The Royal Botanic Gardens of Sydney

Homes for plants and pollinators

Living things provide us with food, shelter and medicine. Without pollinators, we would have no food!

A colourfully painted bee hive in a garden with dead leaves

What did you have for breakfast?

Think about what you had for breakfast this morning. Did you have cereal? Or toast? We get both of these from plants.

Did you have honey on your toast? That honey was made by both plants and bees.

Perhaps you had juice? This is from the fruit of pollinated plants.

We can help animals and plants to grow food for us by making homes for them, for example, beehives for bees to make honey or a greenhouse to protect our vegetables from being eaten or damaged.

 

See how to make your own habitat for pollinators in your school

Sweeten your day with honey from the Botanic Gardens

We even make our own honey here at the Botanic Gardens of Sydney.

Learn more about bees on BranchOut!

You can also learn more about the bees we keep on our BranchOut podcast!

  • beehive
    A peek inside a stingless bee hive Image credit: Kate Blount
  • An example of a bee hotel Image credit: Naomi Huynh
    An example of a bee hotel Image credit: Naomi Huynh
  • Pollen cells: when bees collect pollen from flowers, they put it in these cells and mix it with a little bit of nectar. This makes ‘bee bread’, which feeds bees in their larval life cycle stage. Image credit: Richard Dimon
    Pollen cells: when bees collect pollen from flowers, they put it in these cells and mix it with a little bit of nectar. This makes ‘bee bread’, which feeds bees in their larval life cycle stage. Image credit: Richard Dimon
  • beehive close up
    The bees in this hive have started adding pollen and nectar into the beehive cells. The nectar collected and put in these cells turns into honey! Image credit: Richard Dimon

Activities: Homes for plants and pollinators

1. Greenhouse construction

  • Greenhouses assist plants to grow quickly and healthily. Try making your own greenhouse for a plant which you could add to your school habitat garden.

 

2. Design your own!

  • Using natural objects from the ground found in your backyard or school garden, design your own greenhouse or beehive!

  • Or maybe you want to design a birdhouse? Think about where you would put it in your garden.

 

3. Getting crafty

  • Re-create what a beehive might look like on the inside. 

  • Make some origami bees to live in the beehive.

 

4. Make your own Bee Hotel

  • Do you have old bricks with holes in them in your backyard? Perhaps you could make your own Bee Hotel?

  • You will need help from a parent or a teacher.