Summary:
In a service project collaboration with the Penn State Berks Center for Environmental Sciences & Sustainability, The Berks Bees created three shelters for local bees. These three shelters provide a place for Mason Bumble and Orchard bee to lay there eggs. This allows theses bees a shelter from predators, chemicals and weather conditions. Helping the bee population to be sustained and pollinate local plants and flowers in the area. Without these shelters many bees may not be able to find a safe place to lay there eggs or get out of the harsh elements.
Creating Bamboo Can Shelters:
None of the shelters were particularly hard to make however out of the two that we had made the bamboo can shelters were possibly the easiest. The requirements for the two bamboo shelters we had made consisted of sticks of bamboo, (similar materials can be found online) two cans, and some adhesive to keep the bamboo in. In order to acquire the bamboo we simply drove to the bamboo patch that was located on campus and went around to the back to grab some of the dead bamboo. It was important that most of the bamboo that we grabbed was dead that way it would not contract or get smaller as it dried out. After this, we went back to the Center for Environmental Sciences & Sustainability and began to cut the bamboo to the right size to fit in the cans. Once all the bamboo was nice and packed we glued all of them in and covered the cans with duct tape to prevent rust. The final step was to drill holes in the tops of the cans in order to insert the hangers. The hangers were metal wire that allowed the cans to be hung from trees. After this, the cans were ready to be hung on the trees next to the gauge building and the library.
Creating The Log Shelter:
Making the Log shelter was slightly more challenging than making the bamboo shelters but in general was not very hard. We started by walking up the Tulpehocken river until we found a nice log. Then we wrapped the log in a towel and drove it to the Center for Environmental Sciences & Sustainability. Then we cut the top off and bolted a roof on. The purpose behind this was to keep the log dry so the bee would be more comfortable there. After this, we drilled holes in the log for the bees to lay there eggs in. (we chose to drill them in the shape of the letter B for the Berks Bees) This shelter is also resting outside between the gauge building and the library.
The Berks Bees Message:
If there’s a message that we can send here it’s that doing little things to help your environment can be fun and easy! Building bee shelters is far from a hard task and if more people did it for their local areas and gardens I think we could see a big difference in bee health as well as environmental health. Although we only made two types of shelters here there are hundreds that can be found online and a lot of them look really cool. It’s a fun activity for family or friends to engage in and help save the bees!
