Bees start nest-building
The wind dropped and at one point in the sunlight it was 20°C, but not for long. The solitary bees were seen around the box and the wall, and I noted three different tubes being explored – although no cells appear yet. One of the active bees that has been around for the sunny moments I saw with pollen all over her underside. Until now I had wondered how they kept hold of what they had gathered in flight, not having the ‘leg pouches’ as honey bees are seen to possess.
Yesterday, despite the focus of the post being on Carpenter Bees, one more female had emerged from the cake dome cocoons (which I now will refer to lightly as the incubator). Today two more females emerged – one struggling to get out of the cocoon – and a male emerged. A female and a male flew off. I managed to catch the female as she evacuated and took off. These moments are good.
On the downside, one male was also discovered dead with only its tuft out. I had started to become worried that the remaining cocoons were all dead – I believe my panicked removal of them after the frost I believed may have culled a few. I think overall I may have handled the frost problem badly. Next year I will know better. I may lose up to about a third I think, which is not good, in fact it is terrible. Last year I was reminded that I had not emptied all the tubes out, only pulled out cocoons that had been there while when all the rest had left. It is a horrible learning curve.
Tags: bee take-off, learning curve
April 16th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
[...] up to 500 views on the tube. At the start of 2008 with worries about frosts, early emergences and bee deaths I removed the tubes and the cocoons (89) from them but I think the cold snap and stress of the [...]
January 31st, 2010 at 5:02 am
Hi! I found your videos on youtube and the link you posted there lead me to your blog. Maybe you can help me: I just bought my first mason bee cocoons and bee home. The cocoons are currently in my fridge. Most people tell me I can put the bees outside now, but after reading about your dead bees I’m concerned about frost. I live in Northern California, USA and while frosts are not especially common, they are still a possibility. In the meantime, cherry blossoms are beginning to bloom which people tell me is a good time to expect mason bees to naturally emerge. Do you have any advice for me?
February 1st, 2010 at 12:51 am
Hi there Jen…
It’s a very good question – thanks for asking it. To recap on my bee loss problem in 2008: direct sunlight on the window heated up the shed that my box was stored in, a bit like a greenhouse, however the outside temperature outside remained too low for the bees to fly. So many of them made all the effort to get out, and – finding it just too cold to properly warm up to fly off – ran through their energy stores as they couldn’t restock on their necessary nectar sources.
I have noted that my Osimia cornuta or “Red” Mason orchard bees (you may have the prevalent Osmia lignaria or “blue” Mason bees in the US) need at least 14/15°C (58°F) to adequately warm up their wing muscle metabolism and fly-off to find the blossom (or dandelion which is another favourite). They also need about two to three days of these temperatures before they come out of their cocoons.
So, see whether your cherry blossoms are fully open (not just the outer petals showing like uncovered buds) and let nature guide you; check that other insects (not just bumble-bees which need lower temperatures) are flying into and around and into the open blossoms inferring they can obtain nectar. When this is the case and you have at least a two or three days stretch ahead of the necessary temperatures, I think it would be safe for you to bring your cocoons out.
If there is a frost afterwards, this is not necessarily a bit problem. The blood of insects is glycol-based not water-based so the bees won’t necessarily perish because of a frost. They will take shelter in nooks and crannies – even sitting in the tunnels you have provided to ‘defend’ any unfinished cells – and providing they have enough energy stores in their bodies – they will re-emerge into the sun and continue their work when the frost/low temperatures are over.
February 1st, 2010 at 1:01 am
Oh and another tip to encourage the bees to your block:
When the bees emerge from the cocoons you have been supplied with, you may notice – not too far away from the cocoons were placed – that there are droplets of brown fluid that they dump before flying off (you’ll see this dump occurring within seconds in the the above video). To other scanning bees this excretion (perhaps because of it’s odour) may be a sign that this was a nesting place, and therefore probably a safe place to locate new cells.
So if you are not squeamish, recover, dilute and smear any of this fluid over the front tunnel entrances of your new bee home and bees investigating your habitat may react more positively. It seemed to work with a freshly drilled block that I put in place last year. Despite having other tunnels available, they were using the block within 90 minutes of it being drilled and placed.
…and of course don’t forget to place your block facing East, or at least where it will get sunlight for a good part of the day. It helps them get up in the morning.
February 1st, 2010 at 3:04 am
Paul – Thank you for the advice! I think a few more weeks are in order, we are not yet getting temperatures above 50 degrees consistently and I took a close look at the neighboring cherry blossoms and you are right, they have not fully bloomed and I have not seen much in the way of other bee species just yet. A few, but not many. I hope my little guys and girls are happy to wait in the fridge for a while longer yet!
February 1st, 2010 at 10:17 am
Jen – I think they are effectively all having sweet dreams of abundant nectar so yes @50°F I would wait a little. For millions of years the bees and blossoms have synchronized perfectly their internal clocks with that of the pollinators. So if the sleeping bees in your locality are hesitant, the blossoms will also be. They’ll also have the energy to sit it out so the uncovered flower buds can stay like that for several weeks. I know that over here in northern France it won’t be till mid-march that there’s even a chance of emergence of males in the natural population, and it’s not before until April that the females really get going.