The summer is now behind us
so its time to empty our solitary bee box
and save the larvae in a safe place.
I attached our RSPB Bee box to a sunny east/south-east position at the front of our house back in February. We didn't seem to attract any mason bees, but at the beginning of August we noticed a couple of chambers had been filled by what we assumed were leafcutter bees.
Rather than just leave them in the bee box over winter, I decided to take them out and store them [hopefully] away from any predators.
Having never done this before, I was initially very concerned that I would damage the larvae inside. But the idea is to dip them in water to soften them up...
We had 2 complete rows, each with 12 larvae cells, and 2 partial rows. We ended up with 33 larvae cells, which is not a bad start for our first year.
These are now in an old ice cream tub. I just need to remember to check them from time-to-time early next year, with a view to putting the box outside by late February.
Maybe I need to setup a camera to monitor their progress?
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