Did you know that if it weren’t for bees transferring pollen from male blooms to female blooms, gardens wouldn’t produce many crops at all? Bees don’t just sting or produce honey. In fact, wild bees are not aggressive at all and many don’t even have stingers. They are an important staple in the success of flower and vegetable gardens everywhere.

I wanted to do my part to encourage as many pollinators as possible to visit my gardens this summer so we installed an actual hotel for the bees, an Air Bee ‘n Bee if you will, to protect them from the weather and give them a safe space to rest and lay their eggs.

There are many different styles of bee hotels. I chose this simple honeycomb model which we installed on the fence soon to be surrounded by wildflowers and sunflowers. I hope it will be the perfect little rest stop for many bee friends who will then thank me for the hospitality by pollinating my gardens.

A few things I learned while researching bee hotels:

• Bee hotels should face south for plenty of warmth and light.
• Locate bee hotels near bee-friendly flowers.
• Bees prefer hotels that are secured well to a fence or building rather than hanging.
• Install bee hotels at waist or chest high. Bees don’t fly up high due to the wind.
• Stay away from the hotels made for bees and butterflies. Wasps will inhabit the butterfly slots and are major predators of bees.
• Bee hotel tubes must be cleaned out/replaced each year in late spring/early summer, once the bees have emerged, to avoid parasites or bacteria that can harm bees.

Perhaps if I’m successful in this little Air Bee ‘n Bee experiment, it will be a sign that it’s time venture into stays for humans.

Now booking, Christy B’s Air Bee ‘n Bee. Come one, come all bees, please.