The Big Bee Hotel Experiment
Please note: Issy is on leave over the next couple of weeks and will send you your welcome email upon her return for the start of the project in April.
About this project
Join the largest Buzz Club project to date for The Big Bee Hotel Experiment 2026! ​​
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This is the third year of this project. So far we have data on 1003 bee hotels! Join us for a webinar to find out the results so far, along with information on The Big Bee Hotel Experiment 2026 - book here.
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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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​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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Bee hotels can provide this 'nesting habitat' for solitary bees in your garden!
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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 running two sub-projects:
- Late Check-In: Investigating the preferences of late-season bees
- Bee Creative: Designing colourful homes for pollinators
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Information about both can be found on the protocol below. We will also be looking for control hotels, so if you would like to register your hotel with us without joining a sub-project please do.
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Please start by registering your interest at the top of this webpage. Once you have registered, you will receive an email from Issy (Project Lead) with information on the sub-projects and 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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Register your hotel by July to receive an invite 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.