Apologies if this appears a few times, (it is not me it is my newsreader
playing silly buggers), but I have sent it twice before and it doesn't
seem to have appeared but posts I have made since have.

I have some bees living in a hole in my garden (not really a hole in the
garden more a crack in a slab through which, I assume, they gain
entrance to the ground). There are not enough of them to be honey bees
but there seems to be more than one "family". How frequently do solitary
bees stay in the one location with other solitary bees i.e. using the
same entrance but different 'cells'. Could this (5 or 6 bees)be bumble
bees (fuzzy bombers) and are they as good for the plants, pollination
etc, as honey bees appear to be from what I have read in this newsgroup?