We know that bees are important to natural ecosystems and also to human agriculture and horticulture. They are great pollinators of so plant flowering plant species and are also a source of food and materials we have used for thousands of years, namely honey, honeycomb, and beeswax.
Here’s the sting in the tale, though. Bees are in decline. The problem is partly due to habitat and climate change but also because of our growing reliance on pesticides for food production. Conservation and rewilding efforts are often stymied by building construction. So, what if we could incorporate bee-friendly habitats into those very buildings?
Writing in the International Journal of Sustainable Design, a U.K. research team discusses the design of a bee brick, which can be incorporated into the stonework of a new building, or perhaps even replace some bricks in older buildings. The bee brick is aimed at providing habitat for solitary bees, which are far more common pollinators than the more familiar honeybee.
Kate Christman and Laura Hodsdon of Falmouth University’s Penryn Campus and Rosalind Shaw of the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall, explain that there are some 250 species of bee in the U.K. Nine out of every 10 of these species is a solitary bee species, one that does not congregate and swarm with its own kind to build and maintain a hive. And, of the solitary bees around 1 in 20 makes its nest in a cavity. Creating suitable habitats for these master pollinators should be a priority in construction, especially given that the incorporation of suitable cavities in a number of bricks used in a building could be done relatively easily.
R&I ~ MJM
FoundingFrog
Article URL : https://phys.org/news/2023-01-kind-bees-bee-bricks.html