Project news & updates

Summer is the busiest point in the life cycle for our red mason bees. After emerging and mating in the spring, the mothers spend the summer collecting pollen for their young. They compress this pollen into balls inside tubes, lay their egg on top then seal it away with a wall of mud. She then […]

In September, our lab was represented at the Royal Entomological Society’s Annual Conference, Ento25, held in Glasgow. Researchers from around the UK and the rest of the world came together to discuss all things insects, from ecology and evolution to conservation and climate change. Matthew presented his talk titled “Do mother Bees Provisioning Young Tailor […]

Molly, Eliza’s bee-loving dog, wishes everyone a Happy World Bee Day !

Everyone loves warm, sunny weather, especially red mason bees! Thanks to the fine weather over the last few weeks, the red mason bees, after sleeping through the winter, have finally started to emerge from their cocoons. Eliza, our research technician, was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to capture […]

The team has been busy installing over 20 bee nests this past month. We advertised our need for more greenspaces, and the community has well and truly delivered! There’s now a wide range of wonderful bee-friendly sites that have kindly allowed us to install new bee nests. We’re delighted to welcome our new bee guardians […]

The team has been out and about teaching the minds of today and tomorrow everything there is to know about red mason bees. We were in Hull’s Street life museum for a full weekend in March as a part of the Collider Festival. This was a celebration of science, engineering and arts with spectacular events […]

Background and methods We conducted a field experiment during the summer of 2024 to answer the following question: Do adult bees adjust larval pollen provisions to the nest temperature? Nine wooden nests were heated at three temperatures (ambient, ambient + 4°C & ambient + 8°C) on our study site. From late June to mid-August, we […]

Mid-December, we presented the first results of the grant at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the British Ecological Society in Liverpool. The poster presented the data obtained during the summer 2024 field experiment, focusing on the effect of rising temperatures on the nesting behaviour of red mason bees. You can find the results in detail […]

Even though almost all the larvae have now spun their cocoons, that doesn’t mean our work is finished! Indeed, Osmia bicornis larvae go through major life stages after cocoon completion, notably developing into adults inside their cocoons. This step is crucial because a larva that does not transform into an adult before winter will not […]

Autumn is approaching, which means that fieldwork is coming to an end! With the weather getting colder and wetter, it was time to transfer the cocoons to the lab, where they will be protected from weather hazards such as heavy rain. We chose a particularly rainy and gloomy day to pack up all the equipment […]

We finally released the bees in early July! They emerged immediately from their cocoons but we quickly realised they looked rather unhappy in the cages…

We have been very busy at our field site at Stockbridge Technology Centre near Selby, a  centre for agricultural and horticultural innovation and testing.   Having installed the fruit cages last month, this month we put up 9 mesh cages, each of which will house a bee nesting block that will be kept at one of 3 […]

Gearing Up for Bee Season: Excitement in the Field!  As spring progresses, so does our fieldwork season, and we were all excited to be outdoors, ready to set up for our flight cage experiment. This year, the focus is on understanding how nesting temperatures affect the foraging behaviour and offspring outcomes of Osmia bicornis, a […]