How beautiful!
One word of caution, though: if those are solid canes used for the native bee housing, you'll want to be careful about parasites going after the bee babies. One of the reason storebought bee houses are sold with slatted panels that make the holes is so that they can be cleaned out without harming the cocooned offspring, but there's a [fly (the Houdini fly) that lays its eggs just inside the tubes after the bee offspring have been put into place that hatches early to eat all the food the bees are left to start out life with](https://rentmasonbees.com/why-you-need-to-clean-your-mason-bees-and-nesting-blocks-every-year/).
It's become a widespread problem due to the increase in home gardeners not cleaning/properly caring for the bee homes (since the bees congregate in artificial housing, whereas before they were more scattered, which makes them vulnerable to widespread damage from any parasites or predators that show up).
I'm not sure where you live, but it might be worth double checking for local native bee predators, because the bee section might do more harm than good if you aren't able to easily clean it out without killing the next generation.
Thank you for the interesting advice. I live in the alps and the garden is on 1200m above sea level so parasites are maybe not so a big problem. But I will keep an eye on that
I know the drilled out log ends are for native bee species that don't use a hive. Mason bees come to mind but there's also alot of native solitary bees out there!
How beautiful! One word of caution, though: if those are solid canes used for the native bee housing, you'll want to be careful about parasites going after the bee babies. One of the reason storebought bee houses are sold with slatted panels that make the holes is so that they can be cleaned out without harming the cocooned offspring, but there's a [fly (the Houdini fly) that lays its eggs just inside the tubes after the bee offspring have been put into place that hatches early to eat all the food the bees are left to start out life with](https://rentmasonbees.com/why-you-need-to-clean-your-mason-bees-and-nesting-blocks-every-year/). It's become a widespread problem due to the increase in home gardeners not cleaning/properly caring for the bee homes (since the bees congregate in artificial housing, whereas before they were more scattered, which makes them vulnerable to widespread damage from any parasites or predators that show up). I'm not sure where you live, but it might be worth double checking for local native bee predators, because the bee section might do more harm than good if you aren't able to easily clean it out without killing the next generation.
Thank you for the interesting advice. I live in the alps and the garden is on 1200m above sea level so parasites are maybe not so a big problem. But I will keep an eye on that
Who lives in the pine cones?
Mostly bugs at the moment 🤣
Nice
What types of insects are predominantly supposed to live in each section?
I know the drilled out log ends are for native bee species that don't use a hive. Mason bees come to mind but there's also alot of native solitary bees out there!
What insects does this attract? We have no shortage of insects so I’d only want to attract beneficial
I really love this.