The bee world’s lone ranger

Some of the main differences between solitary bees and our other bee species are that solitary bees live alone and don’t swarm or have a queen, though they will happily nest close to one another. They don’t produce honey but they are really effective pollinators.

Solitary bees are vital for pollinating certain crops, as well as flowers and trees. Parts of China already have to pollinate by hand because they have lost the bees, which is a pretty grim future we will all face if we don’t act now. We used to think honeybees were the most important contributors to crop pollination, but we know now that simply isn’t the case: all types of bees are important.

Because solitary bees don’t have honey or a queen to protect, they aren’t aggressive, meaning they’re safe around pets and children (except where someone has an allergy to bee stings). Males generally have no sting at all and the females will only give a light sting if handled roughly. This means they are perfect to encourage into your garden or allotment and are a great way to introduce kids to bees.

Generally, across the 200-plus species, solitary bees emerge from their nests in spring/summer. Males emerge first and feed, then wait for the females. Once mating is complete, the males die off fairly quickly and the females begin the process of nesting, selecting a suitable site, constructing the nest and laying anything between 1 and 20 eggs, before they then die off. The female eggs will be at the back of the nest and the males at the front. Through the winter, eggs will hatch into larvae, feeding on the pollen and nectar that the female has provisioned each nest with. The larvae develop and pupate, emerging the following spring to repeat the cycle.

There are many reasons for declining solitary bee numbers, including increased use of chemicals in farming, less wildflower meadows and a loss of suitable habitat. With bigger fields, we have lost more hedgerows, which used to provide nesting sites to a wide range of wildlife. Also, as we build more and more properties and landscape our gardens, we unwittingly destroy habitat and nests as we do so. Green&Blue have developed the bee brick as a means of creating more habitats for solitary bees, by creating a possible nesting site for them in all new developments, gardens or walls.