Mason bee habitats

[rosmarinusofficialis]

Inspired by you I have bought a starter bee home from Sainsbury's. It consists of lengths of bamboo tubes inside a piece of larger bamboo (abt. 10-12 cm dia.) It can be hung up and I hung it in the tree where I filmed the mating osmia rufa.

[rosmarinusofficialis]

Oh, and I like the video.

[solitarybee]

Superb news!

I have read somewhere in my travels that these little friends of the planet - if given enough accommodation - can expand their population by a factor of six. I think this means on average two/three extra females and three/four extra males. So hopefully you giving them more of a chance will start to pay off next season. Good luck with the new housing.

[rosmarinusofficialis]

Thanks.

[bmoisset]

Excellent video! Glad I saw it. Very interesting bee houses and very busy ones. Great!

[solitarybee]

Thank you. If you go to the video "Solitary bees - 3 minutes of peace & tranquillity" you'll see that I have been testing out different habitats this year to see how rapidly I can expand the population. The paper tubes are easy to make in large numbers, and the drill block in the foreground was taken to within 90 minutes of being made, so they are very responsive to the right new accommodation being offered.

[fotohogger]

This is really cool. I have a block but no bees are in it yet.

[solitarybee]

At this time of year (June/july) - after the blossoms on fruit trees have gone - there may be some leaf-cutters bees around and some solitary wasps, but few in any mason bees. It may be a time to think about putting out some other nature-encouraging shelter such as a butterfly shelter (they exist apparently). Anyway if you have doubts that bees are around send me a message and we can discuss your options.