Ever since I locked eyes with my bee friend, while putting together the coleus guide, I became really curious about bees. I am especially interested in identifying bees, how they help pollinate our gardens and what their day to day looks like?
A Few Bee Facts:
What I knew about bees was that they pollinate things. Bees make honey? They are hard workers, right…busy as a bee and Bees sting. While all those things are correct, I learned there is SOOOO much more to bees. In fact, there are 20,000 different species of bees and the only ones that make honey are honey bees and the only bees that live in hives are honey bees and bumble bees.
Anti-social or semi social bees make up the majority of all bee species and for the most part, they live and work alone. The female bees lay the eggs and build nests usually in the ground or in some wooden log or hole and they collect nectar from flowers to feed their young when they hatch and the pollinating part, well that’s just luck. Pollen gets on their furry legs while they collect nectar and as they go from flower to flower that pollen rubs off on the stamen of the flowers and fertilizes it allowing it to make seeds.
Also, not all bees sting! In fact, the bee sting evolved from a body part that used to be used for laying eggs and over time it evolved into a stinger and therefore of the species that sting…it’s strictly a female thing.
A Bee Nest Brings All the Bees to the Yard:
Now, armed will all my new info, I really want to encourage all types of bees into my yard and into my garden. Supplying housing for those lone bees is a great way to encourage them to hang around your garden. I realize you can order some pretty fancy bee houses online. However, I really enjoy making things and I like the idea of using scrap wood or pieces already laying around.
On one hand, creating the bee house was pretty easy, but it didn’t turn out exactly as I had planned. Check out my video above for more info on my bee nest building experience.
I hope this project has inspired you to create your own bee habitat and help demystify bees. I know I learned a lot and I am still learning.
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