(bright music) - [Narrator] When you think of a bee, you probably think of a honey bee.

They live in really big groups and they make the honey that we love to eat.

There are so many types of bees and a honey bee is only one.

Did you know that there are over 700 species of bee in Wyoming and 20,000 worldwide?

And all of those bees need food, water, and a place to raise their offspring.

Could you help give native bees the things that they need for life?

(upbeat music) Building for bees on this episode of Nature WY.

- [Child] Nature WY is brought to you in part by the Rocky Mountain Power Foundation.

- [Narrator] Living creatures of all kinds, just like you, live in places that have what they need to survive, and those needs are different from creature to creature.

Fact, a habitat is a place where an organism lives and it has all the things that an organism needs for life.

(bright music) - How can we help build habitat for our native bees?

So what are they going to need to help them survive and complete their life cycle?

Water.

Water is gonna provide a super important habitat, not only for these beautiful fish we're watching, but for any of our insects.

They're all gonna need a water source.

- [Narrator] On a hot day, bees may need to sip some water.

Where is another place you might find bees?

Flowers.

Adult bees sip sugary nectar from flowers to give them quick energy for all that flying around.

But nectar isn't enough for a life of a bee.

If you ate sugary candy and nothing but candy, soon you wouldn't feel so good.

Bees are the same, they need more than just nectar, they need protein-rich pollen.

Bees eat a little pollen for themselves, but they gather a lot more than that.

Can you see the brightly colored pollen this bee has packed on her back legs?

So what are they doing with all that pollen?

- So for native bees, pollen is the baby food that they're leaving so their young can grow and develop.

We are going to go through a native bee life cycle.

So all insects go through four major stages in their life cycle.

Our first stage for a native bee is a egg, drop on down.

Okay, and then we hatch and we're surrounded by pollen that our mom left for us, so go ahead and nibble on the pollen.

- [Children] Yum, yum, yum, yum.

- Okay, we're gonna grow a little bit more and we're gonna take a nap, we are a pupa.

We're growing and developing, we're getting our wings and everything, but we're hanging out and chilling.

And then show me your best adult bee.

(children buzzing) We're gonna go out and we're gonna collect pollen and nectar.

- [Narrator] Native bees of Wyoming are not like honey bees.

They often live alone as single mothers, building nests to raise their young all on their own.

What do you think their nests look like?

It may not be what you imagine.

Have you ever found one of their nests?

- I think right here.

- You have to become a bee detective and look in places that you wouldn't think a bee would nest.

In the ground, in hollow stems of plants, in holes left by beetles in old tree branches.

- Where are native bees going to be laying their eggs?

Coraline?

- In a hole.

- In holes in the ground, native bees love holes in trees or stumps or holes in the ground.

My challenge for you as we hike to our next spot is to look for possible homes.

Where would a bee be laying its eggs?

(gentle upbeat music) - So, like, that's a perfect place for a bee nest.

(children chattering) - [Child] Oh, here's a little burrow.

- [Sarah] Do you see one?

Do you see any small openings?

- Over here.

- Right here.

There's a hotel here.

- There's a hotel?

- [Child] Hotel.

- [Sarah] Is that because we see so many openings?

- [Narrator] The kids said they found a bee hotel in nature.

What do you think a bee hotel looks like?

Hotels can keep you warm, have places to sleep, a restaurant where you can find food and water.

But real bee hotels are a place for female bees to lay their eggs.

Want to make one?

- So we're gonna be taking these recycled containers and building bee hotels out of them.

- [Narrator] When you choose your container, make sure it's one that keeps your bee hotel dark and dry inside.

- Now if we're thinking about our native bees, are they going to all need the same size burrow?

- No.

- No, and so we might wanna create some different sizes.

- [Teacher] What we have are small paper tubes for small bodied native bees, like a fairy bee or a sweat bee, and really large tubes for really large bees, I don't know if we have a bee that big.

We'll find out.

- [Sarah] If this looks like a safe spot for them and it's well protected, they're gonna fly in and they're gonna start laying their eggs and dropping pollen here in the very back, so they would put a stash of pollen back here and lay an egg and then they're gonna seal off a chamber and then they're gonna build another one.

And often, our native bees in one tube are actually gonna lay like 10 to 14 different eggs in a chamber, if it's long enough - [Narrator] To make different sizes of tubes, use different sizes of pens or markers.

Roll a piece of paper around a pencil, hold the roll in place with tape, and cover one end with a bit of modeling clay or fold it over and tape it in place.

(bright music) - [Teacher] When you're done with your bee house, you're gonna mount it like this, right, 'cause the bees need to fly in there and make their nest.

It doesn't wanna stand upright, it wants to be on its side.

- [Narrator] Be patient, it may take time for the bees to find your hotel and lay eggs.

If they do, leave your bee hotel up until spring when the new bees will emerge hungry for a sip of nectar.

There are so many ways you can help native bees.

Just a tiny bit of space will do.

You can build a sipping station with pebbles for bee landing pads so bees can get a drink on a hot day.

You can plant some native wildflower seeds in a pot or build a whole garden of flowers for bees so bees have nectar and pollen to eat.

You can even do a little less in your yard and leave some messy corners so bees have shelter.

and a chance for more nesting sites.

Leave piles of leaves and sticks or create your own stick shelters.

- So we might not have piles quite this big around your yard but would we be able to build some smaller piles even out here maybe as we hike?

- [Child] Oh, this is a good hiking stick.

- [Sarah] And Taylor, if it's too big, we can always leave it too, you got it?

Nice, okay.

- [Narrator] Make some rock piles or rock walls with clever spaces for shelter and nesting places or even just a patch of bare ground.

With some creativity, you can make messy parts look beautiful and give bees what they need.

Start wildscaping with Science Kids and us at Wyoming PBS, build your own bee hotel and do your part to help the Native Bees of Wyoming.

Thanks for watching.

(bright music continues) - [Child] Nature WY is brought to you in part by the Rocky Mountain Power Foundation.

The philanthropic arm of Rocky Mountain Power supporting the growth and vitality of our community.

- [Children] Thank you, Rocky Mountain Power Foundation.

- [Announcer] And by a generous grant and supportive community outreach, aligned with the Nature documentary, "My Garden of a Thousand Bees".