News — Solitary Bees

During the 2022 harvesting season, some mason bee raisers in the pacific northwest noticed that a few mason bees had already emerged from their cocoons. Early emergence tells us that the bees have already consumed most of their stored fats (energy), which usually doesn't occur until spring. The early emergence of mason bees is likely due to the higher-than-average, extended summer temperatures we had in the summer and fall of 2022. When we have higher-than-average summer temperatures, the speed of development increases, and the new bee becomes an adult quicker than usual. Once the bee becomes an adult, it shifts...

Each month our Bee Informed Blog highlights current news, science, and research related to solitary bee conservation, food insecurity, and sustainability. 1. "Students raising mason bees at Orcas School" (The Islands' Sounder) Orcas Master Gardeners Dray Longdon, Laura Walker, Tony Suruda and Nancy Forker visited the Orcas School Garden on Oct. 6 to help the 5th-grade students harvest cocoons of mason bees and prepare them for winter storage. Mason bees are native pollinators that nest in cavities. They harvested nesting tubes that have been at the school from April through October. Mason bees, along with bumble bees, are important early spring pollinators...

With extreme summer temperatures sweeping North America, shipping trucks, mailboxes, sheds, and garages can quickly feel like ovens! While bees are hearty insects, extreme temps can impact their survival. Here are a few things to keep in mind this summer: Once our bees leave our facility, we cannot regulate the temperature of the cocoons. Extreme temps and shipping delays may affect your bees. If you know your leafcutter bees are scheduled to ship during a heat wave, please consider changing your bee ship date. You can change your bee ship date up to the Wednesday before your scheduled ship date. If your summer leafcutter...

Each month our Bee Informed Blog highlights current news, science, and research related to solitary bee conservation, food insecurity, and sustainability. 1. Native Bees Climb Social Ladder (County News) A native bee which nests in tree-fern fronds is helping scientists understand how life developed to be social and altruistic — and how bees evolved to purposefully hatch sterile young, a fact which defies Darwin’s natural selection theory. The Australian bee Amphylaeus morosus only recently made the jump from being a solitary species to a social one — which made them a perfect, and rare, animal to put under the metaphorical microscope. The...