Inside the Mason Bee Nest

UPDATE BELOW

An interesting observation from Diane.

“This morning I peaked into small observation nest purchased some years ago
 and noted a bright red color on top surface of one edge of two
cells…do you know what this might be?

Diane
Ohh how lovely.  The bee has collected pollen from two sources, one flower
with yellow pollen and the other flower with orange pollen.

By touching the anthers of flowers you can see there is quite a lot of
pollen colors out there.  One flower that has bright orange pollen is theTiger lily.

 Margriet



This is a picture of a 3 nesting tunnel observation/viewing nest.  The lowest tunnel is empty.  The middle tunnel contains 3 completed chambers with pale yellow pollen.  Two cells ( of the four) in the upper channel have bright orange and yellow pollen as part of the pollen lump.  There is even a bee in the upper nesting tunnel.

Here is a picture of the same nest taken about a month later.  Cocoons are fully formed  with adult bees inside.

Here is Frank’s third photo. 

Frank M.  contacted me recently about his findings at his yearly mason bee workshop.  A most interesting series of photos- with permission.

There have been half a dozen reports of cotton fluff inside the nesting tunnels.  Here is one I found myself.  Most of the fluff is just that, but two cocoon type structures were found in the center row.  If someone knows what this is please let us know.

A nesting tray with 6 routered channels containing mason bee cocoons, and cotton type fluff in two of the channels.

Here I have lifted some of the fluff out to show how it neatly fits into the channel.

Two cocoons were found inside this fluffy material. You can see the end cap directly above where the cocoon is held in the photo. The end cap is made of several layers of mud and is thicker than the usual mason bee end cap.

For comparison, this appears like a spider web, which either contains young spiders or an adult spider.

 When I find resin bees inside nesting tunnels, I remove any mason bee cocoons , remove mason bee debris out of tunnels with a tooth brush, close up the nest and set out side ready for next year.

Two delicately placed resin walls.  No bees were in these cells.

Resin bee pupae within compartments made of resin.

Last year’s resin bees emerged during summer months when resin softened up with the heat.

Last week a mason bee keeper asked me to look at these two photos and give them feedback on the insects inside the nesting tunnels.  Every nesting tunnel tells a story!

This is a picture of cocoons harvested from nesting tunnels. The dark brown, still with mud attached, is from the early spring mason bee Osmia lignaria.  The reddish cocoon with its bright orange fecal material and masticated leaf plugs are probably Osmia californica.  Osmia californica is active towards the end of the early spring mason bee activity.