Mason bees at work

Blueberry blossoms are at their peak and the Mason bees are still at work. This nest is in some rows of Bluecrop to boost the chances of a good fruit set.

Mason bee entering nest

Mason bee exiting nest

Arrow bamboo

The bamboo used for Mason bee nests is about 5/16″ opening at the top of the stalk and larger at the bottom of the bamboo stalk. The bees accept either sized opening. In fact, in the picture below the bamboo tube is almost 1/2″ in size. Notice that the cocoons on the right are vertical in the tube compared to the cocoons on the left so the bees can adapt to larger bamboo nests. ( The three yellow cells are infestations of pollen mites.)

large bamboo nest

Yesterday I visited “CANADA’S BAMBOO WORLD’ in Chilliwack B.C. to identify the kind of bamboo we had been using for mason bee nests. It appears to be “Pseudosasa japonica” or “arrow bamboo”. This  is from their catalogue.

Pseudosasa japonica (Arrow Bamboo)

* Max height 18’ (Estimated West Coast Maximum Height 15 feet) * Max culm diameter .75″ * Min. temp -26C * Sun/Shade * Running Bamboo *

The culms are erect with rather large leaves, up to a foot long by 1.5 inches wide.  It does well in tubs and pots.   Very tropical looking with it’s large leaves.  An excellent choice for indoors. (1 gallon $14.00, 2 gallon $19.00, 3 gallon $29.00, 5 gallon $38.00, 7 gallon $48.00)

Source:http://www.bambooworld.com/bamboo%20catalogue.htm

Bamboo nests for Mason bees

Perren (11years old) is cutting bamboo stalks to make Mason bee nests. We have observed that mason bees display a preference for bamboo nests. One way to monitor the effectiveness of these nests is to check the year over year increase in mason bees.We have a count of the cocoons going into this season so it will be easy calculate the rate of increase.

bamboo

The nests we are making will be for the 2010 season. The bamboo will have a year to dry out.

cutting between and at the nodes

Mason bees

 March 31,2008.

Mason bees will be emerging from their cacoons soon. They have spent their time since last spring in a tiny compartment in this bamboo nest. The same mud wall that seperates the compartments forms the entrance to the nest. Looking at the colour of the entrance you can see why they are called “Mason” bees. (click on pictures to enlarge)

The set of bamboo nests above along with others is in a large container with a couple of holes drilled in it. When the bees see the light they escape through the hole but can’t find their way back to their old nest. A new clean nest has been prepared and is placed under the eaves of a building. They like this south facing site a lot. It is well protected from predators.

As you can see from this picture the Masson bee is like a little bristle brush. This makes for good pollination-better than a honey bee but not as good as a bumble bee.