One of our half term activities in 2014 was to build Coombe Farm’s first insect house. It’s awesome, it’s eco, it’s natural, and we just love it. It had been in our minds to make an mini-beast mansion for ages and after a bit of research we decided it was the perfect half term project for the Coombe Farm team.
We had all the bits lying about ready:
- pallets
- straw
- hay
- dead leaves
- old slate tiles
- slightly wet aging wood
- bark
- logs
- sticks
- broken pots
- old bricks
- bamboo
The insects now have a fantastic new home, we have a cool new feature in the vegetable garden, the farm is tidier, everyone’s a winner…and it was really fun to make, William (who was aged 2), Ella, 4, cousin Kyla, 13, Farmer Jez, myself and Sally all got really involved. It looks great, we tried to design it to be good for as many mini-beasts as we could. From hedgehogs at the bottom, the castle is 5 stories high. It includes a special part for bees, and has buddleia plants on top for the butterflies. We hope lots of creepies are crawling in and making themselves at home. Everyone is welcome at Coombe Farm, not only can you come and see all our farm animals, bug guests can also check-in to Coombe Farm’s Creepy Crawly Castle.