Solitary bee houses are buzzing!

[dogsbody]

Mine don't:

a. not seen a wp for years
b. 3 cats
c. the tubes are too long for even WP beaks

The important thing is to hibernate them properly in the winter, I forgot last year and -18C killed them all.

Now up to 15 tubes filled up.

[mrbadexample]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]24752[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]24753[/ATTACH]

:d

[FB.]

This is a brilliant idea, but do they ever get emptied by woodpeckers?

An old post, but only just noticed.....

Apparently, the first egg laid in each tube (i.e. the deepest compartment in the hole) is female. Most of the remainder are male.
This is an anti-woodpecker strategy because the male egg chambers get eaten or damaged first and the females last.
One male will happily mate with several females and each female is capable of producing several nest chambers in each of several holes during her short lifespan.

[Bren In Pots]

Here's a photo of my solitary bee house it had only been up a couple of days before the first cane was filled
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...&thumb=1&stc=1

[mrbadexample]

My new bee house:



Two drilled blocks of wood, some dry, hollow plant stems and a couple of bits of bamboo. I'll fill in the gaps as and when suitable material becomes available.

Just got to hope it gets used now.

[dogsbody]

Looks good, I'm sure they will be put to good use.

One thing I don't think we have mentioned yet is there are Red bees and Blue bees, one fills the tubes up early in the year the other later in the year so empty tubes are important towards year end too.