The Big Bee Hotel Experiment
About this project
Join the largest Buzz Club project to date for The Big Bee Hotel Experiment 2025! ​
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In 2024, we ran the pilot round of The Big Bee Hotel Experiment, with 576 bee hotels taking part across the UK. Hear the results of this project from Principal Investigator Dave Goulson in his EntoLive on April 22nd.
A big thanks to Eva Crane Trust for funding this project.
​Most of UK's bees are solitary and do not live in colonies like bumblebees or honeybees. They are very important pollinators, but tend not to be as well-known about as their social relatives. Many are 'cavity nesting' bees, with the females creating individual 'cells' inside tunnels using mud or leaves, into which they lay an egg. Each cell is then packed full of pollen, providing food for the larvae as it grows over the Summer. The offspring then hibernate to emerge in Spring as new adults.
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Did you know that we have approximately 270 species of bee in the UK and 250 of those are solitary?​
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We want to investigate what bees favour in solitary bee hotels and how to make them optimal for as many different bee species as possible. Finding this out will help us conserve pollinators in our gardens across the UK and help protect them against threats such as climate change!
How can you help?
This year we are looking for bee hotels that meet the checklist to the right. If this matches your bee hotel, register using the button at the top of the page!
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Once you have registered, you will receive an email from Issy (Project Lead) with directions on how to fill out a registration form which will tell us all the important information we need about your bee hotel.
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After that, all you will need to do is to send us a photo of your bee hotel once a month!
What do you get out of it?
By taking part in this project, you will be contributing to real science and will help to conserve bee species across the UK. You will also be encouraging more pollinators to visit your garden, increasing its ecological value and productivity. You will become familiar with some of the lesser-known bees e.g. mason bees and leafcutters, and get to observe one of the key stages of their lifecycles - the laying of eggs and capping them safely in your hotel until they are ready to emerge in Spring!
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You will also be invited to a webinar detailing what you may see happening in your hotel and who you may see visiting! This webinar will be available to everyone, and The Big Bee Hotel Project Participants project participants will receive a 50% discount code to use when booking.