Solitary Bee Condos

Build a passive-solar, backyard habitat for native solitary bees.

Written by Ken Vickerson

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Nate Van Dyke

Time Required: 3–4 Hours

Cost: $15-$20

MY WIFE, COLLEEN, IS AN URBAN NATURALIST. Her summer activities include tending her amazing native garden, raising monarch butterflies, and lately, building condos for solitary bees — bees that nest independent of a colony. Of the 4,000 species of bees native to North America, over 1,000 are tunnel-nesting bees — they lay their eggs, provision them, and seal the entrance inside natural tunnels such as hollow plant stems and insect bore holes. Not every native bee is a solitary bee, ...

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