A closer look at the tubes
Been playing around with the images trying to get more photographic detail of the solitary bee activities. Here’s one showing eggs/larvae placed in tube #7.
There are quite large quantities of pollen in each cell - at least in comparison with last year. My thinking is that it may be because as the exterior air temperature is hesitantly warming up, the bees are suffering constant interruptions and so perhaps are constantly restarting the loading in of pollen and (regurgitated) nectar. I can’t think how they would know how deep and adequate the pollen load is, so an interrupted day might mean that they start all over again.
Next is a picture of a bee assuming the position as if she is sealing the outer entrance to tube #27, but on further inspection the tube is empty. 26 is sealed with only two cells. As usual seen from my viewing position on the window sill above the door.
Here is a bee backing into tube #9. The top has been taken off the box on for the photo, so we can also see the cells of #1 and #10 with contents in place and sealed.
Final photo of today. A bee approaching the box… the regular squares seen out of focus below it are those of the front door mat.
Hope you have enjoyed today’s accounts. Please do leave a comment if you feel so moved!
July 16th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
can we have a tutorial about what should be done during the year to the nesting tubes?
I have heard that the cocoons should be removed… is this true?
July 16th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Thanks for your comments Thierry. This is a little bit of an experiment for me….
During the winter of 2006 I left the box and tubes all together inside a barn, but in a dry place. When things warmed up I let them emerge naturally placing the box in direct sunlight. I helping out those at the end (like an anxious parent) when I wanted to avoid them getting trapped. This year I decided to gently liberate the majority of the 2007 cocoons because 3 freezes after the normal emergence time (March), some were coming out but not flying off for two weeks. This got me worried. Whether it was the freezes or the stress I put them under, I had 30% losses (dead in cocoons).
So I will not interfere with them in 2009. Again, I will place the box in a dry cool room, and just wait and see. I will do some other tutorials on box construction/habitat comparison, but on storage I am still learning.