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MASON BEES:

• How many nesting holes do you have? 1 cocoon per nesting hole
• 1 tree = 10 cocoons = 10 nesting holes
• 25 holes will support ±12 nesting females and 10-15 fruit trees under bloom at one time
• In an orchard, you'd want about 1,000 cocoons for about 100 trees.
• We recommend at a minimum 20 cocoons to start with. Many gardeners start out with fewer cocoons, but don’t see much activity.
• What is great about mason bees is that the number of bees laid grows each year. This year's bees are laying next year's bees for you. In general, you should be able to double your bees each year.

LEAFCUTTER BEES:

• In an alfalfa field, farmers place out about 20-30,000 leafcutter bees per acre. This is a lot of bees, but equally, is a lot of pollination needed at one time.
• For a backyard, whether a small lot in a city, or a half an acre in the suburbs, about 100 cocoons is fine.

MASON BEES:

• By March-April, mason bees are about ready to finish hibernating and need just a few hours at a warm temperature to begin emerging. Stored in a refrigerator, they may have run out of stored fats and will nibble out of their cocoons.
• If your plants are not ready to feed the emerged bees: Keep the emerged bees in a HumidiBee within your refrigerator. To provide energy until the blossoms open, soak a cotton ball in a solution made of 1 part sweetener (Karo corn syrup, granulated sugar, or honey) and 1 part water. Put the soaked cotton ball into the HumidiBee and put the HumdiBee in a paper sack to keep it dark.

LEAFCUTTER BEES:

• No worries! This simply is a sign that your bees are eager to make their way outdoors. Follow the instructions included with your bees for placement in your yard or garden.

MASON BEES:

• In the wild, when daytime temperatures are at about 55°F (13°C), the males will emerge from their cocoons. This is usually around the same time as cherry trees bloom.
• Generally, males emerge first and females follow anywhere from one-three days, to two weeks later. We sometimes see females emerge three to four weeks after the males emerge.
• If you are keeping bees in your refrigerator, bees may emerge even at low 35-40 degrees temperatures. This is due to them running out of stored fats and they must emerge to feed.
• When releasing bees, watch for 2 elements to coincide: average daytime temperatures in the low to mid-50°F (or warmer) AND the presence of OPEN blossoms in your yard or orchard.
• Bees will emerge hungry and fly off in search of pollen and nectar to replenish their depleted fats and bolster their energy. A weak bee will gain nothing from a tightly closed bud.

LEAFCUTTER BEES:

• Emerge when temperatures are 75°F/25°C or warmer (typically May through July). Leafcutter bees overwinter as larva and utilize warm spring or early summer temps to resume development.
• In a controlled incubation environment (85°F/29°C) males will begin to emerge after approx. 21 days. Crown Bees incubates all leafcutter bee cocoons and ships cocoons for immediate placement outdoors.
• At a consistent 70°F/21°C temperature, it will take approximately 6 weeks before the 1st male emerges.
• If you incubate them at home it can take between 4-7 weeks for the bees to finish development. Consistent warm temperatures determine the amount of time it takes for the bees to develop.

Unfortunately, you can't. However, you'll have the solitary bee house with nesting holes in it, and the bees will have to fly past your blooming trees, berries, flowers and vegetables to get to their yard. Encourage your neighbor to learn what you're doing and suggest that they install a bee house as well. If you can, split the results each winter. After all, both of you are reaping the rewards of these awesome pollinators.

It is best to avoid the use of chemicals that disrupt the natural balance of your yard. We have resources and tips on alternatives to chemicals. However, if you must, absolutely must, use a targeted chemical to control a pest, disease, or fungus, do so in the evening when your bees are tucked in their nesting holes. Cover the front of the house if necessary. You may want to restrict bee activity for a day or so after application and consult the label of your chemical to see if it states the length that the chemical is active.

While there is still debate among environmentalists, researchers, and chemical companies about the effects of neonicotinoids (also known as neonics) on bees, our stance is that natural is best. There have been recent studies on traditionally managed bees (like honey and bumblebees) that shows that neonics interfere with a bee’s ability to learn to to feed from complex plants, to remember where home is, and ability to reproduce. Neonics have been shown to reduce fertility in both male and female bees.

We do not recommend using chemicals in a yard because they can place our local ecology out of balance. We believe when both prey and predator are in balance, our ecosystem is healthy. When you remove the pest, predators have no food source, and thus either starve or leave. When the pest shows up again, there seemingly is no recourse other than to reach out to the chemical shelf for a solution. This creates a costly chemical cycle in your yard and garden. Avoiding chemicals may appear to tip the balance to the side of too many pests, but predators will find the pests and your yard will return to balance within a few years at most.

One of several things typically is going wrong.

1. The nesting holes are the wrong size or in the wrong location.
2. There isn't adequate pollen nearby.
3. The bees couldn't find adequate nesting substrates. Mason bees use clayey mud and leafcutters use soft leaves and petals.
4. There has been some sort of chemical application nearby that caused the bees to move on.

Yes, studies have shown that the presence of other bee species changes honey bee behavior and actually makes them better pollinators. Mason and leafcutter bees are not interested in harming honeybees and the same goes for honey bees (unless a strange bee accidentally enters the honey bee hive). If you are raising both kinds of bees we suggest that you place their houses with enough space between them so that you can check in on your solitary bees as needed. A solitary bee house should be placed at eye level and you will want to be able to stand and watch their activity without having to put on a protective beekeeper’s suit. Not having to wear protective gear is one of the benefits of raising solitary bees and you should take advantage of this fact.

These holes are evidence of a small gnat-sized parasitic wasp known as mono. Mono predation can be avoided by removing nesting tubes from the outdoors when mason bee activity ceases and storing them in a protected garage or shed over the summer. Mono activity increases as the spring and summer temps increase. Natural reeds are the best nesting material to deter these pests. See our Pests, Chemicals & Drilled Wood page for more information about this common mason bee pest.