UrbanBEE

UrbanBEE is an international study of wild bees in cities. Two hundred volunteers in Vienna will host bee hotels and send weekly photos of the occupation, helping the project unravel the dynamics of wild bees in urban ecosystems.

UrbanBEE is an international research project that aims to find out more about wild bees and the use of bee hotels in urban areas, including Vienna. On the one hand, bee hotels directly help solitary wild bees, which can use them as nesting aids. During spring and summer, they can lay their brood in the holes of the bee hotel. On the other hand, these bee hotels are also great for science: they are easy to install, can be distributed throughout Vienna, and help gain knowledge about urban biodiversity and the important role of wild bees in our ecosystems. For example, UrbanBEE wants to investigate which types of wild bees use the bee hotels, how the city affects their health, and to what extent the environment surrounding the bee hotel plays a role. And since the project brings together so many different stakeholders, it also strengthens the connection between people and nature!

The project is looking for 200 volunteers in Vienna who would like to participate in UrbanBEE. No prior knowledge of bees is necessary! All you need is the willingness to place a free bee hotel in your garden, on your balcony or in another outdoor area and to take a photo of the bee hotel approximately once a week during the spring and summer of 2026, which will be used for data collection. To register for the project, please go to the registration form below. Registration is open until February 2026 at the latest. After registering, participants will be kept up to date by email and social media until the bee hotels are distributed free of charge to participants in Vienna in February/March 2026. Each hotel is approximately 20 cm high and equipped with a small hook, allowing it to be easily attached to a tree, balcony railing or even a window sill. Detailed instructions on how to collect data and support are provided at every step! However, participation is only possible with some knowledge of German, as both the registration form and the forms for uploading data are only available in German.

You might be familiar with the typical honeybee that lives in a hive and makes honey; however, honeybees are only a small proportion of bee diversity globally. Most bee species (over 90%) are actually solitary bees. Unlike honeybees, solitary bees don't live in colonies or produce honey. Instead, individual females build their own nests, often in small cavities like hollow stems or holes in wood. These remarkable insects are incredibly efficient pollinators, and their diversity makes them important for pollinating various flowers and crops. They are also gentle creatures that rarely sting, making them safe neighbours in urban environments. However, urban areas are rapidly expanding, reshaping landscapes and threatening biodiversity. Pollinators such as wild bees are declining at an alarming rate. Yet, within cities, small-scale interventions can have a big impact.

UrbanBEE is a citizen science movement that blends real world biodiversity action with cutting-edge research. The installation of thousands of bee hotels in Africa and Europe achieves the following: 

• Safe nesting sites to support urban pollinator populations.
• Urban residents are encouraged to actively engage in biodiversity conservation.
• International data is generated to make cities greener and more biodiverse.

Vienna's collaboration partners are spread across the globe – the project will launch simultaneously in Budapest and Turin, while in Johannesburg and Cape Town the hotels have already been installed, and the first bees are moving in. Updates from South Africa can also be viewed on the homepage and on social media to get a more detailed picture!