Bee traps are a pretty common porch accessory in the early spring months. Carpenter bees can cause damage to wood fascia, porch railings and other structural home exterior.
During the summer of 2020 (remember that?...), I was sitting on our front porch with my wife, Jacki, and our 2 daughters. This was before our boys were born. My oldest, who was 4 years old at the time, swatted her plastic Little Tykes baseball bat at the incoming swarm of carpenter bees and declared, "They should make a trap to catch all these bees!". Jacki chuckled under her breath and said, "They do." I explained to her what they were and that she and I could run into the garage and make one right that moment. I finished off my 20 oz Dr. Pepper and we got started on our father-daughter project.
My little girl was very excited to hang her masterpiece. Of course, I handled the cutting and drilling and delegated the eye hook and bottle placement to her. Don't worry, we will make your bee traps with standard glass mason jars, not plastic soda bottles, unless that's what you want! Needless to say, this was a fun experience for us. I love getting to share what I do with my kids and that they love working with me, just like I did when I was younger watching my own dad in his workshop.
After this project was completed, my girl asked if we could make more bee traps. She had begun asking for a "big girl bike". Jacki and I decided to run with the interest and launched our girl in her first summer job. (I'll note here that we are a passionate homeschooling family so this is a thing for us.) We explained earning by working, giving and saving. Our girl made flyers with Jacki, helped fashion each trap in the shop with me, tied each bee trap with a bow and Whiting Woodwork business card, improved on her handwriting, reading and spelling skills in her thank you notes, diligence and customer service in product delivery, gave a portion to Chosen for Life Ministries, tucked some savings away and bought her first big girl bike which she is still so proud of. She ended up selling 86 bee traps. We anticipated a handful of supportive family purchases but what came was a flood of family and community involvement encouragement!
This remains a favorite experience for me with my oldest daughter. I am so proud of her and it's projects like this that fuel my desire to continue the pursuit of God-led, family-centered entrepreneurship. So when you buy our bee traps, you can know you are not only rescuing your home exterior but you are feeding into the growing and learning experiences of my children in spectacular ways and the whole Whiting household is eternally grateful.
Final note: Don't forget to fill any holes made by the bees when you purchase a bee trap. I recommend using either a cork or wooden dowel and then using a wood filler or caulking before staining or repainting to match your current exterior finish.