| Taking the sting out of bee keeping |
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The Red Mason Bee Osmia rufa I have stumbled over a good book written in 2000 by Christopher O'Toole called 'the Red Mason Bee:taking the sting out of bee keeping' The problems facing the honey bee are wide ranging and the focus on bee keeping at home is fraught with danger, a lot of hard work and so I wanted to find a suitable alternative to keeping honey bees. After reading up on the Red Mason Bee I have decided to encourage these bees to my garden. A red mason bee project for Alresford is currently being planned to encourage people to provide nests for these animals so that we can improve pollination of garden plants and vegetables.... Here is a picture of a red mason bee (below) followed by a you tube video
These solitary bees have been shown to be better pollinators of fruit trees than the honey bee. As I have planted fruit bushes and trees in my garden I want to encourage these bees. I have ordered the nesting boxes which used to be supplied by the Oxford Bee Company.
Nursery Road Bee Blog - 18th May 2010 Red mason bees spotted in the garden in Nursery Road this Tuesday (18th May) buzzing round the bundle of bamboo canes hanging from the shed roof. A female bee investigated the holes within the old bamboo canes which were cut to size and tied together in a firm bundle. The nest tubes were not being visited. I changed the bamboo bundle for one of the nest tubes and secured it in place with wire - SUCCESS! the female mason bee returned and investigated the cardboard tubes. I am currently away from home at the moment so I am looking forward to seeing whether any bees have use the nesting kits.... 23rd May 2010 - Excellent news! the first nest tube has had its first completed red mason bee nest. I was a little disgruntled at the lack of bees over the last few days and especially when a bee decided to use a small hole in the brick work of the house. The book does state that East and South facing areas were best so the bee seemed to have missed that advice as the wall faces west - it does look like that a previous hole was used last year but this has failed to emerge. It has been really nice to see that both nesting tubes have been investigated by mason bees and possibly a leaf cutter bee in the heat of the day (up to 24C and currently 17C @22.25) this afternoon and this was despite my two boys and their cousins playing in the garden. The mason bee has sealed off the entrance to one of the tubes. It seems that she takes off in a southern direction towards Sun Hill School - it takes a few minutes for her to return with a small pellet of mud (as big as her head). Fingers are crossed for more nests being completed over the next few weeks. 25th May 2010 - second nest tube occupied The second nest tube has also a resident red mason bee which has decided on using the smaller 6mm tubes. It is a squeeze for this particular bee you can see the pollen on the underside of the bee's body and she has to shuffle round and go into the tube backwards with barely room around her.
Mining is occurring in the garden A small hole within the garden border was revealed to be another bee nest. This was where my youngest boy Charlie was digging around in the soil of the border underneath the main bush providing nectar and pollen to a host of bumble bees, mining bees and honey bees. I will have to be patient to get a photo of the miner as it goes in or out of the tunnel 6th June 2010 - three nest have been completed After working away from home for a week it was great to see that a further two nests were completed while I was away. The bee is still sheltering in the cardboard tubes at night which hopefully means that she will continue to make nests during the next few days. The second bunch of tubes has only one completed nest tube - so in total there are four completed nest tubes which means that next year I may have up to 32 emerging bees to carry on pollinating next spring. The next stage is to leave the nests as they are over the summer and eventually in Late September they can be taken into a fridge to be overwintered. There appears to be no nests which have been sealed with leaf matter so all of the tubes can be refrigerated.
Links Information on solitary bees http://www.insectpix.net/Homes_for_bees.htm http://www.plantpress.com/wildlife/o443-redmasonbee.php FAQ's http://www.buckingham-nurseries.co.uk/acatalog/Mason_Bee_FAQ.html Nestboxes http://www.buckingham-nurseries.co.uk/acatalog/Index_Pollination_Bees_27.html
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