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Hatching time for the 🐝 Mason Bees 🐝

(Topic created on: 13-04-2025 09:38 AM)
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When the warmer weather arrives, this begins the start of the season for the bees. 

My partner spends a lot of effort looking after these cocoons and eggs through the winter months, and to give them the best chance of survival. 

A few facts (given to me by my other half)... if there are any bee experts that find this is not entirely accurate then apologies. 

1) mason bees have a lifespan of just 6 to 8 weeks. When the weather starts warming the the hatching begins. 

2) the outer most eggs always develop into young males. Their purpose is to mate with the females when they hatch and to produce new offspring eggs. The males stay in proximity of the bee houses and await their destiny of mating. 

3) a little afterwards the females start hatching. The males are ready and waiting. Literally as soon as the females start showing their face in the tubes, and the hatching is heard (you can hear a cracking and scraping if you listen in) then they wait with expectation.

4) literally as soon as the females hatch, the poor unsuspecting newly birth females are pounced upon by the males. 

5) the females task then is to lay the eggs into the tubes. They use sand barriers to block sections of eggs and for the next years bee hatching. 

6) this process is all completed within their lifespan... perhaps 6 weeks... before they die off and this all starts again the next year. 

A few pics and videos of this week in the bee houses. 

Videos may take a little while to be approved. All taken with the S25 ultra. 

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      14 REPLIES 14
      Piper123
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      Amazing pics 😊
      S24 Ultra
      smiley
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      They are fast and slippery... managed these whilst they had a short rest.

      I have a few videos, but with 100MB limit it might not be easy to share...


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      rileylovetech
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      🤪 love bees honey time
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      Star_girl
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      Very interesting. Not the usual honey comb.😊
      smiley
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      These bee houses can be bought from garden centres amongst other places.

      There is no honey produce from this type of bee... but these are living houses.

      In the evening they take their pitch for the night until the sun comes out in the morning. In fact if you look in early morning you can see lots of little faces looking at you 👍 😃

      The 'leaf cutter' bees also use these houses. It is great watching these bees work, as they cut circles of leaf, to use to pack the tubes between eggs, rather than sand.

      So when they are about ( a little bit later in the season) you can see the bees flying and carrying circles of leaf to the houses. It is very clever skill they have.

      Smiley


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      JAMES4578
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      Great captures ,these bees certainly are clever and it is a bit of a education 😀. Would not be my thing mind you 🙂

      I do not work for Samsung or make Samsung Products but provide independent advice and valuable contributions.


      smiley
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      A female that has just dug her way out... looking upon the world for the very first time.

      Additionally here is a tray of cocoons that were earlier 'decanted' from tubes... you can see many of these have hatched out this week.

      🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝vT12vq9bOo.jpgTDLIZP0duN.jpg


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      star-girl
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      Call but I'm scared of bees
      smiley
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      There is no need to be scared. These do not have stings and are a passive and friendly bee.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_bee


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