Win a Native Bee House Kit Courtesy of Crown Bees

I just received a shipment of leafcutter bees in the mail the other day. Aren’t they neat? Or I should say, leafcutter bee cocoons. The silken cocoons come encased in the leafy cells the mother bee created when she laid her eggs. Unlike spring mason bees, which start flying when temperatures reach 55°F, summer leafcutter…

Linda Ly

Written by Linda Ly

Win a native bee house kit courtesy of Crown Bees

I just received a shipment of leafcutter bees in the mail the other day. Aren’t they neat?

Summer leafcutter bee cocoons

Or I should say, leafcutter bee cocoons. The silken cocoons come encased in the leafy cells the mother bee created when she laid her eggs.

Unlike spring mason bees, which start flying when temperatures reach 55°F, summer leafcutter bees like hot weather and emerge when the weather is consistently in the mid-80°Fs.

We’re moving into a week of warmer weather so I suspect they’ll be waking up just as their mason bee cousins start to wind down. I’ve had my native bee houses hanging in the garden for a few weeks and it’s such a joy to spot the mason bees buzzing around the borage and nasturtiums every day.

I love my native bee houses so much, in fact, that I’ve asked Crown Bees to give one of my readers an opportunity to own a native bee house too!

Owning a native bee house is an entirely different experience from owning a honeybee hive. Unlike honeybees, which live in highly organized colonies revolving around a single queen, native bees are solitary, so every female native bee is essentially her own “queen,” laying eggs and raising offspring without the support of fellow bees. She lives for only six weeks and nests in small holes rather than a hive. These holes can be found all over your yard in natural features like the hollow stems of pithy plants or the tunnels left by wood-boring beetles.

By hanging a native bee house in your garden, you help provide a safe place for native bees to nest and lay eggs. You also ensure that the next generation of bees will survive, since you can harvest the cocoons and clean the nests in autumn.

Raindrop native bee house with lake bed reeds

The beautiful bee house in this giveaway is a handcrafted wooden house called the Raindrop and it’s part of the Complete Raindrop Kit from Crown Bees, which includes the bee house, 80 natural lake bed reeds, 20 bee cocoons, and an accessories package for storing and protecting the cocoons (a $125 total value). This is everything you need to start keeping native bees! (And it couldn’t be easier — see my original post here.)

How to enter: Leave a comment below and tell me what kind of flowers, fruits, herbs, or vegetables you have growing in your garden this season that will feed your native bees, or could use their help being pollinated! To receive an additional entry, follow @gardenbetty on Instagram, and leave a second comment below indicating your Instagram username. You have two chances to win!

The giveaway will end at 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time on Friday, May 1, 2015. Winner will be drawn at random and announced the following week. Good luck!

Giveaway Rules

  1. Giveaway begins April 27, 2015 and ends May 1, 2015.
  2. No purchase is necessary. To enter, leave a comment on this blog post.
  3. Only US residents ages 18 and older are eligible to enter.
  4. Two entries allowed per person.
  5. Odds of winning are based on number of entries received.
  6. Winner will be drawn at random.
  7. If winner does not respond within 48 hours after time of contact, that entry will be forfeited and a new winner will be drawn.

By the way, Crown Bees is currently running an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for native bee education. One of their perks is a Mother’s Day special that includes a bee cabin with wooden trays and leafcutter bees, and it’s offered at a discounted price off retail. They will expedite shipping in time for Mother’s Day — a great gift to consider for your garden-loving mom, aunt, friend, or even yourself!

This post is brought to you by Crown Bees. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that support Garden Betty.

Update: A big thanks to everyone who entered!
This giveaway is now closed. The winner is Anat from Arizona.

Linda Ly

I'm a plant lover, passionate road-tripper, and cookbook author whose expert advice and bestselling books have been featured in Time, Outside, HGTV, and Food & Wine. The National Parks Cookbook is my latest book. Garden Betty is where I write about modern homesteading, farm-to-table cooking, and outdoor adventuring—all that encompass a life well-lived outdoors. After all, the secret to a good life is... Read more »

210 Comments

  2. I would LOVE to win this giveaway! We have an entire portion of our yard devoted to native plants and I see tons of bees enjoying them each time I go outside – the plants include Gregg’s salvia, May Night, Spanish lavender, lantana, bee balm, milkweed, blackfoot daisy and copper canyon daisy. We also have a veggie/herb garden that has squash and cucumber, along with more lavender and other goodies that the bees love. They also seem to enjoy our peach tree and star jasmine.

  4. I love native bees! I watch shiny green sweat bees, shy black andrenids, bumble bees, and more all summer. I study entomology in Rhode Island and am participating in a elementary school event tomorrow and we are including lessons on these amazing insects! I grow tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, borage, blueberries, yarrow, and nasties to attract all beneficials.

  5. I’m currently growing kale, beets, lettuce, and radishes but when I put my squash, tomatoes, and cucs in, i’ll really need some bees around!

  7. Currently growing tomatoes, squash, peppers, lemon, satsumas, flowers and many many more in my garden! would love to have some native bees.

  8. I’ve been an organic gardener for many years and it never ceases to amaze me how much I have learned from you and I thank you as I really admire & appreciate all the time you take to research.
    I am growing & planting sunflowers, nasturtiums, borage lavender,
    butterfly weed & bush, citrus, avocados, cukes, peppers, romano & blue lake beans, basil, oregano, thyme, summer & winter squash,many kinds of flowers interspersed with the veggies, & corn.

  11. I haven’t planted anything yet, but the daffodil patch is in bloom.
    I am waiting for my organic farm market’s annual seedling sale to open in 2 weeks. Then I’ll get my squash (zucchini and yellow Zephyr), heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, cucumbers, kale, and whatever other veggies strike my fancy–and herbs, of course: Basil, Borage (bees love it), Parsley (have sage) Rosemary &Thyme, Stevia, and others.

  12. My flowers
    started with crocus, daffodils, grape hyacinths, tulips ~ so far.
    Coming along are the lilac bushes, rhododendron, azalea bushes, rose
    bushes, black honey locust, stargazer lillies,
    the rose of sharon bushes, ascention lillies (aka naked ladies),
    the apple, pear, peach and aronia trees, the hazelnut trees, grape arbors, iris, and the carpet of orange poppy
    flowers…the rows of peony bushes, black eye susans, coreopsis,
    bleeding hearts, phlox, hydrangea, flowering quince, redbuds, primrose ~ the garden is 60′ x 30′, too many items to list.

    I have always wanted to have bees, once it quit freezes here I’ll have
    flats of annuals to plant and they’re going to be the flowers that don’t
    have the insecticide that kills bees. Hard to find my
    blueberry bushes that were neonicotinoids free.
    Thank you !

  14. This is such a great idea! We have tomatoes, oregano, basil, peppers, sage, parsley, tarragon, rosemary, cilantro, goji berries, grapes, figs, limes, avocado, tomatillos, brussell sprouts, blueberries, pomegranate, and a ton of flowers: butterfly weed and butterfly bushes, lantana, vinca, wisteria, verbenas, hibiscus and beauganvilla.

  15. I would love to have some little bees help me garden! I live in Tucson and have 10 citrus trees, a Japonese plum, desert peach, necterine, fig, olive, 2 guavas, 4 vitexs and 5 moringas. I also have tomatoes, speghetti squash, cucumbers, chives, lemon grass, shallots, rosemary, lavender,pineapple sage, oragano, 3 different basils and many kinds of mint. Flowers include: lantana, bacopa, vinca, petunas, several scented geraniums, verbinas, feverfew, bearded irises, roses, wisteria, gardinias, lilacs, beauganvillas, hibiscus, amarylis, lemon eucalyptus, humming bird vines and cat’s claws……..just to name a few…..Then of course there are all the native desert plants! Thank you for this opportunity.

  16. They are so cool looking thanks so much for sharing this company! I have a small garden that contains tomatos peas cucumbers peppers an herb garden and annual flowers 🙂 Even if you don t pick me I will be ordering this!!!

  19. I would love to win the native bee house! On 5 acres I have many native wildflowers along with several flower gardens containing several varieties of roses, peonies, irises, salvias, crepe myrtles, butterfly and hummingbird bushes, clematis, mountain laurel, wisteria, honeysuckle etc. My vegetable garden is 9000 square ft. with tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, beans, okra, squash, artichokes, cucumbers, strawberries, apricots, blackberries, and a wide variety of herbs. My gardens attract many bees!

  21. Garden Betty and Crown Bee, you guys had me at bee house kit! After reading this insightful article, I am now convinced that this is what I need for my garden. Pick me! Pick me!

  23. We are over the moon excited to start a garden at our new place! Needless to say, the move from apartment living, to home in the country of Indiana makes for a very busy and engerizing Spring. The plan is to grow a full garden of tomatoes, winter squashes, zucchini, peppers, cucumbers and a herb garden closer to the house.
    I have been researching native bees endlessly throughout the winter and loved your post! So much great information.

  24. Awesome! I would like to enter the drawing. This is such an interesting concept. I have some cucumber, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, chinese green beans and onion growing in my small patio right now.

  25. Have always thought about raising bees but worried about the stinging factor and amount of space needed. Love this bee house kit from Crown Bee. They make it look simple and beautiful. We currently have 5 chickens, lemon trees, artichoke, rosemary, swisschard and a a The Three Sisters garden (instructions courtesy of Garden Betty :-)), roses, succulents, and many more that would benefit from the bees.

  27. I don’t even know where to begin to tell you what I have growing in the garden (or will have once we get past the last frost date here in Zone 5): Tomatoes, peppers, melon, cucumbers, beans, peas, squash, herbs, etc., etc. I also intermix plenty of annual flowers like sunflowers, zinnias, nastursiums, petunias, and marigolds to attract bees, butterflies, and birds. I also have a pear tree and a couple of wild plum and mulberry trees. Oh, and I almost forgot the blueberries that we just planted this spring! Whew.

  29. I’ve been growing calendula which has attracted every kind of bee imaginable! It’s been wonderful! I’d love to provide them a real home in my yard though. I’m also growing tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, rosemary, tarragon, mint, hyssop, lemon balm, thyme, epazote, and native flowers such as poppies, firewheels, sunflowers, and bachelor’s buttons.

  30. We are growing peaches, lemons, and apples. Veggies include various lettuces, peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelons, and cantaloupe. I also have sunflowers, herbs, roses, and nasturtiums in the garden.

  32. Growing fruit and veg in our yard this year with plenty of annuals to keep them happy when the food isn’t flowering. The bees are currently in love with our maple trees, you stand under the canopy and hear a wonderful harmony of buzzing around the flower blossoms

  33. I have planted a lot of native (and non native) herbs and flowers, like bee balm, echinacea, daisies, phlox, chamomile, yarrow, etc. I also have a wildflower patch of about 100 square feet that the bees love. Right now the bees are into the lilac bush, forsythia, and dandelions which are the first things to bloom here.

  35. I am hoping to get some mason bees houses up this year and would love to add these bees to our farm as well! In addition to apple and pear trees, we have a large herb garden and an edible flower garden with nasturtium, bee balm, echinacea, violets and marigolds. We also have a wisteria at the foot of our driveway that is always buzzing with our neighbor’s honey bees.

  36. I live in Florida and hard to find bees. I try to plant flowers that attract bees. With out bees I have to hand pollinate some of my vegetables. The native bee house would certainly help. I love the bees and all they contribute. I grow tomatoes, chard, lettuce, herbs, eggplant, all kinds of peppers. I also have citrus trees and pomegranate,

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