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Sunday, April 13, 2008

Filling up the nest blocks

Look how far the girls have gotten!! Only yesterday they were buzzing about excitedly and now three holes are filled! This means that in each 6 inch deep hole she's laid up to 6 eggs, each on a pile of nectar and pollen, and separated from each other by a mud wall. She then seals the entrance with more mud and begins on another nest hole. If they keep this rate up I'll have to get another nest block!




Look at that wet mud!


This is my old, but clean, wooden nest block. Since I set it on the patio table and hadn't decided what to do with it the bees have taken it over. Guess I'll be leaving it there......

She's carrying mud!

4 comments:

NW Nature Nut said...

I got some photos of mine today, but I only have one hole plugged with mud and I certainly didn't get any photos of them carrying mud!! How cool!

Laura W. said...

I doubted it was mud at first but it can't be anything else?!? I can't see how she's carrying it but maybe the photo just didn't capture that.

Beverly said...

Laura,

This is so cool to watch, isn't it? As a kid, I once sat for hours watching a wasp bring spider after spider to the hole she’d found drilled through a large post, each stung into a deep sleep; paralyzed but alive. When she had just enough spiders, she too closed up the hole with mud. Somewhere in the nest, she also deposited an egg; the spiders would live till the egg hatched and the young wasp would dine on live food till large enough to leave home. It was fascinating… and has me wishing I’d found these http://www.highcountrygardens.com/catalog/search/products/?query=bees much earlier!

Did you make your bee-nests? Last year, I discovered huge, red-backed (and very gentle) bees living between some paper-wrapped insulation and the outside walls of a shed in my yard. I can hardly wait to offer up more proper living quarters.

Lovely post!

Kingsdowner said...

Thanks for the reminder - I was given a bee-nest and haven't put it up yet, so you've inspired me.