One of our villagers Frank tells us how he made a Bee Hotel!
Things have changed so much during the last couple of generations. When I was a kid, we took the abundance of wildlife, large and small, for granted. In fact, it is worse than that, we squandered it, I think that using DDT pesticides was probably one of the worst courses of action taken in the twentieth century. I don’t think that the word “environment” had been invented then, it certainly wasn’t something which needed constant TLC. We could burn our house coal, dump our rubbish and pour effluents into our rivers with a clear conscience. Mind you, not everything has improved, in those days we didn’t go to buy our groceries and return with it wrapped in several kilos of plastic (not sure that kilos had been invented either).
Now, most people, are very environmentally aware and go some way to improve things or at least reduce the rate of decline. Most of us do a little bit of something to help. My personal “bit of help” a few years ago was to build a bee hotel. Having been a beekeeper for the past twenty years or so (I have finally given up) I have developed an interest in all bees, I am certainly not an expert but I enjoy observing them and do what I can to encourage them. Carole and I enjoy our gardening and like to grow plants which attract pollinators; sedum, cotoneaster and nepeta being prime examples. I guess that it is only in fairly recent years that we have thought of providing accommodation for them and, like most things, it wasn’t an original idea of mine. My first incarnation of a bee hotel was pretty successful with most rooms fully booked during the breeding season in late spring. Unfortunately time, and the elements, took their toll on the structure and replacement appeared to be the best option.
The fence which the hotel was hanging on to, backs onto E.B. Hayward’s Engineering works which was the source of some unwanted wooden pallets. The material for my new project. It was satisfying to re-use unwanted materials and also gave me an opportunity to use my recently purchased “Pallet Buster” (see the Murphy Bar post).
With the pallets dismantled,
Construction was soon underway and fairly quickly completed.
You may have notice that a few plants have been added to this version of the hotel, all the best hotels have gardens. I used some wood preservative which was surplus to requirements, when you look at the colour you will understand why I had not used it before, it certainly didn’t add to the aesthetic effect.
Once again the hotel proved to be very popular with the apian population, I believe that it is mason bees which make the most use of such facilities. Occupation was only up to about 50% though, perhaps some of the rooms are in need of renovation.
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