Mason bees are slow to emerge this year, due to the cold, wet weather. Be patient, they will emerge!

“Is the rain ever going to quit and is it going to warm up?”

I keep responding to this question from customers within the past two weeks or so.

Some first-time customers have been worried since some of their fruit trees are starting to bloom and the mason bees have not emerged yet. My advice to them has been if they want to speed up the process of having the mason bees emerge they should do the following:

If you’re familiar with Mason Bees, you’ll know that the bees will emerge when they’re ready, and that it’s generally better to just let nature take it’s course.

My advice to those that are feeling impatient has been if they want to speed up the process of having the mason bees emerge they should do the following:

Obtain a gallon size storage bag (if you don’t have one of our protective storage bags.)  Take some of your mason bee filled tubes or cocoons and place them inside. If you’re not using one of our protection storage bags, then make sure you don’t seal the storage bag completely closed so that the bees will be able to breathe when they emerge. You can also poke small holes in the bag to ensure they have some air.

Next, select a warm location to place them that’s consistently warm — like 55 degrees or warmer. I use a room in my home that’s around 68 degrees.  At a warmer temperature, the bees will start to emerge in a few days. When they start to emerge, remember that the males will emerge first. You’ll need to wait for the females to appear. When they appear, the males will mate with them.

Now at that point take them outside to your mason bee house and open your bag and release them and place the nesting tubes in your house in case there are more bees inside. However, within 24 hours regardless if the females have appeared or not return the bees to their house. The bees will continue to appear at this point.

I hope this helps everyone new to raising mason bees. I don’t do this with my bees — I just rely on mother nature.

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The OSU extension service had a lot of information on bees which is a good resource to visit. Another  booth I visited had several handouts which i found informative when it come to pesticides. visit their website, www.beyondtoxics.org and you’ll find a chart of bee friendly plants and a time line  on when they bloom best. You’ll also find information about pesticides and how they impact our environment. I for one do not use pesticides in my garden or flower beds.

So now is the time to start looking for mason bees and supplies. I suggest you check out other sites besides ours so you’ll have a good idea of what companies  are charging for their bees and supplies. I’m sure you’ll see that we have the lowest prices on bees and very competitive on houses and supplies. Look forward to you visiting our site at mason.bees.supply

Rick

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