With the real estate market down it’s not a bad time to pick up a condo, but if your budget is down like the dollar, you may want to look for something a little smaller, say a condo for bees. Sure it won’t have the features that you’d look for in a new home, like stainless steel kitchen appliances and insulated windows, but it will support the survival of the dwindling bee population and even the agriculture of the United States.

Bees have been a buzzword in the world of environmental causes lately (even Haagen-Dazs has a bee campaign) and that’s because their populations are shrinking so suddenly and in such shocking numbers (bumblebees are lingering near the endangered list) . Scientists haven’t been able to determine the cause yet, but it’s thought to be a number of factors, with global warming and pesticide use as two main concerns. The weather variations caused by global warming can prevent flowers from blooming and, in turn, bees from surviving. Rampant pesticide use, on the other hand, results in pesticides accumulating in the layers of the honeycomb and has been linked to reduced longevity for bees.

With honeybees pollinating one-third of the foods we eat and bumblebees pollinating about 15% of our food crops, the diminished numbers of buzzing bees could be as bad of news for us as it is for the bees themselves.

Setting up this bee condo (pictured above) from Gaiam in a tree near your home will help ensure that pollination still happens on your property because it functions as a perfect home for orchard mason bees, a species of bee that is used by farmers for their pollination of early spring fruit flowers. Since the mason bees doesn’t produce honey (they live in mud nests inside wood spaces like the bee condo) they won’t be defending their hive and won’t sting unless stepped on or squeezed—making them a much better bee for your yard if you have small children or allergies.

The idea of encouraging pollinating bee populations is great, but the bee condo itself is also a good green idea. It’s handmade from reclaimed fir posts by workers who are paid fair living wages, ensuring that your new real estate investment is as eco-friendly as possible.

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