Dr Mark Goddard from the University of Leeds’ Faculty of Biological Sciences, said: “Bees are incredibly valuable to our ecosystems. We need to educate our children about how important it is to encourage bees in our gardens. Helping them build a bee hotel is the perfect way to do this.”If you’re worried that building a bee hotel will encourage a swarm of bees to take up residence in your garden – don’t be. The species of bees that utilise bee hotels have a solitary lifestyle the females will typically inhabit their own individual nest and if left undisturbed they will not bother people.
As well as making a bee hotel, there are lots of other ways to encourage bees to live in your garden.
Bee-friendly gardening tips:
- Bees love to nest in logs, crumbling walls and woody undergrowth. Resist the urge to clear away rotting wood, or to fix up the old garden wall. Create a habitat pile or build a bee hotel.
- Bees love longer grass. Consider leaving just part of your lawn an inch or two longer to encourage bees.
- Plant bee-friendly flowers. Avoid garden-centre annuals or double flowers which are often sterile and instead opt for flowers loaded with nectar such as lavender or fuchsias. Not only will you be doing your bit for bees, you’ll also be saving yourself a fortune.
- Don’t be over keen on your weeding – dandelions, clovers and forget-me-knots are great for bees.
Bee-friendly flowers- Lavender
- Buddleja
- Comfrey
- Fuchsia
- Hebe
Flowers which offer little reward to pollinators
- Pansies
- Begonias
- Busy Lizzies
- Petunias
- Hybrid tea roses
