Day 32: Red Mason Bee (female)

It has taken a little while for more of the red mason bees to emerge, we only had the three males that had emerged when I wrote my last blog about theses bees (here!) for a good while, but they are now very busy!

The first female we saw emerge from any of our nesting areas was on 11th April, and was promptly grasped by the male shown to the left. Seeing them together really makes their distinguishing features more obvious, especially the females much more robust looking head and jaws.

Of course, she needs these jaws to be able to grasp mud to line and seal her nest with. Most likely not the same female, but I did spot one taking wet mud from around the garden pond.

I have been watching just one female visiting the new bee nest boxes we put up this year and, today, she capped the end of the first nest! The bee shown below is a male investigating possible places a new female may emerge from.

I am hoping, now more males have emerged, more females soon will too, and we'll have many complete nesting chambers.