designed in Holland

7 1/2 x 4 3/4 x 3 1/2

This BEEHOUSE offers a perfect nesting accommodation to several species. The BEEHOUSE is smaller than commercial beehouses, yet is ideal as a way to try out beekeeping in your garden, before you are ready to make the step towards introducing a full size beehouse.

The great USA counts apart from the honeybee hundreds of other wild bees. These hardly ever stinging bees help to fertilize plants and flowers in your garden. Because of the declining flora and nesting possibilities many species are endangered. This BEEHOUSE offers a perfect nesting accommodation to several species. A female bee makes in one bamboo stick several cells with one egg and a mixture of pollen and nectar to feed the larvae.

Hang this BEEHOUSE on a sunny to the south facing spot and away from where children play.

Did you know... that for nearly two years, the news has been full of reports of a disturbing vanishing act. All over the United States, whole megalopolises of honeybees have been flying out of their hives, never to return. Some beekeepers have lost thousands of hives in a matter of weeks, meaning the bee populations in the tens of millions have been rapidly disappearing. Beekeepers are panicked by what has come to be known as colony collapse disorder, and so are many American farmers. As advocates are fond of pointing out, every third bite of food produced in the Unites States depends on the pollination of fruits and vegetables by honeybees.

The contribution of gardeners is therefore crucial. Having a hive of unstressed honeybees in your own backyard not only adds a new dimension to your gardening, but it also contributes 40,000 or more pollinators to your neighborhood. Adjusting planting just slightly to include more bee-attractive flowers and showing more tolerance for weeds can turn your garden, backyard, or town park into a pollinator oasis. The effect even incremental changes can be considerable.

In other words, if you plant it, they will come. And your personal harvest of zucchini, melons, or apples, or almost any fruit or vegetable, will be that much greater.

Again, make sure that you place the hive away from where children play.

(Sourced from a longer piece written by Tom Christophers "Busy Bees" for Martha Stewart Living.)