A bee hotel in Germany

Bee hotels are a type of insect hotel for solitary pollinator bees. Bee hotels provide a space for shelter and rest for bees that are not part of a hive.

Bee hotels are different from beehives and have different uses. Construction of bee hotels often use wood, bamboo, and other materials to try and best suit solitary bees.

A Canadian study of 200 bee hotels in Toronto indicated that 50% of hotels were dominated by wasps, 25% by invasive, and 25% by natives. It is Recommended that bee hotels be situated in locations that receive morning sunlight, and locations closer to the ground, in order to suits bee's preferences.^[1]

Beehive and Bee Hotel Difference

A beehive is where bee colonies or communities make their homes, which include very different species of bees not including solitary bees. A bee hotel's purpose is to solely attract bees that do not make their homes in colonies, but instead build individual nesting sites of their own. This is the reason they are called solitary bees.^[2]

Studies and Use

Approximately 30% of the 5,000 native bee species in North America build nests in tunnels or cavities situated above ground.^[3]

The 2021 scientific publication Worldwide occurrence records suggest a global decline in bee species richness indicates a downwards trend in the global bee population.^[4] In order to try and reverse the perceived reduction in bee numbers, some people construct bee hotels.^[5]

In 2015, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts added 16 more bee hotels at its locations, adding to the five it created in 2014.^[6] In 2021 former Formula one driver and 4 time world champion Sebastian Vettel worked with children in Austria to make a bee hotel at the Red Bull ring.^[7] A second bee hotel was created by Sebastian Vettel in 2023 at turn 2 of Suzuka International Racing Course.^[8]

A study of 200 bee hotels undertaken by melittologist Laurence Packer and Scott MacIvor from York University indicated that 50% of bee hotels in their study were dominated by wasps. Bees, unlike wasps, favour hotels that receive direct (especially morning) sunlight, and that are closer to the ground. Bee hotels located on multi-storey building rooftops and in shaded areas are more likely to attract wasps. The study critiqued poorly designed and maintained bee hotels, noting that plastic tubes can be a catalyst for mould, narrower tubes can discourage female bees, and proximity of spiders can reduce bee populations. Peter Hallett, a melittologist from the University of Toronto noted that the wasps observed in the study were not yellowjackets, but solitary wasps that are generally perceived more positively in North America.^[9]

Melittologist Cory Sheffield of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum observed more positive trends in bee hotels used by bees in orchards in Nova Scotia and noted that some of the problems from the Toronto study were unique to cities. Both Cory Sheffield and Laurence Packer encouraged creation of bee hotels, despite the issues identified in the Toronto study.^[9]

A bee hotel in Poland

Construction and Care

A bee hotel's construction is made in a way that should best suit these bees. Bee Hotels allow better access from children and adults alike to learn about the different bee processes. The making of your own hotel opens up new thoughts and ideas into the bee as a species even more.^[10] Native bees are not always the only residents in the hotels, which can cause the natives to be pushed out of the hotel.^[10] Bee hotels are man made items that incorporate reeds, bamboo or other materials to create a bundle of horizontal tubes, open at one end, closed at the other.^[11] The horizontal tubes are 12 to 20 centimetres in length, and 2 to 12 millimetres in diameter and are all open and closed at the same ends.^[11]

The nested tubes require maintenance and cleanliness as bees in hotels are more susceptible to disease, such as the spread of chalkbrood. Predation from parasitic wasps and kleptoparasites can also be more likely than in naturally built nests.^[12]

A bee hotel in Paris

Dead, walled-up cells from previous years should be gotten rid of. Bee cells taken over by the kleptoparasite, Cacoxenus indagator fly should also be removed to prevent any spreading.^[13]

Be careful when using wood for the making of bee houses as it is not always reliable. Certain wood often does not provide sufficient weather protection, especially in wet weather, and splinters are more likely to be present throughout the house, depending on the wood type you buy.^[13]

References