Attracting Mason Bee's to Your Homestead
Check out our new Mason Bee home!
Bee's are crucial to any homesteader or gardener. I have recently learned that there are other bee's besides Honey Bee's that pollinate plants. Mason Bee's are fantastic pollinators and they are gentle enough to touch. Click is on Mason Bee's for an amazing video.
It is cheap, easy and fun to build a home to attract Mason Bee's.
Happy creating!
Tammie
Host of Paints and Crafts
If you haven't the time or tools to make this, I have seen smiliar bee houses/hotel sell for as little as £3 at the likes of Asda and Home Bargains here in the UK.
All the best, Leia
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Yes, I almost bought one but decided to read up on Mason Bees and found out that many of them are not made with deep enough holes or tubes. According to what I have read they need to be 6 to 8 inches deep. The one that I almost bought was only 4 inches deep. I think if I looked around more I could have found one made correctly. However, I ran across the free wood and couldn’t resist!
Happy creating!
Tammie
Host of Paints and Crafts
Very nice! What kind of wood did you use? Are there better ones and less good ones or can it be any log you find? Do the bees find their way there by themselves or do you have to Help them? Is there a way to know how many bees a garden needs, i.e., how many bee hotels you have to make to be(e) :-) self-sustaining?
Best regards, Niklas 🎈
Do the bees prefer your homemade "housings" befor (ahead of?) the places between the bricks on the houses fasade?
We had problems and had to let Anticimex Help us to get rid of such destroyers. We wanted our house to be for us.
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Min hemsida: Svensk version
#3 It doesn't matter what type of wood you use. You don't need very many to pollinate your entire yard. The Mason Bee's link on this post has information on how many hives to have.
#4 Mason Bees are not destroyers. They take advantage of small holes to lay egg in. They don't have the ability to be destructive or make there own holes. They lay eggs provide food and cover the hole with mud which allows the babies to grow until they hatch.
Happy creating!
Tammie
Host of Paints and Crafts
#5 Then there must be more bees living in such holes. The ones we had was called solitary bees, Maybe those were another kind of bees.
Why do you call them mason if they prefer wooden housing? It sounds to me if it describes the bees who made the holes in our house..
My website: American version
Min hemsida: Svensk version
Some nice explaining pictures:
About mason bees to read:
My website: American version
Min hemsida: Svensk version
Bee populations are on the decline and we need bees to survive, including mason bees. In the article you attached, it even states that providing other places for mason bees to live near the places where they are living in the bricks Help deter them from nesting where you don’t want them to be. Therefore, it is even more crucial to have these nests in urban areas, such as backyards. https://www.chalmers.se/en/departments/ace/research/Urban%20Design%20and%20Planning/Pop_Up_Park_BEE_CONNECTED/Pages/How-many-bee-species-do-we-have-in-Sweden-and-can-they-live-in-cities.aspx
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#8 Fine if you can tell them not to destroy for you and the neighbours. I wouldn't risk to attract such animals and have other people to hate me for it. We haven't forgotten how it was when we was assured and the neghbours weren't.
I just want to warn you, so you don't have to get in trouble unneccesary.
I prefer all the bumblebees we have and try to get them a good garden with a lot of what they need.
My website: American version
Min hemsida: Svensk version
#9 I am sorry that you had a bad experience and that we have a difference of opinion.
Host of Apartment Gardening | Ashtanga Yoga | Literature | Migraine