Bee House Care

Fix it firmly at about waist or chest height, maybe on a fence or on a wall. Make sure that it is facing South in a sunny position.

For the Bumblebee House the house should be situated like all bird houses facing North, and the house does not need to be in direct sunlight, unlike all the other Bee Houses.

Things won't necessarily start straight away.  You might have to wait for some time, but eventually female bees will visit the new house.  They most likely will come on warm sunny days in the spring.  You will see them investigating the holes and then flying into them with pollen attached to them, either on their legs or on their bellies.  They might have small cut leaves with them or chewed up mud.  They will lay their eggs in the holes and then block them up with the leaves or with the mud.  You will have to wait until the following year to see them hatch out and the whole process start again.

Your bees will be great at pollinating the plants near to the Bee House in your garden.  They will only travel about 100m away from the Bee House.

It is important to look after the cleanliness of the Bee House and maybe you will want to clean it out from time to time.  You can do this when you notice in the spring that some of the holes are now empty again and some of the new bees have hatched out.  Put the Bee House in a cardboard box under where you hung it up.  Close the cardboard box, but make a hole big enough for a bee to escape from towards the sunlight.  When the remaining bees hatch out they will leave the cardboard box by the hole towards the sunlight.  When you have left it two or three days all the holes should be empty and you can now clean your Bee House.  To do this just wash it out with warm soapy water ensuring that you clean out the holes.  This will remove any parasites or unwanted bugs that might be also making a home in the Bee House.  Wait for your bee house to dry out a little and then just hang it back up where it was hanging before in the sun and the bees will happily use it all over again.