@LeadFarmer Sites say that female solitary bees lay 20-30 eggs. I have around 12 cells per channel in the Pilkington box - so it seems like each female might desire to occupy two or three channels each or the equivalent. Perhaps.
Thanks Fire, whilst my posh nest boxes have remained untouched, more and more cardboard tubes are filling up in my cheap drainpipe nest box, with leaf cutters being very active.
So after reading that most bee houses are deathtraps for bees, I've been looking for ones that aren't. Has anyone heard of mason bees? https://www.masonbees.co.uk/
Are their houses any good? They seem cleaner, which I did always wonder about with bee houses. Has anyone used them?
This spider hunting wasp was filling up a nest cavity with spiders today. This was the best photo I could get in this blazing sun. It's quite a large spider it's carrying too.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Thanks Fire, whilst my posh nest boxes have remained untouched, more and more cardboard tubes are filling up in my cheap drainpipe nest box, with leaf cutters being very active.
It's so interesting that they are not interested in the Pilkington box. You can buy mason pheromone, if that's any help...
Thanks Fire, whilst my posh nest boxes have remained untouched, more and more cardboard tubes are filling up in my cheap drainpipe nest box, with leaf cutters being very active.
It's so interesting that they are not interested in the Pilkington box. You can buy mason pheromone, if that's any help...
Maybe they will make use of it next year. When would be the right time to remove any cocoons from the cardboard tubes? Im guessing September/October? Then clean them and store somewhere like in the garage?
George P says (at his time of writing) that his boxes are mostly design for mason and leaf cutters bees and that these should be finished at the end of October. They should then be cleaned and the cocoons and box put out again in early April. (He does do quite a lot of continuous development, exploration and tweaking, so his current advice might have changed.)
I think the leafcutters are in full swing now and lots of (anon) microbees.
The bees are still very active in the cheap nest box with cardboard tubes, which is nice to see. Nice to think that doing something so simple at fitting a simple nest box has helped the bees out.
Posts
I get mason bees every year using my false floor
It's so interesting that they are not interested in the Pilkington box. You can buy mason pheromone, if that's any help...
When would be the right time to remove any cocoons from the cardboard tubes? Im guessing September/October? Then clean them and store somewhere like in the garage?