@@projectnestbox Mine are pretty rough and ready - many merely blocks of wood with holes drilled in them. Some with bamboo canes. This year I have erected a few with cardboard tubes that I can take out, clean and store ... and nothing has used them! Poor weather and siting I reckon. The bees like them boxes that have been up for a while and in a place they know. I'm experimenting with suspensions of bee poo in water painted on the front so they sniff it out. I've a lot of leafcutters this year, no mason bees as it was very cold and wet when they were supposed to be about. I watch and listen to a lot of entomologists to get the siting right and tackle mites and other predators, so I increase the healthy population. Planting a lot more flowers too.
Have you e bee hotel? I've knocked up quite a few over the years. fascinating to watch them do their thing.
Yes, I enjoy making them. I have not got any in my garden, though. Maybe you could send me some photos of yours if you are not to busy.
@@projectnestbox Mine are pretty rough and ready - many merely blocks of wood with holes drilled in them. Some with bamboo canes.
This year I have erected a few with cardboard tubes that I can take out, clean and store ... and nothing has used them! Poor weather and siting I reckon. The bees like them boxes that have been up for a while and in a place they know. I'm experimenting with suspensions of bee poo in water painted on the front so they sniff it out.
I've a lot of leafcutters this year, no mason bees as it was very cold and wet when they were supposed to be about.
I watch and listen to a lot of entomologists to get the siting right and tackle mites and other predators, so I increase the healthy population. Planting a lot more flowers too.