Solitary bees

[kazmcc]

I can barely contain my excitement! Some of you may be aware that I have been looking towards solitary bees and wasps, as well as bumbles this year, being guided by one of the national verifiers of all aculeates for irecord. I have been doing so well, that he has very kindly offered to give me a 2 day crash course in identifying bees using keys and a microscope!! Completely free of charge! He will be bringing along all the necessary equipment, and specimens, and we are going to be paying Manchester museum a visit to look at their specimens. I am so excited!

This will be some time in the autumn, as he is very busy at this time of year. How so very kind of him. Who knows where this path may take me!?

 

[BeeJayBee]

Wow! That's a fantastic opportunity.

 

[Russel]

This may be of interest, Solitary Bee film

 

[kazmcc]

Thank you BJB, I am so excited!

Russel, I love that film. I have already ordered some seeds of lambs ears to attract wool carder bees. I find them fascinating, especially the males and how territorial they are. Some great footage on that clip of them in action. I really hope to attract some to my garden.

I am in the process of making my own bee hotel. They are very popular and lots of them are used by mason and leaf cutter bees, so next year I hope to have some of those too. I have one tawny mining bee that made her nest by the bushes very early in the season, so I am watching for her offspring too. It's all very exciting, and I would never have gone down this path without bee keeping.

Who would have thunk it?!

 

[Russel]

The makers will provide download link if you want to show offline.

Tis surprising where keeping bees takes you and new friends you make

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Kaz, what fantastic news!

You're really very knowledgeable already, from what I hear.
I am very, very pleased for you.
Can't wait to hear more from you.

The only fear I have, is that when you become this super dooper expert, you won't want to know those of us who struggle to understand even one species of bee!

Good on you, Kaz!

Dusty

 

[kazmcc]

The only fear I have, is that when you become this super dooper expert, you won't want to know those of us who struggle to understand even one species of bee!

Dusty

I shall keep a space in my diary, for when I'm not leaping around flower meadows, getting strange looks. Scouts honour!

Thanks

 

[bjosephd]

Kaz...

This sounds marvellous...

Can you point me in the direction of the best tips, instructions, advice etc on making a bee hotel, of sorts... and when will it become too late to get such things ready - when do all these marvellous solitary bees start and finishing building and laying etc

I have a load of logs I could drill out, but there seems to be a big following of cardboard (and replaceable) tubes.

Anywho... your new direction seems to be taking off, which is great... maybe you can come and tell me what bumble bees I have living out of the bottom of my compost heap. (not tree bumbles at least... which seem to be the new most common nest found in the uk... those aggressive little buggers!)

 

[kazmcc]

Hi bjosephd, thank you! Do you have a photo of the bumbles, showing their abdomen and also their hind legs clearly? If they have a white tail and three bands of yellow then a shot of the face would help too

On the subject of bee hotels, there are lots of commercial ones that are very popular, but I have also seen many home made ones that work just as well. Check out this link - http://www.bwars.com/sites/www.bwars.com/files/info_sheets/Bee_Hotels_infosheet.pdf - it will give you all the info you need and some ideas too. Drilling holes into logs is a great idea, but make sure the length is about 150mm long. Solitary bees usually lay female eggs first in the tubes, with males towards the end so they emerge first.

Different species emerge and build their nests a different times of year. Some quite early, but leafcutter bees are still provisioning their nests now, so if you are quick you may get lucky. I am building mine with the view to putting it out for next year as I still need to gather materials and find a suitable site.

Also, watch out for the cleptoparasites of solitary bees, which are just as interesting as the bees themselves.

Good luck with your hotel. Unlike bumble hotels, which are very rarely used, bee hotels are very popular

EDIT: By the way, you are in the right place to look out for snail shell nesting bees such as osmia bicolor. They clear out old snail shells and lay their eggs in those, then cover them with chewed up plants and twigs. We don't get snail shell nesters this far north, which I am very disappointed about. here's a link for O bicolor - http://www.bwars.com/index.php?q=bee/megachilidae/osmia-bicolor - a fascinating little bee

 

[bjosephd]

Cool beans...

It's a real bugger to grab a picture of these bumbles... they don't hang about!

 

[kazmcc]

It's a real bugger to grab a picture of these bumbles... they don't hang about!

Tell me about it! The trick is to have lots of space on your memory card, take lots and lots of pics. I find out of about 30 - 40 pics, I get a couple of reasonable ones that can be used for an ID, but I only have my phone.