The cocoons (see previous photos) began to hatch on April 18th. This female mason bee will find flowers so she can eat nectar. She will mate and lay her eggs in a cell provisioned with nectar and pollen for the larvae to live on. The cell is then plugged with mud. The bees then die. The whole emergence-to-death cycle lasts about ten weeks. The larvae spin a brown tough silken cocoon, where they turn into adults. They spend the winter as adults in dormancy, waking up in spring and chewing their way out of their cocoons and the whole cycle starts again.
