Back from two weeks holidays and the first thing I saw as the car turned towards the house was the bees flying around my bee hotels.
It was so good to see them chasing each other and flying from beehouse to beehouse.
These are the male Osmia cornuta with longer antenna than the female and cute white tufts on their heads. I don’t know when they hatched out but last year there was a two week gap before the females hatched. Perhaps this wait weeds out the weak and the impatient. The males seem to spend most of their time chasing each other or looking longingly inside the holes which must contain females.
When there is no sun and it gets cooler they retreat into a spare hole to wait.
They gave me such a welcome back home!
a french garden 