Creating a Bee-Friendly Habitat in the Home Garden

Welcome bees to visit (perhaps even stay a while) by creating a bee-friendly habitat in your home garden. Buzz your way through the latest post in our bee-friendly mini-series for tips on supporting garden bees with nourishment, suitable shelter, health, safety, and more.

Bee-ing Bee-Friendly

It’s Bee Awareness Month in New Zealand and the Great Kiwi Bee Count is in progress. Fittingly, this month’s mini-series is all about the bees. Today we’re sharing tips for creating and maintaining a bee-friendly habitat in your garden. Roll out the VIBee treatment for your guests!

Creating a Garden Buffet for Bees

Busy bees need nectar for energy and pollen to grow the next generation. Adding nectar and pollen rich plantings to the home garden can help attract bees to your garden, and feed their needs. See our post on selecting and planting flowers for bees for more info and ideas.

Include fresh clean water in your bee-friendly habitat, too. A shallow pool where they can land on the edges or on some rocks works well – see our wildlife-friendly gardening post for more tips. If the bee buffet and refreshments are great, they might even decide to stay for a while!

Allowing Space for Bees to Shelter and Create Homes

Allow or create spaces for bees to seek shelter and create homes. There are a wide variety of bee species, with different nesting habits and shelter needs. Here are some ideas for creating and supporting opportunities for shelter in your bee-friendly garden habitat.

Respect the Nesting (Hive) Sites of Social Bees

Bumblebees and honeybees are social bees, nesting in groups. Bumblebee nests are often in dry dark places. Hollows, cavities, underneath structures, or underground burrows are favourite places. Wild honeybees often build under the edges of structures or in natural cavities for cover and predator protection. Coexisting is the ideal, but if a nest or hive is posing a significant safety risk or causing damage, call in an expert to safely relocate the hive.

Materials for Tunnelling and Nesting of Solitary Bees

Most of us like to keep things tidy around the garden. We clean up dead branches, dispose of old building materials, and keep our structures in good repair. But solitary bees nest in small holes and tunnels, such as inside of dead wood, crumbling walls, or for some species even bare soil. Removing these while tidying up the garden eliminates their habitat options. Bee-friendly gardening makes it ok to be a little messy sometimes. If you can’t allow more natural accommodation in the garden, perhaps consider adding a neat and tidy insect hotel.

Install an Insect Hotel for Solitary Bees

You can buy insect hotels, but make sure that they’re suitable for the local species you want to shelter (see more below on being a good landlord). If you’d like to customise for your local solitary species and/or available space, there are plenty of great DIYs online. As shown in the infographic below, there are many ways to make and site a shelter. Don’t forget to include holes of varying sizes for different species. We haven’t yet built a bee hotel for our garden, but I think that Air Bee and Bee has a nice ring to it for when we do. Hehehe. I may have to include a sign.

Many bee hotels (bought or made) are, unfortunately, not as luxurious as you may think. To avoid accidentally becoming a bee slumlord, make sure that your bee hotel offers sufficient protection from wet weather and enough backing to avoid wind tunnelling through. Avoid using materials that don’t breathe, get waterlogged, or attract condensation and provide housekeeping for your guests. Check out this excellent article on building and managing a bee hotel.

Become a Backyard Beekeeper

If you want to go a step further and become a backyard beekeeper with your own little hive of honeybees, check your local regulations to see what is and isn’t permissible in your area. It can also be helpful to speak with your neighbours before installing a hive. If you’re good to go and keen to start, get in touch with your local beekeeping association or group for expert guidance.

Supporting the Health and Safety of Garden Bees

Toxins: Minimise Use of Chemicals

Many insecticides are generic killers, affecting your bad bugs as well as your beneficial insects, including bees and butterflies. Some fungicides and other garden chemicals can be harmful, too. See our post on chemicals and pest control in bee-friendly gardens for details and tips.

Disease: Support Local Bee Health Initiatives

The diseases and parasites affecting bees will vary depending on your local area. New Zealand has very strict rules to protect bees and the honey industry.

Be alert for warnings and safety tips from your local agencies, and always abide by the restrictions regarding the transport or import of honey. As a general bee health practice, always make sure any empty honey containers are thoroughly washed before recycling.

Predators: Protect Your Bee Nesting Sites

Some predator activity is inevitable, such as birds and spiders while the bees are foraging, but we can sometimes offer a degree of protection in other areas. The predators affecting bees will vary depending on your local area. Check your local risks and ensure that you have adequate siting and protection if/as needed for any nesting sites that you have created.

Creating an Insect Hotel for Bees and Bugs

The following infographic was shared by invitation from Fix.com. Check out their full Insect Hotel post and infographic for more ideas on creating your own bee-friendly habitat.