Red mason bees

[Garlic_Guy]

I'm having difficulty attracting Osmia Rufa to my nests. I've had it up since November last year and not had even a sniff

You might find that the first year is a bit quiet - I thnk I only had 2 or 3 by the end of the first summer. After that though, things did pick up.

[ken]

Hopefully an expert will give you a proper answer. As the person who started this string off, I would just advise patience. I thought nothing was happening with the nest we put up but eventually one female got to work. I think she's been slowed down by the unusually cold, wet weather we've been having here in Kent: so far she's completed two tubes and is close to completing a third. I don't know how many tubes she'll complete, but hopefully the new brood will hatch out next spring and we'll have a lot more.

[flook1e]

Thanks for the replies It looked quite promising yesterday - as I was on planting in the garden, I noticed a small solitary bee on one of the apple trees. So there must be some Osmia rufa out there somewhere.

Sorry about the quality, I took the pictures on my 1.3 Megapixel mobile phone hehe.




This is my setup. As you can see, I have 2 nests which are all free. My camera is facing north so therefore the nesters are facing south (Theres just no sun today!!).

Is there any chance of seeing other peoples setups and where they're placed in the garden? Also when is the latest in a season that an Osmia rufa has found the nesters?