Solitary bees

[ken]

I've been making space for a small greenhouse, which involved cutting into a slope a little way, exposing a few inches of clay 'cliff'. There have been quite a few bees buzzing around, and appearing to make holes in this clay surface. Any ideas about what variety/varieties of bees these might be? Very pleased to see them.

[Geoff]

I did almost the same thing three years ago

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6755&p=66781&hilit=bees#p66781

If you put "bees collecting clay" into Google you get various discussions about Mason Bees.

[ken]

Ah. Interesting, Geoff. Without watching them too closely, I has assumed they were burrowing tunnels to lay eggs. But finding damp clay to seal their nests elsewhere makes sense. At our last garden we had a nesting box for mason bees which worked very well, once we had found a way of protecting it from woodpeckers...Many thanks!

[Johnboy]

My Mason Bees are under my lounge floor again this year. I had a box for them but were attacked by Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers three years on the go and I then put a wire mesh which was well large enough for them to fly through but they obviously didn't like it. They found a broken floor vent and they stream in and out for a time and then they disappear until the next year.
JB.

[ken]

Following Geoff's advice, I had a little browse on the internet. One thing I picked up was that mason bees need damp clay verging on mud. As the original bank I had been excavating dried out pretty quickly, I put a couple of lumps of clay in a large plant pot saucer and gave them a good soak. The bees seemed very happy with that.

[Primrose]

Speaking about woodpeckers I've just noticed that the lesser spotted woodpecker is again making regular visits to the fat cages in our garden so possibly she has a youngster nearby. I didn't realise they ate bees. Does this mean she might start trying to devour the bumble bees which have colonised in a blue tit nesting box nearby?