Get the buzz and help researchers
There’s a new buzz about bee research - and you could play your part in it. Scientists at the University of Sussex have launched The Big Bee Hotel Experiment, and are asking anyone who has a bee hotel or can make or buy one, to get involved and help improve our understanding of solitary bees.
Between now and September, volunteers can sign up and send a monthly photograph of their bee hotel entrance. The Sussex scientists will then be able to record how many holes have been occupied, and by which type of bee, based on the substance that the bees use to block the holes. For example, red mason bees use clay, whereas blue mason bees use plant resin. The findings will help to make bee hotels more effective.
Bee project leader Professor Dave Goulson said: “This is a fun project suitable for anyone who has access to an outside space and an interest in encouraging wildlife. If we can get hundreds of volunteers to take part, we will be able to work out how to make bee hotels more effective, and so help support our pollinators.”
Bee hotels provide shelter and nesting sites for solitary bee species - 250 out of the 270 bee species in the UK are solitary and do not live in colonies like bumblebees or honeybees.
Solitary bees are incredibly important pollinators, and the project aims to better understand which bee hotels work best.
Bee hotels can be bought or easily made, by drilling varying-sized holes into a block of wood or using old tin cans or pieces of drainpipe filled with hollow plant stems.
For full details and registration visit thebuzzclub.uk