A day in the life of the bee hotel

May 9, 2013 by afrenchgarden 30 Comments

We hung one of the new bee hotels within easy site of the patio so that we could watch the bees come and go: imagining relaxing as we sipped our coffee. For the naturally curious it doesn’t quite work out like that.

Take a warm sunny day in May, the temperature has reached 30 degrees C, then everything shoots into action with the bees. The Osmia cornuta had blocked up eight bamboo rods and I was getting ready to do a blog on how things had gone.

A bee arrives

Then a bee arrives but it is not Osmia cornuta and it has attached something to the bamboo.

The baddies arrive

Leaving her nest exposed, what looked like a cuckoo bee arrived and some little flies were also hanging around, one is just above the head of the black and yellow guy.

Drosophilidae type fly

I always think of little fruit flies as harmless but a fly – Cacoxenus indagator – is a parasite of the mason bees. There is a very interesting New Scientist article on Cacoxenus indagator and they look suspiciously like these flies.

Mason bee returns

The mason bee seems oblivious to the danger and continues on her masonry business.

Two unconcerned bees

I found the behaviour of the bees peculiar as I had read that they often chased off cuckoo bees that approached their nest sites. It is now six minutes since the little packet has been hanging on the end of the bamboo cane.

Yellow ventral bristles

Osmia rufa have yellow ventral bristles called scopae so this could be an indication of the species of these bees but the photographs are not too clear.

Better yellow shot

This shows the yellow ventral brushes better but was taken later than the following pictures.

Packet embedded in hole

The packet has now been stuck into the centre of the bamboo, eleven minutes after being brought back.

Almost finished

It took another five minutes of work until she was finally satisfied with the finished job and that meant borrowing some mortar from the neighbouring hole. Excuse me, madam, but that hole has been in place since the 15 April and you were not around at this time. This leads me to the accusation that you are purloining the mortar of an Osmia cornuta. I’m not sure whether the plea that you are tired and need a break is a good enough excuse.

Taking refreshment

It is not far for them to go to the Star of Bethlehem flowers (Ornithogalum umbellatum) to recharge their energy levels with some nectar.

Back to the baddy

One thing is sure cuckoo bees don’t build nests and it is just what this one appeared to be doing. I think I can see a clutch of eggs in the hole.

Partly sealed hole

This is no Nomada bee but a potter wasp, probably Ancistrocerus sp. and perhaps Ancistrocerus auctus.

In this case it would be no particular threat to the mason bees as there was plenty of room for everyone so that would explain their lack of concern for the black and yellow visitor.

There were more surprises on the way for up until now no-one had shown any interest in the holes in wood on the lower log. Then along came one of my favourite bees.

Anthophora plumipes female

She had caused me a lot of problems to identify as she is a light form not like her ginger sisters in the UK. They also nest in the house wall at the back and nectar on the Cerinthe in the front garden but more about them later.

Needless to say I was happy to see them trying out the bee house for size.

Clean out

I’m not sure what she is doing here. Perhaps removing some of the sawdust but when they nest in the walls they tend to kick out the dust with their feet.

Anyway it was a very exciting day. The photographs were much poorer than I had hoped for but the nest is too high for me to hold the camera and avoid trampling on the border underneath. We erected it for the bees not thinking sufficiently about photographing them.

I checked on the state of play later in the evening at eight p.m. and was surprised to see the wasp still there.

Settled for the evening

There are now twelve bamboo canes blocked up but the cane the potter wasp blocked up, is identical to my eye to the ones the bees have closed up. This is the first visit from the wasp that I have noticed so I presume this is her first nest in the hotel, but perhaps not the last. The wasps are carnivorous and supply their nests with grubs and caterpillars.

So it looks like I may have a pest disposal and pollinating service working side by side!

Author: afrenchgarden

Born in Scotland I have lived in England, Iran, USA and Greece. The house and land was bought twelve years ago in fulfilment of the dream of living in France that my Francophile husband nurtured. We had spent frequent holidays in France touring the more northerly parts and enjoying the food, scenery, architecture and of course gardens. However, we felt that to retire in France and enjoy a more clement climate than we currently had in Aberdeen we would need to find somewhere south of the river Loire but not too south to make returning to visit the UK onerous. The year 2000 saw us buying our house and setting it up to receive us and the family on holidays. The garden was more a field and we were helped by my son to remove the fencing that had separated the previous owners’ goats, sheep and chickens. We did inherit some lovely old trees and decided to plant more fruit trees that would survive and mature with the minimum of care until we took up permanent residence. The move took place in 2006 and the love hate relation with the “garden” started. There was so much to do in the house that there was little energy left for the hard tasks in the garden. It was very much a slow process and a steep learning curve. Expenditures have been kept to a minimum. The majority of the plants have been cuttings and I try to gather seeds wherever I can. The fruit trees have all been bought but we have tender hearts and cannot resist the little unloved shrub at a discount price and take it as a matter of honour to nurse it back to health. This year I have launched my Blog hoping to reach out to other gardeners in other countries. My aim is to make a garden for people to enjoy, providing shady and sunny spots with plants that enjoy living in this area with its limestone based subsoil and low rainfall in a warm summer. Exchanging ideas and exploring mutual problems will enrich my experience trying to form my French garden.