Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[stevecook172001]

Can someone confirm the identity of these. They have set up home in the last week in my brickwork. either that or they set up home last summer and I didn't notice and am only noticing now they are active.

[Broadwell]

Hi Steve. I can't confirm it, but Mason bees maybe? Sounds like the sort of thing they get up to.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_bee

[stevecook172001]

[stevecook172001]

mmmm...

Just been reading up some more on mason bees and found this:

[Adam Rose]

You can tweet Bridget Strawbridge ( @B_Strawbridge ) with a picture and she might be able to id it. I had a number of definitely solitary bees in a wall near me and she gave me an id ( they were not Mason bees ). Not sure if she's somewhere on this forum ...

[catchercradle]

Identification down to species level involves microscopy. They look very similar to some bees I saw in an old sandstone quarry in Brittany. While they are solitary bees, each queen with her own nest, there were thousands of them which led to me initially thinking they were apis melifera.

I would guess they are probably one of the Adrena species but to be sure about that would need to look at wings under a microscope with the key beside me.

[stevecook172001]

Thanks CatcherCradle. You may be right. Unless these really are honey bees, I think we have a winner:

http://www.gardensafari.net/english/mining_bees.htm

Either that or, as mentioned before, mason bees.

As long as they're not honey bees, I'm happy to let em carry on.

[semiautonomous]

They are very likely solitary bees, they look just like the red mason bees just starting to hatch out of my solitary bee blocks. The reason you are seeing lots of them is there will be a tube of cocoons in that hole of mostly females. The bees you see buzzing around are most likely males hanging around waiting for the females to come out and mate. The males always hatch a few days earlier than the females so they are ready to jump them when they emerge. There mite also be other females checking out the hole for a potential nesting site if there isn't much choice around.