This is when I was cleaning out my bee house, so a few bees but also some nasties, like that orange stuff! Also I think the bottom right had some kind of maggot in. I think the idea is that if you don't clean out the house, the parasites will munch their way through to the cocoons and kill the bees. They literally fly in when the female mason bee is off getting mud or whatever. These are some of the cocoons I cleaned up and put in my shed for Winter:
This is when I was cleaning out my bee house, so a few bees but also some nasties, like that orange stuff! Also I think the bottom right had some kind of maggot in. I think the idea is that if you don't clean out the house, the parasites will munch their way through to the cocoons and kill the bees. They literally fly in when the female mason bee is off getting mud or whatever. These are some of the cocoons I cleaned up and put in my shed for Winter:
Thats fantastic. Which bee houses do you use please? My project this year is to vastly change my garden to benefit pollinators, and I've made a start purchasing the insect house but I want to do so much more. Thanks.
I've got one from the website the original poster put on here - masonbees.co.uk where you use cardboard tubes which come apart in water and you fish out the bee cocoons afterwards. The one in the picture though is one of these:
So it all comes apart and is easy to get in and clean it. The bees have loved it the last couple of years.
I attach mine to the fence, I think they are south facing but not especially sheltered from the rain really. It doesn't look to me like much rain gets in though. Last year I had an old rubbish bee house that I had dumped under a bench on the floor by my house - I had been too lazy to throw it out. Next thing I knew, all these bees were using it! So I don't think they're overly fussy about where it is.
I'm trying to remember now. I know I was watching them when I was furloughed last year, which was April and May, but I just cant think exactly when they started. I don't have the houses up now but will probably put them up at the start of April to be ready.
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These are some of the cocoons I cleaned up and put in my shed for Winter:
My project this year is to vastly change my garden to benefit pollinators, and I've made a start purchasing the insect house but I want to do so much more. Thanks.
So it all comes apart and is easy to get in and clean it. The bees have loved it the last couple of years.
Where do you advise for positioning - sunny area, sheltered from rain?