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How to make your own bee hotel garden sculpture


Habitat bright ideas with Fleur Thorpe – DIY projects

Design a hexagonal bee hotel sculpture for your garden. Fleur Thorpe shows you how.

You will need

Note:  You can either call this a Bug Hotel or a Bee Hotel. A Bug Hotel is designed for any bugs, whereas a Bee Hotel is designed for Solitary Bees (other bugs may live in there also) and not for the normal honey bee. Honey bees are communal bees and they live in a community such as a bee hive. Solitary Bees will be attracted to a bee hotel and honey bees will not.

Instructions

Step 1:  Set your mitre saw to a cutting angle of 30 degrees and cut your wood into 90 equal lengths so that the long side of the finished board is 16cm long. Use sandpaper to remove any rough edges. (Photo 1).

Step 2:  Take 30 of the boards (enough for five hexagons) and use a small micro fibre roller to prime the inside surface (the short length) with Resene Quick Dry. Fleur found it quick to line all the boards up and go over them with the roller altogether rather than individually. (Photo 2).

Step 3:  Once the Resene Quick Dry is dry, use a fine grit sandpaper to give the painted surface a light sand. Next, use a paintbrush to paint each of the five different hexagons a different colour. Fleur used Resene Captain Cook, Resene Wet N Wild, Resene Seance, Resene Plum and Resene Lucky Point. Paint on two coats, allowing the first coat to dry before applying the second coat. (Photo 3).

Step 4:  Once the paint is dry, use wood glue to glue all the hexagons together, including the ten unpainted hexagons. Fleur found it helpful to use some masking tape to hold the edges together while the glue dried. (Photo 4). Once the glue is dry, remove the tape and use a brad nail gun or an electric drill and screws to secure the corners together.

Step 5:  Start putting the sculpture together. Fleur used an electric drill and screws to attach all the hexagons to each other. Where possible, Fleur tried to place the screws on the underside of each hexagon. (Photo 5).

Step 6:  Cut a piece of marine ply to fit the back of three of the hexagons and nail or screw this into place. (Photo 6).

Step 7:  For the three plant pots, use Resene Aquapel & Terracotta Sealer to seal the pots and once dry, apply two coats of Resene Eminence, Resene Chetwode Blue and Resene Blue Diamond. Fill with some bee-loving plants such as lavender and rosemary. (Photo 7).

Step 8:  Cut lengths of bamboo, small logs/branches and bark wood into 12cm lengths. Drill holes in the ends of the logs to create extra homes for bees. You may also need to drill out the middle of small bamboo. Drill a variety of hole sizes. If it’s a bug hotel, vary the hole sizes between 2mm and 10mm. If it’s a bee hotel vary the holes between 8mm and 10mm.

Step 9:  Position your sculpture in a sunny part of the garden where it won’t get hit by the worst of the weather. You may need to bang in a couple of wooden stakes into the ground next to the sculpture and drill these to the sculpture to prevent it from blowing over.

Step 10:  Fill three of the hexagons with the cut bamboo and wood, and place the plants in three of the remaining hexagons. (Finished project).

Top tip:  Rather than stain your bug or bee hotel, you can paint it. Choose one Resene colour to suit your garden, or use a range of Resene green paint colours and sponge them on for a camouflage effect.

Project and images by Fleur Thorpe. September 2021.


Habitat bright ideas
Need to add colour, pattern or a little creativity to your place? Check out these easy step by step DIY project ideas created in collaboration with Fleur Thorpe. We hope you enjoy making and painting these bright ideas and bringing colour to your home inside or out.

Fleur's projects | Habitat bright ideas

 

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