It has now been a few weeks with all the cocoons out in the open, hundreds of bees have emerged. Mostly males right now, but I am starting to see some females too. My Kale flowers are getting a lot of attention from the Mason bees and the Carpenter bees. Maybe its one of the few plants in bloom so early, as the Peach tree flowers probably got frozen with our recent cold day.
Though as the days warmed back up everything became active again. And now lots of pollinators are out and about.
 Camera Model | Lumix GH6 |
|---|---|
 Lens | Olympus MSC ED M. 60mm Macro lens |
 Filter | none |
 Aperture | f/13 |
 Shutter Speed | 1/125 sec |
 Film Speed | 200 |
 Spectrum | Visual Light |
 Wavelength | 380 through 700 nanometers |
 Location | North Georgia USA. |
The large Carpenter bees will cling to the flowers and feed from the opening or from the side.
Jumping from flower to flower they are quite busy visiting all of them.
The large Carpenter bees are much easier subjects than the Mason bees. The larger bees tend to stick around longer where the Mason bees only spend around 5 seconds on each flower. Using my macro lens its hard to follow them sometimes.
Here we have a Mason bee feeding on a Kale flower, these bright yellow petals really stick out and attract pollinators from all around.
They flap their wings to get a better grip on the petals sometimes. And I am lucky to get a good picture of them as busy as they are.
As the sun light passes through these perennials flowers it really looks like spring is well on its way.
Great to see two kinds of solitary bees on my flowers, have not seen many Honey bees just yet. But I did notice a few so they are indeed out and about.
The two bees mostly get along, though sometimes the Mason bee clings to the Carpenter bee and drops them from the plant.
Large and small they look quite different next to each other, but both are solitary bees meaning they do not have hives but instead build their own homes.
The Mason bee pictured is probably a male, as its smaller and early in the season where most of the Mason bee males first emerge.
Last week was the first time this year I saw the Carpenter bees out and about, they must know winter is wrapping up around where I live.
Its fun watching them all and they do not seem to mind me at all.
Hopefully these Kale flowers provide them with enough nectar until the larger trees around bloom. Soon enough my Blueberry bushes will fully blossom giving them another nectar source.
The Mason bees also travel from flower to flower, but seem to be more picky than the Carpenter bees that just land where ever and just start feeding. Maybe the smaller Mason bee requires a certain blossom stage to benefit.
After awhile the flowers will close and start forming seeds.
The amount of seeds produced by the Kale plants is quite amazing, and it self seeds quite well all around the plant.
Some of the flower stalks have bent over and are laying on the ground, but these bees seem fine with that.
I have to be careful not to step on them, as sometimes the bees are just walking around until they get their wings all formed. Seems like the first few hours or days they tend to walk around instead of fly.
We can see some of the spent flowers in the above picture, after awhile they will form a bean pod like structure full of seeds.
Great to see their little fuzz all over, they have a lot more hair than Honey bees.
So over the next few weeks the females will emerge, and the males will mate with them. Eventually leaving just the females to build homes. Every female Mason bee is a queen and can lay many larva in their homes.
My bee boards are out and ready for them, so just looking forward to what blooms and to see what draws their attention.
Hopefully I will get many Blueberries again this year and will give me alot of fruit to eat over the next few months. These bees prove to be a great utility to growing fruit.
They may be tiny, but are quite efficient pollinators. They cover their body in pollen and make it really easy to cross pollinate the flowers they visit.
And its really fun just observing them, as soon as the sun comes up and its warm outside they get to work. Only taking a break when its night time, or too cold or rainy.