Mason Bee House Part 2

I'm really excited about the Mason bees.  I  know that they do not produce honey but they help with pollination and are fairly maintenance free.  Maintenance free is something I really like.

You can read about the Mason Bee House Part 1 HERE.

The first thing that I did when I arrived home with my newly assembled Mason bee house was I disassembled it.  Yup I took it back apart so I could glue it together.  I used wood glue and then reassembled it.  Then I used a damp cloth to wipe down all the areas where glue squished out.  I then let both the glue and wood dry completely

Next I applied two coats of exterior primer and one coat of the same exterior paint that I use on my house.  The paint is Behr exterior in a satin finish in the color Anonymous.  I want the Mason bee house to blend in and not stand out.  

I couldn't find a photo of the painted bee house but did find this weird crooked photo of my purple/blue fingernails and old ripped sweatshirt.  How lovely.

Today we put out our kinetic spinners.  We have three but my fave is the large tulip spinner I bought last year while shopping with my sister.  We love it but it has a design flaw.  The shaft is too light weight for such a heavy top AND then add the spinning and it goes all wonky and bends.  The photo below is an 'after photo'.  See how straight it is now.

The shaft is made of two pieces and is thin walled tubing.  As the kinectic spinner spins it would bend where the two pieces connect.  We decided today that we needed to add a one piece tube over the two piece shaft to add stability to the kinetic spinner.  

R found a piece of old copper pipe that he salvaged from a past demo.  The ID (inside diameter) was the same size as the OD (outside diameter) of the spinner and added rigidity to the original shaft of the spinner. We just removed the tulip part and slid the copper pipe over the two pieces of thin walled tube. Then placed the tulip part back on the original shaft.  I will spray paint the copper pipe with black paint so you will not be able to detect that it is even there. 

Best part is that this was a $0.00 cost fix.  Downside was the piece came from the scrap pile and I had to hear "this is why I do not throw anything out" ALL DAY LONG.  Yes R we know you NEVER throw out anything....LOL

The kinetic spinner came from a company called Evergreen Enterprises.  I painted mine black to match the other iron/metal objects in and around my house.  Here is the post I wrote about the kinetic spinner and the flag bracket from the same company.

Next up.....Part 3.....hanging the Mason bee house.

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