How to make your garden bee friendly

The bee has always been important to us here at Willerby, after all our founder, Walter Allan, did build bee hives before making the move to holiday homes! We even have our own Willerbee mascot as a tribute to the man himself as well as being proud members of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

Bees are an endangered species and are in fact a vital part of our food chain so it is really important that we do our part to save the bees. You can help too by making small but impactful changes by making your garden bee friendly.

Here's some ways you can make your garden bee friendly along with a few facts about bees.

Plants - Begin with choosing some bee friendly plants and flowers for your garden. Some flowers that bees love include; poppies, sweet pea, thyme, honeysuckle, lavender and ivy. Why not have a section of your garden solely for these bees friendly plants?

Fun fact: Bees have 5 eyes!

Give the bees a home - Bee hotels help solitary bees that live alone and build their own nests, that are usually in tunnels, hollow stems and beetle holes. Bee hotels are ready made places for bees to lay their eggs so they are likely to live in them. It would definitely be a fun activity to build a bee hotel! Here’s a guide we found on the RSPB website.

Fun fact: A queen bee can lay up to around 3000 eggs a day!

Create a bee bath - Yes a bee bath! Water is important for bees too and when they are hard at work they can get thirsty so putting out a shallow water bath in your bee friendly area is a great addition. Just use a small bowl or bird bath, pop some pebbles inside and add a shallow amount of water.

Fun fact: Water helps with a bee's digestion.

Feed the bees - Put a bottle cap of sugar and water in your bee friendly garden to give the bees a sweet treat. Bees love sugar, just mix a small amount of white sugar and water and leave it out for the bees to enjoy. Ensure that you don’t use brown sugar as this is harder for bees to digest.

Fun fact: A bee produces a teaspoon of honey (about 5 grams) in her lifetime.

And remember to avoid using pesticides.

Join us in helping to save the bees by following a few or all of these steps to make your garden bee friendly.

If you have a small garden by your static caravan, this could be the perfect activity for when you're next at your Willerby!