We are acutely aware of minimising our impact on the environment in bringing our B & B’s to the bees.
Our bamboo is harvested by us and by hand (yep – really hard work!) from a few different locations where this invasive species is taking over. In harvesting we are shocked by how few species we have encountered living in it – 1 grasshopper, 1 spider, 1 old birds nest and 1 paper wasp nest – WOW! Not much compared to what our Aussie bush can offer in the same footprint. We then cut up the bamboo into perfect sizes and dry it in the sun and air ready for use.
Our boxes are made from Australian sustainably grown pine. Like the bamboo, it is untreated so as not to harm our guests. We buy merch grade (non structural) which has lovely knots and quirks, and also keeps the costs down. We would love to use recycled timber for our boxes but it is too tricky for two reasons – Firstly we don’t know what chemicals it may have encountered in its previous life and secondly we would need to constantly change our design to accommodate the various timber sizes we collected. However, for those making boxes at home we encourage using recycled whenever you can!
We also cut and drill all the timber pieces ourselves. This really is a labour of love, so the price we sell our kits for is low for the effort we go to! Lastly we throw in some eco friendly clear finish for our participants to use to protect and weather proof the hotels.
We hope you love the B & B’s but more importantly we hope your bee friends love it to!
