Bamboo Insect Hotel on a Garden Post

Mason bees fill each tube of an insect hotel with a row of cells, each holding one egg and a ball of pollen behind a wall of mud. The mother lays female eggs at the back and male eggs near the opening, so the males come out first in spring and wait around for the females. Leafcutter bees seal their tubes with neat circles cut from leaves. This one hangs on a weathered post by a wooden fence with nettles growing up around it, a homemade insect hotel jigsaw puzzle full of round holes.