View Single Post
  #4   Report Post  
Old 06-08-2019, 01:49 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
Bob Williams[_4_] Bob Williams[_4_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Aug 2019
Posts: 3
Default Bee hotels, best time for cleaning?

On Sat, 03 Aug 2019 23:42:08 +0100, alan_m wrote:

On 03/08/2019 11:30, Bob Williams wrote:
I have a small bee hotel which has been used for the last couple of
years by a number of solitary bees.

What is the best time to clean it? In other words, when is the interval
between hatching and the next deposit of eggs?


There is no dormant time. Mason bees will hatch and start using any
vacated tubes immediately for the next generation which will take the
year to pupate/hatch.

Mason bees lay more than one egg in each tube. They lay an egg and
supply a source of food (pollen) and then block off the chamber with mud
or chewed leaf. They then repeat the process until they get to the end
of the tube. The eggs at the end will be males which emerge first and
usually hang around until the females emerge.

Any tubes in your bee hotel may be occupied by more than one species of
solitary bee. They will have different active periods with perhaps one
species being active for perhaps 4 weeks in early spring and another
with active period in June/July.


Last year, about 20% of the tubes were used. This year it's more like
80%, which is great.

I'm guessing from what you say above, there is no good time to clean the
old debris, parasites etc. Or are the pupae tolerant of a little
disturbance in the winter?