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Description

Build a bee hotel, and welcome these crucial critters to your meeting place or garden.

Reduce - Reuse – Recycle!
Help out with the recycling and make use of an old plastic bottle and support the bees by making them a hotel

Courtesy of The Scout Association
https://www.scouts.org.uk/activities/bee-prepared/

Resources

Scissors
String
Clean, empty plastic bottles (two litres)
A selection of materials - for. example: Paper drinking straws; Bamboo cane;
Natural materials (for example, leaves, twigs, feathers); Dead hollow stems from garden plants (optional)

Instructions

1. Give everybody a plastic bottle. Using scissors, everyone should carefully cut the top and bottom off their bottle.
2. Everyone should loop a piece of string through their bottle, so that it can be hung up outside.
3. Everyone should gather enough bamboo canes, stems, and straws to fill their bottle. 4. They should check that they’re hollow, with open ends for bees to burrow in.
5. Everyone should use the scissors and saw to cut the canes, stems, and straws so that they are the same length as their bottle. An adult must supervise people using the saw.
6. Everyone should push their canes, stems and straws into the bottle. They should add smaller twigs and stems in the gaps, to make sure it’s tightly packed.
7. Hang the finished bee hotel on a sunny wall, at least one metre off the ground. Make sure it’s sheltered from the rain.

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The version below is slightly modified to make it easier to do at home
Step 1. Using scissors, very carefully cut the top and bottom off the bottle.
Step 2. Loop a piece of string through the bottle, so that it can be hung up outside.
Step 3. Gather enough bamboo canes, stems, and straws to fill the bottle. They should be hollow, with open ends for bees to burrow in.
Step 4. Carefully use scissors and if needed saw (with a grownup’s help) to cut the canes, stems, and straws so that they are the same length as your bottle. *** An adult must supervise using a saw. ***
Step 5. Push the canes, stems and straws into your bottle. Add smaller twigs and stems in the gaps, to make sure it’s tightly packed.
Step 6. Hang the finished bee hotel on a sunny wall, at least one metre off the ground. Make sure it’s sheltered from the rain.

Some things to think and talk about at home:
How do bees make the world a better place? Why do we need to look after bees? What difference do you think your bee hotel might make? How else can we help bees, or make outdoor spaces nicer for everyone?
Do you think it’s important to look after plants and animals? What other actions can we take to look after nature?
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If you can access the internet with a grownup, and would like to find out more about bees, have a look at the Woodland trust website: www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2019/05/types-of-bee-in-the-uk/


Take it further
You could develop this activity into a bigger project to work towards a Community Impact Staged Activity Badge. For example, you could research bee friendly flowers, and plant seeds.

Tags

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Badge Links

• Environmental Conservation - Project
• Naturalist - Activity
• The Great Indoors - Social action
• World - Environment