Bee question

[MrsKP]

One for Robert Brencley I think.

Once a bee has found a source of pollen, do they just find their way back and keep returning ?

It's just that I found a ginger bee on the broadies today but he still has a lot of work to do so how can I encourage him, or is my job done ?

;D

[MrsKP]

[Robert_Brenchley]

If it was ginger it wasn't a honey bee; all the others visit flowers pretty much at random, and the way to encourage them is to provide nest sites. Honey bees are incredibly efficient at finding the best food sources and exploiting them like mad. So if you have the right flowers in the riight conditions, en masse, you'll have every honeybee for miles on them.

[MrsKP]

i've got two cornflowers and a handful of poppies  :'(, i think i'm gonna have to put an EAT HERE sign up!

I don't know where my queens from a few weeks ago (?) went.  I'm hoping if the temperature stays up we'll get a bit more activity from somewhere !

what might my ginger one beee ?  :P

[redimp]

It might be a red mason bee if was not bumble bee shaped:

[MrsKP]

it was much bigger and fluffier than that.  i hope he comes back so i can take a pic of him.   :P

[Robert_Brenchley]

Was it bumblebee size and shape? Was it ginger all over, or only part? My resources for wild bees leave a lot to be desired, but I'll try.

[MrsKP]

aye robert, as much as my memory serves, he was quite fluffy and i thought being up in scotland he's "an och aye the noo jimmy" ginger bee. 

i have tried googling but apparently there's thousands of solitary bees so to find the right one might be a needle in a haystack jobbie.

definitely no dark stripes, but perhaps different shades of orange.  i'll get the camera out tonight and hope he poses.

;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

Whereabouts in Scotland? The description is really too vague to be definite, unfortunately.

[MrsKP]

Just outside central Glasgow.  I tried to get a pic today but by the time I'd turned the camera on he'd done a runner.

As long as he brings his mates I don't care what he is tbh, but it's nice to put a name to a face innit.   ;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

If you spot any more, try to see what they're doing. If you can see where they nest, it would help work out what it is. the most conspicuously orange or ginger bees in the UK, apart from bumblebees, are various species of Andrena, a common mining bee, but it's a bit late in the year for them, or at least for the species I'm familiar with.

[MrsKP]

all quiet on the western front today - not a buzz to be heard :'(