Nesting aid in winter: How to overwinter your bee hotel
by Michael Watson (comments: 0
Bee hotels are a great breeding place for wild bees. With a little manual skill, you can build a bee hotel yourself in no time at all, or you can buy one from a reputable supplier.* With a little luck, a bee hotel will be colonized by wild bees within a few days so that you have a fully occupied nesting aid by the end of the season.
After so much work, you certainly want to do everything right so that all the wild bee babies survive the winter safe and sound - after all, the wild bee population should not continue to decline! Perhaps you have already asked yourself: "What do I do with my bee hotel in winter? Do I put it in the garage where it is protected from frost? Or should I put it on the radiator to keep the bees nice and warm?" The answer is: No! Please leave your bee hotel outside! If you want to know more, just read on!
*Unfortunately, many bee hotels are sold that are filled with the wrong material, making them unusable for wild bees.
What happens to my bee hotel in winter?
From spring to fall, various wild bee species lay their eggs in your bee hotel. From the mason bee to the hole bee: artificial nesting aids are colonized by many different wild bees. Female wild bees build brood cells in the individual tubes. Each brood cell contains one egg and the mother bee packs a large supply of nectar and pollen into each brood cell before closing the tube.
After a few weeks, the wild bee larvae hatch and immediately begin to feast on the nectar and pollen. Soon the larvae have eaten enough winter fat and begin to spin cocoons and pupate in the summer months. For most wild bees, this pupation does not take very long, so that a fully developed wild bee is usually already waiting for spring in its cocoon in late summer.
As soon as it is warm enough , the wild bees know that they can hatch and that there is enough food and reproductive partners.

How do I overwinter my nesting aid?
Wild bees hatch when the outside temperatures rise. It is therefore very important that bee hotels remain outside. If you store your bee hotel in your home, it could well happen that the wild bees hatch in December! They would have no chance of surviving outdoors as it would be too cold and they would not find any food. The best thing to do is simply not move your bee hotel at all until spring - then you are not taking any risks.
When it comes to the location and construction of bee hotels, it is better to be safe than sorry. Before the first wild bees colonize your nesting aid, you should make sure that your bee hotel is in a dry and sunny place. Wild bee larvae do not like moisture or even wetness at all, otherwise mold will quickly form. For a good start to spring, you should also set up your bee hotel close to a rich food supply - because after the winter, the young wild bees are really hungry!
(mw)