There has been alot of crunching sounds coming from these cocoons. As the bees chew their way out of what they spun in the autumn I can hear them. And eventually they work their way to the outside of the cocoon. I usually first just see their mouth parts, and then as they open up more they usually start sticking their head out. Eventually they will work their way completely out of the cocoon and start their life as adult bees. Glad to see most of my cocoons I harvested have made it. Looking like it will be a good year for the Mason bees.
 Camera Model | Lumix GH3 |
|---|---|
 Lens | Olympus MSC ED M. 60mm Macro lens |
 Filter | none |
 Aperture | f/13 |
 Shutter Speed | 1/3 sec |
 Film Speed | 1600 |
 Spectrum | Visual Light |
 Wavelength | 380 through 700 nanometers |
 Location | North Georgia USA. |
Seeing their mouth parts chew through the cocoon it seems like it takes them all day or longer just to chew an opening. Sometimes the cocoon will roll over as they are working on opening it up.
A compound eye looking back at me, enough of the cocoon has been opened to start seeing inside. But they need to open it alot more to fit their body through the cocoon. The females are bigger and need even more space to be opened up to exit their cocoons.
A bee leg can be seen sticking out of the picture above, sometimes they will roll around in the cocoon to get a better position for chewing their way out. I also see them using their legs to push the cocoon flap open.
Bee antennae can be seen, along with its mouth parts and its eye in the above image. At this point it should only take it a few more hours to exit the cocoon.
Once they emerge they will exit the enclosures that holds the cocoons. Usually they will go collect some nectar to eat and then return for mating.
They tend to mate close to where they hatched from, and then they will use the bee boards I built for them to start construction of mud homes for their larva. And the whole cycle will repeat all over again.
Addresses below to help me buy better camera equipment and support me to travel to locations to do photo and video and overall great blogs in new places.
| Coin | Address |
|---|---|
 BTC: | bc1qhfmvd2gywg4fvrgy2kkkkyqta0g86whkt7j8r7 |
 LTC: | ltc1qdyzm5cwgt8e2373prx67yye6y9ewk0l8jf3ys9 |
 DASH: | XkSqR5DxQL3wy4kNbjqDbgbMYNih3a7ZcM |
 ETH: | 0x045f409dAe14338669730078201888636B047DC3 |
 DOGE: | DSoekC21AKSZHAcV9vqR8yYefrh8XcX92Z |
 ZEN: | znW9mh62WDSCeBXxnVLCETMx59Ho446HJgq |