Twenty years ago, my wife, Mary, and I cut through a rusty, tumbledown wire fence surrounding an old hayfield and began turning the land into the home of our dreams. Gardens and orchards were part of that vision, but with them have come an unexpected benefit. As perennial flowers, hedges and trees have grown and matured, new birds and animals have moved in, along with plenty of beneficial insects. The bees are my favourite; the more, the better. That’s why I’ve built special accommodations for a little-known pollinating superstar called the mason bee. As populations of other pollinating insects decline across Canada, mason bees hold great promise for maintaining and enhancing the health of gardens and orchards. With just a little help, they thrive.
You’ll need plastic nesting trays to make these bee boxes, and it’s best to get them before you begin work. This way you’ll be able to test the size and shape of your wooden parts as you make them. I used 5⁄8"-thick eastern white cedar for my boxes, roughly the standard thickness of fence boards. If your material is a little thicker or thinner, no matter. The design works the same without need for modification.
Plastic nesting trays
Mason bees get their name from a mortar-like mud compound they use to seal tube-shaped holes where females lay eggs. Lack of suitable nesting holes can be a limiting factor in mason bee populations, and that’s where a good bee box comes in. Although mason bees happily lay eggs in 5/16"-diameter holes drilled into wood, this arrangement isn’t ideal. The problem is pollen-feeding mites. They build up after several years use, eating the pollen meant for growing larvae. To solve this problem, Dr. Margriet Dogterom (www.beediverse.com), a professor at Simon Fraser University, has developed plastic mason-bee brood trays that can be taken apart for annual cleaning.
My bee box design, which fits these trays, includes a few key details. The nesting trays slide in and out easily for annual cleaning, while also being protected from the weather. The sloped roof is removable and includes a compartment underneath to put mason bee cocoons for supplemental springtime hatching.
Download the bee box illustrated project plans here!
Materials:
| Part | Size (T x W x L*) | Qty. |
| Sides | 5/8" x 6 3/8" x 12 3/4" | 2 |
| Back | 5/8" x 5 3/8" x 13" | 1 |
| Bottom/inner top | 5/8" x 3 9/16" x 6 1/8" | 2 |
| Top | 5/8" x 6" x 7 7/8" | 1 |
All wooden parts made from white cedar *Length indicates grain direction
0 Comment