Blog

We love mason bees for many reasons! They're early spring pollinators, a lot of fun to watch, and require very little maintenance compared to honey bees, making them perfect bees for busy gardeners and farmers.Traditionally, spring mason bee care included three simple steps. Step one, Install the mason bee house—step two, release mason bee cocoons. Step three, sit back and relax while these super pollinators do their thing. However, the Houdini Fly, an invasive parasite of the mason bee, has add …

Mason bees are susceptible to many parasites and diseases, increasing over time, especially when the same nest materials are used for multiple seasons. One of the most destructive diseases of cavity-nesting bees is chalkbrood, which is caused by the fungal pathogen Ascosphaera.Several species of Ascosphaera exist, including Ascosphaera torchioi (affects mason bees), A. larvis, and A. aggregata (affects alfalfa leafcutter bees). Chalkbrood disease also affects honey bees, but it is caused yet ano …

Each month our Bee Informed Blog highlights current news, science, and research related to solitary bee conservation, food insecurity, and sustainability.1. Bees Exposed to Pesticide Could Take Multiple Generations to Recover - Modern FarmerCalculating exactly what sort of damage certain pesticides pose to pollinators might be trickier than previously thought. New research from scientists at the University of California, Davis finds that repeated exposure to some pesticides could have an ad …

First and foremost, a THANK YOU to all of our Bee Farmers, Bee Buy Back Participants, and Harvesting Volunteers this season—we even had a volunteer come all the way from Canada! Thanks to your bee raising efforts, we've received, harvested, cleaned, and stored around 350,000 mason bee cocoons so far this year, and we're still counting! Yes, that's right! Our Bee Buy Back program is still open!You can take pride knowing that your region-specific mason bee cocoons will go to next season' …

Each month our Bee Informed Blog highlights current news, science, and research related to solitary bee conservation, food insecurity, and sustainability.1. Adjusting interactions help some of California's wild bee populations survive PHYS.ORG - Across California's Central Valley, under stress from large-scale agriculture and climate change, native bee species that are flexible in their pollination behavior when around other wild bee populations appear best suited for survival in shrinkin …