Male mason bees emerging early in the season

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The first to emerge are the male Mason bees, I usually see them a few weeks before the females emerge. I think nature does this in case we get a harsh freeze early spring. By making the females wait to emerge the males can get strong and if a strong frost mostly the males will die. Which is fine as long as a couple survive and then the females emerge without issue.

There is a hole in my workbench by where these solitary bees emerge. During the cold mornings I find a bunch of male Mason bees all huddled in this tiny hole. There must be four or more of these little bees hiding in this hole until the air warms up.

They eventually leave their hiding place when the day warms up, and they go about feeding on flowers and trying to find a female to mate with.

As one of the males leave the hole there are more inside not ready to leave yet. They are all males, I can tell by their fuzzy spot on their face and being the first bees emerging they are normally the males.

I watch him for a bit and he gets ready to take flight and leave.

Upon his departure I find more of them inside the hole. Its hard to see so I shine a light inside, see the image below to see all of them in the hole.

I counted three bees plus the one that left, I guess the males get along and dont mind sharing space. Its funny they did not just use the bee boards, maybe they wanted a tiny place to hide, those bee boards are much more deep than that little hole on my workbench.

It is now April and all the males have died, but wanted to share this video I got of them before they died off. Now just the females remain and they are still busy building homes. I will post a general Mason bee update soon as part of my spring garden updates.

LBRY Video Link

(Unsupported https://lbry.tv/$/embed/masonbeesearly/41404df70923d8ff5fa05d73aaa2dfefd1ed4149?r=3urrKhdN9iH7zyRX6cjYysCbSwPSAPus)



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2 comments
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It's a pity they died - this cold snap has been harsh :(

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no, this is normal. The male mason bees die half way through the season and the females finish off the job.

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