DIY Guide to Build A Mason Bee House
It’s no secret the honeybee is vital to the health and wellness of food crops – but they’re also vital to pollinating many plants, including many trees. In honor of Honeybee Awareness Day, we put together this easy DIY guide to build a Mason Bee House habitat for your home. Your plants and the planet will thank you!
Get Started:
Find or build a small to medium-sized wooden frame or box with one open side and one flat side. In this case, we used a wooden Mason jar holder with separators.
Get some sheets of recycled, untreated brown paper to make the bee tubes.
Wrap the paper around a pencil to create a paper tube at consistent sizes, use Scotch tape to keep the rolls together.
Use the depth of the box as a guide to see how much of each roll to cut off.
Using scissors cut each tube to the appropriate length for the box. Then, insert the tubes into the box high enough to fill the space completely so that they don’t fall out.
Use those measurements to mark out the correct sizing on the water panel. We found it easier to go about 1/8” larger to make it a tighter fit.
Use a utility knife to cut the water panel to the appropriate size, which is easier than it looks.
Finally, place the cut out water panels into the box. It should be a snug fit and, if needed, you can use something flat like a ruler to press or wedge the water panel into the box.
That’s all! Your Mason Bee House is ready to go. Place it somewhere in your backyard near flowers and preferably sheltered from rain.
