Mason Bees for Pollination

More Information

Mason bees do not swarm or make honey – they don’t even really look like bees; as children we always thought they were horse flies with their metallic black/blue colour and very persistent loud buzz….  Mason Bees are great bees to have around your garden. Unlike most bees, the Mason Bee is a peaceful non-stinging bee that is also a legendary pollinator. These cool bees each visit and pollinate nearly 100 blooms each day, these solitary bees don’t make hives, they seek shelter in narrow openings, such as the hollows of reeds and holes in trees.

There is so much information on Mason Bees.. of course I could go on forever. Mason Bees are built to be nature’s ultimate pollinators! Did you know it takes more than 360 honeybees to do the exact same job that can be done by just 30 mason bees!! I would encourage anyone with any type of fruit trees, blossoming plants or flowering trees on their property to either build or pick up a Mason Bee house and get it out there now.  To guarantee that your house will be immediately occupied it is recommended to make a one time purchase of Mason Bee cocoons.  Mount it on the south or east side of your house, shed, or directly on a fence. Nest height can be eye level—bees will ignore you so put it where you can watch them!

Mason bees Osmia (blue orchard and hornfaced)  are named from their habit of making compartments of mud in their nests, which are made in hollow reeds or holes in wood. Mason Bees are solitary meaning every female is fertile and makes her own nest, and there are no worker bees for these species, solitary bees produce neither honey nor beeswax. The bees emerge from their cocoons in the spring, with males the first to come out. They remain near the nests waiting for the females. When the females emerge, they mate. The males die, and the females begin working their nests. The material used for the cell can be clay or chewed plant tissue. Females then visit flowers to gather pollen and nectar, and many trips are needed to complete a pollen/nectar provision mass. Once a provision mass is complete, the bee backs into the hole and lays an egg on top of the mass. Then she creates a partition of “mud”, which doubles as the back of the next cell. The process continues until she has filled the cavity, once a bee has finished with a nest, she plugs the entrance to the tube, and then may seek out another nest location. By the summer, the larva has consumed all of its provisions and begins spinning a cocoon around itself and enters the pupal stage, and the adult matures either in the fall or winter, hibernating inside its insulatory cocoon.

Find what you need here:
In the USA

In Canada