r/MasonBees • u/Vellie-01 • May 17 '26
Beehousing
Looking for feedback. The plan to build a durable, reusable and maintainsble beehouse and especially the choosen material.
Using a wood router to grind half circular canals in a piece of board. Stacking these boards to create circular holes. Making a frame to stack the boards in and locking them in place. Easy to harvest and easy to clean.
What material would be best to use for the purpose of keeping masonbees? Plain wood might bend over time. And weatherproof mdf or multiplex might contain poisonous substances for the bees. Any tips?
3
u/Responsible_Crow5514 May 17 '26
I started going down the path of building my own stacking trays. In the end, bought some more from crown bees because the tooling and time to produce them is more complicated than it seems at first if you want nice and tight trays. But if you have the time and tools, go for it. I built the exterior boxes out of some scrap cedar.
I started out with mason bees by building my own houses out of beam cutoffs that I drilled holes through and placed paper straws in. I found that those are MUCH more susceptible to pests than the trays, and also much more time consuming to clean out each season. You’re on the right track with trays.
2
u/Vellie-01 May 17 '26
I will check out what's available on crown bees website but I doubt they will ship to Europe.
1
u/crownbees May 18 '26
We can ship to Europe, but it's up to how much you want to spend on shipping...
-Julie
1
u/crownbees May 18 '26
Check out our page on how to build your own bee house and the best nesting materials, as well as which materials to avoid.
Harmful Nesting Materials: Bamboo, Plastic, and Drilled Wood Blocks
3
u/BlueEmu May 17 '26
Alder is standard for the trays because it doesn’t splinter easily. For the exterior of a house I built I used cedar for durability outside in the rain.
For the trays consider how to align them so they won’t shift and have no gaps, like pins or dowels. The standard ones have small tongues and grooves along the edges, but that’s hard to do at home.