After last year's bee massacre, I am delighted to be able to report that the bees are back in force!!! You can see the anti-woodpecker guard in front of the other bee houses (OH rigged it up from our old budgie cage ) Hopefully this will keep the birds away. This one house isn't behind the mesh, which makes it more at risk, but on the other hand it is easier to photograph the bees this way. Spring is officially here!!! ;D
Re: The bees are back!!!! Oh wow Karen....they aren't soft,realising you've fortified their defenses!be careful photographing them x
Re: The bees are back!!!! Oh these aren't stinging bees Angela, they are little wild bees. I don't think they actually can sting - at any rate, neither of us have ever been stung by them.
Re: The bees are back!!!! Which was is it orientated? We moved last year and in the new place I couldn't remember which way it's supposed to face. Needless to say it's got no residents. Not does my bird box with wifi video camera my wife bought me for Christmas
Re: The bees are back!!!! Ideally a bee house should be on a south-facing wall or tree trunk, at around five feet high. It needs to get quite a bit of sun. Don't worry if you don't get anything at first, just leave it there and it may take a couple of years for the bees to find it. I started off with one bee house; now I have nine, and hundreds of bees each year. They are lovely - and very important for pollination.
Re: The bees are back!!!! I planted a lavender hedge in front of a south facing old dry stone wall in my veg garden....it was bee city last year...every type of bee imaginable. I felt like putting up a sign though - pumpkin pollination this way...
Re: The bees are back!!!! Oh love the bees Karen I bought Thomas a Bee box for his birthday as he loves that sort of thing, so we're really hoping to have some visitors soon xx
Re: The bees are back!!!! What kind of bees are they Karen? We still haven't put up a bee house in this garden and we've been here 3 years now :-[ We have had some massive bumble bees around this last couple of weeks. If Mira hears them without seeing them she jumps and her ears go back. If she sees them she wants to chase :
Re: The bees are back!!!! So lucky to have bees, and ones that are unlikely to sting. I could do with some of them around my apple trees which are in bloom.
Re: The bees are back!!!! That's why it's such a good idea to put up the bee house; it attracts the solitary bees which are more important as pollinators now than ever, since the honey bees are having such a tough time.
Re: The bees are back!!!! [quote author=Karen link=topic=10258.msg157178#msg157178 date=1429270964] They are solitary mason bees, Omnius Rufus [/quote] Thanks. Thought they were mason bees - didn't know their Latin name though
