Support Native Pollinators with Bee Hotels and Solitary Bee Services

Help counter habitat loss by offering nesting spaces with bee hotels and enhance biodiversity by attracting native bees to your property.

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What are Bee Hotels?

Bee hotels are like birdhouses for insects, offering vital nesting spaces for solitary bee species. These bees naturally seek shelter in holes within dead wood, hollow plant stems, and other small crevices. By mimicking these natural habitats, bee hotels provide a safe and protected environment for them to thrive.

What Pollinator Species Live in a Bee Hotel?

Bee hotels attract solitary bee species that nest in stems and wood. While most native pollinators prefer soil nesting, the primary residents of bee hotels are typically leafcutter bees and mason bees.

You can set up a bee hotel on your property and observe which pollinators arrive naturally, or you can jumpstart the process by purchasing mason bee cocoons from us—our beekeepers will install them in the hotel for you.

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Benefits of Bee Hotels and Mason Bees

CONTRIBUTE TO INCREASING YOUR ENVIRONMENT'S BIODIVERSITY LEVELS

PROVIDE NATIVE POLLINATORS WITH A SAFE PLACE TO OVERWINTER AND REPRODUCE

BOOST POLLINATION SERVICES WITH MASON BEES' EFFICIENCY 

CONTRIBUTE TO DATA TRACKING OF NATIVE BEE HEALTH AND POPULATION LEVELS

ENACT A VISIBLE AND TANGIBLE SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE

Bee Hotels

A UNIQUE, HANDCRAFTED HABITAT FOR NATIVE POLLINATORS

 

In fall 2023, Best Bees collaborated with students from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design to create original bee hotel designs. Our final model brings together the best elements of their innovative work.

 

Crafted from natural wood, the bee hotel features deep, precisely drilled cavities that provide ideal nesting spaces. It stands at eye level on a sturdy wooden post, with a built-in garden container at the base—offering pollinators an accessible food source right at their doorstep.

 

Beyond supporting native bees, your bee hotel plays a key role in our ongoing research on pollinator health and population trends. Best Bees beekeepers will monitor its activity, collecting valuable data alongside their care of your honey bee hives.

Solitary Mason Bees

MASON BEES (MEGACHILIDAE OSMIA): NATIVE POLLINATOR POWERHOUSES

 

Enhance your bee hotel by introducing mason bee cocoons, giving your new habitat instant guests! Mason bees are exceptional pollinators—thanks to their fuzzy bodies, they spread more pollen from flower to flower as they forage. Unlike honey bees, they are less efficient at carrying pollen, meaning they visit more flowers more frequently, boosting pollination.

 

Mason bees also differ from honey bees in their defense mechanisms. They rarely sting, and if they do, their sting is mild and non-venomous—comparable to a mosquito bite.

 

Best Bees beekeepers will install 20 mason bee cocoons in your bee hotel, ensuring a strong start for your pollinator habitat. During routine check-ins on your honey bee hives, our team will also monitor your mason bees, tracking their activity and gathering valuable data on their progress.

ADOPT MASON BEES FOR YOUR BEE HOTEL

Solitary Mason Bees

Native bees are notoriously hard to monitor due to the fact that the vast majority of native bee species – approximately 85% – are solitary. We do know that native bees are threatened by the same things that threaten honey bees:

  • habitat loss
  • pesticides and pollution
  • climate change

Adding a Best Bees Bee Hotel to your property gives us greater insight into the status of native pollinators, and contributes unique data that will be crucial to future research efforts.

Bee Hotel and Mason Bees Availability

Bee Hotels are available for purchase in all of our service areas.

Mason Bee cocoons are available only in the following cities:

  • Chicago
  • Denver
  • New York
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Washington, DC

Interested in getting mason bees available in your city? Get added to our waitlist by emailing info@treecitybeecompany.com.

These offerings are exclusive to Best Bees clients. 

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Where Can Beehives Thrive on my Property?

We can work with your facility management team to install your hives in locations that are safely out of high traffic areas, in environments that are right for both you and your bees.

Beehives can be installed almost anywhere, including:

  • rooftops
  • courtyards
  • garden-level spaces
  • throughout facility grounds

PhD. Founded with In-House Research Team

We analyze bee data to improve pollinator and biodiversity health
 

Certified Diverse Vendor

We are LGBTQ+ owned and a certified LGBT Business Enterprise

Largest Standardized Bee Data Library in the World

We’ve collected over 2.5 million data points on bee health and share these data with leading research institutes and universities

Founded & Operated in the USA

We hire local beekeepers with local knowledge across the nation