Late April, for the first time ever, I start seeing Mason bees in the Meadowfoam.
My sister is a watercolor artist. She gave me her Guidance Mandala because she knows I like bees. I realize Mason bees don’t fly too far from home, but bees need all the help they can get, so I hung it here near the Mason bee nesting blocks.
A closer look at the Guidance Mandala. When Vikki paints a mandala she never knows where it will take her. During one of our weekly phone conversations she was inspired to add a circle of bees.
I set up the nesting blocks on March 6. Then I waited a good three weeks to see any activity. The cocoons had been in the refrigerator since October. You don’t want them emerging too soon because there won’t be enough to eat (or so I have read), but I always hold my breath hoping after five months of ‘chilling,’ they will emerge.
Finally on March 28, I see a bee. This must be a male. Males have long antenna. They usually emerge first because they are laid last in the tubes (being expendable.) Predators will be able to reach them easily. 😦
I see them slowly ‘waking up.’ This could be a female. The antennae look shorter.
May 19…I start to fill pretty smug. 26 tubes filled already…until I come across this post of Rusty Burlew (of Honeybeesuite) in Washington state.
Rusty says one of these cans will fill up in about three days. I count the number of straws to realize there are close to 100 straws in each can. Either there are more Mason bees in her area or they like the straws in cans better. I’m gonna try this method next year. Photo reprinted with permission from Rusty Burlew.
When I first saw this wasp go into a Mason bee nesting tube I was afraid it would start digging into the tubes. I asked Steve, of “In a beekeeper’s Garden” about this. His reply, “Your wasp is or has all the markings of a vespula germanica (german wasp) which lives in all the northern hemisphere, they are a social wasp so live in nests. they are great pest controllers eating caterpillars , insects and the odd bee (usually weak ones ) they won’t break into your bee tubes :)” In the video, I watch the German Wasp patrolling my garden. I watch until the wasp decides I haven’t gotten video permission from her and chases me away. 🙂
I think this is a resting Potter Wasp. I’m not sure what it’s up to. While I was grabbing my camera it poked into the tube and then emerged for it’s camera debut.
Want some plums? It looks like the Mason bees have been busy. My Methley trees are loaded with plums. Here are some recipes from Glory Garden.
It’s late May…I haven’t seen any activity for awhile which probably means the Mason bees are finished pollinating for this year. The cocoons are in a very delicate stage right now. I’ll be storing them in a cool inside room to protect them from yellow jackets. In September or October, I’ll remove the tubes from the blocks to store in the frig until next March. (Maybe I’ll have some new housing by then.)
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 
Another year has passed and I have yet to make a home for mason bees, next year I promise. Do you think we would have to keep them in a fridge here in Poland? Maybe our root cellar would be cold enough?
Amazing to see all the fruits ripening already.
Yes, the root cellar would work if it didn’t freeze. Mason bees are fantastic little pollinators. Some say they’re about 10 times better than honeybees. I just read that it only takes two mason bees to pollinate a fruit tree…but they are done now (June 10), so you might need some honeybees too for the blackberries. Do you have blackberries?
Great info, thanks, I’m setting a reminder in my calendar 🙂 We don’t cultivate any blackberries, but they grow wild all around us. We must have picked close to 30kg last year, Gosia makes a fantastic jam from them 🙂
We don’t cultivate them either, but they grow wild on our property. Every year, Sue makes enough jam for the next year. That’s a lot of jam because we have it on toast every morning. Gotta have my jam. 🙂
I’m with you on that one Pat 🙂
I love having mason bees in my garden, but I constantly have to war with the neighbors who believe anything black and flying with more than six legs is a pest that must be killed with extreme prejudice. Once we move to a larger place with more space, I intend to start my own apiary and raise honey bees.
I can sort of understand the primal fear of bees, especially when the headlines scream of someone getting stung to death while innocently hiking a trail.
Do you have any fruit trees? I wonder if you could share some fruit with your neighbor and casually mention that bees played a role in the making.
We need our bees!!! 🙂
I have a few fruit trees, as does my neighbor. At present I only have a few mason bee boxes that I rent from the local mason bee co-op. We have less bees now than any other time and need more bee keepers. I have always wanted to keep honey bees, and as soon as we move to a place with some acreage, I am going to plant several more fruit trees, and plants that bees like the flowers. We have a lot of Scott’s Bloom here, which although loaded with flowers, bees do not care them. Another plant is the all too common Rhododendron which the bees like, but the honey takes so prep in order to use. Honey feature heavily in my fiction writing, and I look forward to the day I can introduce myself as a bee keeper, not just an enthusiast.
Take a look at this video I shot last year. “My” bees love scotch broom.
That is interesting because here in north western Washington to bees do not seem to care for the scotch broom at all.
Interesting! This year I observed a few more ‘broom’ bees flying in, but this year I only have one hive to work the flowers. The bees took a major hit here.
We have not had too much colony collapse, but the spring has been so wet that the flowers are having a hard time opening.
How lovely to see your mason bees, you are doing a great job for your local wildlife.
Thanks, Emily. We’re growing all kinds of bee-loving flowers that attract the bees…and which now grow without being nibbled down by the deer. My granddaughter helped picked up the baby apples that fell from the tree. I told her that we put the apples outside the fence for the deer in gratitude for them not jumping the fence. 🙂
Great video! I bought special paper tubes to put in my bee houses last year – just ten to try – but not one was used! My Mason bees are different from yours and I get other bees in them as the year goes on but none in the tubes. They will just have to fend off any parasites themselves. I have planted a cousin of your meadow foam – Limnathes douglasii or Poached Egg plant- this year but they have not flowered yet. Amelia
This IS Limnanthes douglasii. I like it better than the Limnanthes alba which is grown for its wonderful oil properties, but IMHO is not as pretty.
I’m glad my Mason bees know where to go. 🙂
Absolutely fascinating stuff, have shared it on my Facebook page as have friends that will find it equally fascinating.
Thanks, Agnes.
Impressed by your results with the mason bees. I’m really going to have to make more of an effort with the few establishments I have in the yard….
Mason bees aren’t as much work as honeybees and they pollinate more efficiently. What’s not to like? The fact that (here) they are done by end of May. You gotta have some honeybees too for all your later trees and flowers too. 🙂
Your post is packed with great information! And of course, I love that you placed the mandala by the mason bees! Also want to point out that in the “Guidance Mandala”, the bees are all in heart shapes and sitting on Meadowfoam!