Thursday 28 March 2013

my creative space - busy bee

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Before Mr F left on his annual fishing trip with his brother and brothers in law last week (five days on the hawkesbury lucky duck) I got him to help me finish this project I've been dreaming of for a while. I've wanted to make one since seeing some online. This funny little house of home grown bamboo and recycled wood is actually a bee house!

If you are interested in the whys behind this idea there is a lovely pdf I found here (the 'attract bees' one). Its full of great information and tells you everything you wanted to know about our native bees, including the solitary bees. These natives are actually important pollinators of native flora, garden and agricultural crops so the perfect residents for an organic garden.

Some of the solitary native bees we have already in our garden are leaf cutter bees (top above, see their handiwork here), blue banded bees (the second bee pic) and teddy bear bees (as cute as their name suggests!). Each year about this time the blue banded bees start searching out the loose mortar between our bricks and the teddy bear bees start buzzing the clay at the base of our house looking for nesting sites. The occasional one gets lost on the way and ends up buzzing round the house while I try to herd them out the door again. The bee population has grown with our garden and we want to keep them happy, hence the nesting house.

The idea behind the house is to provide solitary native bees somewhere to lay their eggs. This one is mostly set up for leaf cutters. The others prefer different types which we intend to make this weekend, by drilling holes in blocks of wood and making clay bricks.

The bee house is a quick easy project but it makes me smile every time I see it, and I'm just crossing my fingers that someone will want to call it home!

I am as always, joining in my creative space over here.

Happy Easter to everyone, I for one can't think of anything nicer than four quiet days at home, pootling in the garden making bee homes and planting my autumn crops!

10 comments :

  1. Seems like those busy little bees are getting some well deserved publicity. I saw a segment on native bee houses on one of the gardening shows too. I love the look of the blue one...so unusual. In NZ we used to get bumblebees...I adore them as well!

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  2. What a brilliant idea and a very attractive piece to have in the garden too! We have a major problem here in Tasmania with the African Bumble Bee threatening our native bees so something like this would be perfect for our garden. Mel x

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  3. Awesome! It looks cute too - well done!
    A friend of mine in Albury has just had her 'bee hotels' featured in a short video on Local ABC: http://www.abc.net.au/local/videos/2013/03/01/3701533.htm

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  4. Aren't these little bee houses so sweet. I've noticed some native bees visiting the daisy bushes here.
    x

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  5. Oh I love this! Your bee house is so very cute - and functional too.

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  6. What a sweet little bee housey! :-)
    Carly
    x

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  7. Thanks for sharing the information, your bee houses look fabulous! Have a lovely Easter pootling (I love that word) around your garden :-)

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  8. haha! snap!
    Bee houses? who knew. that's so interesting and the bee house is so decorative as it is. I hope you get some bees taking up residence soon.
    Great photos too!

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  9. What fun! Have a wonderful weekend.

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  10. THis is brilliant! I hope you had a good Easter. Love the Friday rose print above too.

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Thank you for dropping by and commenting :-)