About Orchard Mason Bees...
The Orchard Mason Bee is a north American native pollinating bee that is a wonderfully effective pollinator of early spring crops. In fact they are such generalist feeders that they will very effectively pollinate just about any pollen bearing flower that blooms in the early spring.
Studies done in netted orchards show that 250 female orchard mason bees can pollinate apples as effectively as 50,000 honey bees! They will work in cooler weather and more dampness (like the Pacific Northwest habitat) than honeybees and they are absolutely non-aggressive. They seldom wander very far from home and are easy to raise. This makes them the perfect pollinator for home gardens and boutique orchards. Mason bees don't make honey. They make great apples and cherries though!
~ Bring Back the Bees ~
Numerous studies state that pollinating bees are disappearing! Placing native Orchard Mason bees in your backyard is an EXCELLENT way to combat this decline 'Bring Back the Bees'
Mason bees are classified as solitary gregarious bees. This means that they have no real social interaction in the sense that a honeybee population would, but mason bees do like to nest near each other. What does this mean for you? It means that mason bees don't protect their eggs after they lay them. They actually don't care about you or your children at all so they are the perfect backyard bee. The male has no stinger. The female has one but uses it so seldom that there is a common belief that mason bees can't sting. The females can but rarely do.
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The life cycle of these bees is fairly simple. Every spring when the day time temperatures start to get over 50 degrees with some regularity and enough days have passed since the egg was laid the previous spring, the mason bees chew through their protective cocoons, through the mud walls that protect their nesting chambers, and emerge into your garden. The actual date varies across the country from mid February in warm winter areas to late May in colder climates and higher elevations.
The males emerge first, anywhere from a few days to a few weeks before the females. They spend their time foraging for nectar to build up their strength. They stay close by the nesting tubes waiting for the females to emerge. These males do a bit of incidental pollinating while feeding but the vast majority of the work will be done later by the female. As soon as the females emerge from the nesting holes, the males mate with them and then move away. When all of the females have been mated with the males die, and the rest of the season is all females.
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Female mason bees spend their days gathering pollen and nectar from flowers within about 100 yards of their nests. They use this pollen/nectar mix to make a lump of bee bread and place it in the back of a found hole. When the proper amount of food has been placed in the chamber the female backs in and lays a single egg into the food mass. She works her way down the length of the hole making cell after cell until she has filled the entire tube. Finally an extra thick masonry plug is constructed at the hole opening and the bee flies off looking for another hole. Female eggs are laid toward the back of the hole where it is safe from marauders and male eggs are put toward the front of the holes. In this way a hungry invader is likely to eat males only and leave the females safe. In the mason bee world it is all about protecting the females. Only a few males need to survive to mate the next spring, but every female is important.
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By early summer, all the adult females have laid their eggs and they die. The eggs spend the summer developing into new bees, and by fall they are fully mature bees in newly spun cocoons still in the same nesting tubes. They then hibernate all winter and wait for the signs of spring that will have them emerge in your garden. In other words, every year you will see the children of the bees you had the previous year. The colony should continue to grow every year as long as they have holes to lay their eggs into and pollen with which to provision the egg chambers.
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​~ The Following Calendar Will Assist You in Your OMB hosting ~
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February
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Shelter should be put out in February filled with clean and refreshed nesting material of your choose
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Clay can be provided near the housing area and kept it moist as she needs clay to complete each chamber
End of February, March or April
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When outside daytime temperatures reach 49-55° F for 3-5 consecutive days without rain, place cocoons near shelter
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Loose cocoons should be protected from freezing and predators
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Keep an eye on your housing area to ensure there is enough nesting material to accommodate the population of bees you would like to maintain
April 15th
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All bees should have hatched but every season is different. This approximate date is sometimes earlier and sometimes later depending on Mother Nature.
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If any cocoons are not empty carefully cut them open to help the OMB exit.
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Look inside all cocoons that did not have a bee emerge to prevent the spread of predators
July 1st – July 15th
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The mason bee work is done for the season and next year’s bees are safely in their tubes.
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Carefully take down the shelter out of the hot sun of summer and exposure to birds, predators and other bugs that might want to use the shelter.
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Place the shelter and nesting material in a mesh bag or just the nesting material, to keep predators out.
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The mesh bag also lets any emerging predators be visible so they can be squished in the bag and prevent them from getting back into the wild
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Place shelter and nesting material in a cool dry location protected location
September 15th – 30th
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The larvae have developed into mature, full-grown mason bee cocoons hibernating over the fall and winter.
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If you are using Systems you may start removing the white liners. Keep the removed liners in the mesh bag or other container that will protect the cocoons from predators
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Sanitize reusable black plugs and water resistant coated cardboard tubes
October 1st – January 31st
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It is highly recommended that all cocoons be removed from nesting material to wash, sort, sanitize and store until spring
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At a minimum perform a random sampling of your bees, by extracting cocoons from 10% of
nesting material. This is to ensure you have a viable population void of predators
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The Orchard Bee Association has names and photos of what predators to look for when removing cocoons
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Store cocoons in the vegetable area of the frig not less than 39°F with a humidity level of 60 to 70%
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That is the one year life cycle of a Mason Bee
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Frequently Asked Questions...
Q: Do Mason bees make honey?
A: No, they help make food by pollinating fruit trees and other flowers.
Q: How many bees do I need?
A: It takes a colony of about 250 female mason bees to fully pollinate an acre of commercial density fruit trees. Given that only about 1/3 mason bee eggs are female you should aim for about 800 bee cocoons per acre. Most home gardeners start by buying one or two sets of 20 cocoons. In a good year you can get a five fold increase in your population.
Q: Where do I put the bees in my garden or orchard?
A: Mason bees want their homes set on the sunny side of a building where it is warm and protected as much as possible from wind and rain. Don't put your bees in a tree, on a fence, or on a post. Buildings are heat sinks and they don't sway or shimmy in the wind, which makes them ideal spots for the bees. To determine which wall to start your new colony on, walk around your yard around 10am in the very early spring. You are looking for the sunniest wall you can find on the house, the garage, the garden shed, etc. That warm spot is exactly where you should put your bees. We recommend hanging them about eye level because they are fun to watch.
Q: My bees seem to have flown away, where did they go?
A: First, check and see if your nesting tubes are being packed with mud at the end of every day. If they are, your bees are still around and busy working. The Orchard Mason looks more like a fly than what most people expect a bee to look like as they are almost completely black, so you may not notice them flying around. If your bees have in fact flown away, they may have found better nesting nearby. See the question above to ensure your nesting tubes are placed in a location the bees will enjoy.
Q: How far will they fly?
A: The average Orchard Mason Bee will fly about the length of a football field, or 100 yards. They will find the closest food source and not bother flying any further.
Q: What do I do with them in the winter?
A: Store them some place cool and dry and safe from predators. For most of us this is the refrigerator. If you live in a cold part of the country you may be able to keep them in an unheated outbuilding over the winter. Just put them in a box and crumple up some newspaper to pack around them. Don't store them in an attached garage or crawlspace. You want temperatures that drop into the 30's so the bees will stay really dormant. Attached garages frequently have furnaces and hot water heaters and warm cars . All of this is just a bit to toasty.
Q: Do I need to put out new liners every year?
Yes. Mason bees need clean liners every spring. If you don't provide them they will go off looking for them and you will lose your bees.
Q: When should I put them outside?
A: You need to put your bees outside when temperatures are consistently hitting over about 50°F every day. If you have them outside for a fluke warm patch, the bees may die if it turns cold again. This time is different for every region, there is no set date to put out your bees.
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Q: Where do Orchard Mason bees live?
A: They are native to the United States and Canada, west of the Rocky Mountains.
Q: What do mason bees look like?
A: They are small and solid black or bluish-black. They look somewhat like a housefly.
Q: Are mason bees good pollinators?
A: They are the best pollinator in the world of bees! They will pollinate effectively 1,600 flowers per day whereas a European honeybee will visit 600 to 700 flowers per day, but only pollinate approximately 30 of them (a dismal 5 percent success rate).
Q: Why are they called mason bees?
A: Similar to how a brick mason uses cement between bricks, the female bee uses a layer of mud to wall off chambers between each cocoon in the nesting tube.
Q: How do they get out of their mud cells?
A: By chewing and clawing their way out.
Q: Why support mason bees in your backyard?
A: With many of our other native and honey bee populations in trouble due to mite infestations and pesticides, we find it even more important than ever to raise these pollinators and to provide proper shelter for them.
Q: Do mason bees live in hives?
A: No, mason bees are solitary. In nature they lay their eggs in narrow chambers in the ground or trees. We sell nesting tubes to replicate what the females find in nature.
Q: Do mason bees sting?
A: Yes, and no. They are classified as a non-aggressive bee. The males don’t have a stinger, but even though the female has a stinger, her “sting” would likely just feel like an itch if you felt it at all. A mason bee sting is nonlethal for those who may be highly allergic to bee stings. The bees only interest is in food and egg production, not harming people.
Q: How long is their life cycle?
A: Male bees live for about 2-3 weeks, and females live for about 6 weeks.
Q: What are mason bees favorite plants and flowers?
A: Their favorite shrub to visit in early spring is the White Pearl Pieris Japonica. They aren’t too picky as long as it has pollen and nectar. Poppies, Black-Eyed Susans, alyssum and asters are good choices to plant nearby.
Q: When do mason bees emerge?
A: The mason bee cycle begins when temperatures outside reach 50-55 degrees for 3-5 days in a row, typically in late winter to early spring (February to March) depending on outside temps. The male bees emerge first followed by the female bees about two weeks later.
Q: Why do male bees emerge first?
A: The male bees are smaller than the females. The male bees emerge first to visit the early blossoms and collect pollen and nectar to nourish themselves to get ready for when the females emerge. Once the females emerge the two mate, the males die and the females take over the important work of pollinating flowers and filling new tubes for the next season.
Q: How does she fill the tubes?
A: She moves from tree to tree, shrub to shrub, thus actively cross-pollinating the flowers & fruit. Her first effort is to make 12-15 trips gathering mud to pack into her first nesting chamber as a support wall. She then makes 20 to 30 trips gathering nectar and pollen, which she packs against the mud wall. She enters the cavity and lays her first egg pushing it into the nectar and pollen mass, and then gathers more mud to close off the first chamber. This continues as she lays 30-35 eggs in her life cycle. Each 6” nesting tube has six to eight cocoons inside.
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Q: How do males emerge first?
A: The mama bee determines the sex of her eggs. She lays her eggs so that the cocoons in the front two-thirds of the tube are males and the back third of the tube are females. (Isn’t that fascinating?!) The bees that will be female are more protected deeper within the chamber. After mating she carries the male’s sperm with her and only releases it to her eggs when she knows it will be safe. When sperm is released from her sack, she has created a female egg.
Q: What do the baby bees eat?
A: The mason bee eggs hatch into larvae and the larvae eat the nectar and pollen that was left for them in their chamber by the female bee. The larvae spins itself into a cocoon and is fully developed by around Sept. 15th. They then hibernate until spring of the next year.
Q: How are your tubes different from other companies?
A: We use a paper liner inside our 6” long cardboard tube. There’s a plug on the end for easy removal of the straw liner filled with cocoons. They can then be replaced with fresh liners for the following season. Also, our cardboard tubes have a Mylar coating on the outside which helps prevent against moisture buildup. The tubes are thicker than all other tubes on the market thus preventing the Chalcid wasp from drilling through to lay their eggs within the mason bee cocoon.