Gingey i spent saturday indoors being completely energyless -and i think the weather does play a part too though as saturday was grey dark and miserable where as sunday was cold but bright.
Emz i dont see how your bee can have disapered unless it was feeling better.
There are problems with bee hotels
Many of the commercial bee hotels have fixed tubes which means they cant be taken out to clean -which can be more harmful than good for the bees
Open tubes act as wind tunnels so unless they are against a wall the bees wont like it.
Bee hotels are not always deep enough and they become bird feeding stations but at the same time they are more difficult to clean if deep.
They also attract parasitic wasps and only takes a couple of bees with mites to create a nest of mites so increasing the danger not only too those bees in the hotel but too other bees as well as they spread.
Plastic or glass tubed ones allow you to see if there are mites or wasps in there but also create condensation -also not good for bees.
Different species like different hotels -solitary.leafcutter.bumble.Red mason.-so you would need different hotels of to know which are most dominant.
Solitary bees in the natural world will find a space but that isnt usually next too more bees.
I think the habitat problem for bees comes with tidy immaculate gardens, increased hard surface covering for patios car parkin etc and solid chemical soaked fencing with no cracks -but bee hotels are not turning out to be the solution so far. Many solitary bees will happilly burrow into loose ground and you could for example build a mini dry stone wall they may crawl into the gaps which is where mine seem to go. Also any hollow stemmed plants you have, leave the upright stems over winter rather than cutting it all down in Autumn.
Hedgehog houses that are well made are fine but again some have created problems -by not having any venting -and being very difficult to clean -again a log pile or compost heap and plenty of leaves left in an undistrubed part of the garden is probably the best option for now Countryfile are currently doing a survey of hedgehog houses to try and determine which ones if any work best. Hedgehogs have been known to eat slowworms though so you might want to facilitate their passing through for an easier meal and drink- rather than actively encouraging them to move in.
feeding (never give them milk -they cant digest it ) You can get specialised food for them -or you can give them dog/cat food (non fish flavours) both moist and a few dry biscuits they also love mealworms The dogs will also be attracted straight too dog food so maybe you could fence a corner off to keep them out. I used to dig a burrow with a tunnel from ground level so the hedgehog could go down but not a cat (or dog) -then a lid Piece of flat heavy wood across the top that i could just lift off to add a plate of food. Later i used the wire top of a bird groundfeeder instead of the wood-again with the tunnel down and the feeder pegged down, but so i could see it was mrs tiggywinkle and not mr ratty that was eating the food.
They also need water so a dish of water is a help.
I am putting together a hedgehog emergency pack -heat pad carrier rehydration fluid so i,m not running round the next time some-one finds one and thinks i know what to do.
The other thing i have found quite good habitat for all sorts of wildlife is a pallett stuffed with leaves,straw,etc with a piece of pond liner over the top -i have one near the pond with one end open too the shallow end which frogs in particular like to sit in , It doubles as a person feet dabbling platform in summer too -or you can stand plants on them or even use the same methods as roof gardens to make them look more attractive.Just try and go for non creosoted or painted ones.
I has been snowing again on and off all morning but the last lot was very wet and it all seems to be thawing now.