How to Prepare Your Bee Hotel for Summer: A Complete Guide
As summer approaches, now is the time to give your bee hotel a seasonal refresh and ensure it's ready to host the next generation of solitary bees. These unsung heroes are vital pollinators for wild plants, fruit trees, and vegetables – but unlike honeybees, they don’t live in hives or colonies. That’s where your bee hotel comes in.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to prepare your bee hotel for summer, including where to place it, how to attract solitary bees, and why clean tubes matter more than you might think.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to prepare your bee hotel for summer, including where to place it, how to attract solitary bees, and why clean tubes matter more than you think.
Why Summer Matters for Bee Hotels
May through July is peak nesting time for many solitary bees, such as red mason bees and leafcutter bees. During this period, female bees search for suitable nesting cavities where they can lay their eggs. A well-maintained bee hotel can provide just that – safe, dry, and secure spaces to support pollinator populations in your garden.
Where to Place Your Bee Hotel
Location can make or break the success of your bee hotel. Follow these tips for ideal placement:
☀️ Sunny and south-facing: Position the bee hotel in a sunny spot, ideally facing south or southeast, to keep the tubes warm and dry throughout the day.
📏 At least 1 metre off the ground: This helps protect against damp and ground-based predators.
☔ Sheltered from wind and rain: Fix your bee hotel to a sturdy surface like a fence, wall, or shed to prevent it from swaying.
🌻 Near bee-friendly flowers: Bees love to nest close to their food source. Native, nectar-rich plants like lavender, foxglove, wild marjoram, and borage are perfect.
How to Attract Solitary Bees
While installing a bee hotel is a great start, attracting bees to it takes a little extra care:
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Plant for pollinators: A continuous bloom of flowers from early spring to late summer ensures bees have enough forage.
- Avoid pesticides: Even low-toxicity treatments can deter or harm solitary bees. Opt for organic gardening practices.
- Provide a mud source: Red mason bees use mud to seal their nesting chambers, so keeping a small patch of moist soil nearby can help.
- Keep it still: Movement deters bees. Ensure your hotel is fixed with a nail or screw and is not hung from a string.
The Importance of Clean Tubes
Over time, used nesting tubes can harbour parasites, fungi, and diseases that harm bees. If your bee hotel was active last season, now’s the time to inspect and replace tubes before new bees arrive
Tips for managing tubes:
1- Use removable paper or cardboard inserts, or replaceable wooden tubes, to make cleaning and renewal easy.
2- Replace tubes at least once a year, ideally in early spring before bees begin nesting.
2- Don’t disturb sealed tubes – these may still contain developing bees! Wait until autumn or winter to carefully harvest and store any occupied tubes.
Regular cleaning ensures your bee hotel remains a safe and healthy space year after year.
Final Thoughts
Setting up and maintaining a bee hotel is one of the simplest ways to support biodiversity in your garden. With a few small steps – thoughtful placement, clean tubes, and a pollinator-friendly garden – you’ll be giving solitary bees the best chance to thrive.
So, dust off that bee hotel, give it a summer-ready refresh, and enjoy watching nature do its work!
