In the second part of this video we get a closer look at these solitary bees. I climb up on a ladder and get as close as possible while still keeping camera stability. These large bees are not aggressive, if anything they are kind of shy around me. So I use my light to get a better look at them while they are flying and landing on their homes.
The size of these bees really caught me off guard, when I first discovered them I thought I had hornets but quickly realized they were a kind of bee. Known as a Giant Resin Bee they sure got their name correct. Even their buzz is more deep and can be heard from further than a smaller Honey Bees. As they fly up I can hear their wings working hard, maybe due to the cargo they have in tow.
Giant Resin Bees use tree sap and wood pulp to make homes, we can see them carrying these bits in their mouth. In the above image that grey ball in the mouth of the bee is stuff for their home.
Sometimes they cannot fly right into their homes, they attempt to be crash and then climb up the side. I guess what they are carrying can make them kind of clusmy. They seem to flap their wings as they climb maybe helping them get more lift as they move up.
They will cling to the bee boards and walk up the sides to find their hole where they are building homes for their larva. Once they have added enough building material they will lay a larva inside along with some pollen for them to eat. And then seal up the home. They will repeat this a dozen or so times starting all the way in the back and working their way forward to the front of the holes.
The abdomen of this bee really catches my attention, its much longer than normal bees. Their overall size as well is much larger than a Honey Bee. Though still smaller than a Carpenter Bee.
Another view of a Giant Resin Bee flying over with some home building materials in its mouth. They would drop it sometimes and have to find more. Luckily this property is surrounded by woods and they have many resources to pick from.
As they depart from their home they lift their abdomen and then start flying, made a small animation of it above. I slowed it down by half so we can see it a little better. Using a 60FPS camera makes for smooth half speed video.
I was not expecting these homes to be filled up this year, since I only saw a single Mason Bee earlier in the year I did not think these boards would get much activity. But glad to see another kind of bee found them and have pretty much used every hole they could fit in to build homes. Looking forward to next year when they emerge, not sure what time of year that will be.. Probably summer time, unlike the Mason Bees that emerge early spring.
Link to my previous post on this bee discovery:
@solominer/video-of-resin-bees-making-homes-part-1