Despite the various bee boxes we've put up around the garden, there are always some that prefer to nest in the weep holes above the patio doors. When we first moved in, the previous owners had stuffed them with kitchen towel, presumably to stop the bees getting in, but it certainly hadn't stopped them. Now we just let them get on with it. We have installed bee boxes next to the doors, in the hope they will find these preferable, but we will have to wait and see. Over the past few days, a few males have begun to emerge, but no females have made it out as yet.The males emerge before the females and have much longer antennae. When the females have mated, they find a nesting cavity in which she will build a series of cells. In each cell, she lays an egg, leaves a food parcel of pollen and regurgitated nectar, then seals it with mud. She then repeats this until the cavity is full, with females developing at the back and males at the front. Females develop from fertilised eggs, whereas males develop from unfertilised eggs.
The red mason bee is an important pollinator and, if the right sort of bee boxes are purchased and managed, it is possible to greatly increase their numbers locally. There's lots of good advice here: https://nurturing-nature.co.uk/
Once the females emerge and start (hopefully) nesting in the bee boxes, I will write another entry on their progress. Fingers crossed for lots of bees!
References:
Falk, S. (2015) Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/bees-and-wasps/red-mason-bee (accessed 09/04/2020)
https://nurturing-nature.co.uk/solitary-bees-2/red-mason-bee-osmia-rufa-life-cycle-part-1/ (accessed 09/04/2020)
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