The perfect gift for just about any gardener, this accessory is sure to help bring more fruit and vegetables from the orchard and garden.
West of the rockies, we can extend our pollination well into summer with the the Osmia Californica, a later pollinating bee which prefers ornamentals, sunflowers, and garden vegetable flowers.
Our gentle native black bees, called mason bees or pollen bees, are solitary, and produce no honey, but can be one of the greatest creatures to have in your garden.
This mason bee nest house is designed to attract mason bees, naturally.
Unable to burrow nests for their young, Mason Bees usually nest in abandoned beetle burrows in dead logs. They have been shown to prefer smooth 5/16” holes, which I mimic using extra-sharp tools to cut the holes.
Upon selecting a nest cavity, the female mason bee starts collecting mud to build a partition at the far end of the nest cavity.
Once this partition is ready, she goes out to collect pollen to provide food for the eggs she will lay in a linear fashion from the bottom of the cavity, first mud, then pollen, egg, mud, pollen, egg mud, until the cavity is filled. The last visit is with a heavier deposit of mud, to protect her growing babies from harm.
The following spring, the fresh bees emerge, to start the cycle all over again in your garden, collecting pollen and pollinating your garden at the same time.
Thank you for visiting my shop. Many other gardening gifts available, including custom work. Looking for gardening products you don't see here? I love custom orders, so please feel free to send me a request.
Cheers,
Andrew
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