Bee hotel: cedar and copper, built for bees that actually move in

The complete bee hotel buying guide

At a glance

• Tunnel diameters should span roughly 2mm to 10mm across several tiers.
• Depth of 10–15cm lets a female lay both daughters and sons, not just sons.
• Untreated timber, at least 19mm thick, buffers heat and lets moisture escape.
• An overhanging metal roof is the single biggest predictor of a dry, healthy brood.
• South to south-east facing, 1–1.5m up, fixed rigidly, not swinging on wire.

How a bee hotel actually works

Around nine in ten of Britain's bee species are solitary. There is no hive, no queen and no honey. A female mates in spring, finds a dry tunnel, and works entirely alone: she flies out for pollen, packs it at the back of the tunnel, lays an egg on it, walls the cell off with mud or chewed leaf, then repeats the sequence until the tunnel is full. She caps the entrance and starts the next one, and dies before her offspring ever emerge.

Every design decision in a bee hotel follows from that single sequence. The tunnel has to be the right width for her body, because she cannot lay in a gap she cannot brace herself inside. It has to be dry, because damp pollen grows mould and mould kills the brood before it pupates. It has to be smooth, because she squeezes in and out hundreds of times over the weeks she is provisioning it. And it has to be closed at the back, because parasitic wasps reach the larvae from behind if given the chance.

Tunnel diameters and depths that matter

Depth matters as much as width. A female lays female eggs toward the back of a tunnel, where they are safest, and male eggs nearer the entrance. A shallow tunnel of 4–5cm biases the whole brood toward males and does little for next year's population, which is why 10–15cm is worth insisting on. The exact sizing is covered in more detail on our hole size and depth guide.

The five-point buyer's checklist

1. A range of tunnel diameters, not one

A hotel drilled entirely at one width is only ever housing one species, and only if that species happens to be flying near your garden. Look for a spread from roughly 2mm to 10mm across several tiers.

2. Untreated timber, thick enough to matter

Paint, stain and lacquer leave a solvent smell that inspecting females avoid, and they seal the wood so trapped moisture cannot escape. Untreated Western red cedar is the sensible choice: naturally rot-resistant, dimensionally stable outdoors, and thick enough at 19mm to buffer the swing between a cold spring night and a hot afternoon.

3. A roof that overhangs, in a material that lasts

Rain landing on the nesting face is the single biggest cause of failed broods. A metal roof overhanging on every side throws water clear of the entrances. Copper does not rust or split the way thin plastic and felt do after a hard winter.

4. Hand-sanded tunnel interiors

Drilled bamboo and rough-milled holes leave splinters along the tunnel wall that shred wings over a season of hundreds of entries. Push a fingertip into a tunnel: if you can feel any roughness, so can she.

5. A solid rear panel

Open-backed tubes and thin ply backs let parasitic wasps reach the developing larvae from behind. A solid back wall removes that route entirely.

What a good bee hotel does for your garden

Solitary bees are extraordinarily efficient pollinators. A single red mason bee does the pollination work of many honeybees, because she carries dry pollen loose on her abdomen and sheds it constantly as she moves between flowers, rather than packing it wet into leg baskets. Fruit trees, soft fruit, beans, tomatoes and squash all set noticeably better crops with a resident population nearby. Putting up a well-made hotel is the fastest way to keep that population in your garden rather than watching it pass through.

Common mistakes gardeners make

• Hanging it somewhere shady, or facing north — cold tunnels are rarely inspected.
• Letting it swing on wire or string, which females reject during inspection.
• Bringing it indoors over winter, which wakes the brood before anything is in flower.
• Moving it mid-season, after tunnels are already sealed.
• Choosing one drilled purely for looks, with no attention to the tunnel finish.

Season by season

Red mason bees fly March to June; leafcutters take over from June to August. Through summer, tunnels seal one by one — mud plugs from mason bees, neat green leaf discs from leafcutters. From August the hotel goes quiet. Nothing visible happens for months while larvae develop inside, which is exactly why it should stay outside, undisturbed, through winter. Our year-round care guide sets out what to do in each season, and when to put a new hotel out if you are buying part-way through the year.

What to look for when you buy one

Read the specification, not just the photograph: ask what the tunnels are made from, how they are finished, whether the timber is treated, what the roof is made of and whether the back is sealed. The best bee hotels sold in the UK tend to share the same five features described above, whatever they are called on the label.

The Wild Bee Hotel against this checklist

The Wild Bee Hotel was designed to the list above rather than to a price point: multiple tiers of hand-sanded tunnels from 2mm to 10mm, 19mm untreated Western red cedar walls, a hand-formed copper roof overhanging on every side, a solid rear panel, and a heavy-duty steel mount for a wall, fence or post. It costs £39.99 with free worldwide shipping, and if it does not convince you within 30 days you can send it back for a full refund.