News — Mason Bees

Traditionally, caring for spring Mason bees was a straightforward affair, involving three simple steps: installing the bee house, releasing the cocoons, and then enjoying the fruits of their pollinating labor. However, the emergence of the Houdini Fly, an invasive parasite targeting Mason bees, has necessitated an important addition to our care regimen.

The solitary bee industry is taking off, which attracts companies with the sole purpose of making money. We helped start the industry back in 2008 and see both good and bad practices abound! Your success is honestly important to us, and we want to give you the tools to make informed decisions. A growing industry, while popular, can often breed problems. Perhaps the biggest problem facing the solitary bee industry is the boom of uninformed people/companies selling bees and products. Did you know that certain bee rearing practices or a poorly designed bee house can wind up doing more harm...

When we talk about our commitment to environmental sustainability at Crown Bees, we refer to the mindfulness of our effect on our environment and natural resources. As a company and as individuals, we make a conscious effort to reduce our environmental impact as much as possible to protect future generations of people (and bees). We recognized that becoming truly sustainable will be a challenge as a small company. The path to reaching our future goals of becoming a B Corp certified business, moving into a LEED-certified building, and completing a full life-cycle analysis of our products, will take a considerable...

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 Farmer Calculating 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 additive effect, getting worse with multiple exposures. That could, they write, require multiple generations to recover. Continue reading...     2. Western Honey Bees Most Likely Originated in Asia, Researchers Find -...