Mason Bee Houses For your Yard or Deck

We did this fun project last Fall, to attract and provide homes for our Native Mason Bees. It is a simple project. I am posting a video with instructions. We each put our own custom touches on the ones we made, with non-toxic paint, you can do this or leave them the natural wood. I encourage everyone to help save and protect our wonderful little pollinators, they work hard for us, to bring us our amazing bounty of food.
What you will need: 4x4 non-treated post, drill with 3/4 inch bit, shingle or other piece of wood for roof, be sure to add a little overhang for protection. Non-toxic paint, if you choose to paint the homes.
The bare Mason Bee home, prior to our painting.
Our finished Bee homes, custom painted with non-toxic paint.
Our finished Bee homes, custom painted with non-toxic paint.
Our finished Bee homes, custom painted with non-toxic paint.
Our finished Bee homes, custom painted with non-toxic paint.
Hollphi@originsoregon
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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  • Dee Dee on May 14, 2015
    I know this is an older post, but today's news (5/14/15) just reported that bee keepers lost 42% of their colonies in the last year. Everyone, gardener or not, should have one of these in their yard. Mason bees are non-stinging, so there's nothing to loose-it's a win-win for us and the bees!
  • Chris Chris on Apr 11, 2017

    as a person who give presentations on Mason bees, please reconsider your design. make the holes larger so you can install a simple paper tube with a 5/16" hole opening, made from paper grocery bags. Then you can inspect and clean out the homes each year and see how the population is doing.

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