Mason bees

sully on 2/23/2011, 10:18 am

I am putting up nest boxes for mason bees. I could use some help.
How many will I need for a 2 acre garden all SFG and fruit trees/shrubs.
And, how difficult are they to care for.

Is this one of those build it and they will come things or do I need to buy them.
I have found two sources, but would like more options.

Thanks in advance.

Megan on 2/26/2011, 3:23 pm

Hi Sully, unfortunately I have no idea. I try to plant many pollinator-attractors near my SFG beds, and last year I saw all kinds of bees large and small, but I don't know them well enough to tell them apart. Hopefully someone else can help you with your question.

Bump! Smile

miinva on 2/26/2011, 5:24 pm

We're putting up a can of tubes for mason bees as well. My 9-year-old is so excited! Smile

This is our first time doing so, so I can't offer much advice, but I don't figure it can hurt to help the pollinators along with some housing Very Happy

camprn on 2/26/2011, 7:00 pm

There are numerous web sites relating to providing shelter and other needs of mason bees.
There is some good info here ~~~>Mason Bee Systems good & bad

miinva on 2/27/2011, 10:52 am

Thank you so much for this thread! I watched the youtube videos from Hutchings Bee Service and my 9-year-old son heard them talking and came over and wanted to watch all of them. He's so excited about helping the bees Smile

I wish I had some woodworking skill so that I could build some peek-a-boo bee condos like they have. I'm going to look around and see if I can find anyone who can make me a couple of them locally, since Gord Hutchings says on the website that he doesn't like to mail them unless absolutely necessary.

jvisser on 3/20/2011, 12:08 pm

I'm on this bandwagon too. The initial research I did last fall didn't really tell me how many pollinators to try to attract, so if you get some good info please share.

I was just about to go outside and hang the teardrop shaped tube house I got as a Christmas gift. Mine was purchased online rather than homemade...I think I would have just created a mess trying to make my own.

Furbalsmom on 3/20/2011, 12:56 pm

jvisser

I am sorry I can't contribute to the discussion of Mason Bees, but did want to let you know we are glad you are here.

miinva on 3/20/2011, 1:19 pm

The bee house from Hutchings Bees arrived and it's awesome! A friend has it right now trying to sketch out a pattern to make a couple more, but I need to get it back. Mason bees 'wake up' as early as February and yesterday I saw a couple of bees around the flowers at Lowe's, so I think it's time. Gord Hutchings doesn't recommend buying bees from different areas, but if you found someone local with some mason bees to share that might be an option. When I was talking to him about getting a bee condo he told me that it's not necessary to purchase bees so I'm not doing so.

Our bee condo happened to arrive on my son's birthday and I snapped a picture of him holding it:

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CindiLou on 3/20/2011, 8:05 pm

I want to have hubby make several this year for the bees. I did check that my EpiPen was up to date lol...

This is the one I am having him make. We already have wood that will works still from the 2007 ice storm!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Happy-Home-for-our-friends-the-Mason-Bees/

miinva on 3/21/2011, 7:19 am

I forgot to thank camprn for posting the gardenweb link, that's where I read about the Hutchings Bee Service system.

CindiLou, if you read through that Gardenweb thread (which is really long but worth the read) you'll find discussion of the difficulty of cleaning drilled hole bee houses and the fact that you can accidentally kill leaf cutter bees if you just clean out the holes after the mason bees emerge. You can improve things by lining the holes with paper of some kind, according to that thread, so that bee parasites don't thrive.

CindiLou on 3/21/2011, 9:09 am

miinva, I remember something about that in the comments. I will reread. I sure don't want to kill anything!

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