Blue orchard mason bees (Osmia lignaria) and horned-face mason bees (Osmia cornifrons) both only produce one generation of bees per year.

Knowing this fact makes it easier for us to protect the developing larvae from one of the biggest threats that hole-nesting bees face: gnat-sized parasitic wasps.

You can reuse your spring mason bee house to raise summer leafcutter bees.

One of the many stressors that today's bees face is a loss of flowering habitat.

An easy way to increase and improve habitat is to convert our grass lawns, which to a bee is a food desert, to flowering bee lawns. A bee lawn will attract and feed bees while it saves us time, money, and effort.

Blue orchard mason bees (Osmia lignaria) are native bees that are active in the spring and are the perfect pollinators for blueberry fields.

Emerging from their cocoons in the spring, they fly in cooler and wetter weather than honey bees. Instead of living in a hive, mason bees live in pre-made holes and every female bee takes care of her own nest.

Your bee house is set up, the weather is warming, your fruit blooms are open, and your mason bee mud supply is ready – what happens when mason bees start flying?

This stage of raising mason bees is what I like to call Wait & Watch and it’s the best part of raising spring mason bees.

Mason bees are named after masonry for a reason since female mason bees protect each nesting chamber with a wall of clayey mud.

If mason bees can't find clayey mud nearby their bee house, they simply won't nest and will fly away to find another site. Female mason bees carry a mud ball in their large mandibles (jaws) and they are looking for a mud that they can manipulate.

Releasing, or setting out, spring mason bee cocoons is easy and there are a few guidelines that you should follow to keep the bees happy and healthy.

• Spring mason bees need a minimum daytime temperature of about 55F/13C (don’t worry about nighttime temperatures) and they need open blooms to feed.

Native hole-nesting bees, just like any creature, have their own set of diseases and pests that, when left unchecked, can harm or kill them.

We know that our native mason and leafcutter bees are unable to clean out their nesting holes. Nesting holes should be opened once a year to remove diseases like chalkbrood (a deadly fungal infection) and pests like pollen mites (they eat the pollen loaf before the larvae can). At the very least, fresh nesting holes should be provided every year.

Sometimes, spring mason bees wake up before your fruit trees and berry plants start blooming. Don't worry, you can provide bees who emerged early inside of your HumidiBee with a couple of options. Includes how to set out cocoons.

Setting up your bee house for spring mason bees is easy and only takes a few minutes.

Here are our expert tips for setting up your bee house in a location that mason bees will love!