Why Mason bees?

Mason bees have real advantages over other managed bee species:

• Non-aggressive and safe around kids and pets. Mason bees are solitary, meaning there's no queen, no colony, and no honey to protect. Without a hive to defend, they're gentle and rarely sting, and even when they do it feels more like a mosquito bite.
• Among the earliest bees to emerge in spring, making them essential for early spring crops. Mason bees forage in low light, cool temps, and wet weather, while honey bees tend to be fair weather pollinators. On average, Mason bees forage twice as long per day as honey bees.
• Built for pollination. Honey bees land gently on blossoms and tuck pollen into saddlebags on their hind legs, which doesn't spread much of it around. Mason bees belly flop onto flowers, and pollen sticks to their fuzzy bodies like Velcro, falling off onto the next flower they visit.
• Mason bees pollinate about 95% of the flowers they visit, compared to about 5% for honey bees.
• Mason bees forage tree to tree and row to row, which makes them natural cross pollinators, while honey bees tend to stick to one tree at a time.

What Mason bee species do we work with?

We work with the two most commonly managed Mason bee species: the Blue Orchard Bee and the Japanese Orchard Bee (also called the Hornfaced Bee). Both are highly efficient spring pollinators, pollinate similar crops, and build nests the same way. Which species you receive depends on your location.

Blue Orchard Bee, Osmia lignaria

The Blue Orchard Bee, or "BOB," is the most commonly managed Mason bee. It's a temperate species native to most western states, from southern Alaska to California and east to Texas and Montana, and to most eastern states from Maine south to northern Georgia (a different subspecies). Only the western subspecies of the BOB is currently commercially available from bee producers.

Japanese Orchard Bee, Osmia cornifrons (also called the Hornfaced Bee)

The Japanese Orchard Bee, or "JOB," is common throughout the Midwestern and Eastern United States and handles humid environments better than the BOB.

The USDA Agricultural Research Service introduced the JOB to the U.S. from Japan in 1977 to improve fruit tree pollination. Since then, it has naturalized across the country and is widely used alongside, or in place of, managed European honey bees for fruit and nut tree pollination.

Shipping & Regional Acclimation

We ship live bee cocoons to the lower 48 United States only. We're not able to ship cocoons to Alaska, Hawaii, or outside the U.S.

Most of our cocoons come from your neighbors. Through our Bee Buy Back and Bee Farmer programs, Mason bee raisers across the country sell us their extra cocoons each fall, which is how we're able to offer cocoons from real, local bee populations instead of a single source.

Every cocoon we receive is treated and inspected to remove pests, parasites, and pollutants, then sorted by region and stored in climate controlled coolers to stay healthy and dormant until it's time to ship. That means the cocoons you receive are matched to your area, giving them the best chance to thrive once they arrive.

To protect the bees, cocoons ship free via FedEx 2Day and go out on Mondays only, so they never sit in a truck or a warehouse over a weekend.

Bee Buy Back

Sell your extra Mason bee cocoons back to us each fall and help increase natural pollination and food production across the country.

1. Each fall, our community of gardeners and farmers sells us their extra Mason bee cocoons.
2. We treat and examine each cocoon on a light table to remove pests, parasites, and pollutants.
3. We sort cocoons by region for the coming season.
4. You'll receive tips and reminders in our monthly Bee Mail newsletter to help you raise your bees successfully.

Depending on the year, we may also source Mason bees from vetted suppliers across the United States. We use multiple suppliers to ensure the bees you receive meet our quality standards and are specific to your region.

How we ensure healthy Mason bees

As demand for Mason bees grows, responsible raising and management practices matter more than ever. To provide you with healthy Mason bees, we:

• Use meticulous harvesting techniques to remove pests, parasites, and pollutants.
• Clean every cocoon with Clean Bee to eliminate diseases that may cling to the cocoon wall.
• Educate and support our bee raising community through our online Bee Knowledge resource center, our monthly Bee Mail newsletter, and our blog.

Our bees are OBA Certified Sustainable Bees

Our bees are certified by the Orchard Bee Association (OBA), meaning we meet their standards for sustainable propagation and management, including pest and chalkbrood control, best practices for shipping live Mason bee cocoons, tracking populations by region, and sustainable nesting practices.