Leafcutter bees like our viewing home too!
My fascination with bees continues year after year. There is always something different going on inside the nesting tunnels. Every nesting tunnel tells its story and it is always a bit different to what is inside another nesting tunnel. Note our viewing home has five larger nesting tunnels designed for the larger mason bees. Then below, there are two nesting tunnels a bit smaller and the lowest nesting tunnels are even smaller. The variation in tunnel size is to accommodate the different sizes of bees happily living in our gardens. The leafcutter bee that decided to make its home inside the medium size tunnels in our viewing home found a good fit to its nesting requirements. I wonder if the tiny summer bees will find it too? Looking at the photos of the filled tunnel, you can see the cells separated by a line of leaf packed as a plug rather then a leaf surrounding the developing cell. The lower tunnel was filled first. The upper tunnel is filled with one or two cells and was then plugged. These tunnels will be harvested in October and stored over the winter in readiness for next spring.
