Making a house for mason bees

[pepperhead212]

I was planning on doing this, even before the recent corona virus scare, telling us to stay at home as much as possible. I always spend a lot of time in my workshop, except in heavy gardening seasons!

I got the idea for this when I saw some of the mason bee houses for sale, and I said "Hey, that would be easy to make!" Maybe not really easy, but it was easy to draw up the plans, and once I did that, it was easy! I haven't finished it, but the most time consuming work is done.

First, I got some cheap cedar (a wood suggested for the bees, since finishing is not necessary), being sold at clearance because it was bowed, and nobody would buy it for deck-making! I cut them to 4' pieces, then put them on a workbench, with spacers, to let them stabilize. Then I jointed one side, until totally flat, then planed them all, to 3/4 thick. It is only 5.5" wide, and wider would have been better, but I didn't want to rout it lengthwise, as it seemed it would be weaker that way, in the thin sections.

I first cut 9 pieces, 6 5/16" wide, to make the 11 cross grain router cuts, on both sides of the piece, with a 5/16" cove box bit, set to 5/32" deep, so the 2 cuts on opposing pieces meat to make a 5/16" diameter hole.

First cut:
First set of cuts on router table, using a 5/16 inch cove box bit. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Last cut:
Last cut, at least with the router. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Unfortunately, cedar is a wood that splinters a lot, and after each set of cuts, I had to take a piece of sandpaper, wrapped around a ¼" dowel, to clean out the grooves, and the splinters sticking up. Here is a photo, showing those splinters, and cleaning them out. It didn't take long, for each set of 16.

Cleaning out the grooves, using a 1/4 inch dowel, wrapped around 120 grit sandpaper. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Here are the finished inserts, showing how it looks like 88 holes were drilled, all the way through.
The wood, loosely stacked, showing the future home for 88 mason bees. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

All I have to do now, is make a "cage", to hold them in, and protect them - the easy part of the job. I'll post that later.

[PlainJane]

Great idea, and it looks fantastic.

[MissS]

Now that was a great idea!

[worth1]

I have two routers but I dont have a router table but I have a huge long stroke drill press and a big X Y table mounted on it with a vice mounted on it.
Think vertical milling machine.
The X Y table has threads and wheels that move it in two directions.
Each turn of the wheel is .100th of an inch 10 turns is 1.00 inch.
Very easy to make any pattern you want and rows of holes spaced the way you want.
I also think the 1/4 to 5/16 hole is the preferred hole for carpenter bees.
Following pictuer isn't a mason bee house but shows how easy it is to do this by just counting to 5 or any number every time you turn the wheel.
Drill 12345 drill repeat till you get to the end.
Move other wheel 5 turns and start again.
It is fun.
Just did this in about 10 minutes or less.
Thanks for reminding me I needed to make mason bee houses.

[worth1]

Here the test prototype is to show how accurate you can get.
Not that the bees would care.
Or would they.

20200321_064013.jpg

After vacuuming.

20200321_064238.jpg

[Growing Coastal]

Here's a mason bee house I found at a thrift shop. When I saw a flash of blue on a little flier in the garden that reminded me to get the house out there somewhere.

[Texgal]

Beautiful job! What a great idea!

[pepperhead212]

I've almost finished the bee house today, all except for attaching the back, as I have to get a couple of SS straight braces, for mounting it outside.

I was in the workshop much of the day, doing basic maintenance things, while the glue was drying, during the different steps. I opened up underneath the tablesaw and bandsaw, to clean out the sawdust, though there wasn't much, since the dust collection system gets most of it. Cleaned and lubricated the areas that need it. Checked all those belts. Re-glued some velcro, for those jigs that dust collection hoses attach to. And just cleaned up, in general, especially all that scrap wood!

Gluing up boards, to make the sides and shelves. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Cutting one board at a 10 degree angle, to form the sides. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Assembled house, shown from the front. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Bee house, from the side. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Bee house from the back, with a piece of plexiglass that will be screwed on. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[MissS]

That looks great pepperhead. You did a great job!

[worth1]

Lovely.

[PlainJane]

Here's a mason bee house I found at a thrift shop. When I saw a flash of blue on a little flier in the garden that reminded me to get the house out there somewhere.

Like the clematis!

[PlainJane]

Really nice [mention]pepperhead212[/mention] !

[worth1]

I see you have the Incra miter fence.
Best miter fence on the market.
I have the 1000 HD.

[SQWIB]

That is some workmanship right there, great job!

I was going to make a few houses but read that they should be cleaned out every year to prevent the spread of mites or I would have a hundred mason bee houses.
I was extremely discouraged after researching this and gave up on housing Mason Bees.


https://www.lawn-care-academy.com/pollen-mites.html



.

[pepperhead212]

Here's the finished bee house - I had to get those straight SS brackets, to hang it from, and they took a long time to get here (one of those 3rd party sellers on Amazon). No big deal, as I'm not putting it up right away. I also had to order that hardware cloth, but that came right away.
Mason bee house, ready to hang. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

And here's the scraper I made, to clean out the cocoons with, in the fall. I just drew the design on the piece of wood, and cut out the empty sections with the bandsaw, then I rounded away the ends of the sections by nibbling them away on the bandsaw, until the fit in just right, then I tapered it toward the front on both sides on the belt sander. It fits great now!
Wooden scraper I made for scraping out the mason bee cocoons, in the fall. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[PlainJane]

[mention]pepperhead212[/mention] What is the hardware cloth deterring?

[pepperhead212]

@pepperhead212 What is the hardware cloth deterring?

From what I understand, birds and squirrels, but I have no experience - just going on what I read. Here's a link, with good info on the mason bees. This is where I got the idea for the layered bee house, and the scraper, for removing the cocoons.
https://crownbees.com/super-pollinators-spring