Time of Day for (Ground) Nest Building?

[Kimberly N. Russell]

Hi All,

For those of you who study bee nesting behavior, particularly of ground nesting bees, do you have a sense for the time of day that females are most likely to be actively searching/digging new nests? I.e., is peak nest-building activity distinct from peak foraging activity in terms of time of day? In other words, if you wanted to increase the probability of observing a ground nesting bee making a nest, when would you go out?

Thanks!
Kim
*******************************
Dr. Kimberly N. Russell (she/her/hers)

Undergraduate Program Director
Associate Professor of Teaching
Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources
Rutgers University, New Brunswick

Office: 124 ENR Building
Phone: 848 932 9383
e-mail: kimberly...@rutgers.edu
web: https://knrussellbeeteam.com
https://krussell-rutgersuniversity.youcanbook.me
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[Douglas Yanega]

On 7/8/25 8:23 AM, Kimberly N. Russell wrote:

Hi All,

For those of you who study bee nesting behavior, particularly of ground nesting bees, do you have a sense for the time of day that females are most likely to be actively searching/digging new nests? I.e., is peak nest-building activity distinct from peak foraging activity in terms of time of day? In other words, if you wanted to increase the probability of observing a ground nesting bee making a nest, when would you go out? 

My own experience (with a few mesic-habitat species, but LOTS of hours logged) is that as soon as it's warm enough for females to be flying, they will start looking for nesting spots. They don't appear to waste any time if they're able to start a nest and don't already have one.

Foraging activity starts slightly later, and trips are spread over a much longer interval; some females will wait until the afternoon to make their first foraging trip of the day, and a few females will keep going until fairly late. It's very unusual for a female to start a new nest in the afternoon, unless the morning was chilly.

The other thing is that once a nest is established, the excavation activities within nests (new tunnels or cells) usually takes place overnight. Bees rarely seem to use time when they could be foraging to be digging instead.

Others may have different experiences with other species in other habitats.

Peace,

-- 
Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314  voicemail:951-827-8704
FaceBook: Doug Yanega (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
             https://faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82

[James Cane]

Hi Kim and others- 

I agree with Doug in all that he states about ground nest starts and subsequent daily brood cell excavation. Some species will hollow out multiple brood cells in advance, but many (most?) make a new cell overnight (or once the day's new cell is finished up) to provision the following day. Work at Univ Kansas with fussy glass observation nests documented this (and probably made for bleary eyed grad students who tried to keep up with their bees!). I believe that Suzanne was the pioneer.  jim

Batra, S. W. T. 1966. The life cycle and behavior of the primitively social bee, Lasioglossum zephyrum (Halictidae). University of Kansas Science Bulletin 46:359–423.

Batra, S. W. T. 1970. Behavior of the alkali bee, Nomia melanderi, within the nest (Hymenoptera: Halictidae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 63:400–406.

Norden, B., S. W. T. Batra, H. F. Fales, A. Hefetz, and G. J. Shaw. 1980. Anthophora bees: unusual glycerides from maternal Dufour’s glands serve as larval food and cell lining. Science (Washington, D.C.) 207:1095–1097.

Roberts, R. B. 1969. Biology of the bee genus Agapostemon (Hymenoptera: Halictidae). University of Kansas Science Bulletin 48:689–719.

jim

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James H. Cane

Native bee and pollination ecologist

Emeritus USDA-ARS Bee Lab, Logan, Utah

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[Jack Neff]

Kimberly:  In my experience the time of nest initiation by ground nesting bees  can vary widely but typically occurs in the morning.  For bees which construct a single nest, nest initiation usually occurs shortly after mating so its best to be out early in the morning  as soon as the females start flying at the start of their flight season.  Things are little more complicated for species like most Diadasia where females construct multiple nest as they may initiate new nests at any time during daylight after the previous nest is closed.

Jack

John L. Neff Central Texas Melittological Institute 7307 Running Rope Austin,TX 78731 USA 512-345-7219

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