More wild bees in the garden

There are bees everywhere at the farm vegetable garden just now and in larger numbers than last year. Last week I found the eggs of leaf-cutter bees, but now other species are turning up. The nest of wild honey bees (Apis mellifera) in the wall of a cottage next to the garden, that I watched last year, seems to have grown. The two photographs below were taken exactly a year apart show the difference in bee numbers. Although the bees have been using that spot for many years, I’ve never seen so many around the entrance. It is a heartening sight.
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