How to care for Mason Bees, Hatching, Overwintering

Everything you need to know about how to care for mason bees is explained by Jen including hatching and overwintering.

[@conniehusband1365]

Who would have known that we have embarked on the most fascinating journey?!!!!!! These little critters are absolutely amazin.g! Thankyou for sharing your awesome knowledge with us newbies on the scene. We already enjoy a familial love and caring for our charge. Now, perhaps there is an opportunity for success.

[@CamilleH53]

GREAT INFO! I just got my very first batch (20) of cocoons yesterday. I was prepped for every 'situation' so I thought. They came in a manila envelope and to my surprise, when I opened it up at my office desk, all the bees had hatched. I

[@patriciasadiq9208]

Thank you Jen for sharing your knowledge and expertise about caring for Mason bees. You have inspired me to give it a go and provide a habitat for them. Do you know if they have any favourite types of plants that they collect pollen and nectar from?

[@CrownBees]

We recommend going to your favorite nursery and ask about the best native plants for your area.

[@patrickr9606]

Your comment on natural selection is right on.

[@DivaBClub]

My granddaughter and I love our mason bees. We use the paper boba straws and they work great. We do use a better protected house for the tubes...plus they are fun to build

[@nationalist4099]

I LOVE BEES

[@AbbyCd]

🐝

[@plantpoweredpedaler]

Wonderful Jen. I'm up in Washington and have inherited blueberries, apple trees, cherry, plum and asian pear. ALso putting in vegetable garden. can you recommend how many bees and how many tubes I should buy and where? Are those cereal boxes you are putting them in. Can you show how you asseble the boxes to get ready for the bees in spring?

[@Hebrews12_2]

Great information! I live in Louisiana in suburbia and have many more mason bees hanging around than honeybees. These bees are aggressive pollinators!

[@cjpatterson4711]

This is a tiny bee colony. I wonder if I could have one in the Mobile Home Park and it not get noticed? They could help out my tiny garden. Thank you for introducing me to the Mason Bee.

[@sustainabletoday]

It would hardly be noticed. Some people set up small decorative insect hotels that look like garden art. If you try Mason bees use the paper bee tubes as she suggests.

[@jennab313]

Great info! REALLY wish you would have been closer to your camera or had your camera person zoom in so viewers could see up close the cocoons and nests 😞

[@evilroyslade2491]

Thanks for your information.

[@carolhambridge8997]

Very nice work explanation! Where do you get your paper and cardboard tubes?

[@robertproctor1358]

I just purchased some Mason bees, I have fruit trees that they can pollinate, my question is if in the late fall and they're in the tubes and I want to remove them how do I get them out of the tubes to check on them and clean them up and put them away for the winner. Also do I need to purchase new tunes ever year if there removed from the tunes or can I reuse the old ones? Thanks and look forward to your answer

[@nestboxtech5127]

You need to replace the tube liners each year

[@t-housetv7580]

Do you need to save the bee bread if you are placing them in a box?

[@miriamrobarts]

5:10 Egg laying process 6:00 The bee hatches, eats the bee bread, then spins a cocoon. As they hibernate through the winter inside the cocoon, they change into adult bees, & emerge in the spring. 9:11 So when you open up the tubes around November, they are already inside the cocoon.

[@t-housetv7580]

@@miriamrobarts Thanks. I threw out most of the bee bread when i washed the cocoons in cold water. Will my bees be okay?

[@t-housetv7580]

and is there an alternative to bee bread that i can feed them? pollen maybe? idk. i worry about my bees. they are ready to hatch soon! Edit: the reason why i threw out the bee bread is because it had mites in them... Hopefully my bees are okay. mother nature has a way of making things work.

[@miriamrobarts]

@@t-housetv7580 If the bees are in cocoons, I'm guessing they had more food than they needed. Or maybe what you found is mud (there should be a little bit of mud between each bee). Next time (after the bees stop flying & the tubes are closed up with mud), you can stand your block / group of tubes on end, so the opening (now closed with mud) is facing up. This lets gravity help, since it will put the baby bee on top of the food & it's easy for them to eat it. Here are a couple videos: "HOW TO PROTECT and STORE MASON BEES OVER SUMMER?" kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJatnpmkfriHkLM & "Mason Bees: Remove and Protect" kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z33FfJ2Nmcx_oNk From what I've seen in videos, as soon as they break out of their cocoons, they fly off to find food on their own. They are fully grown adults when they come out. So there's no need to feed them! (Except for growing flowers for them, of course. 🌼) Good luck!

[@t-housetv7580]

@@miriamrobarts Thank you!

[@DanlowMusic]

How big of a hole do you recommend drilling into the side of the box?

[@nestboxtech5127]

About 8mm

[@denisemiller8474]

I just put out new tubes they go too the new tubes and leave the old house and bring in the garage in winter so I’m not screwing with Mother Nature. I live next too an orchard in Yakima Washington and they spray for things like mites etc. if your cleaning your tubes and disrupting the cocoons older houses and tubes i discard every other year. I notice they don’t reuse the old nests if fresh ones out. The Mason bee will also find holes in your yard to lay eggs. I think people disrupt the cycle by washing and cleaning the nests. I found a rental company that rents you everything and cleans your nests every year. I found that they killed off the offspring by doing this. The human race is disrupting the nature of the Mason bee. It’s best too just leave it too Mother Nature and help by just putting out new nests each year and discard the old houses.

[@allenthompson2970]

It's so easy to blame global warming on everything, isn't it? So you think that these bee's are so unable to adapt to one degree of change that they will all die? I give them more credit than that. Other than that, thanks for the information on these essential insects.

[@stonefly69]

Global warming makes the flowers bloom earlier. Global warming makes it too cold for the mason bees. Right....

[@Silentslinger65]

You’ve got to be kidding me right? That is that absolute worst set up for mason bee houses. Get them outta that damn cardboard and put them in a proper house. With protection from predators and the weather. This is horrible advise.

[@ReapingTheHarvest]

A "proper house" lol. Yeah like in nature where there is 0% chance of death.

[@Silentslinger65]

@@ReapingTheHarvest Yeah good point. Wow I never thought of that! You’re so smart. Man do I feel dumb wow. Thanks Mike for informing me with so much helpful info I feel so much better now. Thank you mike! Let’s all give Mike a round of applause.

[@ReapingTheHarvest]

@@Silentslinger65 Were you trying to see how many times you could type my name in one comment?

[@nestboxtech5127]

This is actually a decent way of rearing mason bees. I do it this way and release a population of 3000+ healthy native bees each year using this approach. The only difference is I ‘harvest’ them over the winter to remove pollen mites and Houdini fly larvae.