Every so often, a project comes along that reminds us exactly why we do this. This spring, Build Hollywood – the UK’s creative street advertising specialists – asked us to design and build 12 bespoke bee hotels for a series of public installations across Manchester, to help launch National Geographic and Disney’s new documentary, Secrets of the Bees.
Two Skill Sets, One Hotel
Every hotel we make starts the same way it did back in 2018, with Jake’s eye for design, and Faye’s knowledge of what solitary bees actually need to thrive. For Manchester, that partnership shaped every decision – from the reclaimed chestnut wood we sourced for its strength and character, down to the friction-fitted tubes inside, so each nesting tube can be lifted out and refreshed without a drop of glue.
We built 13 hotels in total: twelve for the Manchester sites, and one spare, just in case.
There was one more detail that mattered almost as much as the wood: the paint. National Geographic’s yellow is instantly recognisable, and we wanted the hotels to feel like part of the same family as the documentary itself. Working with Lakeland and their eco-friendly, VOC-free wood paint and colour-matching service, we matched the finish precisely, so the hotels sit comfortably alongside the National Geographic branding without a single harmful chemical anywhere near the bees who’d be living in them. (If you’re curious what the exact paint is, it is Summerhouse Satin)
Delivering More Than a Hotel
Opening day gave us one of our favourite moments from the whole project. Jake and Faye had brought the family along to see the finished hotels, and while they were stood taking it all in, a father and son stopped beside them. The boy pointed at one of the hotels and called it a bee hive, and his dad, close but not quite right, agreed it was somewhere for bees to live.
Faye couldn’t help herself. She introduced herself and explained that the hotels were built for solitary bees, no honey, no hive, no queen, just somewhere safe to nest, and that they’re completely non-aggressive. The boy’s face lit up. “Could we have one in our garden?” he asked. Faye said of course, and that he could even make one himself with nothing more than a bundle of hollow stems.
It’s a small exchange, but for Faye, it’s exactly this kind of everyday kindness that the whole project is really about.
More Than a Hotel
The finished sites became small pollinator hubs in their own right: beds of bee-friendly flowers, plaques explaining what solitary bees are and why they matter, and watering stations dotted nearby. The wider campaign picked up a good amount of press, with several outlets picking out the installations as a rare example of outdoor advertising doing something genuinely useful.
The Documentary Behind It All
Secrets of the Bees is the newest instalment in National Geographic’s Emmy-winning “Secrets of” franchise, produced by Silverback Films, the natural history production house based in Bristol. It’s hosted and narrated by Bertie Gregory, who has fronted earlier instalments of the “Secrets of” series and has built a reputation for getting closer to his subjects, however small, than almost anyone else working in wildlife film.
We think documentaries like this matter more than people give them credit for. It’s one thing to say pollinators are in trouble; it’s another to watch a single hive up close for three years and understand why. Installations like Manchester’s give that story somewhere physical to land, a real hotel, in a real park, standing in for everything the documentary is trying to say.
For us, working alongside National Geographic and Disney on something with that kind of reach was a genuine highlight of the year. Faye put it simply: it was a dream client.
If You’d Like One Too...
Manchester’s hotels were built for a documentary launch, but the same care goes into every one we make, whether it’s for a park, a garden, or a company that wants its own bespoke corner for bees.
If that’s you, we’d love to hear from you. Order a bespoke bee hotel here or get in touch with us here if you want a more personalised hotel and lets talk about building something the bees, and you, will actually love.
And if a bespoke hotel isn’t quite what you’re after, or the budget doesn’t stretch that far, that’s absolutely fine too. Our DIY Bee Hotel Kits are letterbox-friendly and cost a fraction of a bespoke build, or you can go one step further and make your own at home. A bundle of hollow stems, tied together and tucked somewhere dry and sunny, does the job just as well. However you get there, the bees aren’t fussy about the price tag, they just want somewhere safe to nest.
National Geographic gave them the spotlight. Now it's your garden's turn! 🐝
Written by Mika Daryadoust
