Last week our leafcutter bees arrived from @kindbeefarms. Like any expectant parent, we opened the box with anticipation and excitement. We have lots of bees (and wasps and Yellowjackets) buzzing around our gardens and hope that these new arrivals will get along with all of our other pollinators.
Their new home, which is well built out of cedar, is placed high near the garage so it catches the morning sun and heat. It also avoids the visitors to our house who are a little bee-phobic.
But from my understanding, leaf cutter bees are among the most docile of all the bees out there so I am not really worried.The cocoons holding the bees looks a little bit like the food pellets I used to buy for our pet rabbits.
Now installed in their new home, we wait.
And after 10 days or so, the first ones start to emerge. They are tinier than I would have thought, but given the size of the straws where the females will lay eggs for next year’s bees, it should not have been a surprise. Within a day, a bunch of tiny bees are swarming around, landing on the adjacent flowers and already starting to crawl inside the straws. I can find them on many of the summer flowers around our yard.
We love it!
