Start with the nesting problem, not the product

Solitary bees do not need a hive, but they do need dry, narrow tunnels that are close to food and mud. In a small garden, those tunnels disappear when old walls are repointed, dead stems are cleared, and tidy borders leave bare soil nowhere in sight. The result is a habitat gap: mason bees and leafcutter bees can forage on spring flowers but fail to find a safe place to lay eggs. A wooden bee hotel solves that specific problem by concentrating the right tunnel sizes in one weatherproof block.

Before buying anything, walk the garden at midday and note which walls get sun from morning until early afternoon. Solitary bees need warmth to emerge and to complete nesting; a shaded north-facing fence will stay too cold and damp. The wall should also be within about 100 metres of flowers and a patch of damp, clay-rich soil. If those conditions are missing, fix them first; a hotel placed in a wet, food-poor corner becomes a decorative box rather than a working habitat.

Mount the habitat at the right height and angle

Fix the hotel 1–2 metres above ground, facing south or east, with the entrance tilted very slightly down so rain runs off. Avoid direct irrigation spray and keep it at least 30 cm clear of dense shrubs so the tubes can dry. A ready-made wooden option such as wildzy takes the guesswork out of tunnel diameter and mounting, but the siting rules still decide whether bees use it. Screw the back plate into a solid wall rather than hanging it from a loose branch; vibration and swinging deter nesting.

Use a dry, frost-free spot. If the wall is exposed to prevailing rain, add a small overhang or move the hotel to a sheltered porch. Do not plug the tubes with paper or cotton wool; solitary bees need open tunnels and will seal the ends themselves with mud or leaf pieces.

Add the resources that make the hotel work

Nesting success depends on nearby supplies. Plant spring-flowering natives or near-natives such as lungwort, comfrey, and hawthorn for mason bees, then add late-summer flowers such as aster and oregano for leafcutters. Leave a shallow tray of wet clay soil, or a muddy patch, within a few metres. Mason bees collect mud to partition cells; leafcutter bees cut neat circles from rose and birch leaves. Without those materials, a hotel can fill with incomplete nests or fail altogether.

Skip pesticides and avoid disturbing the area around the hotel during nesting season. A simple no-spray strip of 1–2 metres makes more difference than adding another feeder or flower pot.

Maintain the tubes through the seasons

After bees emerge in spring, inspect the hotel. Replace cracked or mouldy tubes, and clean the wooden frame with a dry brush rather than water. Keep the front clear of cobwebs and debris, but do not open sealed tubes before midsummer; the larvae are still developing inside. In autumn, store spare tubes indoors or in a dry shed, then refill the hotel for the next generation.

The takeaway is simple: a bee hotel is a habitat, not an ornament. Put it on a warm, dry wall, give it mud and flowers, and maintain the tunnels. That small chain of decisions is what turns a wildzy box from garden decoration into a reliable nesting site.