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Mason Bee “Pollinating Pals” Nesting Kit
The Blue Orchard Mason Bee, technically known as Osmia lignaria, is an excellent pollinator. Each one can do as much pollinating as 120 honey bees. This kit will help attract these beneficial bees to your garden. Since Mason Bees are solitary bees and do not make hives, they are always looking for a place to make a home. They look for a hole or tunnel that has been bored out by a beetle or other insect and go in and clean it out. When they find these tubes that are the perfect size and shape, and already cleaned out, they will move right it.

Life Cycle
Mason Bees will normally begin to appear in early spring, usually in March or April depending on location. They mate soon after emerging from their home and immediately begin their search for pollen and nectar. The females will also begin looking for a new home. If she finds a tube or beetle boring that has previously been used, she will first clean it out. If she finds a nester tube, she will use it immediately.
She will start by going to the back of the tube and laying an egg, depositing some pollen and nectar for food, and building a wall to create a cell. This wall building is why they are called Mason Bees. She repeats this process about 10 times, creating a cell for each egg. This activity usually continues through June, and then they will begin dying. But the eggs are now hatching and eating the food that was left for them. The larvae go through their entire cycle inside each individual cell, molting 4 to 5 times. Around August they will spin a cocoon and begin gradually developing into an adult Mason Bee.

Tips
Mason Bees are often referred to as solitary bees because they do not have a social order like honey bees and bumble bees. They do not have a queen or a hive and they do not make honey. However, they are perfectly happy making a nest right next to each other.
While honey bees have a special sac to carry pollen back to their hive, Mason Bees do not have a sac so the pollen sticks to all the hair on their body and gets distributed as they go from flower to flower. This is why they are such effective pollinators.
Mason Bees tend not to sting because they are not a social bee and do not have a hive or a queen to protect. The only way to get one to sting is to squeeze it, and even then it probably won’t sting.
Fortunately Mason Bees are not susceptible to the Varroa mite which has caused such havoc with honey bees all over North America.

To order live Mason Bees please see "Mason Bees" under the Product section.