Bee Houses
Goal Setting & Teamwork:
This project started at our Winter Summit 2018. Gary Rathman, a Comfrey farmer who restored 200 acres of his farm to native prairie, presented a workshop on native bees and how to build bee houses as a suitable nesting spaces for mason bees. YES! members learned the life cycle and habits of solitary bees, habitat preferences, and ways that the boxes could be managed to maximize the number of hatching bees. Student comment: “Bee are amazing! They lay eggs in hollowed out grass in birdhouse type things. The hollowed out grass can’t be in direct sunlight or the bee eggs will fry and become useless. And bees like different colored flowers at different times of the year.”
Next, they researched ways to get materials and volunteers to help build the boxes. Nathan McMullen, YES! alumni who now teaches at SEPS, volunteered to help build some bees boxes in woodworking class. They also contacted and got permission from Jeff Zajac, the DNR Regional Wildlife Manager, to cut phragmites grass from a native prairie/wetland site near Sleepy Eye to use as natural nesting tubes in the bee boxes.
In October we learned that we received a McKnight Foundation grant to cover the cost of supplies. After all the necessary parts were purchased, we gathered two different evenings (January 7th and March 28th) in the shop classroom at SEPS to cut, assemble, and paint the houses. We are not quite finished. We need to have Mr. Rathman guide us for how to properly mount the houses on the steel rods. Right now the mounting connection doesn't strong enough to support the houses out in windy weather.
Cutting phragmites (reed grass) for nesting tubes for mason bees
Cutting 2" x 6" boards down to size
Shaping sections into bee house form
Assembly
Background--Shop teacher, Nathan McMullen, allowed use of equipment and donated an entire evening to help with assembling the houses.
Mr. McMullen was a charter SEPS YES! Team member
Painting bee houses
We learned that bees see different colors in different seasons--pastel hues in the Spring and yellow/oranges in the Fall. Native plants have co-evolved with the bees to maximize pollination.
Bee house with phragmites nesting tube and wind vane to naturally turn the open ends away from driving rain
McKnight Grant request.docxMetric: Cost per bee house
McKnight-Funding-Request-2018-19.docxBee house supplies funded by a McKnight Foundation grant
"Congratulations! Your YES! team will be receiving $237.60 from Geronimo Energy to help provide supplies for your Native Bee Houses project. This project is a great example of bringing together local experts, resources, and ingenuity to help the overall health and resilience of your local environment. Prairie Woods ELC will be sending your school (to your attention) a check for $237.60.. "
Shelli-Kae S. Foster
Shelli-Kae Foster
YES! Program Manager
c 320.441.9254 I t 320.354.5894
YES! Youth Eco Solutions
( Excerpts taken from the award letter received from YES! Program Manager)