| Christine | Farmer |

Today I’ll be posting pictures taken of my leaf-cutter bees live at the bee tubes, which are right outside my artist’s studio. Take a look at these earlier posts to find out all about these solitary bees.

1) And here are the first pictures of the day, a leaf-cutter clearing out paper from inside one of the tubes (click on the thumbnails for a closer look):

Above left: here you can see many empty (so far unused) tubes, plus ones with brown leaf debris around the outside where bees hatched last month. There are two tubes which have already been filled with eggs and ‘bee bread’ (rather than honey, which these bees do not make) – these are the tubes with fresh leaves sealing them. Towards the top left of the picture a bee can be seen clearing a new tube of paper (which is put there by the tube manufacturers) ready to begin making her nest of leaves in which she will lay eggs.

Above right: a close-up of this bee clearing the tube.

2) A second bee arrives.

Above left: The first bee is still clearing a tube, when this bee arrives at the nest site. Although leaf-cutters are ‘solitary’ bees, and do not form colonies or hives like other bees, they do not mind nesting in adjoining tubes, and do not seem to fight. They are also very safe bees to have in the garden as you can see – the site of the nest is right outside my studio and next to garden chairs!

Above right: She checks out several tubes, going in and out, and nibbling around the edges, deciding whether to nest.

3) A few pictures from the end of last month, when the bees were sealing the tubes you see closed above:

Above left: Two bees at work at the tubes.

Above, centre: The leaves used to seal the tubes may be cut to shape on-site. Here the bee has gone in search of more leaves, as they build with many layers. You can see the marks where she’s forming the leaf into the correct shape, and at the same time sealing the tube.

Above, right: She returns to finish off the job.

4) Meanwhile, down in the bamboo bee nest…

Above left and centre: bees arrive with circles of leaf to line and seal the cells into which they lay eggs.

Above right: two of the bamboo canes fully sealed. As you can see the bees use rose petals at times as well as leaves.

Well the occasional showers have now turned into what looks like more prolonged rain… and I don’t think there will be any further activity from the bees today. Thanks for visiting, and perhaps try encouraging these fascinating creatures to your garden.

Some links:

Buy the cylinders yourself and encourage solitary bees to your garden, they’re available from WigglyWigglers, CJ Wildbird Foods, and other places online (search ‘Oxford Bee Company’).

Also, check out these articles on solitary bees, the best plants to grow for bees, and the Co-Op site on saving bees.

Learn more about helping bees by following the tweets of @JordansBigBuzz and @HelpSaveBees who post lots of bee news and information every day. And follow @Tweehive. Find out about the #tweehive here: Tweehive.com

Follow me on Twitter.

Follow this link to see all posts on leaf-cutter bees.

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