Oxford Plan Bee is an initiative to provide a window into the world of our city’s solitary bees.
Since 2018, the Oxford Plan Bee project has successfully established a network of bee hotels throughout Oxford and Wytham Woods, providing vital habitats for our city's solitary bees. After seven years of service, some of our bee boxes are showing their age and are in need of a refresh.
In 2025, we are launching a project to update these boxes and to recruit volunteers to help us monitor and care for our city's bee hotels.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1Vpix-Jpz9ihUPN77aof12n_87zRuHAiL&hl=en&ehbc=2E312F
Why solitary bees?
When we think of bees, we often picture honeybees living in large colonies. However, the UK is home to around 250 species of bee, the majority of which are solitary.
These bee hotels will improve the value of the University and city infrastructure as habitat for cavity-nesting solitary bees. Cavity-nesting solitary bees do not live in big colonies, are excellent pollinators, and are harmless to humans, so they’re ideal for a space that is shared with people, such as gardens, courtyards or any public area that includes flowering plants.
The nest-boxes also offer a research opportunity. Not only is it possible to observe occupancy and species diversity year to year in the different habitats, it’s possible to collect bees and nest material from the hotels to analyse forage plant species (through pollen analysis) and to study the population genetics of the bees.
Help give our bee boxes a new life
We are now working to update the boxes and make sure that those in the city have a champion to look after and monitor them.
Is there an Oxford Plan Bee box in your department or college that needs a refresh? Do you want to help? Please contact us on sustainability@admin.ox.ac.uk
Find out how you can help solitary bees!
For more information on solitary bees, please visit our page on bee ecology. To learn more about how you can help in your own garden, please see our guides to creating bee-friendly habitats.
Find a bee box near you on the map below.
The project aims to provide long-term monitoring of the Oxford's solitary bees, by establishing a network of bee hotels across the university.
It is a collaboration between the University of Oxford's Department of Biology, the University of Oxford’s research woodland Wytham Woods, and the University of Oxford’s Environmental Sustainability team.
For more information contact, or if you want to report a damaged Bee Hotel, please contact the Environmental Sustainability team.
Visit Oxford Green Estate to learn more on biodiversity at Oxford University.
