Bee Life ... *Macro Pictures

Every year the orange tail resin bees wake up with the warming sun and the moisture of spring rain.

These may all be female bees, mostly found by the nest – a hotel made of a log drilled for their use.

Their primary use seems to be to lay eggs, along with a little food bomb for the larva that will bee.

Another use is protection at night, somewhere to sleep away from all the predators in the garden.

The males live and sleep somewhere else in the garden, not too far away but still a mystery.

Once the bee cycle is underway and some eggs are sealed up in the nest a wasp turns up.

She, the wasp, is also laying eggs, in the bees nest. Her young will take advantage …

And so it goes, one thing dependant on another thing, until completion.

An end that is not ‘just’ another beginning.

But a beginning … without end.

Hmmm …

*

Hello world … Breaking out of the nest after a long winter, it’s time to get to work. My little brave bee, instinctively …

Time to stretch out, on the wall of the hotel, orientation time perhaps. The sky lightening behind, it’s a new world.

Spring cleaning, a relative that didn’t get through the winter is pushed to recycling. Thorough little housekeeper bee.

She lines the nest with resin for protection, some gets spilt on the way in, and she enters backwards to lay an egg.

Not quite finished, she goes to sleep the best she can. Not the safest position in a house full of geckos, but she stings … I know.

On her way to replenishing the earth with bees, one on the other in a deep dark chamber, here sealing up the first nest entrance.

And what’s this, one greeting another to the new world, male looking for a mate, or just saying hello. They talk to one another …

And in case anyone thinks a bee is fragile, I’ll have you know she’s fierce as a lion to protect her ways. Gentle too …

*

The wasp appeared, at first no threat it seems, no ovipositor I see. A male perhaps, or just young. Found below the bee hotel.

Here she is in fuller form, ovipositor held aloft behind, sitting on the hotel wall, listening for the signs that tell where to …

This is where, where else … She found a place to lay her egg, a bees nest clear as day. The sheath of her delivery rises.

And this is how it goes – the bee does her work and the wasp does hers too, so it turns. Everybody has its time …

Some work for resin, others for the meat, each is born of the earth. Mothers all … except the males of course.

Macromeds wrote:

Every year the orange tail resin bees wake up with the warming sun and the moisture of spring rain.

These may all be female bees, mostly found by the nest – a hotel made of a log drilled for their use.

Their primary use seems to be to lay eggs, along with a little food bomb for the larva that will bee.

Another use is protection at night, somewhere to sleep away from all the predators in the garden.

The males live and sleep somewhere else in the garden, not too far away but still a mystery.

Once the bee cycle is underway and some eggs are sealed up in the nest a wasp turns up.

She, the wasp, is also laying eggs, in the bees nest. Her young will take advantage …

And so it goes, one thing dependant on another thing, until completion.

An end that is not ‘just’ another beginning.

But a beginning … without end.

Hmmm …

*

Hello world … Breaking out of the nest after a long winter, it’s time to get to work. My little brave bee, instinctively …

Time to stretch out, on the wall of the hotel, orientation time perhaps. The sky lightening behind, it’s a new world.

Spring cleaning, a relative that didn’t get through the winter is pushed to recycling. Thorough little housekeeper bee.

She lines the nest with resin for protection, some gets spilt on the way in, and she enters backwards to lay an egg.

Not quite finished, she goes to sleep the best she can. Not the safest position in a house full of geckos, but she stings … I know.

On her way to replenishing the earth with bees, one on the other in a deep dark chamber, here sealing up the first nest entrance.

And what’s this, one greeting another to the new world, male looking for a mate, or just saying hello. They talk to one another …

And in case anyone thinks a bee is fragile, I’ll have you know she’s fierce as a lion to protect her ways. Gentle too …

*

The wasp appeared, at first no threat it seems, no ovipositor I see. A male perhaps, or just young. Found below the bee hotel.

Here she is in fuller form, ovipositor held aloft behind, sitting on the hotel wall, listening for the signs that tell where to …

This is where, where else … She found a place to lay her egg, a bees nest clear as day. The sheath of her delivery rises.

And this is how it goes – the bee does her work and the wasp does hers too, so it turns. Everybody has its time …

Some work for resin, others for the meat, each is born of the earth. Mothers all … except the males of course.

Excellent! Never seen these sub-species before. Thanks for sharing.

Wow, you just keep getting better...

Fascinating and beautifully done.

Thank you.

Stephen

In addition to seconding the kudos for storytelling, I salute your persistence and patience--you must have been keeping your eye on the wintering spot for a good long while!

Cheers,

Rick

Great stuff. The first one look like she's peeking out a window, looking around at this new world of hers.

A real joy to look at these photos...

Thanks for sharing.