Solitary bees
Field Notes
~ by Jim Eagleman
The large blooms of our wild hydrangea plants by the porch were weighed down heavily after having flowered weeks before. Rain had contributed to their droop and bent the blossoms at odd angles. Ringed layers of little flowers added depth.
The browsed branch tips the deer left that morning didn’ t deter the bees. Bees of all sizes and shapes crawled over the blooms. Some hovered, and some landed quickly. A few flies and a fritillary also moved on them, but mostly bees. Some were so tiny I had to really look close.
These were all solitary bees, not the larger honey bees I had come to know.
An observation hive we once had at the park’ s nature center attracted many campers with questions. I learned a lot about honey bees so I could offer explanations. They gather and make honey in the stomach, then store it in communal cells for the developing young. photos by Cindy Steele
The solitary bees make up more than 90 % of the roughly 3,600 species of bees in North America. And like their name, they live alone with each female constructing a nest without any help from a swarm or colony. They live about a year, and the active adult stage lasts about three to six weeks. These insects spend the other months hidden in a nest, growing through the egg, larval, and pupal stages.
Bee activity on the hydrangea was different from what I saw with wasps and beetles. A female solitary bee could visit hundreds of flowers on her foraging trip, but she is normally there to only get the pollen. Nectar she may gather is mostly for her own energy, and some combined with pollen for the brood. In contrast, butterflies, moths, wasps, and flies visit flowers to feed on nectar and do not collect pollen.
Our native gardens, gradually gaining color and space, provide both nectar and pollen,
68 Our Brown County July / August 2026