Build Your Own Bee House

There were not near enough BEES last year in South Carolina...so I thought I should try to do something about it, and attract bees to my garden for pollination.  I searched the internet and found some possible solutions:

Build A Bee House & Plant More Flowers that Bees Like!

BEE HOUSE:

Cardboard tubes for Solitary Bees offer nesting places

Honeybees and bumblebees live in social colonies, but most wild bee species are solitary. About two-thirds of solitary nesting bees use tunnels in the ground to lay their eggs. About one-third use hollowed out plant stems or tunnels in dead trees or fallen logs.

The Mason bee is a common name for species of bees. They are named from their habit of making compartments of mud in their nests, which are made in hollow reeds or holes in wood made by wood-boring insects. For this specific reason, it is very easy to build a house for the Mason bee, they are not too picky and they would for sure, love to have a place to stay in your yard!

Create litter paper rolls

Measure the length of your container and cut your paper in a way that the length of the paper roll will fit inside the can. The band of paper should be ~5 inches long (half the length of a sheet of paper). The goal is to have a roll of 5 layers minimum. Cut the paper as efficiently as you can.  Roll the paper around a pencil to get the right shape, then tape or glue edge of the paper band to the roll to keep the diameter, remove the pencil. Create rolls of 1/4in up to 1/2in.

Place the rolls inside toilet paper tubes inside the container

Place your toilet paper rolls where you wish inside the can and fill up the empty space with your paper rolls.

Once done shake your can slightly and make sure that everything stays in place. Add more glue at the bottom or more paper rolls to keep things sturdy if needed.

Please note: Bees do not like the color RED, so don't paint your bee box that color!

My Bee House mounted on the end of my Greenhouse:

I rolled every one of those tubes.

Flowers that Attract Bees

Alyssum, Aster, Bee Balm, Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia), Borage, Poppies, Chive, Clover, Coneflower, Cow Parsnip, Dahlia, Daisy, Dandelion, Geranium, Goldenrod, Hyssop, Lavender, Lupine, Marigold, Milkweed, Mint, Nasturnum, Pansy, Peony, Petunia, Poppies, Snapdragon, Snowdrops, Sunflower, Flowering Thyme, Zinnia.