Hi all Vicki-Ann here today and My husband and I have made a bug, native bee hotel for our vegetable garden. This was such a fun project!
What you will need for this project…
- Helmar Super Strength PVA Wood Glue
- Wood, 4 pieces to make a square and one big enough to back it
- Metal for roof
- Tin snips
- Drill, drill bits
- Nails
- Screws
- Pen
- Ruler
- Bracket
- Bamboo
- Hacksaw, angle grinder
- Chain or rope for hanging
First I gathered all my pieces of wood. I have a heap of off cuts from a friend who builds stair cases. So I just looked through my pile of bits and selected them. 4 smaller pieces to make a square and one big enough to back them on.
I then marked where I wanted the holes drilled on the 4 pieces and the backing board.
My husband drilled the holes for me.
I then ran a line of the Helmar Super Strength PVA Wood Glue along the inside edges. We then nailed the 4 pieces together forming a square.
We attached the square to the backing board with a bracket screwed to the inside. The bracket is covered with all the pieces of bamboo that we cut to fit with a hacksaw and an angle grinder. Cutting all the bamboo to size was the longest part to do. We used 2 different sized bamboo.
We had a bit of scrap metal so we decided to bend and nail that over the top to give it a bit more protection from the weather. I painted some chain with a hook, black. I recycled this from a hanging planter to attach through the holes at the top.
You could just tie some rope through the holes and knot it.
So the recommended place to hang this is under the eaves or the shade of a tree. It still needs to get some morning sun though. I wonder how long it will be before we get some bees and bugs making a home in here. It will be fun to watch and see how long it takes for them to find it. Bees do such a wonderful job pollinating my vegetable garden if we can help them in any way, I think it is worth doing.
