Plant Life

ramblings and tips about plants and all things green from Peg Tillery of WSU Kitsap Extension.
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Mason Bees

February 12th, 2010 by Peg Tillery

It’s time to start thinking about one of our tiniest bees – the Orchard Mason Bee. This amazing creature starts hatching out in February as soon as temperatures start hovering at 55 degrees during the day. Mason bees are blue-black and are the first pollinators to awaken. If you were to look at them with a magnifying glass you’d discover that they look like tiny bees with punk haircuts. The hairs on their tiny heads stick straight up like an old fashioned crewcut.

Many local nurseries carry mason bee supplies this time of year. Here’s a link showing how to build a mason bee house http://gardening.wsu.edu/library/inse006/inse006.htm

Studies done by the Wytheville County Virginia Extension Office show that mason bees have a pollination success rate of 95 plus percent compared to honey bees at a 3 percent pollination success rate. Mason bees are the only bees active this time of year which is also when our fruit trees start bursting into bloom. 250 mason bees can pollinate an acre of fruit compared to 60,000 honey bees to do the same job in the same amount of time.

The mason bees primary goal in life is to mate (if they’re the males) and to pollnate and lay eggs for the next season (if they’re females). In the process they profusely pollinate our fruit trees during early spring bloom.

 
Even if you don’t build an orchard mason bee house this year, the bees live all around us anyway. They find little cracks and crevices on the ouside of our homes and in the bark of trees and other woody plants.

To learn more about mason bees and other pollinators you may want to attend a class on Saturday March 6  at the Norm Dicks Government Center, 345 6th Street Bremerton. Or preregister by calling 360-337-7157 to save a spot. The class is taught by Eugene Brennan. Registration for the class is from 8:30-9 a.m. Class runs from 9 a.m. to noon. Class donation is $5 per person payable at the door. Proceeds will benefit the WSU Kitsap Extension Master Gardener Program.

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 12th, 2010 at 11:31 pm by Peg Tillery and is filed under Mason Bees. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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One Response to “Mason Bees”

  1. Sharon O'Hara Says:
    February 13th, 2010 at 10:28 am

    Anyone with outdoor wood jump standards knows about the Mason Bees…learned every time the level has to be changed and the metal bars moved into the new slots, a different hole. The Mason Bees use the holes to nest…not a good idea for actively used at different height, jump standards.
    Sharon O’Hara