T2B82

I cannot believe I didn't think of this before.

So I searched for mason bee houses about a week ago, and they were all either wood or milk cartons. Since I don't have a drill, or wood, I made a (forced) decision to do milk cartons. There were these really pretty commercial mason bee houses that I found, and I thought I could try to DIY one of those but again, no wood. :'( So I went searching again today, and I found this GORGEOUS bee house that I could actually do.

I was rolling tubes the other day in Applied Skills, from just regular lined paper, but then I realized that that wouldn't work. Commerical nesting tubes are made from cardboard, and the wood ones are made from, well, wood. I did a little research and apparently wax paper is the best. I think (think?) I have wax paper at home, even though I don't bake. ***

Mason bees like rolls of different sizes, although some sources told me that a pencil was the perfect size. I think I'll roll some pencil tubes and some other tubes, but the pencil tubes were giving me grief the other day in class. Maybe I'll coat them with wax paper, so the wax tubes don't stick to it ;). Okay, sorry, lame joke.

ANYWAYS. Moving on. The website that shows you how to do the mason bee house in the photo says you should put them in bathroom tissue tubes, but I'm not really sure why. I think I'll modify it a little--they only use one can, but my cans are small so I'll use 3 and stick them together. I also will add a roof, so the poor bees don't get wet. (Just like, I dunno, use cardboard/wood and cover them with something waterproof.) Maybe I'll coat them with wax paper. XP. I'll stop with the wax paper now.

*rubs hands in anticipation* So excited to make this! :D

***OBTW I just found out that wax paper is actually made differently than parchment paper. Wax paper is coated with wax (no duh) while parchment paper is coated with silicon. Apparently wax paper can't be used for baking, because it'll melt, whereas parchment paper works like non-stick spray for baking pans. So when I said I have wax paper even though I don't bake, I lied. I just have wax paper. It has nothing to do with baking. Although I suppose I could have parchment paper... I never really paid attention to the difference.