Mason Bees Are Easy, Homegrown Pollinators for Your Garden

Invest in a kit for a fun project to support your plants and native species

Gardeners are becoming more aware of the importance of pollination in our gardens . We now found ahead of time - blooming industrial plant for bee intellectual nourishment and append field of native plant to encourage native bee to inhabit our garden . Mason bee avail us go one whole tone further .

Igniting a passion

Several year ago , I discovered how easy it was to have mason bees in my garden . Of of course , like many thing , I started out small and gradually got more and more involved . The first house for my George Mason bees was a PVC tube with a cap on it . I nailed the cap to a post out of doors and then added the tube . The Grant Wood block for the bees went in , I buy the bees , fond weather hap , and then the bee appeared ! It really was as simple as that . Well , there are a few more bits of information that you should have .

Getting started

I buy my first kit from my local Valley Nursery in Poulsbo , Washington . It ’s a Crown Bee Kit , and the bees fare from there as well . you’re able to purchase the house individually or make one of your own . The outfit fall with a wooden block with hole already drilled , a piece of material sprayed with an attractant , and a box of bees . I also grease one’s palms paper tubes to fill up in around the pulley block and put up more blank . The bees can keep in your icebox until the weather condition warms to 53 ° F at dark .

A perennial cycle

When the weather is ripe , the attracter goes in on top of the auction block , and the box of bees give way on top of that . The bee will emerge to come out foraging for food ( pollinating ) , and the attractant will serve them find their way back . The bee will pollinate and gather pollen to fertilise their young . They will lie eggs in the electron tube , pack in some pollen , total some clay , and then bug out again until the tube is full , ending with more clay . They will continue for several week . After they are finish , they will die , and the egg will stay on dormant until the next spring when new bee will emerge from the tubes and start the cycle again .

Maintaining proper conditions

house should careen down slightly to protect the tubes from the rainwater . They should front east or south so the forenoon sunshine warms them before they start out their Clarence Shepard Day Jr. ’s employment . A full water or clay supply should be fair near . I have a stream on my property , so that work . Watch for predators such as hiss who wish to eat the eggs . In early leaping I put a plastic grid over the front of the house to keep birds from pulling out the pipe . The gridiron must be openhanded enough for the bees to wing through .

A few options for overwintering

For the first couple of years , I clean out the corner and the bees and stored them in the refrigerator over the wintertime and started the oscillation over again in the spring . ( you could learn about this physical process atcrownbees.com . ) Last yr , I had more bee than there was room for in the household . Being very industrious , they decided to use the corrugated polycarbonate sheets on my greenhouse . I now have a perfect wake of the colony of mason bees on the sides of my nursery . Many farmers do not clean the boxes or bees but provide the houses outside , protected over the wintertime .

Why mason bees

There are a few reasons why you should consider housing mason bees in your garden this class :

Mason bees are one of the good affair to see in spring . Fascinating to watch , they are busy bees , doing so much right in the garden .

— Susan Calhoun is the owner of Plantswoman Design in Bainbridge Island , Washington .

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