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I saw this today. A black wasp with a long tail depositing it's eggs in the occupied mason bee holes in my solitary bee house. When I first saw it, I thought I wouldn't have time to get my camera, attach the macro lens and get a shot in but I needn't have worried, this lady took her time and spent several minutes at this. Anyone know the species of wasp, I think it may be a ichneumon wasp but would appreciate knowing for sure.

Warré Bee House Entrances

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I fitted the Warré bee house entrance porches today. As you can see I have painted each one a different colour. The proximity of the entrances could lead to serious drifting so now I think I have enough of a contrast between each one.

I did a brief inspection on the kenyan in the barn this afternoon. I went about half way in. Still plenty of brood and the bees were calm. I did spot one bee with deformed wings so I will monitor this and look for further instances. Last inspection showed plenty of stores at the far end that I didn't inspect today. There was quite a bit of unsealed nectar in the first few combs but I am not going to harvest from this hive this year. I want them to winter well on plenty of their own stores. If they survive a third season without treatments, I will split this colony into two next summer and put them in mini kenyans sat on top of warré boxes in the warré bee house.

After some discussion with Scott McPherson on the Natural Beekeeping Network forum I made up two kenyan to warré transfer boxes. Photo shows both boxes with one upside down. The idea is to sit the mini kenyan on top of a standard warré box. The width of this mini kenyan is eactly the same as a warré box and the added wings close off the gaps. I had thought originally I might two tier them putting the lower one with all the brood and the top one with all the stores. Of course I would have had to make some slotted bars to allow the bees up to the top one. Anyway I have decided I may actually split my kenyan next year and use just one box on top the warré's. Thanks Scott, although I had thought this is the only way to do something like this, you had actually beat me to it with your photo here:-
http://d.yimg.com/kq/groups/2574827/sn/1508326128/name/DSCF0828.jpg
Great minds!

Bee Hive moved into Warré Bee House

At last a warm sunny calm day! I moved the Svea/Warré combination hive into the new bee house after first painting that corner with Falu red paint. I will finish painting the bee house at a later date. I smoked the bees then put a floor board and a new warré box section with starter strips into place in the corner of the bee house nearest to the hive. Then without taking the top board off the Svea, I lifted the Svea section out of the way. This box was full of honey and weighed a considerable amount. I then took the warré section that I had given to them on June 29th and which was now fully drawn and filled with brood and put it directly on top of the new warre section. I then sat the Svea box on top of the two warré sections. The old floor was covered in bees so I propped it up at the new entrance. Later in the year when it starts to get cold I will add a square of old wool carpet to sit on top of the Svea box. I could have harvested some honey but I have left it all in there so that they can be sure of a full larder for the winter and means I will not have to feed this colony any sugar syrup. Next spring I will use the lifting gear and add a further warré section. Later in the summer I will remove the Svea section and harvest the honey. Then it will be a pure warré hive.

Lifting gear trial fit into warre bee house

I did a trial fit of the lifting gear in the warre bee house. I used ten huge eye bolts screwed into the cross bars at all five hive stations. The lifting winch simply clicks onto the eye bolts at the required station. I used a brick to simulate some weight on the hook. So far so good.

Click on any image to enlarge.

Finished the warre bee house today, well it still needs a coat of paint but all the structure is there. Fitted the runners for the rear sliding doors. There are two wide doors at the top and three sliding doors at the bottom. The bottom doors are to allow access to slide in a warre section underneath. The top doors are to allow access to fit the lifting gear onto each station. Now the whole thing is pretty bee tight so I will drill a small hole at the top under the roof overhang at each hive station to allow trapped bees out when I have done a manipulation. Here are a couple of photos which show rear doors and one of the front with the first 'porch' in place. The warre hive to the left of this will be transferred to this station in the near future.

Warre Bee House Entrances

These are the front porches I will screw over the slots on the front of the bee house. Each one will be a different colour to prevent drifting on so closely positioned entrances. This first one is white. This first photo shows the entrance reducer fitted allowing only one bee space utilized in a robbing scenario.



This next shot shows the metal piece turned around and allowing a gap of 7.5mm x 70mm which acts as a mouse guard.



Here the metal piece is removed and the entrance slot is fully open and will exactly correspond with the slot on the bee house front wall.

Warre Bee House Takes Shape

The first photo shows the eye screws set at each corner to enable connection of a 4 arm lifting sling.



This next shot shows the Bee House in position sat on 4x4 skids and concrete blocks. It had to be positioned in it's spot in the apiary as it was getting too heavy to move.



This photo shows the position of the cross bar over which the lifting sling will be put. It doesn't perhaps look like it but it is positioned exactly so that the sling comes down half way across the warre boxes.



Here you can see the slots cut into the front of the bee house. These slots will correspond to the gap in the warre bottom board.



Each slot will have a front porch type entrance which will be shown in the next post.

Progress on Warre Bee House/Box

I made a little more progress on my warre bee house in the last couple of days. I am sort of designing it on the fly. Basically I want to enclose the warre hives with another box of sorts. The objectives are to 1) provide more shelter from the weather 2) house up to 5 warre hives. 3) provide protection from large animals which may knock over a lone standing warre. 4) house the means for lifting the warre boxes when heavy with bees and honey.

Here is a photo of the bee house in progress (on it's side with the front uppermost). It has a framework of 2x4's and a 1" ply floor. The front and sides will be half inch ply. Slots will be cut into the front to correspond with the warre entrances. I will also be putting the warre slotted metal entrances over each station. The front of the warre boxes will be pressed up against the front of the bee house front wall. The rear will have two large doors for access to the hives. I am inbuilding a bar spanning the bee house over which a lifting strop will attach to each hive. I have bought a manual winch shown in the second photo which can be slid along the bar to each hive as required. I should be able to fit at least 5 warre sections and a quilt in the height available. I am screwing eye bolts into each corner of each warre section and will make up a suitable lifting strop with 4 hooks. The bee house will sit on 4x4 skids which themselves will sit on concrete blocks. So far the bee house has cost about 85 euros including the winch.

Solitary bee house attracts it's first tenants

If you click on the photos to see the full size images, the first photo shows one of the 3mm holes capped. The next shot shows one 10mm hole completely capped and one in progress being filled about a cm back from the edge of the hole. The third shot shows 3 10mm holes completely capped with a grey mud like substance. I assume these are mason bees in the large holes, which type I have no idea as I have not managed to see any activity. Indeed one day there was nothing apparent then the next I noticed these. This from wikipedia on the Mason bee lifecycle:-

The bees emerge from their cocoons in the spring, with males the first to come out. They remain near the nests waiting for the females. When the females emerge, the first thing they do is mate. The males die and the females begin provisioning their nests.

Osmia females like to nest in narrow holes or tubes, typically naturally occurring tubular cavities. Most commonly this means hollow twigs, but sometimes other similar spaces are used, including empty snail shells (they do not excavate their own burrows, unlike many bees). A female might inspect several potential nests before settling in.

Females then visit flowers to gather pollen and nectar, and it will take many trips to complete a pollen/nectar provision mass. Once a provision mass is complete, the bee backs into the hole and lays an egg on top of the mass. Then she creates a partition of "mud", which doubles as the back of the next cell. The process continues until she has filled the cavity. Female-destined eggs are laid in the back of the nest, and male eggs towards the front.

Once a bee has finished with a nest, she plugs the entrance to the tube, and then may seek out another nest location.

By the summer, the larva has consumed all of its provisions and begins spinning a cocoon around itself and enters the pupal stage, and the adult matures either in the fall or winter, hibernating inside its insulatory cocoon. Most Osmia species are found in places where the temperature drops below 0°C for long durations, like Canada, and they are well-adapted to cold winters.