WATCH: This simple craft can help save bees

• A one-litre milk carton is all you need to help build a mason bee home
• Mason bees are like super bees, pollinating upwards of 2,000 flowers a day

A simple craft is all it takes to do your part in helping mason bees this year.

At the Laurel Packinghouse in downtown Kelowna, children gather to play games, learn about the importance of bees, as well as create their very own mason bee home.

“We love mason bees, and we want to encourage mason bees to live in our gardens,” Head of Programming for Kelowna Museums, Jen Garner, told Kelowna10.

The museum is teaching people how they can craft a mason bee home, and it all starts with a one litre milk carton.

“At the program, we have people bring these one litre milk jugs, and these are the perfect size and shape to make a mason bee home to then put in your garden,” Garner said.

She noted the importance of not only honey bees, but wild bees as well.

“A honey bee will pollinate something around 100 flowers a day, which is great, we love honey bees. But mason bees will pollinate more like 2,000 flowers a day,” Garner said.

There are a variety of activities taking place at the bee event - everything from learning about pollination, to the different foods that bees play a role in creating.

“All of our activities are based around learning and fun. We have things like sampling some dried Okanagan fruit, and then learning about how the wild bees here pollinate in our orchards,” Garner said.

There are also puzzles that people can solve, which helps give insight into the bee diversity in the area.

“By doing the puzzles, people learn about some of the different kinds of wild bees we have here. A huge amount of stuff to keep people and kids busy and active while they’re learning,” Garner said.

Her favourite part about the program is educating people on facts about bees.

“People know very little about wild bees, and a couple of these amazing facts and you just watch their heads explode because it’s so neat, and interesting and exciting to learn about,” she said.

Garner is encouraging people to visit the Laurel Packinghouse, and create a mason bee home for their garden.

“We would love to see you come down. Bring your milk jug if you have them, and together we’ll make homes for mason bees.”

The next Make a Mason Bee Home event is happening on April 2 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.