We hear a common argument or question about raising hole-nesting bees: In nature, these bees nest in holes in wood, why don’t I just leave them alone?

The nesting holes we are providing for bees in our bee hotels and bee houses are really different than the nesting holes found in nature. We can't build a completely natural situation for our hole-nesting bees, who are wild creatures after all, so we need to learn to maintain our man-made houses for managed wild bees.

Backyard bee houses or bee hotels have become so popular that large garden distributors have started selling quickly made nesting habitats. When these products are made from drilled blocks of wood or bamboo tubes, they actually do more harm than good for local hole-nesting bees. These companies intentions are in the right place but they lack the knowledge of the pests and diseases that can harm bees.

It's the time of year to talk about the birds and the bees! Even though the world is home to a huge diversity of bee species, they all share a common feature - mother bees are able to choose the sex of each egg! Learn how sex determination works and why we all need to avoid neonic pesticides.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Wild hole-nesting bees, depending on their season, may start flying soon!

You have two options for taking care of your wild hole-nesting bees. First, you can harvest wild bee cocoons in the early spring, which requires more time and effort but you will be rewarded with getting to know your wild bee guests. The second option requires less time while still providing wild bees with fresh nesting holes each year.

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.