Final run from Alan's workshop · Low Stock
Alan's Hand-Built Blossom Warden Bee Hotel
Alan's Hand-Built Blossom Warden Bee Hotel
Dispatched within 2–3 working days
30-day satisfaction guarantee
Free tracked delivery across the UK
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Alan's Hand-Built Blossom Warden Bee Hotel
Hand-Built in a Converted Brick Stable in Worcestershire — Solid Cedar, Hand-Folded Copper Ridge
Alan Tysoe, 74, joiner, Pershore, Vale of Evesham. Forty-three years refining one thing: a nesting home Britain’s wild bees will actually move into. His right hand won’t do the fine work any more. This is the final run.
“Nobody poisoned those bees. I pointed the wall. A hundred and fifty years they’d lived in that mortar, and I filled every hole in a fortnight. I’ve spent every year since giving them their homes back.”
— Alan Tysoe, Pershore, Worcestershire
What Arrives
Six Things That Decide Whether the Brood Gets Out
“I’ve recorded solitary bees in the West Midlands for over twenty years, and the failed hotels I find all fail the same way: split bamboo in random sizes, tunnels barely ten centimetres deep, rough bores, treated softwood and an open back. A red mason bee wants a smooth tunnel of around eight millimetres and fifteen centimetres deep, in untreated timber, closed at the rear and kept dry. That is the whole specification. It isn’t complicated. It’s just rarely done.”
— Dr. Helen Ashby, volunteer solitary bee recorder
Suits
Why It Lasts
- Untreated solid cedar, 19 mm. Not plywood, not a laminate, not tanalised pine. The timber boatbuilders have trusted for centuries.
- Hand-folded copper at the ridge. The seam where rain gets in first is flashed in metal that won’t rust or crack.
- Hand-dressed tunnels. Every bore passes the straw test before it leaves the bench. A rough tunnel is a tunnel no bee uses twice.
- Sealed rear panel. Parasitic wasps can’t reach the brood from behind, which is where occupied hotels usually fail.
- Occupied since 2003. One of Alan’s hotels has been full every spring on the same packing-shed wall near Pershore for twenty-three years.
30-Day Satisfaction Guarantee
Put it up and see who moves in. If it isn’t right for any reason, send it back within 30 days for a full refund — no conditions, no questions, no fuss. Just email info@backroad-goods.com.
Details
| Material | Solid untreated Western red cedar, 19 mm on every face |
| Roof | Two solid cedar boards with hand-folded copper ridge flashing |
| Dimensions | Approx. 20 × 18 × 20 cm |
| Openings | 2.5 mm to 9.5 mm, graded; tunnels approx. 15 cm deep |
| Tunnel finish | Hand-dressed, straw-tested, no standing fibres |
| Rear panel | Sealed solid cedar, parasite-proof |
| Mounting | Flush-set heavy-gauge steel hook plus two feet — hang, fix flat or stand |
| Suits | Red mason bees, leafcutter bees, wool carder bee, yellow-faced and scissor bees |
| Siting | South or south-east, approx. 1.5 m up, morning sun |
| Care | Leave outside year-round. Don’t bring into a shed or greenhouse over winter. |
| Made in | Pershore, Worcestershire — by hand since 1983 |
| Availability | Final run from Alan’s workshop. No restock, no successor. |
The Final Run
The Final Run
A note from the workshop:
Alan Tysoe has been building homes for Britain's wild bees in a converted brick stable in Pershore, Worcestershire, since 1983. It started with a guilty conscience: repointing a 150-year-old garden wall on Bridge Street, he filled every mortar joint the red mason bees had lived in for generations — and watched them hover, locked out, in front of the fresh cement. That weekend he drilled his first block. By Wednesday four holes were capped with mud.
Forty-three years later, every Blossom Warden is still cut, notched and hand-dressed by Alan, and every tunnel passes his straw test before it leaves the bench: if a paper drinking straw snags, the board goes back.
Five years ago two fingers on his right hand began to curl in toward the palm. He can still saw and plane, but he can no longer guide the fine rasp that finishes each tunnel. There is no successor. These are the last hotels from his bench — priced to end up on garden walls, not on shelves.
Delivery & Dimensions
Delivery & Dimensions
Free tracked delivery across the UK
- Dispatched within 2–3 working days
- Approx. 20 × 18 × 20 cm, 19 mm solid untreated cedar on every face
- Cedar pitched roof with hand-folded copper ridge flashing
- Openings graded 2.5–9.5 mm, tunnels approx. 15 cm deep, sealed rear panel
- Flush-set steel hook plus two feet — hang, fix flat or stand
- Best sited south or south-east facing, about 1.5 m up. Leave outside all winter.
Frequently Asked Questions
Got a question? Here’s how to reach us.
Got a question? Here’s how to reach us.
Email us any time at info@backroad-goods.com. We answer Monday to Friday 9am–5pm and Saturday mornings 10am–1pm (UK time). Every order is packed by Alan's granddaughter Megan, so if you need something changed before it goes out, just say.
Can I return it if it’s not for me?
Can I return it if it’s not for me?
Of course. 30-day satisfaction guarantee. Put it up, see who moves in, and if it isn't right for you, email info@backroad-goods.com within 30 days for a full refund. No conditions, no questions, no restocking fee.
How is it made — and why does that matter here?
How is it made — and why does that matter here?
Alan cuts, notches and hand-dresses every hotel himself in a 36-square-metre converted stable in Pershore, Worcestershire. Solid untreated Western red cedar, 19 mm on every face, a cedar roof with a hand-folded copper ridge, openings graded from 2.5 to 9.5 mm and tunnels around 15 cm deep, sealed at the back. Every tunnel passes the straw test: if a paper drinking straw snags, the board goes back on the bench. That is what decides whether a red mason bee moves in — and whether her brood makes it out.