A mason bee house next to a bluebird house |
After getting several blueprints and working them up, we have come up with several houses we really enjoy. We have a new little offshoot company called Prairie Bees and Bats and will soon be debuting our creations off our main website: www.honeybeesonline.com.
Mason bees are interesting bugs. Mason bees can do a mightier work at pollination than honey bees can, but masons are short lived compared to a honey bee. So while masons would be powerful for orchards and early flowers, it's honey bees that are going to do the work in our vegetable gardens and flower beds.
Mason bees are named for the way they build their habitats in hollow tubes with mud. Females pack in bee bread, then lay an egg--which eventually makes a cocoon and then hibernates through the winter. You can then buy these tubes from companies and on the first series of nice days (50 degrees) you put the tube out in your bee house.
The bigger tube on the right is the cocoons I purchased on the internet |
Newly hatched mason bees |
But if you are wanting some awesome pollination done, and the faster and early as possible, for as little money as necessary, Mason bees may be a good bet.
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