Student-led project installs two ‘bee hotels’
A group of University of Saskatchewan students is establishing bee hotels at Wanuskewin Heritage Park and on campus.
The work to create bee habitats is part of a project for a course on sustainability. The Starphoenix spoke with fourth-year environmental science student Annette Bellinger and third-year environment and society student Bryan Panasiuk.
Q. What is a bee hotel?
A. Bee hotels are structures which have holes of different sizes drilled into wood inside. Bees can safely leave their larva at the back of the holes.
“It just allows them to reproduce in a healthier way,” Panasiuk said.
Two bee hotels will soon be established, one at Wanuskewin Heritage Park — made to look like a teepee — and one in the Native Prairie Garden at the College of Education building on the U of S campus.
Q. Which bees will be guests at the bee hotel?
A. Bellinger said the hotels are meant for bees that dwell in cavities — other bees prefer hives or are ground nesters. The prairies are home to 350 native bee species.
Cavity bees are solitary bees and are independent of each other.
Q. Are bee hotels similar to hives?
A. Since the bees are solitary they don’t have a queen, unlike hive bees, which are dependent on the queen, Bellinger explained.
Solitary bees do not produce honey, but they pollinate better than the average European honey bee. The students highlighted 10 to 15 native plant species for the garden at the university, including chokecherry and haskap.
Q. Why bee hotels?
A. Bellinger said she was fascinated by the leaf cutter bees she saw at the Green Expo and knew that when it came to the project, she had to work on something related to bees.
In the past, a bee group wanted to put a hive on top of Kirk Hall, but the university turned the offer down. She, Panasiuk and another student, Cjardai Ulrich, decided to stay away from hives and bees that sting. (Solitary bees generally don’t sting.)
“There’s really no threat when it comes to them being around humans because they don’t live in a hive and they’re not trying to protect their home,” Bellinger said.
The university was receptive.
Q. How will the bees be cared for over the winter months?
A. Because the bee hotels’ inhabitants are native species, they’ll be fine in cold temperatures, Bellinger said.
Natural predators, such as mice and woodpeckers, can be kept out with the use of mesh wrapped around the bee hotels.
The main concern is disease and bacteria, so the hives will be cleaned over the winter. The back of the hotel, where the larva will be, can be removed during the cleaning process and then replaced.