What size should the holes be in a bee hotel? PART I
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- Опубликовано: 24 апр 2022
- Let's set up a simple experiment to find out the optimum size of holes for a bee hotel. Learn a tiny bit about the importance of replication and randomization in an experiment. You can have a go yourself, and let me know what works best. Suitable for schools.
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I had a go at this and voila - a few resin bees moved in and they chose the smaller (8mm) holes. I also had a spider move into a 12mm hole which was unfortunate. Also, apparently they actually prefer to use a spent hollow (probably flower) stem from some annual plant for hygiene reasons.. so I'm putting a few of those in my dead hedge insect home.. This is a heck of a lot of fun !
Hi, nice videos as always! In Finland you can get inhabitants of Hymenoptera with wholes from about 1,5mm to 10mm. However, here 7mm is enough for even the largest soilitary bees and wasps, and sphecoid wasps.
Some examples of all the pretty inhabitants and diameters that have worked the best:
Spilomena spp 1,2-1,7
Chelostoma campanularum 2-2,5
Passaloecus corniger 2-4
Hylaeus communis 2-4
Trypoxylon clavicerum 2,5-4
Hoplitis leucomelana 2,5-3,5
Heriades truncorum 2,5-4
Symmorphus bifasciatus 3-4
Chelostoma rapunculi 3-4
Chelostoma florisomne 3-4
Deuteragenia bifasciata 3,5-4
Trypoxylon figulus 4-5
Crossocerus cetratus 4
Hoplitis claviventris 4-5
Ectemnius continuus 4-5
Osmia parietina 4-5
Osmia caerulescens 4-5
Pemphredon lugubris 4-6
Osmia leaiana 5
Colletes daviesanus 5-7
Osmia bicornis 6-7
Megachile willughbiella 6-7
Ancistrocerus parietinus 6-7
Keep up the good work.😁
This is the sweetest thing I've ever seen! Bee Hotels? I'd never heard of anything like it before. And the fact that you mentioned to make sure of no sharp bits that might hurt their wings, I melted....
My name means honey bee in Greek....I'm a bit partial to the little darlings.
Bee hotels are great, if you can make/get some. So fun to watch them work. And leafcutters are the best. The leafcutters in my garden will often take a rest on my shoulder if I'm out there - like tiny parrots.
Thanks Dave, fascinated by this and will share the results with members of the public on my RSPB stall :) PS As a direct result of your work I have talked people on the stall into buying from organic plant nurseries rather than standard garden centres / national chains (and they now know how much faith to put into the RHS 'Plants for Pollinators' logo too...!)
Brilliant, many thanks, keep up the good work ;)
The Red Masons in my garden hatched this week. Can't wait for the other species (I have 21 boxes in my 6mx4m garden)
It's best to put out different-sized reeds to discover ALL the bees in your backyard.
Very interesting experiment, Dave! I am actually creating an atypical bee hotel in 3D print and have some interesting results that I would love to discuss with you. The bees seem to really love it, that is very clear 🙂I have 8-6-4mm holes and the 8mm ones have been most popular by far.
Thank you for this experiment, very good to see Evidence Based insect hotels! I'm putting some 6" diameter larch logs at the top of a couple of gabions. After reading the comments, I'm going with 4mm, 6mm and 8mm holes. Will let you know how they get on 🙂
My bee hotels tend to also attract solitary wasps because I have hole ranges from as small as 4mm to 10.
I also tend to find my larger (10mm) holes to be empty until last thing... Its almost a "Fine, I'll have to fill the crappy hole then".
Some bees and wasps are just so bloody picky!
My male Osmia Rufa are now out and about, the females will be out in a while and then it will all pick up.
Many thanks, very useful!
Looking forward to the result! I have 4,6 and 8 mm in my bee hotel. Only solitary wasps in it so far though, but I have no idea why since there are solitary bees visiting the flowers close by. All three sizes seem equally popular here, but there are at least two different types of solitary wasps (one likes the 4mm, the other the 6 and the 8 mm, it seems).
Thanks for the info, that is v useful. Will post my results asap!
Thank you for the video. Looking forward for the results. I have a dead tree still standing, on which I will try the experiment 🙂
Thanks for sharing dave we breed red mason bees so looking forward to the results 🐸💚🐸
I've experimented in my garden and 6mm for smaller bees 8mm for Red and Blue Mason plus Resin Bees. Leafcutters like 10 or even 12 (depending on species, and prefer the boxes set up in more overgrown, leafy areas). Anyway that's what works for me.
That's very helpful, many thanks
We don't need a bee hotel- the red mason bees chose our garden table as their home😀
I wanted to let you know that I was listening to my podcast I believe it was conservation conversations with Sean O’Brien which you were a guest. I thought wow too different platforms of two shows that I am fans of how cool is that.
I have had different opinions about which direction the bee hotels should be hung? I have mine facing south at the moment, 1st year I’ve had them.
Yes, please tell us, Dave, what wall should they go on, sunny, shady?
Sunny, south if possible but in my experience when the south holes fill up they'll use the others.
Agreed, S facing seems to be best, but not vital
@@davegoulson6831 Thank you for answering the question that I was about to post, sir. 😉♥
@@bearhustler Thank you for answering the question that I was about to post, sir. 😉♥
Interesting to see you go into solitary bees Professor Goulson. There are some variables to this experiment which are not evident at first glance:
1/ the size of the arriving Osmia bees will depend on whether they have been victim to the kleptoparasitic Cacoxenus flies which will reduce their provisions they have during their larval stage, and consequently the size of the nesting female.
2/ an eventual nest plug is not solid evidence, per se, that the nesting space will be completely filled with nest cells (and thus be declared as significant). You would have to paper line the tubes to count the density of nest cells/cocoon results. A significant percentage of plugged holes may just contain one nest cell at the back, which might be because they run out of eggs or they 'change their mind'. There is also another factor:
3/ Osmia rufa/bicornis can also suffer a form of confusion or trembling dementia when they get to the end of their natural life (if they survive that long), which results in them repeating certain behaviours such as just plugging nest spaces. A nest plug may then not necessarily be an indication of nest hole size preference.
4/ Your hole sample is small and may also skewed and affected by existing bee hotels which - as they have not been cleaned and deparasited - and which may skew the first cited variable.
Anyway it's an interesting project. There's also more to say about how uncleaned bee hotels full of emerging spring mason bees with their parasitic charge can impact on, and be a problem other later bees coming to the nesting arena.
Many thanks, very helpful, I had not heard of the trembling phenomenon, will keep an eye out for that.
Occasionally one stumble on an enlightened response (admittedly rare on youtube).. but that's right up there. It would be great if you could share but dillute the knowledge so it passes over to the masses so we're moving in the right direction. My own gardening for wildlife starts off great with loads of Queens visiting the Skimmia Nymans shrubs in March, but in recent years the activity on the Ceanthus shrubs on May has been a massive let down ... things are changing .. for the worse in a big way it seems
I have some offcuts of 4x4" treated fence post timber, would this be ok to use or will it be harmful to the bees? I do want to make sure I make them happy homes
My understanding is that it’s not a good idea to use treated wood for any wildlife products.
What is the best depth?
As deep as possible I think. But I haven't done an experiment!
For the smallest diameters 4-6mm I drill at least 10cm deep. The bigger ones at least 15cm. I get tits and woodpeckers predating the tubes and drilled holes so I really want to make sure I have some offspring the following year.
@@carldegroot5213 thankyou
@@norfolkhoneybee273 you’re welcome. There’s a lot of knowledgable people on Twitter who post a lot of information and pictures. I’ve learned so much about solitary bees and the flowers they most like.
Any results yet?
First 4 holes used: 6, 7, 8, 8 mm
@@davegoulson6831 how are numbers going now?
EFFING PAINFUL!
Felicidades, es un buen ejemplo. 235 sentadillas son unos QQGIRLS.Uno muchas y un buen ejercicio. Se deja ver que hay muy buenos resultados 😍👍 Saludos desde la Cd.. de world 🌹😉💖 los mortalesz abian apreciado tan hermosa mujer.k