Mason Bees. I’ve got ‘em

I heard about Mason bees about twenty years ago, the native bee to the America’s. I remember we had put in a new deck with an overhead support, and I stenciled a happy bee on one of the crossbeams and then drilled holes on the outline to attract them. I think the holes were too small, and we moved shortly after, so I’ll never know if any bees ever found it.

Mason bees are solitary in that one female tends her own brood, but they like to congregate together, and you can buy bundles of tubes to try and attract them. I’d been seeing what I thought were Mason bees in the early spring at my pansies (I put them in as soon as the ground can be worked.) So I put a nest up right away. That was about three years ago, and it’s only been this year that they have finally found it. Or it might be that the fruit trees that they prefer are only now big enough to support them. And just when I was ready to give up and move the house to a new place.

Now if only I can get the robins to use the nest platform.