The bee hotel

There has been a lot of publicity given to the disappearing bee (and other insects) and one thing that has emerged
from it is the 'invention' of artificial nest boxes for the many kinds of solitary bee. These way outnumber the social
bees we have known since childhood - bumblebees and honeybees. They collect pollen and put it into a suitable
cylindrical hole and lay an egg upon it. Then they wall the egg in and repeat the process until the tunnel is full of
egg cells. One empty cell is left at the opening which is walled up to seal the hole. Some bees cut bits of rose leaf to
make the series of barriers (leafcutter bees) and others, shown here, use a wet mix of mud (mason bees). The larvae
feed on the stored pollen all summer, pupate all winter and break their way out the following spring.

This 'hotel' was supplied as a free hanging woven container filled with bamboo tubes. It got soaked in the first rainstorm
and wind buffeting caused the tubes to fall out so I made a canopy for it and fixed it to a South facing wall.



It started to attract customers almost at once, whereas it had been ignored when it was simply hung up, as designed.
All have been mason bees to date - of three distinct sorts and sizes, the smallest using a hole barely 4mm across!



They enter head first with a load of pollen stuck to the hairs on their bellies, deposit it and back out



They then reverse back into the hole to lay an egg and then come back and forth with mud for walling the cell up.



This is a different and bigger kind of mason bee that has been packing its hole with pollen



And is here seen walling the entire tunnel up, having filled it with perhaps six egg cells. She packs mud in
concentric rings to make a closure and then adds more to the outside to finish the job.









If they haven't finished laying or if the weather turns cold they will often sit in the mouth of their chosen
tunnel until the sun warms them sufficiently to continue. This one is yet another species of mason bee
with evidence of pollen in its mandibles - note that they have no long tongue like honey and bumble bees.



There are lots of holes yet to find tenants but this project has given us a lot of enjoyment already to say
nothing of what we have learned simply from watching the bees' comings and goings.

Mostly a K3ii with a Tamron 272E 90mm macro lens.

Superb shots and text, brilliant !!

Fascinating insight into these little creatures. Great image to finish on.

Enjoyed the reading and the shots, well represented

Fascinating... great project...

Best

+1

Good pictures, a good read and a very worthwhile project. Thank you for brightening up my morning!

Steve

Great little piece - interesting and informative

I've had one of these for a couple of years, but never seen an insect of any sort go near it! Perhaps It needs to be in a sunnier spot (it's in a shady tree) :

Inspired story-telling of fascinating natural behaviour.
Technically superb.

Thanks for letting us see, David.

Roger.

Thank you for your very kind comments.
Several more holes have been filled now and we also have had a visit from a so-called cuckoo bee that busily visited most of the holes looking for someone else's work to lay an egg on. I didn't see it reverse in to any of them, there probably being nothing in there. The only working holes at the time were the tiny ones and the visitor was far too big to fit.