How to Build a Mason Bee Hotel Series

Guest Posts by Powell River Books Blog

As most folks know I will be adding in a number of different mason bee and Native Pollinator hotels and nesting box’s here on the farm. I am also placing Nest Box’s at some community gardens as well as private garden/yards.  I was very excited to see a post on Powell River Books Blog talking about their Mason Bee Hotels as they are a number of years worth of working with them. I wrote and asked if they would be open to doing a guest post series here on the blog. Thank you so much for saying YES!

Part Two of Three –  Putting your Hotel Together

I love this upcycle idea of using a older or new bird house to create the base for your mason bee house. I have noticed that “birds houses” are a faction of the cost compared to buy a Mason bee wooden house. Frugal is always a good thing.

I started with an old birdhouse and went from there.

Don’t you love to save something and then find a new use for it? Remove the front wall and clean out the house

Give the old birdhouse a facelift with new paint.  A darker color helps them warm up faster in the morning sun  Some kind of container for the drilled nesting blocks protects them from rain.

Preserve the new paint and exposed surfaces with Acrylic spray. Some folks choice to only paint or burn the wood on the front to get the darker color to help warm up the house in the early morning sun.

Place your drilled logs into the house.  Place your house facing the morning sun, approx. 3 feet above the ground on a solid surface ideally within 300 feet of the area’s that they will be feeding in. Remember they do need a source of clay/mud to help make their coons.

These post’s was written between 2015 – 2018  They have a had great success with getting their mason bee’s to like their new home! 

Margy Lutz and her husband Wayne discovered Powell River, BC, during an airplane camping trip in 2000. They purchased an off-the-grid float cabin on nearby Powell Lake that has become their home since retiring from careers in education in Southern California and becoming Canadian permanent residents and citizens. Margy is the author of the Powell River Books Blog and Wayne is the author of the Coastal BC Stories series of books.

http://powellriverbooks.blogspot.com 

www.powellriverbooks.com