Pollinator Protection Project: A Home for Bees

It's been a few weeks since we last wrote about it, but that doesn't mean that we haven't been hard at work on our Pollinator Protection Project. One of the duties under the Pollinator Protection Pledge is to create and protect bee nest sites, and after noticing a few mason bees swarming around the yard at the beginning of the summer, we decided that we would build a nest for them.

Mason bees are solitary bees that make their homes in holes caused by wood-boring animals or in hollow reeds near rivers and swamps. They are important in the pollination of fruit trees (so much so that they are sometimes called "orchard bees.") Like other bees, their populations are threatened by deforestation and the use of pesticides and insecticides, so steps should be taken to protect and supplement their habitats, where possible.

Building a house for the mason bees in our yard was a quick and easy project that took only a small slice of our Saturday afternoon. There's a great tutorial here with step-by-step instructions. In a nutshell: we took about a foot long piece of 4x4 lumber and drilled small, deep holes in it using a piece of pegboard as a template for spacing. Then we angled the top to encourage water runoff and hung it on the fence near a nice wet spot where water from our gutters accumulates when it rains (mason bees love mud).

So far we're not entirely sure if any bees have moved in to the home we've made for them, but we have seen more of them buzzing around than usual so maybe? We're excited to see if any decide to become our neighbors permanently and will keep you updated if they do.

Here are some other tutorials for making nesting spots for backyard pollinators:

• A home for carpenter bees (very similar to our project but on a bigger scale for a bigger bee)
• Bumblebee nest using flower pots and plastic tubing
• Butterfly nest boxes 
• Building a caterpillar house 

And for good measure, a few super-creative and fabulous designs for solitary bee houses. Some of these are really gorgeous!

Do you have bees in your backyard? What kind?

Update, 10/20/13: By mid-October, about half the nesting holes in our mason bee house were occupied. See how some of the holes are plugged with gray mud? This will hopefully mean lots of pollinators in the yard next spring/summer. Hooray!

Pollinator Projection Project: Books about bees

Last week, as part of National Pollinator Week, I downloaded and signed the Xerces Society's Pollinator Protection Pledge. Basically, the pledge says that our family will take steps to make our backyard safe for populations of birds, bees, bats, and other animals that pollinate our plants. Around the world, but especially in the Southern US, pollinator populations are on the decline, which has a negative effect on almost every other part of the ecosystem (including, you know, the human part).

Over the course of the summer, we have a few projects planned -- planting some flowers, building nests, doing a little landscaping work -- that will hopefully be a step toward increasing pollinator populations in our area. I'm looking forward to sharing our work as we go!

Since we signed the pledge, Anouk and I have been looking for books that will introduce her to pollinators and give her some inkling of why we're doing this project (or at least the idea that these animals are our friends). We literally checked out dozens of books from the library last week -- we immersed ourselves in the world of bees, etc., for days. Below are some of our favorites out of that bunch.

Bee and Me by Elle J. McGuinness: When a young boy finds a bumblebee in his room, he hides in fear. However, once the bee tells him of all the good things she does (makes honey, spreads pollen), he changes his mind and the two become friends. The book features moving hologram-type illustrations which I personally find distracting but which Anouk (and every single one of her friends who sees them) loves, so what do I know? The regular old drawings are adorable enough on their own.

The Moonflower by Peter and Jean Loewer: When night falls, the moonflower vine blossoms and bats, owls, and moths come out and swoop from plant to plant. The depth of information on each species given makes it an ideal choice older kids but I like it for the younger ones because it mentions less well-known (read: cutesy) bugs and birds. A really beautiful and moody book.

Stellaluna by Janell Cannon: The story of a baby bat adopted by a family of birds highlights the differences -- and the similarities -- among these animal populations. It's sort of hard to love a bat -- they're not really very cuddly animals -- but we love Stellaluna. 

The Hungry Hummingbird by April Pulley Sayre: A hummingbird is attracted to red flowers -- but soon learns that not every red thing will be as delicious. The reader follows as the bird flits through the garden, sampling each flower (and even a bird feeder) to find the best food. This is kind of quiet book -- meaning it might not have enough excitement to it to hold a very little one's attention the whole way through -- but the beautiful and very detailed drawings make us pick it up to leaf through several times a day (and each time we notice something new hiding out in the background).

The Butterfly Count by Sneed Collard III: We found this book in a thrift store and it's kind of a cheat -- it definitely wasn't one of Anouk's top picks but I loved it enough to put it on the list anyway (mommy veto power!). I definitely think it will appeal to kids just a little older than Anne. A little girl and her mother spend a day looking for the rare regal frittillary, her great-grandmother's favorite butterfly, which is rarely seen nowadays. Besides being really informative, the book is super sweet (especially when the find the butterfly in the old family burial plot -- "the last patch of prairie in the county that was never plowed.") Besides some pretty (if slightly dated?) illustrations, the book features instructions on how to participate in the North American Butterfly Count and how to plant a butterfly garden of your own. 

What If There Were No Bees? by Suzanne Slade: This book sets young readers in a grassland, and then shows them what it would look like if there were no bees, setting off a chain reaction in which certain species are blacked out on each successive page. Because it's all connected, by the end, of course, there's not a lot left standing. It's very visually effective and affecting, even for an adult, and very clear in its language and concept.

There are many other types of pollinators -- beetles, flies, ants, shrews, even the rain -- but we thought we would keep it simple to start with (also, there aren't as many picture-book options for the less photogenic pollinator contingent). An option for older kids that covers the whole contingent is the Pollinator Activity Book put together by the University of Illinois.

What are your favorite buzzy, busy books? Are you thinking of signing the pollinator protection pledge?