Solitary Bees

Should be interesting. PBS at 8PM on May 14th.
A story of surprise and revelation. A wildlife filmmaker spends his time during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown filming the bees in his urban garden and discovers the many diverse species and personalities that exist in this insect family.

This is about all bees but solitary bees will be front and centre (I hope.)
Full description and
photos here:

My Garden of a Thousand Bees ~ About | Nature | PBS A story of surprise and revelation. A wildlife cameraman spends his time during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown filming the bees in his urban garden and discovers the many diverse species and personalities that exist in this insect family.

A very successful day at yesterday's Ginkgo Footprints Annual Garden Festival. $340 dollars raised from sale of solitary bee houses for CMHA's local Pay It Forward program at the Fresh Roots Cafe. Thank you to everyone, especially Emily and Dennis.

Here is a video telling about solitary bees. More to follow.

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As with birdhouses needed to be cleaned every year, solitary bee houses should also be attended to. In this case new tubes should be provided. Solitary bee houses are tubes 6 inches long and 3 to 10 mm in diameter. There are bees overwintering who will emerge in the spring BUT! we don't want themto be able to rebuild in a used nest. The solution is to create a situation where bees can get out but would not be able to get back in or anyway use a nest therein. In this picture we can see new tubes above and last year's tubes below. In the fall (or next spring) the old tubes can be discarded and replaced with new ones.
I will be at Ginkgo Footprints Garden Event on June 15th selling solitary bee houses again ($10). All proceeds to "Pay it Forward" at CMHA's Fresh Roots Cafe.
Having a solitary bee house makes one more aware of the insect world in general. Here are some images I have uploaded to BugGuide. https://bugguide.net/node/view/2005806 .
As well more info about solitary bees can be found here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf8QyIF3eoY .

Solitary bee - Ancistrocerus antilope An online resource devoted to North American insects, spiders and their kin, offering identification, images, and information.

Leafcutter bee busy blocking up her nest at 2 pm, finished by 4 pm. Now we will wait till the bees start emerging. July 3rd is day one.

Here is one of my houses showing tubes that have been filled. I have marked a few of them with different colours to keep track of them. Different species of solitary bee procreate at different times of the year. We wouldn't see the goldenrod bee at work until the fall. (I don't actually know if there is a goldenrod bee but this gives you the idea.) I will keep you updated and in the future will try to follow a whole cycle.

Yesterday's Ginkgo Footprints Garden Event was very successful. $294 dollars raised for CMHA Grey Bruce. Many people were educated about the importance of solitary bees for a properly functioning ecosystem. I Invite comments and questions and will be looking for more ways to engage the public. Stay tuned! 🙂

https://www.rogerstv.com/show?lid=12&rid=50&sid=8127&gid=318668

Gardening with Our Local Experts - Bill Moses and the importance of Bees Did you know that there are 400 different species of Bees? Join Mary Jane Murray and Rhonda Brown as they learn about Bees from local expert Bill Moses.