Now is the time of year when one’s thoughts should be turning to these delightful little bees. They are very important pollinators and, what’s more they don’t sting so they are great to encourage into your garden. In late-March/early-April females will start looking for nests - and you can help! By buying or making your own nests you will encourage the female bees to stay in your garden.

Mason bees are solitary bees and the females like to nest in pre-existing cavities, such as hollow plant stems or holes previously bored by beetles in old wood. They use mud as a buiding material. They favour old, mature hedgerows and woodland edges where there are plenty of old stems and dead wood. However, with the disappearance over the years of many of the country’s hedgerows, natural nesting sites for these bees have become scarcer - which is where we come in with our gardens.

What do these bees look like?

Males - covered in dense, gingery fur, slender, with a tuft of white hairs on the front of the head. Females - also covered in dense ginger fur but have larger heads which are completely covered in black hair.

When do we see them?

The males emerge first mid- to late-March and can be seen hanging around nest entrances, waiting for the females to appear, usually a week to ten days later.

Life cycle

When they do appear, there is a lot of competition amongst the males to mate with the first females. The males will then die, after about 3 or 4 weeks of life. The females, on the other hand, once they emerge, they seek suitable flowers on which to feed (inbetween bouts of fending off males).

After mating, she will look for a suitable nest site. Once found, she will spend a bit of time getting her bearings in order to find the nest site again, and then go off to search for mud and nectar. The mud will be applied to the end of the tunnel and she will then set off to gather pollen, which will also be placed in the nest site. She will then lay an egg on top of the pollen and go off to collect more mud to seal this cell. This process is then repeated until the end of the cavity is almost reached. The female will live 10 to 12 weeks and will have made 4 or 5 nests. The eggs will hatch before she dies and the larvae will feed on the pollen, until fully grown (round about September time). They will then spin a cocoon to develop into bees and will emerge the following spring. The bee at the back of the cavity is the oldest and therefore emerges first. As it can’t get out it has to chew through the mud separating it from the bee in front, then through that bee’s cocoon and then bite it on the backside to jolt it out of hibernation. This bee then repeats the process until all bees have emerged.

Bee nesting kits

These come ready-packed with nesting tubes for the bees to occupy. Once your bees have occupied them, in late Spetember place the nest in an unheated shed or garage to overwinter. In spring place it back in the garden. You may find that your nest kit will attract Blue Mason bees and Leafcutter bees, the latter sealing the tubes with a leaf instead of mud.

How can I encourage them to my garden?

Grow the plants they feed on, such as: Cranesbills, Geraniums, Wallflowers, Syonecrops, Deadnettles, Sages, Lavender, Lambs’ Ears, Poached Eggs, Comfrey, Hounds’ Tongue, Viper’s Bugloss, Alkanet, Borage, Mignonette, Feverfew, Thyme, Oregano and Horehound. Avoid like the plague ANY double-flowered plants, which do not generally produce nectar. It is also useful to place a heap of moistened soil a few metres from the nest site.

WE HAVE RED MASON BEE NESTING KITS IN STOCK! VISIT OUR SECURE ONLINE SHOP - www.englishplants.co.uk - The English Cottage Garden Nursery Ltd: wildflowers, herbs, seeds, nestboxes, bee nests, bird feeders - everything you need to make your garden a wildlife haven!

Many of the wildflowers we grow are ideal nectar-producers for these bees - why not have a browse in our shop and do your bit for the bees! If you can’t find what you are after, please email us as the plants may simply just be in stock but growing on, or we may be able to source them for you.