The Australian National Botanic Gardens wants to help Canberra’s native bee population feel more at home by providing a hotel equipped with individual “rooms”.
Researcher Katja Hogendoorn from the University of Adelaide said native bees were so fickle so the hotel had a variety of accommodation on offer.
“They want a hole of a perfect size. They are picky,” she said.
“Some only live for six weeks as an adult, so they’ve got six weeks to lay all their eggs… and then it’s over. So I’d be picky too.”
The bee hotel looks like a wooden bookcase filled with little rooms made from pieces of wood with holes, bamboo sticks, open flower stalks, mud bricks and curled bark.
Maribyrnong Primary students were among those who helped add “rooms” to the bee hotel.
