Cleaning Mason bees cocoons 2009

Getting rid of pollen mites is a good way help your Mason bee population grow. The cocoons in the picture are drying after being washed  and dipped in a mild beach solution. They will be kept in a secure container to protect them from mice.

Mason bee cocoons

 Candling the Mason bee cocoons shows which cocoons are not viable. Most of the cocoons in the batch above show a Mason bee inside in a fetal position. See other posts on Mason bees. http://blueberrytalk.wordpress.com/category/mason-bees/

Candling cocoons

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

Videos of Mason bees and Bumblebees

The nests in this video look similar to the variable sized nests we use made of bamboo. It’s hard to identify the materials used in these  nests.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2487381482109804

Another video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQaKKSNQ1Qk

In this video of a bumblebee nest notice the queen appear on the right. She appears to be laying an egg. Right now queen bumblebees are pollinating our earliest blueberry blossoms but it is the young worker bumblebees that we really rely on to pollinate later varieties.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vGbm3oQKIA&feature=related

Emerging Mason bees

When you are near the Mason bee cocoons you can hear the chewing sound of the bees trying to escape. This new arrival took a short time to catch his breath and then he was ready to fly

Hello world...I've arrived

First Mason bees emerge

It’s the latest spring in our memory. Yesterday the meteorologist on TV said it was the first time in a month and a half that the forecast high came up to the normal temperature for any given day. A couple of days ago the first dandelions opened up. With a warm 20C the first male Mason bees cut through their cocoons. Notice the long antennae and white hair tuft of the male Mason bee.

Mason bee male

Mason bee

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

Cleaning mason bee cocoons

Ayden (nine years old) has done a good job of cleaning the mason bee cocoons. The main thing is to get rid of all the pollen mites. We need to know how many cocoons we have but before counting we had everyone guess how many cocoons we had collected. All the guesses were too low but Tobia was closest with her guess of 600. The actual count was 770. We need to know the number of cocoons so we can put out the right number of nests next spring. Also we need to compare the number of cocoons with the results of pollination next summer. There are 1100 Bluecrop blueberry plants within 600 feet of the Mason bee nests and that is our target for improved pollination.

cleaned cocoons

how many cocoons?

It’s always hard to get good pollination with the Bluecrop variety. The result is a lot of small immature fruit as illustrated in the following picture.

poor pollination

 The video advertised in the following link gives complete details on cleaning cocoons:

https://id408.van.ca.siteprotect.com/beediverse/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=29&products_id=88&osCsid=1575e2dc05c27a1168eb9b4bccd12806

Mason bee cocoons

Mason bees seem to prefer bamboo nests over other nest choices. It’s easy to break open the bamboo nest to clean out infestations of pollen mites. The bees naturally leave a space of almost an inch at the entrance end making it possible to begin breaking apart the bamboo using a cold chisel. Once the cocoons are cleaned up they will be stored in a cool dry place awaiting next spring.

opening bamboo nests

mason cocoons

Notice the yellow cell indicating pollen mites. The larvae in this cell didn’t have a chance with all the pollen mites. Click on pictures to enlarge.

cocoons ready for cleaning

Not about birds but about Mason bees

Mason bees lay fertilized eggs in the back compartments of their nest to produce females and a few unfertilized eggs near the entrance to produce males. In the spring the males exit first so they are ready to mate with the females when they emerge.

Mason bees love to gather nectar and pollen from the rhododendrons that have small leaves and flowers. In the pictures below Mason bees are mating in a rhododendron that is about 300 feet away from the nesting area. Notice the smaller size of the male and his long antenae. You can also see there is a problem with pollen mites. Click on picture to enlarge.

                             

                        Mason bees mating