Honey Bee Suite » mason bees

Mason bees fill up their nests

Rusty — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 22:12:05 +0000

No Vacancy at the mason bee condo

It took them awhile, but the entire condo is filled–as well as the tubes they hatched from. A job well done. I will miss these little bees who are around for such a very short time.

No Vacancy

Mason bee condo filling up

Rusty — Sat, 28 May 2011 23:28:19 +0000

Although I haven’t actually seen many mason bees around, it is easy to see they’ve been hard at work. This mason bee condo was empty two weeks ago. Now there’s only two spaces left and the lower one has a mason bee in it. The tubes on the left are where they hatched, and those are filling up again too. I have other condos, but this one is sheltered by an eave and they seem to like it the best.

Mason bee condo nearly full.

Mason bees waiting for sunshine

Rusty — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 17:01:24 +0000

I finally put out my tubes of mason bees about two weeks ago. Last year at this time, the mason bees were flying and the pear trees were in bloom. This year, it is still cold and rainy. The lawn splats when I walk across it and the paths to the outbuildings are slippery and slidey.

One intrepid mason bee has been sitting in his tube looking out for nearly a week. I know he’s alive because he changes position now and again, but he doesn’t dare leave the comfort of his tube. A few other mason bees are breaking through the mud barriers but none have taken flight. It seems like we are making up for last year’s early spring.

Rusty

Tubes of mason bees next to a new condo.

A mason bee waiting for the weather to change.

Wednesday wordphile: ocellus (plural: ocelli)

Rusty — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 20:17:13 +0000

An ocellus is a simple eye having a single lens. This type of eye does not form an image but acts as a photo receptor, detecting changes in light intensity and direction.

Many arthropods have ocelli. They are especially common in arthropods that fly—such as bees. Bees have three ocelli on the crown of their head–centered between the large compound eyes and looking like shiny black dots.

Experiments have shown that ocelli help honey bees to navigate at flight speeds. Bees with full sight (all five eyes) were found to be much more cautious and tended to decelerate more quickly than bees whose ocelli were covered[1].

The ocelli are the three tiny dots atop this mason bee's head. Photo by the author.

[1] Kastberger, G. 1990. The ocelli control flight course in honeybees. Physiological Entomology 15(3):337-346.

Cat on a Mason Bee Condo

Rusty — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:00:44 +0000

One morning this spring I went outside ready to take photos of mason bees coming and going from the bee condo. What I found there wasn’t a bee but my cat, perched about eight feet high on the roof of the bee condo.

Although my camera was basically prepared for some macro photography, I quickly took some shots of the cat. I failed to reset the metering mode and a few other things, so the pictures turned out terrible. Unusable . . . completely washed out. Every time I saw them I decided to delete, but I never quite got around to it.

Yesterday I was playing with PhotoShop, trying to learn how to use this mystifying piece of software. For some reason I chose the cat pictures as a learning tool. What I got was pretty cool–cat art!

So here, for your delectation, I present “Cat on a Mason Bee Condo.” Oh well . . . I don’t wander off topic too often.

Rusty

Cat on a Mason Bee Condo. Photo by the author.

A chair with a buzz

Rusty — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 14:44:30 +0000

The Adirondack chair, below, is in my yard. A close-up of one of the screw holes shows that a mason bee decided it was a good place to lay her eggs. A seal of mud now protects the eggs that are laid in individual compartments, end-to-end inside the hole. The fact that I provided perfectly good mason bee houses–carefully built to meet all specifications–was apparently lost on the female who chose this spot.

I probably wouldn’t have noticed this nest, except that I was sitting in that chair when it started to buzz. The chair, that is. I was really surprised when the little mason bee popped out of the side (under the arm) because she made a lot of noise. I decided to leave it alone–it’s a small nest and a big chair. There’s plenty of room for all of us.

Rusty?

Adirondack chair with a buzz.

Home sweet home.

An unwelcome visitor to the mason bees

Rusty — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 23:49:43 +0000

This guy crawled out of one of the mason bee tubes today as I was watching. He was probably stealing provisions and eggs. Unfortunately for him, he became chicken feed shortly after he modeled for this shot.

Um . . . it could be a she. I’m clueless.

Rusty

Unwelcome visitor

Newly hatched mason bee

Rusty — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:41:21 +0000

Emerged today, March 24. Notice the three small eyes atop its head. Photo by the author.

Tips for planting a pollinator garden

Rusty — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:54:01 +0000

When planting a pollinator garden, keep in mind that pollinators need food during the entire growing season. Although some species live only a few weeks, different species become active at different times of the year. In other words, something must be in flower at all times throughout the spring, summer, and fall if you want to have a varied and continuous supply of visitors. Here are some tips for a successful pollinator garden.

The wider the variety of flowers you plant, the wider the variety of pollinators you will attract. Different pollinators are attracted to different plant features, so give them plenty of options.

Choose flowers of different colors. Bees are particularly fond of blue, purple, violet, white, and yellow. Hummingbirds, on the other hand, like the reds.

Flowers planted in clumps of like-kind tend to attract more pollinators than scattered mixtures.

Plant flowers of different shapes. Pollinators have an amazing variety of tongue lengths, mouths sizes, body sizes, and taste preferences. Flowers of various geometries attract a wider selection of pollinators.

Highly selected hybrids often have less nectar than heirloom varieties. Stick with heirlooms or native varieties, when possible.

Plants in the sun attract more pollinators than plants in the shade.

Sheltered plants are more favored than plants that thrash in the wind.

Have a source of mud readily available. Certain bees, such as mason bees, use it for sealing their nests.

Skip the pesticides—not good for them, not good for you.

Rusty

Make room for mason bees

Rusty — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:35:44 +0000

My first shipment of orchard mason bees arrived in shiny little tubes that look like drinking straws, packed in a box that weighs next to nothing. So why am I messing with mason bees in the midst of a million honey bees?

The answer is partly because they’re native—I encourage native species whenever I can—and partly because they’re fun. Then, too, I have pear trees; honey bees like pear nectar as much as Bush-the-elder likes broccoli. Honey bees are amazingly polylectic, which means they collect nectar from a wide variety of plants. They have their favorites, however, and pear isn’t one of them. Pear nectar is generally lower in sugars than other orchard nectars so, unless pickings are slim, they will pretty much ignore it.

There are several species of mason bees, but the ones native to the coastal Pacific Northwest are Osmia lignaria. They are in the same order (Hymenoptera) as honey bees, but in a different family (Megachilidae). Compared to honey bees, mason bees are extremely efficient pollinators. Just two or three mason bees can pollinate the equivalent of a mature apple tree in one season.

Like most of the native bees, mason bees are solitary. After the female is fertilized in spring, she raises the next generation by herself. She searches out comfortable digs—usually a hole or a hollow reed—and collects a pile of provisions (nectar and pollen) which she deposits at the far end. On top of this she lays an egg and then walls off the compartment with mud—hence the name “mason” bee. She continues this process until the hole is filled and then begins another.

The eggs she lays go through complete metamorphosis like a honey bee except, instead of being fed by a solicitous hoard of nurses, the developing larva has only her personal supply of grub. I say “her” although the last egg to be laid—the one nearest the opening—is a “him.” Like a LIFO system of inventory (last in, first out) the male bee is the first to hatch. Biologists call this phenomenon “protandry.” Protandry assures that the males will be fully mature and ready for the females when they emerge. (I know what you’re thinking but, no, they are not incestuous. Other brood from other females is hatching at the same time.) Protandry occurs in many species. In salmon, for example, the males arrive at the spawning grounds first, then rest (have a beer) and wait for the females to arrive. The system works.

Orchard mason bees have lots of people-friendly attributes. Since they have no large stores of honey or masses of brood to protect, they are relatively docile. They will sting if stepped on or grabbed, but they don’t fly into large hairy mammals to resolve territory issues. Unlike carpenter bees, masons use existing holes and never employ awls or augers on your siding or lawn furniture. Also, since they don’t live in large colonies, they don’t swarm onto your neighbor’s swing set or leave fecal trails on their BMWs. Furthermore, unlike honey bees, they don’t stray very far from home—put them in your orchard and they’ll probably stay there.

Lastly, mason bee houses are much cuter and smaller (and did I mention lighter?) than honey bee houses. Why not give them a try?

Rusty