Bee Brick by Green&Blue

Green&Blue is a Cornish company on a mission to reconnect people with nature and to ensure that when the built environment is designed it is done so with wildlife at its heart. The Green&Blue product range is designed to invite nature into our worlds, quite literally via integrated nesting sites which can be used in place of standard bricks and blocks within construction or landscape design. The range includes nesting sites for swifts, the award-winning Bee Brick which is a nesting site for solitary bees, and roosting sites for bats.  Bee Brick solitary bee houses are made from concrete, using up to 75% recycled material from the Cornish China clay industry, in order to reduce their impact on the environment. The Bee Brick provides a stylish nesting site for Red Mason and Leafcutter bees, amongst others, and makes a design statement in any bee-friendly garden, allotment, or building, where it can be either built into a wall or building or simply stood alone. The Bee Brick is solid at the back and has molded cavities where the bees can lay their eggs, sealing the entrance with mud or chewed up vegetation. Offspring emerge in the Spring and begin the process of nesting again, repeating the cycle. Pollinators account for 1/3 of the food we eat and are a vital part of our environment, yet such solitary bees are facing a dramatic decline in numbers due to disease, an increase in chemical use, and habitat loss. Bee houses can be a simple way to do something to help our declining bee population, while solitary bees themselves are harmless and will not sting anyone unless they are handled roughly.