| Christine | Farmer |

Just a little update to show you what’s happening with the leaf-cutter bees at the moment.

I think the bees are a little later than usual this year, but they have finally been hatching out over the past week. On the left is a bee coming out of its tube, while on the right is a newly-hatched bee resting before it flies away. Now if you are wondering why the tube is sitting there on a plant pot rather than in the usual bee house here’s the reason. There were not as many tubes in total sealed last year as usual (only about ten), and almost half of those had not hatched at all by this week, which seems to me to be very late. So I decided to take a look to see what was happening inside the tubes.

I took a sharp stanley knife and gently scraped away the first few discs of leaves and discovered that one of the tubes had in fact become infected with mites, which you can see in the below left picture. All the bees in that tube had died or never made it to adulthood. I removed these cells by cutting into the cardboard tube. A second tube had a dead bee in its early stages of life in the first cell. I removed this cell and then, in quick succession, the other bees came out. I managed to photograph and video some of this. I think they must have been queueing up to escape and were wondering what was happening ahead in the tube, as usually the bees will spend several minutes resting and cleaning themselves before they come out, but these seemed more than ready to fly away. I have often wondered what happens if the first few bees in the nest die, because it seems to me that the ones back in the tube would never get out.

Another thing I’ve done this year is to remove the paper lining from inside the cardboard tubes, which the bees really don’t like (above centre). Pictures in earlier posts show you the bees clearing these out themselves. I don’t know whether the paper smells oddly or what it is they don’t like about it. I also found that the manufacturers had used glue to attach the paper to the plastic end plugs which seal up the rear of the tubes. So they’ve gone too, and I think the bees will seal the far end of the tubes themselves. So above right you can see what the bee houses look like today.

A result of my fiddling with some of the empty nests allows me to show you some shots of how the cells are put together by the bees. Especially interesting to me was the way they cut two different shapes out of the leaves in order to make their cells: circular pieces to seal the ends of the cell (they use several of these, possibly as many as ten to make a little plug, below right), and a more elongated shape, which they use to form the sides of the cells:

So today I think will see the hatching of the final leaf-cutters for this year, and there is a male already buzzing around the houses waiting to mate, so hopefully I’ll get some nesting this year. Finally, here’s the video. It takes the bee a little while to come out, mainly because I’m thumping around on the decking and it can hear me… and then he comes in close to take a look at me and then flies away: 

More posts about the leaf-cutter bees, including information about their life-history, how to attract them to your garden.

And another great solitary bee blog with masses of information, pictures and videos.

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A little bee activity today for the first time in a while – they haven’t been enjoying the wet weather.

Here we see a leaf-cutter bee backing out of the tube she’s been working on (two pictures on the left), turning round (center right), and backing back into the tube (far right) in order to lay an egg. Click on the thumbnails for larger images.

The other things you can see: tubes with a small black mark above them are tubes which she has already laid eggs into and sealed, this year. Sealed tubes with no black mark are ones which were laid into last year and did not hatch. Tubes with a hole in the leaves are where bees hatched earlier in the summer.

Click here to find more posts on the leaf-cutter bees.

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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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An update on what the leaf-cutter bees are doing at the moment. Some bees are still hatching. The clicking sound of the bees nibbling away at the dried leaf cells is very audible if you’re sitting anywhere near the tubes, so it’s easy to know when they are working their way out! Here is a previous post showing leaf-cutter bees hatching, and here you can see that they are now hatching from the wooden bee house:

I feel I must say that although this bee house above looks beautiful, as you can see the bees have not favoured it, and prefer the cylinder-type houses. The reason for this seems to be that many of the holes are simply the wrong size or shape. One bee last year attempted to nest in one of the lower holes, and gave up the attempt (see above, right). The two circular holes either side of the ones which have been nested in cannot be used at all, because there are small nails blocking the tubes. So if you are purchasing bee homes, please look out for all these things before making a selection.

Meanwhile, bees that have been about for a week or so are looking for suitable nest sites. So if you have put up some bee houses (which you can order from e.g. here or here) recently, or have nests from last year, this is the kind of thing to look out for. On the left, the bee is exploring the new tubes, centre picture she seems to have chosen to re-use one of the old tubes, and emerges with white paper, which is thrown below as debris (far right):

Finally for now, one of the bees resting after emerging, and enjoying some of the garden flowers (see more plants to attract bees here):

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

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Why attract leaf-cutter bees?

Quite a few people on Twitter have been asking me about my solitary bees since I started posting photographs of them hatching, so I thought I’d write a post to answer some of the most common questions. Leaf-cutter bees are incredible creatures to encourage into your garden or allotment – great to observe and look after, and they are wonderful pollinators. This kind of bee is a ‘solitary bee‘ which does not form a hive or make honey, but works alone, although they will nest side-by-side and not fight or compete. They are in fact perfect bees for the garden, and safe around children as they do not store honey and so have nothing to ‘defend’ from attack. They are quite happy to let you go right up to the nest to see what they’re doing, as you can see from these shots of a bee hatching in my garden this week (click for a closer view):

What do the bees do in the tubes..?

The tubes are just the right size to allow the bees to easily construct their nest cells, which they make from circles of leaves. The bees fly out into your garden, cut perfect circles from your rose bush leaves (see also photo below, third from left), and fly back to the nest. You can follow them around your garden as they do this! Once back at the nest, the bee will curl up the circle of leaf, and take it into the tube with her. A bee will need many leaf circles to make each cell, since she lines the sides of the tube as well as sealing both ends of each cell with many layers of leaves. Before she seals each cell, she lays one egg, and puts food of pollen ‘bee bread’ to enable the hatched larvae to eat and grow during the time the cell is sealed. All of these activities can be observed by watching the tubes during the summer. Also fun to watch are the females bees clearing out old tubes at the beginning of the season; kicking out old leaf-debris in previously-used tubes, or removing the paper inserts from newer tubes (see photo below, second from left). These bees prefer to re-use an old tube rather than re-line a completely new one with leaves, and will ignore new tubes if there are any empty, weather-beaten tubes to re-colonise!

The life-cycle of leaf-cutter bees, in brief: The young bees emerge from their nests in June, and mate. After this the males die, and the females begin the work of nesting and laying eggs. Once sealed into the cells the eggs hatch, and the larvae feed on the ‘bee bread’, grow, pupate and develop into the bees which then hatch almost a year after they were laid as eggs. These newly-hatched bees mate, lay their eggs, and die before the summer is over, never seeing their off-spring.

How can I start encouraging solitary bees into my garden?

Where to buy the nests: The Oxford Bee Company who originally sold the cylinders and tubes is no longer trading, but cylinders and tubes can be purchased from various places online, for example WigglyWigglers and CJ Wildbird Foods. Or search online for ‘Oxford Bee Company’ for other suppliers. You can also make nests yourself out of old garden canes and similar stems, or by drilling holes in a block of wood, and these are successful. But I have found that the bees can be a little fussy about the diameter of hole they prefer, and many of the tubes may go unused if they are too big or too small – however these may be used by other bees or insects. I have had mason bees (which make their cells out of mud) nesting alongside the leaf-cutters in my nests.

Siting: The first year I tried the cylinders I attached them to a sunny wooden fence, but while there was some interest from bees that summer, none of them nested. I have since found that the bees do not particularly like the tubes when they are new, and prefer them to be somewhat weathered. However, I have also heard that the vibrations caused by the fence moving in the wind may also have discouraged them from settling. So I have followed advice to place the cylinders in a stable and sunny spot, a few feet from the ground, and preferably somewhere the tubes won’t get wet.

Plants to grow: There is a very useful site here which lists the kinds of plants that bees love. Obviously, leaf-cutters also like roses from which to harvest nest material, but they will use other similar plants and of course fly around the neighbourhood in order to locate suitable leaves! And equally obviously don’t use chemical sprays in the garden, as these are poisonous to bees; consider gardening Organically with wildlife controls, barriers, etc., it really is the only way if you want to encourage any kind of wildlife.

Over winter: Once the summer is over and the tubes are all sealed, you will need to put the cylinders somewhere dry and cool for the bees to over-winter. A garden shed seems ideal, but don’t forget to take them out again next Spring! Once Spring comes, re-position your cylinders where they were the previous year, and wait for the new bees to hatch. My leaf-cutters begin to hatch in the first weeks of June, towards Midsummer.

Lastly: Don’t be discouraged if no bees nest in the first year. It may well take a little while for them to find the nests and settle in. Also, you will find that if you stop spraying chemicals in your garden, and plant more of the bee-friendly plants, you will see a definite increase in bees and other interesting wildlife in your garden anyway!

Some links:

Learn more about helping bees by following the tweets of @JordansBigBuzz and @HelpSaveBees who post lots of bee news and information every day.

Follow me on Twitter.

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

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

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