Bee house or beehive? What you are actually buying

At a glance: bee house vs beehive

Why the confusion happens

Honeybees dominate the popular idea of "bees," so a wooden box with holes in it reads as a miniature hive to most first-time buyers. In reality, honeybees are one species among roughly 270 in the UK, and the vast majority of the rest are solitary: no colony, no shared nest, no division of labour. Each female works alone, provisioning her own string of cells inside a tunnel a bee house provides. She has nobody to relieve her and nobody guarding an entrance, which is exactly why solitary bees are so much less defensive than honeybees or wasps.

What goes on inside a bee house

A female backs into a tunnel, packs a mass of pollen and nectar at the far end, lays a single egg on it, then seals that cell with mud or chewed leaf before starting the next one further toward the entrance. Red mason bees (Osmia bicornis) do this from March to June; leafcutter bees (Megachile) take over from June to August, recognisable by the neat semicircular notches they cut from leaves. Full details on species and sizes are on our solitary bee guide.

Wooden, bamboo or plastic — what to buy

Solid timber wins. Wood breathes, so the small amount of moisture a female brings in with pollen can escape rather than condensing against a sealed wall. Bamboo canes are cheap and hollow, but they are usually cut across a node, leaving a rough shelf inside, and they split along the grain after a couple of wet winters. Plastic tubes sweat badly: it is common to find brood dead and mouldy in spring even though the tunnels were sealed cleanly the previous June.

Wall thickness matters as much as material. A thin 8mm panel tracks the outside temperature almost exactly, so the brood is cooked on a hot afternoon and chilled before dawn. A 19mm cedar wall flattens that curve out substantially.

Mounting a bee house properly

Fix it firmly. A house that swings in the wind gets rejected during inspection — a female will not commit to a nest site that moves while she is working. Screw it to a wall, a fence post or a stake, facing south or south-east, between one and two metres up. Keep the front clear of foliage so the entrances catch morning sun and stay dry. Once a tunnel is sealed, do not move the house, even by a few feet; females navigate to a precise location, and relocating mid-season means the returning bees cannot find it.

What you will see through the year

• March–April: red mason bees emerge, males first, hovering around the entrances, females a week or so later, then nesting begins.
• May–July: the busiest period. Tunnels seal one by one.
• August–February: nothing visible. Larvae are developing inside and need the cold. Leave the house outdoors.

What to look for when buying a bee house

Ask the same questions you would of any piece of outdoor joinery: what is it made of, is the timber treated, how are the tunnels finished, and is the back sealed. Buyers weighing up a bee house for the garden specifically, with planting and small spaces in mind, may prefer our garden-siting guide alongside this one.

The Wild Bee Hotel as a bee house

Untreated Western red cedar with 19mm walls, tunnels hand-sanded smooth in diameters from 2mm to 10mm, a hand-formed copper roof that keeps the nesting face dry, a solid rear panel, and a steel mount that holds through a British winter. £39.99 with free worldwide shipping and 30 days to change your mind.