Red Mason Bee update

The week after spotting the little Red Mason bee constructing her mud cell, I noticed the chamber had already been sealed up. Apparently since the females are only around for 20 days, they're quick workers and can build a cell in 1-2 days. In bee terms, this requires about 20 trips to gather mud, not to mention the countless flower trips to gather pollen for each chamber.

Each nest contains around 5 chambers with an individual pollen store and an egg in each chamber. The first few chambers of the nest contain female eggs, and the last two or three house the male (unfertilised) eggs. This ensures the males to emerge first in the Spring once temperatures are above 10⁰C, allowing them to fly constantly between the various nests nearby and be the first to meet and mate with the emerging females.

The Mason bee larvae hatch after a couple of days and will feed on the stored pollen and nectar for the next 10 days or so. They then spin a cocoon and pupate within the cocoon inside their chamber.  

Towards the end of Summer, they transform into the adult stage (called an imago) but will remain cosy in their cocoon throughout the Winter before emerging in Spring. As I'm hoping to move before the end of the year, I won't get to see these little ones emerge, but once I have a garden of my own again I'll be adding plenty of bee hotels and bee bricks in the hope of witnessing this wonder for myself.

Good luck little ones!