About two years ago, I installed a Beevive bee hotel in my then rather small (but bustling-with-bees) garden.
Ultimately, it proved to be a better decision than I ever could have anticipated, and for more reasons than that of simply 'doing my bit for nature!'
In the summers that followed, we’d all watch the little hanging box with eager anticipation, as one-by-one, the bees moved in.
The little holes would become blocked and sealed off with strategically 'glued' scraps of leaf, and in witnessing this awe-inspiring process, I recall a warm fuzzy feeling of something closely resembling....smugness!
Smugness that out of all the tube-shaped potential homes, in all the area, these little buzzy bees chose OURS to make their own!
Having made the decision to leave this now well-established Bee Hotel in position when we moved house earlier this year, I deduced the only obvious solution to my burgeoning bee-watching withdrawal symptoms - was to put up another hotel!
This hotel, however, was of the build-your-own variety - the novelty of which had the smallest family members fully invested in the exercise from the offset!
As with the ready-made bee hotel, this clever little structure plays an important role in protecting those solitary bees who don’t live in hives, and who therefore need a little bit of extra help in preserving their numbers, for the benefit of wider nature.
After following the simple how-to-build instructions, it was time to find a sheltered, sunny spot in the garden, where the bee hotel could take pride of place for the foreseeable.
It needed to be a spot which was just far enough from the house to give the bees some all-important privacy (and protection for my football-fanatical son!!) but also not so far that I wouldn't be able to enjoy the ‘buzz’ of all those comings and goings over a cup of morning coffee!
It's these delights of 'nature's television' that have to be experienced, to be appreciated, for it makes for a kind of meditative, mindful entertainment that is ALMOST as satisfying as the altruistic element of being on the #savethebees bandwagon.
For the full how-to of the DIY Bee Hotel Kit, click here.
Sponsored by Beevive