Mason Bees – Update May 2023

It was very worrying here this year, no bees were coming out of there cocoons. We did think they were dead, as we has a very cold snap in December 2022. But we waited.

The above photo, is a homemade nesting site, made out of scraps of timber. The holes were 8mm diameter and 15cm deep. The whole assembly of 6 pieces of timber were scrwed together, so they can be taken apart at the end of the year. The cocoons retrieved and stored ready for next year.

Note that there is wire mesh infront to stop woodpeckers, jackdaws etc etc from taking a nice tasty morsel.

Here we have a lot of 8mm diameter drinking straws, all bound up with 50mm wide packing tape. The opposite end was covered with tape to make a ‘dark ended’ tube.

See how many bee backsides you can see.