is easier than building a bird house. Much easier.
Here’s what you need:
- Scrap wood: make sure your wood is untreated, and is at least six inches deep.
- Drill
- Drill bits: grab several, ranging in size from 3/32-inch to 3/8-inch, and long enough to drill a 5-to-6-inch deep hole.
- round file
- tape (optional)
- measuring tape (optional)
Do you have everything gathered? Great! You’re nearly done. All you need to do is drill those holes and prep them for bees.
First, the holes: For best results, drill those holes so they are at least 3/4 of an inch apart when measured on center. You can space them further apart if you life, but the bees will complain if you crowd them any closer. Now, if you’re the perfectionist detail-oriented type, you can measure this out and create an orderly grid for your holes.
You could even create a template to guide the placement of your holes if you like.
Or, you can free-form:
If you want to maximize the number of bee holes in a piece of wood, you will want to measure it out and drill all your holes at 3/4-inch distances. I prefer the free-form approach, mostly because it saves time. I don’t even bother measuring the distances between the holes. Instead, I use my thumb, which measures about an inch from thumb-tip to that first knuckle — the perfect measuring guide for laying out a bee house. Chances are you can do the same.
While drilling, remember to mix up the hole sizes. There are many different species of hole-nesting native bees, and they come in various sizes. The smaller bees want to lay their eggs in smaller holes, while the larger bees prefer to lay their eggs in larger holes. For best results, drill holes that are 1/4-inch or wider to a depth of 5-6 inches. For holes smaller then 1/4-inch, a 3-4 inch depth is best.
In order to ensure you drill your holes to the proper depth, you can choose to mark your drill bit with a small piece of tape.
Note: This project works best with long-shanked drill bits.
Now, start drilling. I prefer to start with the larger holes, and then work down in size with the drill bits. For this particular bee house — drilled into a section of log — I am drilling several different sized holes, between 3/32-inch to 3/8-inch in diameter, and roughly 3-5 inches deep. Because the bees want their nesting holes to be as smooth as possible, I am using a Forstner style drill bit to start the holes, and then am using a spade bit or brad-point bit of the same size to finish each holes. I’m doing this because the Forstner bits tend to drill very smooth holes, but aren’t long enough to reach the 3-6 inches these holes require. You can skip the Forstner bits if you prefer; a round file will also work to smooth out the holes you drill.
Again, I just use my thumb as a guide for hole placement. This is not the most space-efficient way to do this, but it’s awfully time efficient. Basically, you just drill your first hole, and go from there.
Couple things to keep in mind:
- Your drill bits will get very hot. Don’t touch them. In fact, it’s best to let your drill rest for a few minutes after every few holes.
- When drilling, pull your drill bit out of the hole a few times to help clear the saw dust. Do this while the bit is still running.
- If possible, clamp your piece of wood down to something secure. Or, wedge it against something. If your drill bit binds on a wood knot, that piece of wood can twist around and smack you hard.
- Sometimes drill bits break. If this happens, it’s ok to curse and whine for a moment. Then, just move on to the next size hole.
Once the holes are drilled, I use the round file to smooth the holes. I simply insert the file into each hole and twist and push to rub any splinter or wood spurs off the side of the drilled holes.
And, we’re done!
Depending upon the kind of wood you used, you may want to use screws, nails or some other manner of attachment to hold your bee house snug to a fence or other support. In this case, since I drilled these holes directly into a log round, I simply set the finished bee house on the edge of my new garden space, and I declare the project complete.
Hello, and welcome to the Outlaw Garden! My name is Cristina Santiestevan, and I’m the outlaw gardener. I break the rules by growing vegetables in my suburban front yard, even though my HOA (homeowners association) says “no.” You can do the same — explore the site to learn how!
Cristina you surely are an efficient person to do all that you do, gardening, canning, cooking, freezing, and fixing bird houses and now Bee houses, do you ever stop or when do you sleep? Surely wish I had just half your spunk. More power to you.
Wow, Yesterday on my walk I found a small tree trunk and I took home thinking that I would find some kind of project. Now here you are with this awesome idea. Thank you Cristina. I will be making my bee house. Cheers
I can’t wait to have a garden again so that I can make one of these for it. Thanks for sharing.
Just wondering, are you encouraging the wood boring bees that attack other wood around our homes, like pole barns, eaves, and door and window frames, etc.?
Hi Deborah – The bees that will nest in this native bee house are wood-dwelling but not wood-boring. In fact, they cannot create their own holes in wood; they have adapted to live in wood holes that were previously created by beetles and other wood-boring insects. So, no threat to homes, barns or other wood construction.
Carpenter bees — another native bee — do bore their own holes in wood. They won’t be attracted to these native bee houses because (1) they are much larger than the largest hole diameter and (2) they nest in new holes they create every year. There’s a chance a carpenter bee would choose to bore a fresh hole in this log for its nest, but they are no more likely to nest here than in any other piece of deadwood that might be laying around.
I’ve had a bee house for over a year now and still no bees living in it. We have plenty of bees on our property, so my husband and I don’t no what gives. We’ve even tried moving it to other locations. Can you tell me if there is a specific direction where we should hang the bee house?
There are a bunch of variables in play here, Brit. In addition to the location of the bee house, there’s also the size of the holes and the material of the house. Different species of native bees nest at different times of the year, and in holes of different diameters. All bees prefer nesting holes that are relatively smooth and splinter-free. Some gardening centers sell bundles of cut bamboo for bee houses, but most of the bamboo pieces are actually too large and too rough for most of our native hole-nesting bees. The bamboo also tends to be open on both ends, which the bees don’t like — they prefer dead-end tunnels.
You might want to start by inspecting the house. How large are the holes? Are their walls smooth, or rough with large splinters? If the holes look acceptable (approximately 3/32-3/8 inches in diameter, smooth, enclosed at one end), then you’re probably dealing with a problem of placement (or maybe the bees just haven’t found the bee house yet). I’d suggest placing it somewhere facing south or southeast (morning sun is good), anywhere from ground-level to approximately six feet high. Wherever you place the bee house, it’s important to attach it firmly. If yours is a hanging model, you may want to screw or tie it to a post — bees prefer a steady home.
If all else fails, it’s always possible your bees are a species that doesn’t nest in the size holes of your current bee house. You may want to try a house with various diameter holes. Good luck!
I am so happy to have found this site. I know about native bees, and learned first in a Master Gardner class our local Extension Agency gave. Then some years later, I was buying local hay for my horse from some local farmers. I asked them questions all the time and one hay buying trip I spotted a can–like green bean size nailed to the side of a barn and filled with drinking straws. I asked what it was ans was told it was for the local ‘Mason Bees’–one of the native bees. I am going to make yours and do one like the farm example too.
Thanks for all the good information–Spring is my favorite time of the year, by far.
Sounds great, Julie! There are lots of different ways to build bee houses, and the paper straw idea is definitely one of the easiest. Hmm… Perhaps time to do a follow-up on this post. 🙂
Good luck attracting those bees, and enjoy the spring weather!
We have access to dead palm trees since the wood isn’t useful for many thigs do you think bees migh want to live in slabs of the trunk idf the right size holes are drilled.
That’s a great question, Gerald! My guess would be “yes,” but I’m really not familiar with palm wood (not many palm trees in Virginia!). Why not give it a try and see what happens? If this is your first year putting out housing for native bees, don’t be surprised if only a few find your log. It took a couple years for the population to really take off in my garden. Good luck!
Do you think that palm tree section if the right sized holes are drilled would be used by our local wild bees? Inland Southern California high desert cold in winter hot in summer.
Very good information. Glad I found this thread. I liked the idea of talking with my local extension agent who happens to be pretty darned smart and a curious about nature, nut. He can probably point me to my local best bee homes. I liked the idea of varying sized holes and locations. Also the dead log in my back yard is going to be investigated. Thanks for the web page. If anybody finds what worked for them I would like to read updates. Thanks again and the bees thank us all who wish to learn to bee and let bee.
We live in Dallas, and we are thinking of building a bee dwelling but I’m not sure which one to follow as there are many examples, would it work in such a hot summer (100s) and mild-cold winters (20s-70s)?
Hi, Diana — Your best bet might be to ask someone with your local master gardeners’ group or perhaps a local wildlife society. They should be able to tell you what species of native bees are found in your area. My hunch would be that any of the standard options would work for you, but that’s just a guess. As for the climate, that shouldn’t be an issue since your native bees will be happily adapted to your hot summers and mild winters.
I have not built my bee home yet. But I have been seeing several carpenter bees. That is good. However over the years I have noticed a decline in my camelia blooms and azaela blooms. I am probably paranoid. But the drop in native bee’s may be the difference. If not. The additional bee’s cant hurt.
I’ve always heard them referred to as “Bee Blocks”. I like your name better 🙂 Bee Houses! Great information.
I’ve researched this and have had it on my to-do-list for 5 YEARS now! Only reason I can think I waited so long is I’ve never liked the suggestion of using a milled piece of wood (ie. 2×4). Not ‘organic’ enough. I LOVE your idea of a wood slice!! Its organic enough and yet not all too whimsical. Thanks again.