Insect Hotel Construction Complete

Doing the final construction of the insect hotel was definitely the fun part.  Assembling all the parts, building boxes, drilling holes - all very tedious and time consuming.  Especially since I had a deadline to meet!  Bumble bee queens emerge in February and I ordered some Mason Bees by mail.

The first pieces to go in were the shelving units.  Once they were secure, it was just a matter of placing everything.  The big rounds were the first to go in.

Ed helped by building the gable.  He also did all the cedar shake siding and roofing.

The pots of coconut fiber were tucked in.

Hopefully something will find these irresistible.

While I was putting it together I was buzzed several times.  The mason bees went right to the bamboo pieces and started building their nests.  A couple of lady bugs inspected holes too.

Now that it is up I visit it nearly every day.  I have almost a dozen mud-plugged holes now.  Today I noticed that the wasps were in the yard - hopefully they'll find a home in here too.

I am having so much fun with this!  My heart just leaps every time I discover a new nest.  As the new bees hatch I hope they stick around and start a family of their own.  I plan on cleaning the bamboo pieces and the nest boxes I purchased (only one hole taken so far) to keep mites from killing my bees.  No one has moved into the bumblebee nest yet, but a hornet was buzzing around today.  Hopefully she/he will move on down the road - don't really want a hornets nest.  But, like all superintendents, sometimes you don't get to pick your tenants!