The shortage of honey bees due to parasitic mites and mystery diseases is a real threat to the health of our crops!
We need these precious pollinators to grow food….mason bees to the rescue!
.jpg)
I’ve been unfamiliar with mason bees until lately, but as story after story of “colony collapse” come across my desk, I am concerned about proper pollination of my growing orchard and vineyard.
Mason bees, or Osmia lignaria, are orchard bees. Ailments that have destroyed many a honey bee hive have not affected the mason bees to this point, perhaps because the mason bees are native to America.
Honeybees were introduced to America by the Europeans about 400 years ago.
While Mason bees do not produce honey, they bring many other valuable benefits to the table. Once again, they are wonderful pollinators. Mason bees continue to be active in colder weather and their hairy bodies carry more of the pollen that fertilizes your blossoms.
Mason bees are also a gentle bee who won’t ever chase or sting you, unless severely provoked. I feel good about that with all the children running around the yard all summer.
Attracting Mason Bees
Mason bees build their mud sealed nests in natural tubes like reeds or holes in dead trees in the wild. Sometimes they make their homes between wood shingles on houses and barns. (They do no damage – they just build their mud homes in sheltered cracks.)
Currently, extension research by the USDA has proved that the mason bee task is made much easier if we provide 6″ paper-lined tubes 5/16″ in diameter, that are somewhat weatherproof and contained in a protective shelter.
By using smooth tubes, we allow the female Mason bee to channel her extra time and energy into laying more eggs.
I purchased the above mason bee hive from Miller Nurseries and placed them at each end of my garden/orchard area.
The Mason Bee Life Cycle
Those mud sealed tubes contain the entire future population of Masons, males and females. All of last year’s adults have completed their lives by the end of the previous Spring.
Each 6″ tube contains 6 or 7 separate compartments, each with one egg and a food store pellet of pollen and nectar. In summer, the eggs hatch and the grubs feed. By September, they mature into adult bees that stay in their home of mud until the blossoms come forth the following Spring.
I’m excited about the potential of these pollinating helpers, and it’s pretty inexpensive to purchase a few nests or even make your own replacement nests. Purchasing the bees themselves is another option as you can grow a colony in just a few years!
Anyone familiar with mason bees? I would love to hear your experience!
PDF 
About kmorris
Very good post! My Grammy always tried to invite them to her garden!
Clint, I’m continually amazed at what the previous generations knew! Thanks for commenting!
Love the fact everyone is soooo into homesteading. I had Mason Bees when I lived out of town . We used a block of wood with holes drilled for them and then hung them under the eves of the house. Facing south . Had a good ” crop” of them. I live in a small town now and you can’t have bees as they are considered “dangerous” and so this is a tried and true way to get bees again without getting into trouble. Wish they made honey…
Pat, I too wish they made honey! Oh well, pollination is the most important thing.
I have bees that look similar to this in my yard… but, they make their nests in the ground. Each one gets its own hole, and they prefer to nest in the hill.
They are the calmest bees, and are never a bother, I would even consider them to be lazy because when there is a gust of wind they are blown into the bird bath and die.
I don’t know what kind of bees they are, but they don’t bother me so I let them stay… We just have to make sure to wear shoes at all times. lol
Becky,
Can’t say for sure without seeing them, but those could be yellowjackets or even hornets. Get a field guide or put one in a jar and get a correct identification to be safe.
Thank you for this post, Kelly. You share the coolest stuff
Just learned that it may be too late for us to order any bees for spring. Found one in BC that says they’ll ship up until Mar 15 but I’m not sure that bees from there would be ok coming to the San Joaquin Valley. Hoping to figure this out this week.
I’d love to keep honeybees, but not ready for that project, seems that inviting Mason bees to our property now would be a wise move
Blessings…
Ann, I think Mason Bees are going to gain popularity very quickly in the next few years!
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of mason bees. DH and I tried to start some honey bee hives last year and the bees left.
We’ll try again this year I hope, but it’s good to know there’s another option if worst comes to worst for pollinating our orchard.
As a teenager I had a Mason bee build it’s nest in the folds of my curtains…couldn’t cross them until the young ones left as I couldn’t bear to undo all that painstaking work! As well as pollen they include paralysed spiders as food for their young! The spiders look dead but apparently are just immobilised so that they are fresh when the young hatch. Bit gruesome eh!