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. And Eliza, our research technician, was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to capture this moment on video!

A red mason bee emerging from their cocoon, filmed by Eliza Miller at Thwaite Botanical Gardens.

The bees have also been busy building their nests and collecting pollen for their young all around Hull, for example at Wilberforce Sixth Form College in the wooden nest that we provided as part of their research about rainwater and biodiversity.

Red mason nesting in an artificial wooden nest at Wilberforce College. The red circle highlights a cell delimited by mud walls and containing a pollen provision with an egg attached to it (on the left).

Now that the breeding season is underway, stay tuned to find out about our next experiment!

In the meantime, take a look at our previous posts where you can read all about our first experiment (here, here and here for our first results!), our outreach activities and our engagement with local green spaces and Hull’s community of plant lovers!