Langley orchard with yurt in mid April

In mid- April, a few trees were in bloom.  Mostly the crabapples and other pollinizers.  The yurt is in the background.  We set out 1200 cocoons with 650 nesting tunnels- about 1 nesting hole per female in 9 Highrises.



Blooming crabapple with Yurt in background.





I installed ten highrises inside this yurt for a start.
 The emergence shelters containing the cocoons sit on top of each highrise.
 Between 100-200 cocoons are in each emergence shelter.
 In two weeks time I will add more highrises and cocoons.



I use hooks to hang Highrises on the uprights of the Yurt.

Home Yurt- males and females emerging

Here is a picture of my friend Ella looking at male and female mason bees milling around the entrance of their emergence shelter( upper left).  She had never seen them so close.  She watched them emerge from their little box or emergence shelter, several matings and extensive grooming by the males after mating.  Even though it was 14C outside the yurt, temperatures inside the yurt reached 18C.  This is a good temperature for emergence, mating and the females to fly off to find a food source nearby.

The home yurt is filled with nests and mason bee cocoons as the season progresses.  When there is lots of food and bees, the whole yurt is filled.  In this home yurt, few bees and nests have been set out at the onset

 of the season.



Ella watching mason bees emerge and mate.



Close-up of male mason bees outside their emergence shelter.

full view of Home-yurt with Ella inside watching the bees emerge.

Mason Bee release shelter-for large number of cocoons

When I have large numbers of cocoons, I often use trays.  There are about 2000 cocoons on this tray. One tray is turned over to act as a lid.  Trays are offset by 1/4" so that emerged bees can exit.  Duct tape or strong rubber bands are used to keep trays in position.

Using 1x1 sticks and set between a couple of highrises, a structure is created to hold trays at the upper level of the yurt, but not under the center hole of the roof.



Base tray holds about 2000 cocoons



Two trays are held in place with duct tape.



Two trays offset to create a 1/4" gap.



In the sun or out?

I chatted with a new mason beekeeper today who was confused about directions on a flyer, the web and various other sources.  He had bought some mason bee cocoons from a store and the flyer instructed him not to set the package of cocoons out in the sun.  Then further down, directions were to set the house with the nesting tunnels in the sun.  How confusing!

When bees are still in their cocoons and cannot move about, do not set box of cocoons in direct sun.  The heat of the sun could cook them while they are still in their cocoons.  The best place for cocoons are within the shelter of a mason bee home under the roof- away from direct sun- but nice an warm.

The house for mason bees should go into a sunny spot.  Bees like to be warm when working and young offspring need the heat to move, eat and develop into adults.

Mason Bee Field Shelter- Yurt in Mt Vernon

An organic apple orchard is a great place for mason bees.  No worry about pesticide applications.

When we arrived, we noticed that dandelions were out, but apple blossoms were still closed.  The perfect time to set up the bees so they can emerge and gt ready for pollinating the fruit trees.  It was a very cold rainy day when we set this up a couple of weeks ago.  Brrrrr!!

We arrived at the orchard with the top of the yurt and the base-hexagon pieced together.  Both hexagons were marked out to indicate where  the vertical uprights had to placed and screwed to make the frame.  

This is important, since the spacing of the uprights maximizes the number of Highrises that can be placed at one level.  Nine Highrises can be set at each level.  There is enough height in the yurt for 4 levels.  We started with 3 uprights balancing the base and the roof, and added the remaining uprights soon after.

We then dug some dirt to cover the base of the tarp.  This prevents wind from getting into the yurt and creating a draft.

We finished the yurt by stapling the tarp around the yurt.

Tim has just finished using 4 screws to hold each upright in place,
2 at the top and two at the base.   I attached the tarp with staples
to the upper and lower hexagon and then covered the tarp at the base with dirt.

Completed Yurt.  You can see that the wind is pushing
 the tarp against the uprights.

We left the hole we created so that bees could easily get mud for making
their nest partitions.

Dandelion flowers-food for bees!

Here on the west coast of British Columbia, my favourite flower came out in abundance.  It is a wonderful plant that provides both pollen and nectar to bees when there is little else for them to forage on early spring.  One day, this beautiful plant will be encouraged in lawn and gardens!

Dandelion flowers

In this field, many dandelions provide an abundance of food for bees
in early spring before apple blossoms appear (apple orchard in background).

Early April

We have been busy shipping mason bee cocoons and mason bee homes to our customers.  There is always lots to do.  Over Easter we visited our family on the Sunshine Coast.  I was alerted to a store sign about Mason bees.  I drove to the Sunshine Coast Nursery and took a photo of their great sign.  The photos is slightly out of focus, but here is what it says

MASON BEES ARE

SUPER GOOD

BRING THEM TO

YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD

What a great sign to let people know that mason bees are being sold at this store.

 I hope everyone is enjoying our wonderful spring weather.  Margriet

Tell others that even low levels of pesticides can be damaging to bee populations

Here is an article of great importance.  It describes two studies with a commonly used pesticide that show a serious effects on bumble bee populations.

Read more

Yurt by Beediverse-new product

You can now make your own Beediverse Yurt with the hexagon roof and top.  It is a great design. We have 5 roof units available.  Other items like uprights, screws, hooks and ties are available at any hardware store. 
click here for yurt-roof product on Beediverse web site

We offer the roof unit as a product with full instructions and material needed to complete the yurt.

Fully assembled yurt roof is available as a  product.



Partially assembled Yurt.  With the fully assembled roof
and base hexagon assembly starts with attaching
 the first 3 uprights  to roof and base.



Fully assembled Yurt

Ants- watch out!

Check out your mason bee homes every now and then, and make sure you do not have a line of ants crawling towards the bees' nests.  A good way of getting rid of them is to first remove most of the ants bysquashing them, and then have a water spary and then drip at the location where ants are crawling up the structure.  When the ground is wet, ants are discouraged from going in the direction of moist soil.

Pieris japonica- early spring bloom

You can't beat this plant for being ready with nectar for early spring bees.  Here on the west coast of NA, the early blooming pieris is in bloom.  It is a hardy plant, great to have around the house.  This morning I saw a fly and a bumble bee feeding on the nectar of this plant.

Sheltered spot for mason bee homes

A great place for mason bee homes.  It is East facing and out of the wind.  When you start with mason bees in a location such as this though, it will take a few years before the bees begin using the mason bee homes.  Mason Bees will usually use the shingles first.

Rex's Field Shelter

Here is a good design of a Field Shelter.  It is constructed with one post and two supporting posts at the front.  Plywood is attached to the post and mason bee homes are attached to the back wall.  It creates a warm environment and it is out of the wind.

Mason bees for sale

Yes, Beediverse has both Osmia lignaria (early spring mason bees) and Osmia californica (late spring mason bees) available until late April.

Join the Beediverse-blog community

Join this blog by entering your email address. 

When you subscribe to this blog- see upper right hand side of this blog- you will receive notification of new posts by email.  Keep connected and let your friends know you like this blog.

Close to 28,000 items have been viewed since Dec of 2010.  I am certainly enjoying the increased interest in my blog.  It is a lot of fun to write.  I love getting stories from other countries.  This makes it all the more interesting.

Keep the stories and photos coming.  Other mason bee enthusiasts are very interested in how it is done in other parts of the country.

Thank you for joining.  It provides me with feedback on how I am doing with this blog.
Margriet

A 4-sided field shelter on a metal pole.

Margriet,

I phoned you a few weeks ago to ask about where to place our new bee house.  You suggested a location that faces east and gets morning sun, and then added that putting a shelter around the house to keep off rain and wind would be a good idea.  Finally, you asked that if I built such a shelter, I should send you some photos. 

The photos are attached.  The shelter faces east in a place where it should get morning sun, and it's stained a dark brown to absorb heat.  It's about 60 meters away from the apple tree we are hoping the bees will pollinate.  I hope that's not too far.  The bees may find flowers and other plants closer by and never make it to the apple tree.  But we'll keep our fingers crossed.

Don N.   Germantown Hills, IL
  Hi Don,

Thank you for sharing your photos and story.  I think the shelter will work very nicely.  No, I dont think 60 yards is too far away from the orchard.  But, if you do find that pollination did not improve, set up your shelter closer to your orchard.  Margriet



This is where the shlelter is located.  East facing,

with trees as added wind protection.





Don's shelter holds one Royal mason bee home with
Quicklock corn nesting trays.  Above the Royal, there
are two sturdy Emergence Shelters

with cocoons- waiting for warmer weather.



This is the same shelter as above, showing more of the structure.





Joe's observations

Joe phone me today to let me know he has some interesting 'stuff' in his nesting trays.  More later.....

Washing cocoons - yes or no

I read in a blog the other day that washing cocoons is not necessary.

There are two good reasons for washing mason bee cocoons.
The first reason is to remove the majority if not most of the adhering mites.  The washing process includes a soak in cold water to remove mud and feces.  Then, cocoons are gently sprayed with cold water (while in a colander) to remove any excess mites.  If excessive mites are present (even after washing) mites are removed by rolling the dry cocoons  gently over a metal window screen (not plastic- it is not abrasive enough to remove mites).

The second is to remove debris and mud and feces from the cocoons so that cocoons can be candled for parasitic wasps.  Candling Mason bees was first introduced and developed by Joe Sadowski from Burnaby British Columbia Canada.  In a dark room, and over a bright light, parasitized cocoons can be identified, removed and destroyed.  By removing these wasp parasitized cocoons, there is less of a chance for the wasp population to increase and potentially wipe out your bee population.

It is pretty neat to see what bees and other insects have been up to during the previous spring by candling cocoons and having a 'closer look.

I recommend caring for your mason bees by harvesting and cleaning your mason bee cocoons in the fall.





A little parasitic wasp with its ovipositor ready to insert into a
mason bee cocoon.  The oblong object is a bit of bee feces
that is always on the outside of the cocoon. (photo by Hartley).

 

Beneficial wasps-with photo from Larry

It is right in the middle of the mason bee season now.  Stores have stocked up with product and individual customers buy from us direct.   When it is so busy, I do collect stories with pictures on a daily basis for this blog.  I have some catching up to do!  Here is one of these stories from Larry.

We are cleaning our bee condo, and it appears as if we had a few of the
cocoons that had opened and there is larvae in them.  Are they dead?  Also, they seem to be larger that the the cocoons that are still intact (and which we have cleaned to remove mites, etc.)
My first response was to ask for a photo.
"Yes- please send a picture.  It sounds like you have some beneficial wasps."

Then I received this picture, it confirmed that this is a beneficial wasps.  What is neat about these insects is that different species collect different live food items for their young.  They either collect and feed their young with spiders, moth grubs or aphids.  If one of the wasp eggs did not develop, there might be evidence of the kind of wasp is growing in the nesting tunnel.

This grub or pupae still has a lot of developing to go through before it is an adult.  Further development starts when spring temperatures are on the rise.

These grubs are very fragile.  I usually leave them in their nesting tunnel, remove mason bee cocoons in the remaining nesting tunnels, close the nest up and set it outside again.





Beneficial wasp pupae.  The brown part is the head capsule.



Variety of nests. Advantages & Disadvantages

My friend from Duncan sent me photos of all her different nest types.  No matter what kind of nests you design or use, most nests are used by bees.  They will prefer some over others, but if there are lots of bees, and nesting space is limited, mason bees will use any type of nesting cavity.  But the type of nest takes on a different meaning when considering that keeping mason bees and keeping them pest free is of a very high priority. The ease of getting into the nest, harvesting and cleaning cocoons become a very high priority because it determines in part the success of mason bees.



Cleaning station in the kitchen.



These are hexagon shaped nestign tunnels made of clear plastic. 
There is no doubt that mason bees use it, but cleaning nests and
harvesting cocoons is not possible with this nest type.  In most locations
if nests are not kept clean, parasites and mites build up in
 such numbers that the bee population collapses in 3-4 years.

This structure holds the clear plastic hexagons, paper
tubes and reeds.  Paper tubes can be opened and cocoons can be harvested.
Reeds can also be opened with relative ease.  Take care
when choosing reed type because some types of bamboo are near to impossible to open.

This is the Beediverse Highrise with tubes on the side. 
The Highrise Quicklock nesting trays can be opened and
cleaned.  After cleaning these nesting trays can be re-assembled
 for the following spring.

A great spot for mason bee  homes-a warm
south facing wall under an overhang.

Success!  Cleaned and harvested cocoons