# My first season for mason bees...



## DavesBees

Omie,
That is so cool and not just because….
I have seen lots of male mason bees on my heather, coltsfoot, and snowdrops yesterday. I had a thought for releasing from tubes. Since the masons I’ve spotted are not mine, perhaps that is a good signal to put up my filled tubes. I have gotten these signals other years and for whatever reason ignored them and waited for redbud bloom. You should watch the crocuses for the little white faced males. I am putting everything up today. I like the location of your habitats and I know how much fun you and your friends will have watching these “busy little bees”.


----------



## Omie

DavesBees said:


> Omie,
> That is so cool and not just because….
> I have seen lots of male mason bees on my heather, coltsfoot, and snowdrops yesterday. I had a thought for releasing from tubes. Since the masons I’ve spotted are not mine, perhaps that is a good signal to put up my filled tubes. I have gotten these signals other years and for whatever reason ignored them and waited for redbud bloom. You should watch the crocuses for the little white faced males. I am putting everything up today. I like the location of your habitats and I know how much fun you and your friends will have watching these “busy little bees”.


Hi Dave, 
I am indeed watching for foraging wild bees on my crocuses and I'm watching for any trees to start blooming. Right now I only see crocuses blooming- absolutely nothing else yet! The forecast calls for one last cold snap the will be several days of high in 30's and lows of 16F (!) at night. So I am going to wait until that hard freeze prediction is safely past us. A couple nights in the high 20's wouldn't alarm me much but I'd hate to think of newly hatched masons with nothing to eat and trying to survive 16F for a couple of nights. 

I am starting to see foraging honeybees on warm days (not mine, sadly), but honeybees can forage much farther afield for blooms. Only another week or so to go before that last severe freeze danger is gone.
Don't worry- I'm watching conditions like a hawk and can't wait to put the cocoons out to hatch. As I've said before, in past years there have been wild mason bees in my garden, so even if my own bought cocoons don't hatch for some reason, I'm sure some neighborhood masons will find and appreciate my little motels. 
I'm very excited!

Today I am going to test the soil PH in our garden patch where 10 blueberry bushes will be planted next month. I'll likely have to adjust the PH for blueberries. I don't worry about the soon to be planted raspberry patch though- raspberries are tough.
The two berry patches will provide yet more safe blooms for my honeybees and mason bees to enjoy.


----------



## Omie

Yesterday, I put my 6 tubes of cocoons out in the lower mason bee box, alongside the two 'cans' of nesting tubes, inside the box for protection.
Tomorrow will be in the mid 50'sF, followed by about 9 more days predicted in the high 50's through the 70's (!!) Surely it will be hatching time if the cocoons I bought are alive.
If not, then I will have to wait and hope for the wild local solitary bees to find my boxes. But I have high hopes. 

My two boxes are right on the back porch near the kitchen door, and several people have already been examining and asking about them- 
First, _Jim the mailman_ who delivers our mail to the kitchen porch. Jim loves to photograph flowers closeup, and he also got a kick out of delivering my composting worms last year for my worm bin: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_9fPBEJTqGzw/Sdzycag-5yI/AAAAAAAAB48/8a-yDrtkihU/s1600-h/1st-worms-1.jpg So he loved hearing about the new little bees.
Then, _the milkman_ who delivers our milk in glass bottles every week to the milk box on the porch there. I caught him peering right into the boxes trying to see what the heck was in there.  He loved my explanation and seemed fascinated.
Also, _the lady who comes to cut my husband's hair_ every 6 weeks or so. She runs a 4H club, and she actually got all the kids to do a worm composting bin project last year after she got inspired by my worm bin. Today I told her maybe the next 4H project will have to be native bee nesting boxes.  She seemed mighty interested.


----------



## Omie

DavesBees said:


> You should watch the crocuses for the little white faced males.


Dave, do the males of the blue orchard bees also have little white 'beards'? I thought it was only the red mason bee males that had the little white fur on the face? If the blue orchard males have white beard tufts, that will be so fun!


----------



## Omie

*They're HATCHING! *

My solitary mason bee cocoons are hatching!!
After 4 days of over 50F in the nesting box, this morning I noticed one of the little mad caps was missing on one of the six cocoon tubes, and I could see the empty chamber. The mud cap had been there intact yesterday. I could faintly hear little clicking noises from the tubes...somebody was in there trying to chew there way out!

Shortly after that, I saw a couple other mud caps coming off, and when i took a flashlight and a magnifying glass, I was able to see fuzzy brown movements of a wiggling cocoon inside. By hanging around the box and checking every few minutes, I was able to watch two new adult mason bee males emerge from their cocoons! I had to be very quick with my camera, because once they exited the tube they only sat for a few moments stretching their wings before they took off flying to parts unknown! Here I thought they were supposed to hang around the box waiting for females, but no, they seemed to have an agenda. Maybe they were thirsty or just doing an orientation flight?

Anyway, I'm pretty excited to know I was responsible for adding some new little mason bees to my neighborhood. I feel lucky to have seen them be born and to have gotten any pictures at all! 
I think the rest will likely hatch later today and tomorrow. I hope to see the bees come back and hang around the nesting boxes soon. I'll be watching...


----------



## Utahbee

Omie, your high quality photos have provided a possible answer as to why the first emerging bees seem to have flown away. Looking at the last photo, you can see a cluster of pollen mites clinging to the back edge of the thorax of the male bee. There may also be a few mites scattered on the abdomen as well. The mites overwinter on the outside surfaces of the bee pupae inside the nesting tubes. When the adult bees emerge the mites attach themselves to the bees in order to hitch a ride to flower blossoms. The mites do not attack the bees but rather use them as a mode of transportation. The bees probably experience some irritation when carrying mites.

Although I have not seen published information on this, I believe that the bees will try and shake off the mites, and it could be that your bees are trying to rid themselves of the mites through flight. As you can see the mites are relatively large in size. For comparison, picture an average sized person with several dozen tarantula sized critters clinging to him.

It is important that the dormant mason bees that are being marketed throughout the county be inspected for these mites, as well as for parasitic and predatory insects. The bee populations (both managed and wild) will be healthier and the risk of introducing non-native arthropods to the region will be minimized. Mites are very easy to remove from loose cocoons by several methods, including dipping in diluted bleach solutions and desiccation through air drying.

Dale


----------



## Omie

Dale, this is amazing information- _thank you_!

And here I was marveling at all the pretty colors on that bee- when in fact the rusty red was actually a bunch of hitch-hiking mites! 

This is eye opening information. My cocoons were bought from an online garden supply place, who seem to have gotten them from Knox Cellars bees place: http://www.knoxcellars.com/Merchant5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=KCNP&Category_Code=BO The garden place also sold me the Knox 'cans' nesting sites with nesting tubes that I bought as well. Perhaps I should let them know about this issue.
I also am now in some doubt as to whether a significant portion of my cocoons in the 6 tubes hatched at all, but I need to wait another couple of weeks or so before i open up those cocoon tubes to see what there is to be seen. Once I examine the tubes for any dead unhatched bees, I will know more. I _was_ rather puzzled as to why there were no bees hanging around on the boxes after hatching. I now know that the females emerge up to a couple weeks after the males.

Do these mites drop off the bee onto flowers once the bee begins to fly about and feed?

I just did a bunch of reading about pollen mites on mason bees.
Once I get my own colony established, I plan to harvest the cocoons in the Fall and clean them using that sand method I watched on Youtube. Then I can store them safely over the winter in a pest-free state.
But alas- no colony yet!
Hopefully there are still some live females in the cocoon tubes that will emerge in another week or two.


----------



## Utahbee

Some mites will drop off but a few will usually remain with the female bees to re-infest the new nests and start the cycle over again. The best solution is to have clean cocoons before the bees emerge in the spring.

I have contacted several national suppliers of blue orchard bees in the past about this issue and they always tell me that they can't afford the time and effort required to clean up mite contaminated pupae. At a retail cost of a dollar or more per bee that excuse is hard to believe.

Dale


----------



## Omie

Yes I agree there is no excuse considering the price they get for cocoons!
What makes it worse is that the pollen mites will result in fewer live bees per tube, so you are getting even less for your money than you may be thinking when they state that each tube has 'typically' a certain number of cocoons in it.

Well I am counting on doing my own bee raising and cocoon cleaning, once I get a small established colony going. Hopefully some masons will be attracted to lay in my boxes this season- whether they bee from the ones I bought or from local ones living in my area.

Thank you for your posts, very helpful!


----------



## Omie

YAY! Things are happening!

A few days ago I watched two male mason bees emerge from the cocoon tubes and fly off.

Today, I observed at least two female mason bees emerge and fly off too. They were much larger than the males, and bluish charcoal-black.

BUT....there are at least two OTHER female solitary bees coming and going while all this emerging was going on- they look different than the blue mason females, they look a bit fuzzier and more medium brown. I will have to work with the photos from my camera to see if I got any decent photos- they are so quick when they come and go!
I saw at least two of these visiting females at the same time, zooming in and going right into the new clean tubes, then coming back out a minute later and flying off again. I saw they had bright yellow pollen on the underside of their abdomen, and were bringing it into the tube of their choice. They were coming back repeatedly to the same chosen tubes they liked. Perhaps later tonight I can sort through the batch of mostly useless photos I nabbed.  I hope to be able to positively identify them soon. (Or- do female blue orchards look bluish black at emergence and then turn a brownish as they fly around?)

I am so thrilled!! Solitary bees are coming to my boxes!!

I have fresh shallow water and also some nice soggy mud set out nearby for them.


----------



## Omie

Ok, I managed to get a couple of photos of these fast moving little bees as they are coming and going from my two nesting boxes with tubes. It sure is hard to catch them in time as they whizz by! 

I saw another female blue orchard bee emerge from the cocoon tube today.

Quite a few solitary bees are busy going in and out of the brand new nesting tubes. I see two apparently distinct species. The blue orchards are easy to identify, with their beautiful metallic blue black coloring.
But there are also warm brown colored solitary bees using the tubes as well. They are more similar in appearance to honeybees, but are a softer muted brown and rather fuzzy. They don't seem to have very contrasting abdomen stripes...it a softer peach fuzz appearance with no bright colors.

Here are two blue orchard females using the tubes in Davesbees' drilled wooden nesting box: 



















Here is a blue orchard mason female using a tube in the _can o' tubes_ setup I bought:









The photos of the brown bees are in the next post....


----------



## Omie

Here is a slightly unfocused shot of the mystery species brownish solitary bee going into her favorite tube.... you can also see the feet of a blue orchard bee just visible in another tube:









And here the brown bee says Hello from her little tube parlor:









I would love to know what species of bee the brownish ones are. There are several of them nesting right alongside the blue orchard masons. I live in New York state, east of the Albany area, near the Mass. border. Can anyone help me identify it?- I will try to take some clearer photos soon.


----------



## Utahbee

The brown bee in your photos looks like _Osmia_ _taurus_ to me. Someone familiar with mason bees of the northeast should be able to verify or correct this identification.
Dale


----------



## Omie

Hi Dale,
thank you! I looked at all the photos online for Northeastern region masons and it does indeed look the most like _Osmia taurus_. I suppose it's possible it is _cornifrons_, and I will look more closely for horns, but really my brown bees do look exactly like the pix of _O.taurus_ I am seeing online.
I was interested to discover that both those species are Asian invasives, and both are now established in the northeast here.
I will continue to investigate further and take more pictures, but will go with the tentative ID of _O.taurus_ for now.
Thank you so much for your help. 
Despite the invasive issue, I still think it's cool to have two different species in my boxes.

I am a bit surprised that _C.taurus_ has no common name, the way _O.cornifrons_ has (horn-faced bee).
So..._I will invent one_!


----------



## Omie

I took a little video this morning of my two types of mason bees coming and going from my nesting sites on the kitchen porch...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zkagSVQBrg


----------



## beedeetee

Today I went out to clean out my old tubes. I left the cocoons in the tubes and let them hatch out that way. It has been about a month since they started hatching.

Well, I was opening a tube to see why it didn't hatch and a mature bee popped out. She sat there for a minute and then flew off. As I opened more straws I released 4 more bees. 

The others I carried over to the box where my tubes are. As I was carrying my last Mason Bee over I saw this:

(WARNING...this is X-rated)


















I had heard of the "white faced males" but I hadn't seen them. It took him about 2 minutes to find her.


----------



## Omie

*Shocking!!!*  

lol!

Hey, _great_ photos of the 'happy event'!


----------



## DavesBees

What kind of birds are those again. The first photo is great for the comparing the difference between the males and females.

Update: 17 of 27 tubes are plugged already and I drilled and stuffed another 22 hole block for them.


----------



## Omie

Dave what birds are you talking about?

I bet next year I will have the same kind of big population of solitary bees that you are now experiencing!


----------



## DavesBees

I was referring to the monkey dancing critters in the two photos above.opcorn:


----------



## Omie

Today was the day of my first blue orchard mason bee nesting tube being filled and plugged with mud...YAY! I watched the female finishing up the outer mud plug....


----------



## johng

I now have several holes completly sealed up with mud. It is pretty cool. But, I still have not saw the bee that is doing the work. I did notice some bright green small bees working a flower the other day in the backyard. Which I am pretty sure was a local mason bee.


----------



## BobOlallaWa

Always nice to see the first hole get plugged. The other bees are not far behind so maybe tomorrow a few more plugs and new holes started. 
My bees have only flown a few days, the weather cooled down and it has been raining so not much going on. I changed out my plastic honeycomb setups with the heavy cardboard straws. I upset the ladies but had to make the change. They had only a couple pollen globs so it wasn't too bad. I lost a lot of eggs last year to mites. When I was cleaning the holes yesterday it was very depressing hence the change. Hopefully in the 60's and sun tomorrow so I will be able to see if they take to the new homes.


----------



## chrissv

I put up a nesting block the first of April, and so far haven't seen any interest or activity.



But then I didn't have any cocoons to "prime" the situation with.

I am still hoping!

Here are the details: http://stevensbees.blogspot.com/2010/04/more-bees-sort-of.html


----------



## Omie

johng said:


> I now have several holes completly sealed up with mud. It is pretty cool. But, I still have not saw the bee that is doing the work.


I bet if you stand in front of the holes for about 10-15 minutes on a warm sunny day of over 55F, you will see who is coming and going there! I don't have many females yet (maybe 10 or 12?) compared to some longer established folks, but I still can see about one female come to the blocks every 2 minutes or so.


----------



## Omie

BobOlallaWa said:


> I lost a lot of eggs last year to mites. When I was cleaning the holes yesterday it was very depressing hence the change.


I think it was wise for you to change to the paper/cardboard straw setup. Are you lining them with parchment paper as well? That makes the hygiene routine even easier. Watch Dave's video. You can buy cooking parchment paper at any big kitchen store, and sometimes at supermarkets too.
Anyway, good luck with your change of habitat, I hope the bees just move right in.


----------



## Omie

chrissv said:


> I put up a nesting block the first of April, and so far haven't seen any interest or activity....
> I am still hoping!


Do you have water and a source of mud nearby for them? I read about how water 'bee baths' will attract bees and insects of all kinds to your yard. Just make sure there are stones or twigs for them to climb out if they fall in the water.

The nesting blocks should face the morning sun. I can see my little mason bees' faces sticking out of the tubes in the cold morning, trying to get warm in the first sun rays....it's too cute!


----------



## chrissv

Omie said:


> Do you have water and a source of mud nearby for them?


I have a honey bee waterer nearby (about 30 feet away) as I have 2 hives in my backyard; and my wife has a birdbath closer. As for mud, I have a flower bed about 20 feet away, but that's not exactly "mud."

Do you recommend I keep a watered dirt pot nearby (kept in a "mud" condition)?

Thanks,

Steven


----------



## Omie

chrissv said:


> Do you recommend I keep a watered dirt pot nearby (kept in a "mud" condition)?


As i found out, there is a big difference between damp garden _soil_ and ..._mud_.
_Mud_ has a high clay content, little organic matter, and will dry very hard. Rich garden _soil_ will not dry hard packed, it'll stay crumbly.
Try to find some dirt road or place with muddy ruts (even dry hard mud) and gather up a pan of it and keep it damp for the bees.
http://www.pollinatorparadise.com/solitary_bees/mudholes.htm#mud_holes
http://solitarybee.com/blog/2010/03/2010-mason-bees-are-emerging/

butterflies may enjoy sipping the moisture and mineral salts from a pan of mud as well. 
It can't hurt to put out some mud offerings for our insect friends!


----------



## Utahbee

The blue orchard bees in my area (northern Utah) are very fond of grape hyacinth flowers and actively utilize them until as long as they are in bloom. These short perennials have become "weeds" on many properties yet they provide a good source of early spring pollen for many bee species. Dale


----------



## DavesBees

Omie,
This is such a great thread. You have done an excellent job answering questions and providing links to important related information. So…. On behalf of the bees and those who wish to enjoy them…Thank You!
Steven,
Great tip on your blog about the drill bits. I paid full price at the giant lumber store. A full set on ebay would have saved me a nice chunk of change.
Dale,
I knew about the grape hyacinth but your post has convinced me to get some.
Update:
Of 27 holes only 4 are not plugged and they are being used. They are also refilling the tubes in my release box and old non lined holes in blocks under the chicken house. I also have them working in my emergency block I drilled and filled the other day. This has been the most active year so far, particularly this early in the season.


----------



## Omie

Thanks Dave, you are too kind. 
Sounds like you are getting overwhelmed there- you should start selling bee setups to people near you through ads like maybe in Craigslist.

My little bees are still active, but only 3 tubes are filled and plugged so far. But they are actively going and coming every sunny day, bringing in pollen and mud bits. I think i only have about 10 or so adult bees altogether. But I'm happy with that! I'm still interested to see whether some other bee species later discovers the box with the smaller holes that you made, Dave. So far no one checks it out. But bees are using your other regular block- just the blue masons, not the smaller Osmia taurus.


----------



## Omie

Well, now that we've been having some incredibly warm days of 75-85F and sun, my mason bee houses have been bustling!
This evening I counted FOURTEEN tubes filled and plugged with mud so far, and no end to the activity in sight. :thumbsup:
I still see two species very active- _Osmia lignaria_ (blue orchard mason), and the smaller what looks to be _Osmia taurus_ (an asian import mason)....they seem to be equally present and active, and don't seem to mind nesting right next to each other in the various tubes.

I also saw an evil little predator wasp who came along, backed into an empty tube and waited, with it's head looking out. Then a mason bee came along and was half way through closing the last mud plug on a tube, when...
the little black and yellow wasp (about the same size as the mason bee, but more slender) came out of its hiding place and crept right up to the mason bee at work and inched over almost on top of her. At this point i couldn't stand it and flicked the wasp away with my finger! I just KNEW somehow that wasp was going to put an egg in the tube as soon as the bee went for a new bit of mud. :waiting:
Well it just gives me more thought in considering harvesting and cleaning the cocoons with sand in the Fall before storing them over the winter.

Dave, there are three plugged tubes now in your larger holed block, and one blue mason setting up housekeeping in the small holed 'leafcutter block'- actually chewing and removing a bit of paper to its liking (!). Makes me think why doesn't it just use the larger tubes in the other blocks? :scratch: 

Most are seeming to prefer the medium sized holes (mama bear size as in Goldilocks) of the cans of cardboard tubes. But I have no doubt they are all going to continue filling tubes in all three bee houses. It's fun to compare what they all do!

I'm pretty thrilled with having little mini 'bee hives' on the kitchen porch where we sit and eat in the summertime.  So pleasant when they come and go with their little hums.


----------



## Omie

Counted _19_ plugged tubes today....woo-HOOO!!


----------



## BobOlallaWa

Omie, I am happy for you. My area has had very bad weather for Mason bees this year. I first started seeing them the last week of March, not many and only a few hours of the day. Well it is the 1st week in May and not counting about 4 days the bees still only fly a couple hours mid afternoon and some days not at all. I have a few holes filled in my old 4x4 system but with the new 6 inch holes none have yet been capped. Lots of bees flying when the temp is right, the rest of the time they are sitting in the holes staring back at me when I am checking on them. It didn't help that I changed from the plastic honeycomb blocks to the cardboard tubes in April. Normally I would have well over half my holes plugged by now and I usually have at least a couple hundred or so when they are finished. I do see them using the grooves in my siding at the top trim board so I know it isn't like I don't have many bees around. Heck I still have one apple tree just starting to break bud and the other one is about half done. I really need a week of good weather or no apples and not many bees for next year.


----------



## Omie

Take heart Bob,
Note that between the time I posted that i had 3 tubes filled and today when 19 were full...it was only nine days. Once we got a few 80f sunny days, they really took off full blast.
My bees seem to be 50/50 the two species. Not sure that's great, since _Osmia taurus_ was an Asian import here and now is common in the northeast, but they seem to be coexisting in the tubes pretty well with the blue orchard masons. I can't hate the little import- she can't help it! 

I bet with your cool weather the bees' metabolism slows down and 'waits for' the warmer weather to continue laying. I had the same feeling that nothing was going to happen much, but others kept telling me the bees would really get going when the weather turned warm...and they did. Have faith!


----------



## DavesBees

My bees are not behaving. They are still going in and out of the two release boxes. My nest block only has a couple of tubes left open. I have not seen any leaf cutter bees in the smaller tubes.


----------



## Omie

DavesBees said:


> My bees are not behaving. They are still going in and out of the two release boxes. My nest block only has a couple of tubes left open. I have not seen any leaf cutter bees in the smaller tubes.


Sounds like your bees are doing _great_!

Dave, I haven't seen any leafcutter bees yet either. Just the two species I mentioned. There is one blue mason female who chewed some of the paper from a particular tube in the small-holed leafcutter block you made for me, and she is going in and out of that one hole.
There are 4 holes plugged in your regular mason block here, being used by blue masons only. _plenty_ of activity going on.

Here is a little video I made this morning...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jhcccbMdZw


----------



## DavesBees

Nice video. I don't think I have any of the brown bees in my blocks. They really showed up nice in your video. I think next season you are going to be in for a bit of a surprise when all those bees start nesting again.


----------



## BobOlallaWa

Well 10 days have past since I last posted. Our weather has improved and the Mason bees have been busy. There are now 47 holes capped and the bees are still very active. They must not use up life cycle days while loafing around in the holes. I saw active bees the end of March and they still are really flying today. I just may get some apples and a new crop of bees next year. The trees are about finished blooming but lots of flowers around the yard for the bees to finish up their work.


----------



## Omie

Yes! I just knew your bees would get real active as soon as you got warm sunny weather, Bob! 47 tubes filled?? that's GREAT!
I have 35 filled as of this morning, and they are still active too. 
Amazing little creatures.

My mailman who comes to our kitchen porch where the mason bee houses are loves to check out the boxes. _He won't go anywhere near my honeybee hives_, but he says he really likes my little mason bees....he knows they won't sting.


----------



## Seattleite

BobOlallaWa: A agree, it's been a bad season for mason bees here in Seattle as well. 

I started with 350+ cocoons in March in various emergence boxes. Of the 350 cocoons, only 50 females stayed to nest--the rest either dispersed or died. because all but about 10 cocoons were viable.

I've been counting the nesting female population at night, with a flashlight. I started with 50 in the first week of April when most emerged, but as of May 18th I'm down to only 24 females in the various houses/condos at night.

Last year my population grew by 7x. This year I hope it just breaks even. Even with 350 cocoons, I still have only 75 completed tubes so far. Bob, how many bees did you start with, and what type of emergence method did you use?

To readers in other parts of the country, Seattle had a very cool and wet spring in 2010. Cold/windy/showery and 54 degrees for weeks on end = not good bee conditions, wherever you are.


----------



## BobOlallaWa

Seattleite: I am not sure how many bees I started with this spring. Somewhere between 3 and 5 hundred 4 to 6 inch holes I would guess. I had some partly filled blocks of plastic honeycomb material I set out inside a larger box for emergence . Even though the bees filled those holes, there were lots of holes that didn't produce bees. I also have 4, 4x4 blocks with around 100 holes in each. This year I didn't enclose them (but will next spring) so they are reusing those holes this year also. I set out a bunch of the cardboard tubes and one 6x6 block with paper inserts. Right now I have between 95 and 100 capped holes in the new tubes and 6x6, as the past few days were sunny and warm. They are also reusing the 4x4's and under the wrap board at the top of siding on the garage and house end so lots of activity. Now it is rain and 50 again so not looking so good for many more holes to be filled this year. When it was nice the bees were fighting at the tubes. I had lots of bees around the holes at a time and they were not at all happy with each other. I will need to make more houses to have the tubes spread out so there aren't so many bees using the same area at the same time. I have been playing around with these guys for a few years. Adding new 4x4's each year and giving starter sets to friends so they could also enjoy them. I am getting rid of the plastic honeycomb (a very expensive lesson that was) and the 4x4 systems and will be using the paper tubes and the 6x6 with paper liners so everything can be kept clean. I thought I was helping the little guys by providing homes when in fact not so much. I will still provide friends and kids with small pieces of 6x6 or 2x6 with liners so they can enjoy them and provide bees for their area.


----------



## Omie

I plan to use the sand method for cleaning my cocoons this winter.
I know there are pests lurking about.

Lately i have seen a little wasp going in and out of the tubes in my nesters, and I'm pretty sure it must be a mason wasp. It's small and quite slender, mostly black with a black abdomen with thin bright yellow undulating stripes on it. It's a pretty and graceful little thing, looks a lot like this: http://whileyphoto.net/data/thumbnails/flies/mason-wasp-(ancistrocerus-nigricornis).jpg I'm assuming it is just using the tubes for nesting and not laying its eggs in the bee egg chambers like parasitic flies do. I read it hunts out insects and caterpillars etc, paralyzes them, and puts them in with its egg...no pollen 'bread' involved. This little wasp does not match the pix of mason bee parasitic wasps I see online.

Anyone have more info on this?


----------



## Omie

My mason bees seem to be winding down now, only seeing one bee come by once in a while.
Now to let the houses alone so the eggs and larvae can develop into bees inside the tubes.
I'll take the houses down in the late Fall and see what there is to be seen.
I must have over 50 filled tubes, which includes the two species I attracted.


----------



## DavesBees

Omie,
Mine are about done as well. I have no idea how many I have back in all my release boxes. They didn’t see the one way signs I put up. I got no leafcutter bees at all. The leaf cutter block has been used by smaller mason bees. They did take time to trim out some of the paper tube at the entrance on one hole. It must have been deformed or something. I still have a few holes open of both sizes so we will see if there are any more takers. Watch for holes that have been covered with a smooth mud cap.....wasps. If you clean them they don't look anything like the masons. I don't clean mine but I may peak in a tube or two. I don't really care who moves in and I'm satisfied with my sucess. I think I could build one of those bee walls and they would fill it! I really like your blog.


----------



## BobOlallaWa

The Mason bees here are finished as well. It was not the best year, but looks like I will have plenty of bees for next year. I sent most of the tubes away to a guy who kills the mites with a controlled temperature of around 80*. He will send back new empty tubes and bees early next spring. Hope that works, as I had lots of mites this spring.


----------



## Seattleite

Bob, Dave, and Omie - can you share your end-of-year observations on how your populations of bees did?


----------



## BobOlallaWa

Well I think the bees came back strong at the end. Lots of holes filled, not sure they were all full or just capped off. I would say not quite as good as last year but should have plenty of bees for this next year. Not much fruit on the trees but not the bees fault, the weather was very bad during the bloom.


----------



## Omie

Well, 2010 was my first year for putting up mason bee houses.
I had three blocks up:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_9fPBEJTqG.../6NzhYHleHkY/s1600/three-houses-April2010.jpg
The favorite nesting spot was for some reason the lower can in the middle box, which had about 70 tubes in each can. But some other tubes were filled randomly in the other boxes too.

I had bought 6 tubes of blue orchard mason bees, but I'd estimate that only about half of the cocoons hatched (I opened them up in early Fall to see inside the purchased tubes)- that would have yielded about 15 live bees total, maybe 4-6 females perhaps?
Anyway, I saw several blue orchards females filling tubes, and also quite a few little brown fuzzy _Osmia taurus_ masons were actively filling tubes as well- so they were already in my area.

Altogether I'd say I must have about 50-60 tubes full, of both species. A few were nibbled into later on (wasps?) but the chicken wire kept any birds out for sure. I assume the wasps only damaged the outer male cocoons on those tubes.
This means I am going to have a lot more bees around next Spring, assuming they winter ok.
I'm hoping to get a few leaf cutter bees next year, but didn't see any this year.

I plan to remove the boxes and store the full tubes in my unheated garage for the winter, protected from ice storms and freezing rain and snow. But I'm not putting them in there yet because it's not consistently cold enough yet- the garage is still a bit too warm from the sun mid-day. A couple more weeks I think, then it will be cold all the time.  I will put fresh paper in the tubes for next year's nesting.


----------



## woodinvilledave

There is no excuse for shipping unclean cocoons. I agree, for the price one pays for mason bee cocoons, you should expect to receive quality cocoons.

I've been working with several commercial mason bee producers and buyers; for now we've agreed upon these standards:

· A+ : no pests, 2:1 M/F ratio, controlled 6 month wintering at 4C, 39F ±1F
· A : <2% pests, *2:1 M/F ratio, controlled 6 month wintering at 4C, 39F ±1F
· B+ : <5% pests, 2:1 M/F ratio, controlled 6 month wintering at 4C, 39F ±1F
· B : <5% pests, 2:1 M/F ratio
· Common – No pest check, no M/F ratio check

When buying, I'd track down who cares. 

Dave, Crown Bees


----------



## Omie

I agree, Dave.

With a little bit of luck, and barring some sort of disaster that kills off all my cocoons over the winter, I don't anticipate having to buy any more blue orchard cocoons now. 
I may try some horn-faced bees (possibly through you?) for this Spring -I think they are normally found in the northeast, correct? 
I'm also hoping to attract some local wild leafcutter bees to my blocks one way or another.


----------



## woodinvilledave

Yes Omie, I will have hornfaced available to send out to the NE. We don't have many. :waiting: To track down people east of the Rockies who would like to help raise hornfaced (and eastern blue orchard bees) would be nice!

Dave


----------



## rwurster

Sometimes when I'm splitting old stumps and wood I pick up for winter fuel I come across native bee cocoons. Usually I toss them in a cardboard box and then put them out in the spring. 

Out of curiosity, is there a way to tell the difference between a male blue orchard bee cocoon and a female blue orchard bee cocoon? If so how can one tell the difference and, similarly, what about hornfaced and leafcutter bee cocoons. Any way to tell the difference between the sexes of those cocoons also.


----------



## woodinvilledave

rwurster - yes, it's quite easy. in general, the males are small cocoons and the females the larger. You should have about a 2:3 F:M ratio. (when you weigh all the females against all the males, it should be about the same weight.)

Hornfaced should be a lighter brown cocoon.
M/F for hornfaced are similar to above.

Leafcutters are very obvious... instead of mud, they bring in bits of leaves.


----------



## woodinvilledave

for better cocoon pictures... go to my website and look at the pictures in the harvesting section under gardener.

http://crownbees.com

Dave


----------



## Jaseemtp

are these bees in Texas? I am near Fort Worth. I have seen a metalic green bee working the dandelions


----------



## woodinvilledave

Jaseemtp - 
there are thousands of native insects across the US. We know of just a few that are "manageable." ...they use straws or a hive that we can move around. There are many more that can't be moved and are best left in the wild. 

There are both hornfaced and blue orchard bees in Texas... they both survive there just fine.

Dave


----------



## bjoynes

I noticed on Woodinvilledave website that it said that the mason bees do not like humid states such as Florida and Missouri, what about TN?

Thanks

Bryn


----------

