Red Mason Bees

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]Hello, Ron Briggs, Black Platville Honey, and welcome back to the channel.

[00:00:04]A little bit different this one. We're not going to be looking at the honeybee.

[00:00:08]This one we're going to be looking at the mason bees.

[00:00:13][snorts] So, welcome back. So, here at Blackm Honey, we like to encourage all our wildlife into the garden. We used to have a bird box up in there, uh, but it it finally fell apart last year. So, we just replace it with a new one. Uh, perfect place for it here. We get blue tits nest in this tree every single year. Once the uh the leaves come, it's nice and well hidden, and it's great to be able to be in the house and just watch them come in and going. But that's not what we're here for today. Today, we're here for the mason bee. Let's have a look. So, I don't just keep honey bees. I also keep solitary bees. Now, when I say I keep solitary bees, I don't really keep them because there isn't much to do. I encourage them uh into our uh into the garden and and into our place. So why do we keep mason bees?

[00:01:04]Mason bees are super pollinators. A mason bee is way better than a honeybee at pollinating. But where the honey bee has the advantage is just its sheer numbers. Solitary bee, as it suggests, there's only one of them, but it does wonders for your garden. And the beauty about the the solitary bee is doesn't take a lot of work. you're talking, well, you'll see how long it takes. It's going to take me probably an hour today.

[00:01:28]Uh, and that's pretty much it. That's all it'll be until uh until next year.

[00:01:32]But first thing I need to do, and I should I could have done this months ago. I could have done this back in September. Um, but I haven't got round to it. And also, it's a place to store it. Um, is to get this off and to get all the cocoons out of this one cuz every single one of this one and every single one of my other one is full.

[00:01:50]So, you might think, well, why are we taking them out? Because surely in nature, all they're going to do is they're going to, you know, get themselves out anyway, which they probably will, but you end up with a lot of blockages. So, more bees will survive with our help. Um, but the main reason for me doing what I'm doing today is both my boxes are full. So, if I want more mason bees this year to to fill up the boxes, then uh then I I need to get them emptied. And that's what I'm going to show you. So, the first thing I've got to do is get this one or both of them off the wall and uh into the workshop. So, let's do it.

[00:02:27]Uh so, the one that I've just taken off the uh off the other wall is a little bit a little bit smaller than this one.

[00:02:34]Um this one's got far more in it, but you can see from the front, can you see how uh every single one of these is all filled up with mud? And actually fact, there's some come out now, but every single one's full up with mud. I'll explain that when I take it apart. Now, I made these ones myself.

[00:02:48]uh because I'll show you the process of it, but you can just buy them straight off the shelf uh and just put them up.

[00:02:52]But I had some uh was this seed or was it large? I think it was large. I had some large left over. So, I knocked up a couple of boxes. But if I turn you around, can you see how high off the ground it is? Yeah, you don't want these things that high off the ground because you want to be able to watch them. I'll explain more about that in a bit. Right, let's get this next one off. Okay. So, next thing we got to do is we just got to remove the tubes or the straws, the old ones from the from the actual bee house, the bee hotel.

[00:03:24]Said this had a bit of uh uh some like mold in there and so the spores and everything else which don't like. So, what I'm going to do with this is I treat this the same as what I do all my hives and we're just going to torch it.

[00:03:36]So, there's nothing in there now. Uh we've we've removed all the tubes. So, we'll take it outside and we'll torch that. That's something we'll do. Let's just talk about the the life cycle of the mason bee so we understand it.

[00:03:48]People think the mason bee destroy brick work. They don't. Mason bee will nest in brick cavities because the hole in them, but they don't actually eat away at the mortar like people think they do. So, what they're doing, they're looking for any sort of like crevices or holes or anything like that in order to make their nest. And we just provide that with a tube or a cane and that makes it easy for them. So in a tube about this size, what'll happen is uh she'll crawl in, she'll probably pack a bit of mud at the end to start with just to block it off. Then she'll lay an egg, then she'll put some pollen, then she'll pack it with some mud. Then she'll lay an egg, then she'll put some pollen, and then she'll pack it with mud. And she'll fill that up completely. And in here, she'll probably get about seven cocoons. The first three will [clears throat] be boys, and the last four will be girls.

[00:04:36]So, the first ones to emerge when they come out are going to be the boys.

[00:04:40]They'll hang around ready to mate with the girls when they emerge. And then then you've got mated uh [clears throat] mated bees that then can then carry on with the life cycle and lay eggs. Every mason bee, every female mason bee is a queen, right? They're not um they're not social or eocial like honeybees are.

[00:05:01]They're uh they're solitary bees, individual. So each one's a queen, but they very very rarely uh sting. I can't find a record of anyone anywhere being stung by a mason bee. So that makes them ideal um for viewing uh and having in your garden, especially if you uh have allergies and you want to keep bees and you keep them low down. They're great for watching. The kids can watch uh can watch the hive and there's going to be no uh danger of them being stung.

[00:05:29]So what happens then is once uh once that's happened so um the mason bee will emerge from from the cocoon um springtime so anytime kind like mid-March April then uh she'll live for about 6 weeks total of which then she'll go about her business of having the next generation. So in here once you've got uh as I said you've got um egg pollen mud egg pollen mud the egg eventually emerges it'll eat the pollen and then it will spin itself into a cocoon and the cocoons then lay dormant all the rest of the year through the winter uh until the spring when it starts again.

[00:06:11]So what we do is and the cocoons they're completely well say completely waterproof if they're not but the bees can quite happily survive in a cocoon in water up to 20 minutes. We then remove the cocoons.

[00:06:24]Now it's best to remove the cocoons because um this one's not too bad. This one is the one that was in the uh in the over and most of this is dry. The one that came out the one outside here was all completely soden and moldy and everything else. And what will happen is if the first uh one of the first couple of bees gets blocked and can't get out then obviously the rest are going to perish. Uh and also the reason for doing it is we want this empty ready for it to load up again this year.

[00:06:57][groaning] See if we just start peeling this the outer layers of the straws open. Can you see how the it starts to emerge?

[00:07:09]So, we just do that.

[00:07:11]And then as we peel it open the straw, you go look. See, there's the mud.

[00:07:18]He's got the mud there. Look.

[00:07:21]And then the obviously the egg would have been eaten.

[00:07:25]Then we got one of They've got a cocoon there. Now, that's quite a big one. So, the difference between the boys and the girls is the size of the cocoon. So, I suspect this was the back and this was the front. When we get to the front here, we get the smaller ones. See? More mud. Then we got some more mud again.

[00:07:39]Look, we got our next one. And you can be, you know, they're quite quite robust these things. More mud there.

[00:07:48][snorts] Now, you might get bugs in here as well because uh you might get the Now, that one look is is a dead one. So, nothing happened with that one. Uh because you might get pollen mites in here because obviously there's pollen gone in. That's another one.

[00:08:05]So there we go. Let we got mud. You see that? We got mud first of all. Then we got a cocoon.

[00:08:14]So there we are. So you get the idea with this. It's just a case of undoing all the straws and getting all the cocoons out. So it's one of those jobs.

[00:08:24]Put the radio on and just get it done.

[00:08:27]All right. [snorts] So that's all the uh cocoons removed from the straws. And this is what we got. Look. So, that's how many we've got out of this smaller hive. And I have to say, the smaller one wasn't anywhere near as productive as the bigger one. Um, in the smaller one, there was loads of tubes that were just empty, blocked at both ends. So, I've got no idea why that's happened. That's quite um quite interesting actually.

[00:08:52]There's mud at one end, mud at the other, and nothing in the middle. There we go. So, but when you consider though that two years ago we started with 25 cocoons and now I estimate we got like five or six hundred. So, it's a great way this to um you know uh pass them on to family and friends. You know, if you can if you got the skills to make uh and I'll show you one that uh that we've made ourselves and different things you can do. But what lovely gifts pass on with some cocoons for your family and what have you to put in uh to put in their gardens, family and friends.

[00:09:25]Right. So, what we need to do now is we need to wash these. But it's in a sie.

[00:09:29]I've got in a sie, but I don't want to pour water straight onto the top of it.

[00:09:33]So, what we're going to do is we're going to pop it in a bucket like this.

[00:09:38]And they will float. You see? And we'll just add some water to them like that.

[00:09:52]You can see how all the cocoons float.

[00:09:54]Then we could do we just stir that gently and then we'll fish them back out again.

[00:09:59]Okay. So, what I'm going to do now this this I use anything towel or a cloth.

[00:10:04]These are um just I've got some puppy training pads left. So, I used half of it. It's dry. The other ones we'll just use this half. So, scoop them back up again.

[00:10:18]And then we'll just lay them out on here to dry.

[00:10:24]Right. So that's all the cocoons out now. And what we do, we just spread them out a little bit. You just got to be a bit gentle with them. And now, as I said before, they are they are robust.

[00:10:34]But we'll just put these out like this.

[00:10:38]Spread these out a bit. So these few here, these few just here uh is 25 25 cocoons. And that's what I started with two years ago. So and this is just off my small um bee house. So as you can see, I think we estimate it's probably about 500. So they've been washed now.

[00:10:58]So all we do is we move them around a bit like that. Just gently spread them out. And we'll leave these now uh for a couple of hours just to dry. And then we'll uh we'll sort them out later. But what I want to point out now is look at the difference in size of these. You've got some really large ones and some really small ones. Well, the small ones are the boys. So, you just need to be really careful when you're taking them out the straws that you don't miss the small ones and think that they are, you know, part of the mud and the dirt and everything else. So, uh yeah, keep an eye out for the small ones cuz some of them really are quite small. Right. So, I said we'll leave that a couple of hours and then we'll come back and we'll uh get them put away.

[00:11:36]Right. So, these little cocoons have had a couple of hours to dry now. So, all we're going to do now is we're going to transfer them into some microwave containers. Uh, and the microwave containers, all they've got is got some kitchen roll in the bottom, which we've made a little bit damp. And the lids, uh, we've drilled some holes in.

[00:11:58]Yep. And then what we're going to do with this is once we've done that, we're just going to pop it in the fridge.

[00:12:04]Right. So, let's go about just about half and half.

[00:12:12][snorts] So, there we are. We split those up roughly half and half.

[00:12:24]And we just pop the lids on, pop them in the fridge. So, I've already got two in here. Look, he's got slightly more in.

[00:12:33]probably already got two in in the fridge. And that's from that larger one.

[00:12:39]So, we'll just put these two in as well.

[00:12:47]Beer and bee cocoons.

[00:12:53]And then what we'll do, we'll leave those in there now um until we we we want them to to hatch. So, it's got to have been a couple of weeks above 13 degrees. That's kind of the general rule. So, what we shall probably do, unless we get a horrendous March, uh mid-March, um so second weekend in March, we will put one lot out. And what I will do is I'll um divide that uh equally between those two uh B houses. And then what we'll do, we'll put another one out a week later. uh again in those same bee houses and then I've got some uh some other different ideas and different ways that we can do things. So, and I'll show you those and we'll put those out. So, the idea is we will extend the season by four weeks cuz we'll put the four boxes out uh one every once a week. So, if you think that they live four to six weeks, that now gives us a mason bee period in our garden of about 10 weeks. So, see you in the middle of March. So, welcome back. just getting this uh last box sorted out. So, these were the ones that I made myself because the original box that I bought with all the tubes in it eventually uh deteriorated and you got to replace the tubes every year. So, I made these. It's a bit of larch um left over. So, so I knocked these up, but you don't have to do that. Uh let me show you. So, we'll just sort these ones out to start with. So, we've filled all with new straws. Now, the straws need to be 8 to 10 mil.

[00:14:29]Uh, and I've got both. So, the one on the uh, so this one is your 10 mil and this one's 8 mil. And I don't think it matters. And in fact, sometimes you even get some of them the straws that go inside the straws. So, it don't really matter. Um, the last ones I used were 10 mil, but I did use some 8 mil and they were absolutely fine. So the 8 mills uh the 8 mil works, but [snorts] you kind of because they get damp and you got to get the cocoons out and unless you get those straws that slide inside the straws, you you got to tear them apart.

[00:15:04]So you got to get new ones each year anyway. So I can't remember how much the uh the 8 mil ones were because I got them last year from uh from the T-Mobile, I think. Um but if you they're different to ordinary straws. You have to kind of look at bean nesting straws.

[00:15:21]And what I haven't done yet is look to see if I can get ordinary straws that work and which one's cheapest. But they're not that expensive. So I got 400 uh 400 straws uh from Amazon and I think cost me about £13. So you got to bear that into mind.

[00:15:40]Uh but like I said, you don't have to um put them into something specifically made like this. So you're going to need a means to release them. So, if you just want to track them to your garden and you've got none to release, you can just go with a box, any old box, which I'll show you in a moment. But if you've got cocoons and you intend to release them, you'll need some form of way to release them. So, these boxes I made have got these that go on the top, which which cover all the uh which cover all the straws up and then all I simply do is put the cocoons on top of that. And then I um I can put those out uh and up on the wall and the roof then uh will covers it. And you got a little hole there which they can then come out of.

[00:16:27]All right. So that's that that's quite straightforward for the uh releasing of these ones.

[00:16:32]So that's those two ready to go out. Uh when it's stopped raining or it's not so windy, we'll go outside and do that. But I need to do it I need to put these on the wall first. Um, and then put these on just onto the top there before I then fit the roofs onto them. And as I said, that is where uh they come out of.

[00:16:50]That's the release. But others you can make yourself and you can make them really simply. I have seen them done in a Pringles can. And if you think of the size of straws, uh, it's quite easy just to cut a Pringle can down uh, and you've got the right size um, to make a nice little neester, bean neester. But what I found a little bit better, let me show you.

[00:17:14]So, as well as the Pringles tube, uh this bit bit more substantial, bit more you can last. So, have you seen they can be done in you know the you get the 110 mm uh land drain when they put them.

[00:17:26]There's always offcuts in skips builders that have loads. I used to have some here but I've not got any left anymore.

[00:17:32]But what I did have was a piece of this uh it's just venting tube 100 mil venting tube. So, all I need to do is cut it down to um about the size of the straw or actually just a bit bigger than the uh straw by the time we've put a cap in the back. He's done. And all I've simply done there, you need anything um stack up some books, stack up anything which just a bit bigger than that and use it as your um as a marker. In this case, I've got one of these. They're just cupboard lifters. Um and then you just attach your your pen or your pencil. Hold that on there.

[00:18:07]turn your turn your tube and that will give you a straight line all the way around and then with an axle I did them it's really easy just to cut the tubes up then so we've made two of those and so they but they need to be capped at one end so in true blue peter style here's two I prepared earlier so they need to um but they need a cap on the edge so I just got um 100 mil blanket again I got these from Amazon got two of these I think they were about £3 each and they just blank off the back end. I did think, however, though that um they're probably a little bit thin cuz they're thinner than those 110 drainage.

[00:18:46]I don't know what we need for insulation to make some beads. I really don't know, but I just think this a bit too thin.

[00:18:53]So, all I've simply done is um I've cut a round piece of cardboard. I'll just pop that in the bottom there just to give it a bit more insulation. Again, I've just cut up a little bit of cardboard. It's that stuff which is uh ribbed on the inside. Gives it a bit of uh I think the insulation be quite good on that because it's uh it's air and two bits of cardboard. And then that'll just sit around in there like that. And we've cut that to trim. So it sits in kind of like that. So by time we put the blanket plate in, put our bits of cardboard in.

[00:19:28]I think that is quite a good little neester. And then all we got to do is fill it up with the tubes. So, we'll go with the uh 10 mil tubes on this one.

[00:19:51]Get the idea. And now you can see now that we've cut this just a little bit longer because now the front of our tubes are almost flush.

[00:19:59]>> [snorts] >> So, not quite there yet, though, because that's fine uh if you if you just want to attract them into your garden. But I've got some to release, haven't I?

[00:20:09]Because I've got uh last year's cocoons.

[00:20:12]So, we need for this one then to make some kind of release tray. Now, when you buy one off the shelf uh in a bee hotel, it comes with the cocoons in a little release tray, and all they are is cardboard. So, all I've done is I've taken um a matchbox, which was that size, cut it in half, put a little bit of cardboard on the ends just to close it, and then that will slide in. I can put my cocoons in there, and I've got myself a little uh little release tray. And then all I've got to do with that is I've just got to put that in there to start with, put the tubes around it. Um, and then once all the bees have left there, I can remove that and just put more tubes in.

[00:20:57]Let me show you what it looks like.

[00:21:01]There we go. So, that's what that looks like. See there? And then I'll put the cocoons in there. We can release them from there. Then they'll release from there. They'll start to fill up the holes. But once they're all released, I can then remove this uh matchbox and just put some more tubes in. So, let's get some cocoons in this one then. So, hopefully you can see that. So, we just filled that up with some cocoons, and that can go back in there.

[00:21:26]That's ready to go outside. Um, it's up to you where you put it. Put it in a put it in a tree. Um, put it on top of a log pile. Um, put some holes in it maybe and hang it up if you want to. But, yeah, nice cheap little neester, isn't it?

[00:21:39]There's about 50 tubes in there, or there will be when we remove that. So, basically, I bought, what did I buy? I bought 400 tubes uh for about £13. So really the price of this and the price of the caps cuz remember I already had this about seven quid. We've put a nice little neester in the garden and we know this is probably going to work because of the co cocoons we got in there.

[00:22:00]Right, let's just get the other one done. I'm concentrating here on just the red mason bee and the leaf cutter bee which are the 8 to 10 mil holes. Other bees and insects will also use it but these two literally just filled up with a mason bee. So, if you want to attract other bees and other insects and you're making your insect hotel, you can put all different sizes in uh of tubes, you can bigger ones, smaller ones, just leave bits open. Uh you get the sort of thing to make your bee hotel, but as I said, we're concentrating mainly on masons. Now, this is one that I've bought off the shelf this year. So, this cost me £20.99 and [snorts] it was completely full of tubes, uh ready to put up in the garden.

[00:22:43]Now, same reason as I just mentioned, we need a release tray. So, I've just again put another matchbox in there, which I will remove um put the cocoons in. Uh and I will remove and put more straws in when they've been released. So, the reason I've got this is because um I want to next year uh so the end of this season where I've got all the cocoons, so should have an awful lot more hopefully, fingers crossed. um donate a load of cocoons to the association because obviously that's it's not just honey bees that we're interested in.

[00:23:16]It's going to be all bees. So, I'm hoping that we can get some of these, get maybe five of these um we can put them um put them in kind of [snorts] a display form, put all five together um to to have at the association and in that way I can supply all the cocoons that will be needed for the mason bee.

[00:23:36]So, that's what we're doing with that one.

[00:23:38]Right, let's uh let's get some of these put up, shall we?

[00:23:44]Okay, welcome back. It is now uh mid-March and if you remember, we had the cocoons in the fridge and we put them out and we put them into the boxes and we actually put the boxes out on the walls and that was only uh about a week ago. Uh and already we've got action.

[00:23:58]We've seen them coming out which I'll uh which I'll show you in a minute. So, I'll take you around the uh I'll take you around the estate and show you where we put all the boxes. And then hopefully in doing some as well, you'll see some of the new uh new mason bees.

[00:24:14]This is madness. Every time I start filming, the bloody things go away. But there is mason bees here now. There were a couple there just a second ago. Uh and I will get some on film for you.

[00:24:30]We go.

[00:24:31]You see that?

[00:24:34]Just checking it out. So, it's 3:00 in the afternoon. Um, and so there's no the sun, as you can see, just come off it.

[00:24:43]Now, this is a self-facing wall. Uh, and so if you remember, this is one of my built ones. And in the entrance up there is where we've got the release tray with the cocoons in it. So, uh, there was girls going in and out of there earlier quite a lot, but now it's gone into the shade. Seems to have settled down a bit.

[00:25:01]So, we got that one on there. [snorts] We've got this one going on on here. Now, the interesting thing about this one is uh we had a committee meeting last night at the association uh and I showed them this uh and of course it's one of the things we're always thinking about having the solitary bees. Uh and they're up for that. So, I've uh I say I've been given permission. I've done it. I've uh I've purchased five of those because they come like that with the straws from a company called the Green Gardener. Uh, and that's going to be really cool.

[00:25:31]Imagine that as a display when you've got five of those uh spread out. And again, there was that one. There we go.

[00:25:38]You can see that one of the mason bees kind of gone in the top hole. Uh, quite typical. Well, she must have been or he must have been one of those we put in the release trays. They've come back out of there again. But they were messing around with the straws earlier. That's one of the cocoons that's come out of there. So, that's quite interesting.

[00:25:56]What we might do actually, we might uh tomorrow when the weather's good, we might have a little sneak peek in the release tray cuz don't forget it doesn't come with a release tray. It's just full of these straws. But there was some in there going on in there earlier. And we've got this one in the covered area.

[00:26:10]This one seems to do better actually than the others or or quicker, should I say, which is probably because it warms up quicker. Uh there was some hanging around there earlier. I'll try and get some footage of this cuz it's the uh it's the boys mainly that are knocking around at the moment and they're hanging around outside because they can smell the girls in the cocoons. They're waiting for them to come out uh for mating. And then we put, [snorts] you just see the back of it up there, the white back. We put this one this way because the problem you have, you see, you're better off um in south facing or southeast facing gans. They like to warm up in the morning.

[00:26:47]And then we got another one of those homemade ones. Oh, there you go. Again, same thing. The action there is all around the release tray which is quite cool.

[00:26:59]Uh come down scared off now. But the beauty about this one is uh behind me in in here is where our um our dining room is. And so it's quite nice actually here dining room kitchen is obviously watch the birds up on there which is quite cool. But looking at a dining room, we can actually watch the bees from from indoors. So that's quite cool.

[00:27:21]And and more bird feeders there and what have you. You see there's two in there which are just have got holes in them.

[00:27:30]So we've had at least two of it. Those have emerged. So let's slot that back in there before uh before we spill them all.

[00:27:41]How cool is that?

[00:27:51]So, that is so cool. Um, it's only been a couple of weeks. The, uh, the masons are starting to emerge, which is great, which means that obviously what we've done, guys, if I can look after these mason bees to, to be a bit honest with you, I've been a bit hamfisted. I should have got them out a bit earlier, you know, was a I wasn't that gentle when I was getting them out the straws and yet they're still all emerging and it's just wonderful to see. Okay, so we've finally uh finally warmed up enough that we got quite a bit of action going on.

[00:28:25]As I said, these this uh this one that's hanging around outside here, that's still one of the boys.

[00:28:32]You definitely know the difference between the girls and the boys because the the girls are a little bit bigger and they uh and obviously they're going in and out the tubes doing the work.

[00:30:14]So, we are now at the uh tail end of uh April, right at the very end, and they've properly woken up now. They're really active. In fact, you can see one of the ladies there. I reckon she's right at the end of the tube there. Uh that's definitely one of the girls. And you can see now where they've started, they've finished these tubes and they've blocked them off. You can see there's three there. But look, look how these girls are working. Not fussed, not fussed by uh humans at all.

[00:30:41]And they're in forwards. So once once she's done what she's got to do, if it's at a case of Yeah, this one's going to be closing this tube off now.

[00:30:50]So once they've done what they got to do, they'll go in uh and if they've finished, if they've put enough pollen and everything else, then you see them with and enough mud, then you see them turn around and go in backwards and they lay another egg cuz it's seven per tube.

[00:31:13]Exactly that. Look, so she was just finishing off there. And that was the lady we saw when I first started.

[00:31:20]And she's uh she's coming back again.

[00:31:21]Just packing a bit more mud into the end there.

[00:31:31]There's a couple gone in. Let's see what they do. See if they come out and turn around.

[00:31:38]There you go. Going to turn around.

[00:31:40]Look, she's going to go back in backwards. So, she's going in to lay her egg now.

[00:31:59]So, it's now the 5th of May and actually today's quite overcast, so they're not as busy as they have been of late, but as you can see now, they're really into their stride. Uh, you can see all the ones that are starting to fill up now, uh, that are full and they're still flying around. And that's pretty much the same on every one of them. So, that that's kind of their routine now. um you you've seen them uh through the year.

[00:32:22]So, they'll do this now um through till about the end of the month, although we have delayed uh the start of releasing them. So, they should just about go into uh into June. Um but they'll stop here when uh when all these ones are full. Uh and literally couple of days ago, there was only one or two and now there's there's all of these. Look, all of these are full now.

[00:32:46]So, uh, yeah, there. Uh, here comes another one.

[00:32:51]You see, she went in forwards or she's looking for her nest. There you go.

[00:32:55]She's gone in forward.

[00:32:57]If you look at the one right on the bottom row in the middle, that's one of those lovely shots where they just hang their hang their head out the front of the tube. I think she got disturbed because she's just gone back in now.

[00:33:16]Okay, so that one that we pointed at, she went in uh forwards while she's she's managed to turn herself round in the tube because she's now facing back out the right way again.

[00:33:29]What is quite nice is if you uh first thing in the morning just when the sun just about hits it and they're starting to warm up, you know, you can see half a dozen of them right at the end of the tubes. So you see their little faces sticking out really trying to warm up in the sunshine, get theirelves warm enough to fly. So there we go. So in the UK there's one species of honeybee, there's about 90 species of bumblebee, and there's 250 species of solitary bees for which the red mason uh bee is only one of them. And there's all sorts. There's even one called a chocolate mining bee.

[00:34:02]Just think about that for a minute. I just got visions of these little bees uh in a little chocolate mine.

[00:34:09]So, uh, yeah. So, the solitary bees, super pollinators, super easy to keep, as you've seen through the video. Uh, it takes me about two hours, uh, maybe three hours a year, just at the end of the year when I take them out and put them in the co, uh, and I remove the cocoons from the straws. So, super easy to keep. Uh, super fun to have around.

[00:34:28]Uh, they're complete time wasters, uh, as you watch them going about their business. So, there we are. So, that then completes this video on the red mason bee. I hope you've enjoyed it. I hope you got something from it and uh and we'll see you on the next one.

[00:34:39]Goodbye.

[00:34:48][music]