Beengineers

Sorry to those of you who have been visiting this blog. I could not get good internet service to post during the weekend. I know I told you that I use an otoscope to peek into the bee nests to see if they are being used. When the female bees use the nests they are filling the sticks up with babies. Here is how is goes down: mama finds a good home, she goes out and gathers pollen and nectar, she forms what is called a pollen ball (pollen with a little nectar added to keep it round), she lays and egg. Here is a photo of the pollen ball with a bee egg on it (photo from Robin Thorp: www.vernalpools.org/Thorp/)…

Once the female bee does this she goes out again and gathers different types of materials like leaf, small rocks, soil, plant resins, soil, etc. and makes a wall above the pollen ball. The cycle just repeats until she fills the stick with babies. Once she is done she needs to protect her babies, so she forms a wall at the opening of the nest to keep intruders out. Depending on the species of bee, each will use material they find suitable for the job…

Some use small rocks from the ground…

Some use soil from the ground…

Others prefer using plant resin…

Leaf cutter bees will wrap their babies in leaf cuttings and close the entrance with leaf cutting like so…

They are creative insects and they don’t even have engineering or architect degrees. Now who says bees are dumb creatures??