Winter 2018
Plan Bee
With honey bees in peril, agriculture turns to our wild bee species to help pollinate America’s crops. » More ...
Wild bees
Winter 2018
Build a bee hotel
Help some local pollinators by building your own bee hotel.
There are plenty of tutorials and guides out there. Below are a few easy steps to quickly building a home for solitary bees, followed by links to some other guides.
With a craft knife, cut both ends off the plastic bottle to create a cylinder.
Make your lengths of bamboo, grass or reeds 3 cm shorter than the bottle to protect them from rain – use sharp garden clippers to trim them. Bees can’t burrow through the knots in bamboo, so avoid lengths with too many knots.
Use sandpaper to smooth the … » More …
Winter 2018
Gallery: Bee beds and hotels
A unique look at the interplay between wild North American bees, European bees, and Washington farmers.
Photographer Zach Mazur ’06 highlights the apian stars of Southeast Washington’s thriving alfalfa seed industry. The spare yet stunning landscape is home to millions of native alkali bees which, together with leafcutter bees, make Walla Walla County one of the nation’s top producers.
Read more about wild bees and pollinators in “Plan Bee.”