DIY Mason Bee House Kit

The one thing I like about social media is the giveaways. I don't like the "loop giveaways" where you have to like and follow every sponsor, but sometimes companies will run a contest where all you have to do is leave a comment. The ones where you have to tag a friend are tough for me to like, feeling the practice is one step away from chain letters, but I understand the value of lead generation. For the chance to win the right thing, I'll give up a friend's name. And that is how I came to own a DIY Mason Bee House Kit from Mason Bees For Sale.

The kit includes everything except glue. I ordered reeds because I didn't realize the kit includes nesting tubes.

Putting glue in the precision cut grooves.

Attaching the sides.

Attaching the floor. The back is the only part that you have to figure out the positioning for (no grooves for it) but it goes on last and placement is fairly intuitive. It sits inside the walls, making the whole construction sturdy.

The kit even includes rubber bands to secure the house while the glue sets.

Also included in the kit is a coupon code for 10% off bees. Don't tell them I told you it's MASONBHK17.

DIY House packed with phragmite reeds. 

Getting Bees For Your Mason Bee House

Suppliers are beginning their clearance sales like this one.

Bee Blow Out! 50% off Texana and Californica Bees

Expires on Mar 31, 2017

Use Offer

6 PEOPLE GOT THIS OFFER

They know that the bees are ready to emerge. Order TODAY… and be prepared to open your mail with bees crawling around inside the box. A list of my favorite vendors is at the end of this post.

Osmia californica (left) and Osmia lignaria (right). Hard to tell with the O. californica but the O. lignaria male to female ratio looks appropriate, i.e.: 6:4.

If you don't want to buy, you can trap nest instead. Just set out your house and wait for native bees find it. But bees like to use material that smells like bees before them ok'd the house, so a brand new house can be iffy. Greater success can be had if you stock it with cocoons or better yet filled reeds; they have the smell of approval.

My first year I bought 20 cocoons and harvested 55 at the end of the season. Last year I purchased reeds full of orchard bees from masonbeesforsale.com and after they emerged, leaf cutter bees moved in. The Osmia unfortunately dispersed. More on that in my next post.

This year I tried a new vendor, Mountain West, whose cocoons are well under a dollar a piece. The cocoons have been out for over a week and not one bee has emerged despite our 20° above normal temperatures. Looking at my records, March 28 is when I've noted meconium in years past so I'm not worried yet. All the pear trees in the neighborhood are in full bloom with cherries and peaches already starting, so they're missing out on some amazing forage. Hopefully the bees will come out in time for the Crab Apples. With the crazy mild winter we had and the upcoming days of on-and-off moisture, the bloom is going to be EPIC.

How's the bloom looking in your neck of the woods? See if these businesses can get cocoons to you in time.

Bee Thinking: www.beethinking.com/collections/mason-bee
Brushy Mountain Bee Farm: www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/Mason-Bee-Supplies/products/131/
Crown Bees: crownbees.com/
Mason Bees For Sale: masonbeesforsale.com
Mountain West: www.mountainwestmasonbees.com

Busy Leafcutter Bee

Late last season I found an EZ Tear tube with an unusual plug. It wasn't mud so I knew it hadn't been filled by a Blue Orchard Bee. The plug was green but instead of leaf pieces, it looked like cooked spinach. It was quite sticky, so I assumed it was masticated leaves and resin. There's not a ton of leafcutter bee information on the Internet so I made a guess that after 3 weeks, the young bees inside would have spun their cocoons and I could open the tube to find out what was in there. Wrong! When I opened the tub I found a larva. Oh, I felt so bad! I rerolled the tube best I could, stuck the still intact green resin plug in, and stuffed the torn tube into another EZ Tear tube. I placed it back outside for another few weeks, then into hibernation it went for the winter and spring.

Leafcutter bees are active after Blue Orchard bees, so I put the tube out in early summer. For weeks nothing happened. Then I noticed a hole in the plug. Something had emerged! (Or maybe something dug in.)

The green plug aged to a brown color but remained quite sticky.

I watched the tube for a while but saw no activity. Still curious to know what was inside, I opened it up again. There were remnants of many chambers, each separate  from the next with apparently the same resinous material. Chamber after chamber was revealed as I unrolled the tube, ten or eleven in all.

Egg on pollen provision.

Then I came to this, a freshly laid egg. Yipes! A quick share to Instagram and the tube was rerolled (again), slipped back into the other EZ Tear tube and put back outside.

Leafcutters carry pollen on their bellies not in pollen baskets like a honeybee. Click on the photo to see an enlarged version for a better look at the yellow scopa on her abdomen.

The second the tube was back in place, momma bee returned, buzzed me inquisitively for a moment then entered her tube. She continued to use the tube for several more days but I haven't seen her lately. I also can't see a plug. Either I spooked her off with my daily check, or the plug is recessed and difficult to see. Now I need to watch for monodontomerus wasps. They've been trying to get to the tubes previously plugged in the mason bee chalet, but can't get through a nylon stocking I put in their way.

Even though I stuffed the rerolled tub into a larger tube, I couldn't get it to slide all the way in. I used a knife to cut off the part sticking out, which explains the rough edges and fibers.

She went to work right away, cleaning up the mess.

August 14: Cap is still shiny even after a few days.

I use a mix of tubes: the reeds purchased cocoons came in, EZ Tear tubes and QuickLock trays. Regardless of the material, previously used tubes seem to be their preference.

Xeriscape Plant Profile: Lamb's Ears

If your question is, "What bee plant does well in Colorado that I can't kill?" the answer is Lamb's Ears. So prolific it's invasive, but how can one say, "No," to a plant so loved by bees? And not just honeybees but also bumble bees, mason bees, and butterflies as well. Speaking of invasive, the wool carder bee favors this plant for its white hairs, or wool, which it gathers with its mandibles to create chamber partitions in its nest. If you can't see the video below, click on over to my Instagram page and you'll see the bee gathering a big wad of fibers.

#WoolCarder #bee gathering #lambsears wool. #bees #303beekeeper

A video posted by BackyardBee (@backyardbee) on Jun 28, 2015 at 11:03am PDT

Stachys byzantina is so easy to grow, you don't even really need to "plant" it. Many a patch in my garden started as clumps ruthlessly ripped out and forgotten, left to die but instead rooted. Once established, it needs no supplemental water. It takes mile high sun and heat without wilting, and blooms profusely through the summer with a candy sweet perfume that just beckons pollinators to partake of its sweet nectar.

A photo posted by BackyardBee (@backyardbee) on Jun 3, 2015 at 12:36pm PDT

Not only does this ground cover spread by stem rooting, it is a ready reseeder. The flower spikes stand 2-3' tall above the furry foliage and when the monsoonal rains come they flop over, I think as a strategy for seed dispersal. As highly visited by bees as the flowers are, seeds are abundant. To help keep this rampant grower in check, deadhead by grabbing the flower stalk down low and yank hard, letting it pull whatever it may with it, usually a decent length of rooted stem.

As a preventive measure, I even remove flower stalks as they develop, as many as I can reach from the front edge of the garden without stepping onto the mulch. This creates a nice low border of just the foliage.

Like a crème brûlée, this pairing is about contrasts and complements: furry, vertical Lamb's Ears and sharp orbs of Star of Persia. Its in-your-face metallic purple is echoed in the magenta pink of the inconspicuous Lamb's Ear blooms, while tiny orbs of green in the ripening onion blossoms complete the final balancing act.  

Early June: Reiter's Thyme (just starting to bloom), Jupiter's Beard, and Mouse Ears Coreopsis flank the Lamb's Ears in this no-water bed.

More Lamb's Ears greets me when I go out the front door. The other plants are sedum (unknown var. by the rock), 'Coronation Gold' yarrow, "Mainacht" salvia, golden privet, more salvia and yarrow. This highly xeric garden is as much about the foliage as it is about the flowers. 

Wish I'd had my #photojojo macro lens on me... this Melissodes bimaculata was "sleeping" on the Lamb's Ear... woulda been an easy capture. Focusing probably would have been easier, too, so I could show you her tail lights. :(

A photo posted by BackyardBee (@backyardbee) on Jul 23, 2014 at 10:26am PDT

Seedlings are just as furry as the parent plants and once identifiable, transplant easily. Pretty handy if you've got bare patches in your garden where nothing else will grow. Keep in mind, though, that lamb's ears are not evergreen and our harsh winters turn the leaves a drab brittle beige, creating quite a spring cleaning task if you've got huge swaths of the stuff. It rakes up pretty easily and smells sweet like the flowers. Be watchful for ladybugs when throwing the leaves into the trash or compost pile.

A photo posted by BackyardBee (@backyardbee) on Jun 21, 2014 at 1:07pm PDT

Xeriscape Plant Profile: Armenian Speedwell

My posts have gotten fewer and farther between but I noticed a spike in views of Xeriscape Plant Profile: Rock Soapwort so I'm finally adding to what I'd planned as a series on xeric bee plants.

Armenian Speedwell is a little-known species of speedwell. I received mine as a seller's alternate from High Country Gardens, and for many years had no idea what it was other than a veronica of some sort. Veronica armena forms a low, thick carpet of soft lobed leaves, and its bright blue flowers are some of the earliest in my garden every year. Honeybees will take nectar from it but I've only ever seen native bees gathering its pollen. If snow storms haven't destroyed the blossoms, spring trees such as crabapples (also quite xeric) provide more abundant food, so honeybee sightings on V. armena (or even dandelions) are infrequent, making this ground cover perfect for edging walkways (i.e.: there's no fear of a bee flying up your pant leg).

Looking a little blue on a rare overcast day, Armenian Speedwell dukes it out with Dragon's Blood sedum and hens-'n-chicks among the stone steps on a south slope. It doesn't get any more challenging than this!

Extremely drought tolerant, this evergreen creeper grows happily with gravel mulch, between flagstones, on level or sloped ground, all without a care. After its profuse 3-week long bloom period in May, I like to deadhead it to tidy things up but it's not necessary. I often see birds picking at the spent flower stems, looking for nesting material.

A cool blue companion for Stachys byzantina.

leaf detail

flower detail

It may be a while before I post again. It's getting harder and harder to maintain a beekeeping blog without actually keeping bees. Damn anaphylaxis. So before I sign off, one last pearl of wisdom: Swallows = Swarming. When the swallows return to play in the streams of Denver metro traffic, swarm season in upon us. Next time you're stuck at an intersection, put down the phone, watch the swallows playfully fly and plan out your next hive inspection with swarm control in mind. TTFN

Mason Bee Cocoons: a comparison

I thought you might like seeing the difference in color and texture in the cocoons of two different mason bees. The cocoon on the left is a Blue Orchard Bee. The two on the right are Wool Carder Bees. Click on the image to see it larger, then click once more to see it even larger yet.

I found it interesting that the Wool Carder Bee nest had no frass, whereas BOB cocoons are always covered in it. By the way, it's clearinghouse sale time on mason bee cocoons. Be sure to watch masonbeesforsale.com for tubes of bees on sale or mountainwestmasonbees.com for loose, inspected cocoons. You can expect a high dispersal rate when purchasing cocoons this late in the year. The ones that arrived hatched will fly off for sure.

Preparing the Hives for Winter

File Photo: Blue Orchard Bee Cocoons.
Learn more about the BOB life cycle at Crown Bees.

The Mason Bees
We harvested the cocoons in June a little earlier than normal, because A) it was extraordinarily hot already and B) I was seeing chalcid wasps. After last year's losses to the parasite, I felt the need to protect the cocoons by bringing them inside the house. There the bees could continue to metamorphose safely. After a couple of months at room temperature, I put them in the dorm fridge to put them in diapause. I check the cotton ball in their little container periodically, to make sure the cocoons don't get dessicated.

The Top Bar Hive

The little TBH is still sitting over at Marty's house. He was glad to learn that we found a host site for our beehives just a bit north of us and said that the nectar sources in the area, especially sunflowers, would be good. He's just waiting for our call to say, "We're ready for our bees." I have yet to actually talk to the host and hostess, let alone see the site, though, so it's going to be just a tad bit longer before we reclaim the TBH. (My next venom shots – my 58th, 59th and 60th shots – start the Maintenance Phase of my immunotherapy, when it'll be less likely that a bee sting can kill me. That's pretty much what's been the cause of the delay.)

monodontomerus obscurus

Remove bees from the field to the storage shed, barn, etc., in late May. The bees (developing brood in tubes) are put in large cardboard boxes (or garbage cans, if mice are a problem) with only a slit left open for wasps to emerge through (the July brood). When in storage containers, tubes should be laid horizontally, as they were in the field. The boxes with bee tubes are then put on shelves in a dark storage shed that has only one window (facing south). Ordinary fly paper is hung inside the window to trap wasps, which come to the light from the window in July. Most wasps do not find their way back to the bee tubes in the dark boxes. They get stuck on the fly paper or die of starvation. By this simple, easy method, I have been able to maintain hornfaced bees for about 15 years with less than 1 percent parasitization. -- Dr. Suzanne Batra, Pollinator Paradise

That's 1-inch wide tape the wasp is stuck to.

After removing the mason bee house from the field, the bees need a few more weeks to develop before entering diapause. I like to use the solstice as a target date, but mono forced us to act a little early this year. The trays should stored where they are exposed to daytime highs and nighttime lows but are sheltered from direct sun or rain. This allows the bees to properly develop and spin their cocoons, which can be safely harvested in late August. Around Labor Day, I like to bring them indoors where temperatures are stable (the basement is nice and cool), to transition them to cooler temperatures before placing them in cold storage for the winter.

Mason Bee Harvest

Filling in the Blanks — a Post for September in October

September 21, 2012

On the Summer solstice, the mason bee chalet was brought in for pre-Wintering. Inside the house, the developing bees were protected from the intense Colorado sun and heat, and allowed to metamorph comfortably and undisturbed. I didn't know they were already under attack until I pulled the trays out of the chalet today. The electrical tape banding the trays together had failed, and tiny chalcid wasps had made their way in. The yellow tray was the only one that had stayed shut.

Tell tale holes where the wasps entered each cocoon.

Chalcid wasps that matured inside a cocoon.

Parasitic wasps were unable to gain access here.

The cocoons seemed smaller this year, making it difficult to clearly differentiate the males from the females. Some of them I had to assume were female, simply from their position toward the back of their tube. Ideally 6 out of 10 cocoons would be male, but my guess is that we have disproportionately more males than females.

 111 cocoons debrided and ready for hibernation

51 cocoons were lost to the wasps. There are some mason-bee-ers out there recommending candling, but I think at this point there's no point. It appears that the wasps fully matured inside our cocoons and then died. LESSON LEARNED: window screen is not fine enough. Next year, as soon as BOB activity stops, I'm putting a nylon stocking around the whole house.

I'll be monitoring the observation tubes, and will let you know if something's awry.

---

UPDATE: May 2013 - there were about a dozen duds. The bees never emerged from their cocoons. What they all had in common was uneaten pollen. It seems that if the larva does not eat all of its provisions, it will not have enough fat stores to make it through to Spring or enough energy to chew its way out. If you click on the image of the yellow tray, you can clearly see one mason that didn't eat all its pollen. When you find a cocoon like that, anticipate a dud. If you place your cocoons out in stages in the Spring, these are the first that should be pulled out of hibernation. 

Native Bees

Leafcutter Bee, Digger Bee, Super Green Bee on 'Arizona Sun' Blanket Flower

The Mason Bees Are Flying!

I think this bee is a female, because the antennae don't look particularly long.

We started putting out our Blue Orchard Bee cocoons on March 19. I was going to put them out on the first day of Spring but it had been unseasonably warm, and I couldn't wait one more day. They should've emerged within 2-3 days, but I didn't see anybody flying then. I was beginning to think that 20F above normal was too warm. Finally after about a week, I saw bee poop! That's the first thing they do after they emerge, so that was all I needed to see to know that they were OK. In the picture, you can see the light mud-colored spots behind the green predator guard.

Meanwhile we had cocoons still in the fridge, waiting for the too-warm weather to break, and I was worried that they were using up their fat reserves. Finally on April 1, it cooled down and the remaining bees were taken out of hibernation. You can see their rolled up paper tubes through the predator guard, too.

I saw several bees flying today, some visiting the pear tree and others presumable off to taste the neighborhood crabapple, peach and cherry blossoms. Even though we don't pick up our honeybees until April 21, bee keeping season has officially begun in the Backyard!

UPDATE: April 17
* Another male emerged today, from the cocoons placed outside on the 1st. At least a dozen cocoons remain intact. Nine tubes are just about completed.
* The honeybee nuc's been delayed a week, because "sometimes when Nature happens bees don't happen."

UPDATE: April 23

* 14 tubes have been plugged. Two females have started piling provisions into the unfurling paper tubes. Whether all the bees have emerged from them is unknown.

UPDATE: April 26 - no activity. 15 plugs total in the QuickLock trays. No new cocoons in the loose paper tubes. All but one of the 56 put out emerged; that cocoon was one I accidentally did not put into the fridge to hibernate.

So... last year we started with 20 cocoons and ended with 56. That's a 180% gain. This year, estimating 10 cocoons per tube, we hope to harvest 150 cocoons, about the same gain. Stay tuned for one last update/post around the Autumnal equinox. If you're following me on Twitter (nudge nudge), you'll automatically get my tweet then.

If you are buying bees for 2012, buy them NOW!

Much of the bee supply comes from the colonies built-up from almond pollination, which is about to start. Packages and nucs can be in short supply if the build-up isn't as strong as hoped, and they will sell out fast with the every-growing number of new beekeepers, and beekeepers replacing Winter losses. For best pricing on package bees, contact your local beekeeping club as they are surely placing a bulk order. (See the Resources page for links to local clubs.)

This almond orchard reminds me of the graveyards in Queens.

For nucs, try to find a local producer. My goals as a beekeeper are confined to sustainability and survivability (not honey-production, not gentleness on the comb, not non-stingy/swarmy...) so a local queen is important to me. I lucked out with Grampa's Honey, which is selling nucs with Survivor queens, as well as Buckfast, Carniolan and Italian queens. I'm almost positive they are chem-free beekeepers, and they're not coming out of the almonds, which is a big plus IMO. ZiaQueenBees is definitely chem-free. They'll start taking orders soon and they WILL sell out. If you're in Durango, while not treatment-free, ApisHive is a new option for top-bar nucs (pick-up only). Scientificbeekeeping is not local to me but Randy Oliver's northern CA nucs are notable. Like ZQB, he's producing some with proven, fat queens. ZQB says overwintered queens are Cream of the Crop!

If you plan on starting with a swarm, contact your local beekeeping club and get your name on their swarm list. If they haven't started their list yet, ask them when they are and call again then. Swarming season won't start until April, but it's first-come first-served so you want your name at the top of the list. Your bees will have a lot of work to do.

If you are starting with mason bees, order them NOW, too. There are not a lot of suppliers, so what's available sells out. We bought our Blue Orchard Bees last February from seemingly the last available anywhere, at USABirdSupply, and are very happy with what we received, house and all. But had we planned earlier we would've bought from MasonBeesForSale since they have BOBs that are a "hearty mountain bee" in the correct ratio of male to female cocoons.

And for my last bit of advice, be sure to check retailmenot for discount codes whenever you shop online.

P.S. Thanks, TB, for inspiring this post.

Harvesting the Mason Bees

We first wrote about these bees in May.

These are a couple of mason bees that never emerged. We got them at the very end of the mail order season, and they'd probably been in storage too long. Unlike honeybees, mason bees don't have honey stores on which to overwinter. All they have is fat reserves in their body. If stored too long, they use up their reserves and can become too weak to chew their way out of their cocoon. The rest appear to have emerged successfully but dispersed, meaning they flew away instead of nesting in the Mason Bee Chalet. LESSON LEARNED: don't buy bees on close-out.

This is a leafcutter bee at the end of a toothpick.

I'm not sure what went wrong here. These are leafcutter bees that emerged prematurely (?). They are about 1/3 to 1/2 the size of a normal adult bee. (No, they're not alive.) According to the literature, the proper time for them to emerge is May, but if conditions are right, alfalfa leafcutters are able to produce a second generation of adults within one season.

See the mother bee here.

If she doesn't like it, the mother mason bee has to spend a lot of energy chewing out the paper liner. Most of the tubes remained lined or partially lined. LESSON LEARNED: leave some tubes unlined.

My guess was that there would be 6 or seven cocoons per tube, so was very surprised to find 11 in one. That mother was very prolific!

I suppose the more debris the better. It must mean the bees had a lot of food to eat before spinning their cocoons. The black specks are poop.

You can see the eggs that failed to hatch, still attached to their provisions.

These 3 larvae barely spun their cocoon.

Timing probably affects the mother bee's success rate. If your place your cocoons out so that your bees emerge too soon before or, worse, after the main Spring trees bloom, she may not have readily available pollen with which to provision her young.

Not counting the close-out bees, our harvest yielded more than double the 24 cocoons we started off with: 55 cocoons total, 39 females and 16 males. I put them all in one QuickLock tray for hibernation. In the normal order of things, one would not harvest cocoons. But just as a window in a hive is helpful for a new honeybee beekeeper, I think harvesting mason bee cocoons is an important thing to do. It helps you understand what is "normal" so in subsequent years you don't have to go digging around where you're not needed. In case you missed my tweet, here's what Crown Bees has to say about harvesting.

To keep some semblance of what would occur naturally, I kept the cocoons in the order in which they were laid with the mud chamber separator the mother bee provided each bee. And now, into the refrigerator they go, until March of 2013.

East Coast Representin'

Notice anything about this house?

One of These is Not Like the Others

Who can tell me what's going on here? Leave a comment if you think you know. There just might be a prize for the winning answer.

7/11/11: WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT
See how easy that was? The winning comment was the only comment. Whizbo, please DM @Hello_Kitty_ or email me (backyardbee @ comcast(dot)net) to claim your prize.

A Study in Pink

This poor evening primrose is desperate for a pollinator, so the very edges of the petals have turned pink. I've never seen this before. Normally the flower opens up at dusk, a moth visits, and the flower shrivels as it begins the task of setting seed. Each day a bud or two further along the stalk opens up to entice more moths.

Evening Primrose

The flower on the left is the "king flower" of our stand of evening primrose, and it's 3 days old! The moths don't seem to be aware of this rich nectar source yet. Subsequent blooms won't go unrequited though, as the sphinx moth in the picture below will be sure to tell friends about The Backyard.

Nessus Sphinx Moth on Soapwort

Bee flies (Bombylius major) are parasitoids, following leafcutter bees back to their nest and laying eggs there. Not only does the bee fly larva eat the provisions gathered by the leafcutter mother, it also eats the leafcutter bee egg or larva.

Honey bee on 'Rose Queen' sage which, unlike 'Mainacht', adorns the bees' heads with pollen.

Bumble Bee on 'Biokovo' Hardy Geranium

Orange Belted Bumble Bee on Buckeye Tree carrying orange-belted pollen!

Ultragreen Sweat Bee on Jupiter's Beard (Catmint in the bkgd)

Morrison's Bumble Bee Sleeping on Late Lilac

Focusing on honeybees for a moment, they will forage on most of these flowers but not all. The exceptions are those with nectaries too deep for the honeybee proboscis: the evening primrose and the lilac. There's a good shot showing the long tongue of a White Lined Sphinx Moth in the What's Blooming web album (in the Gallery) but I've got a great one archived. I'll post it later when I'm not at work ;)