North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Richard MURPHY" <murphman108@msn.com>]

Hello again Clan;

 

An observation to share...

 

Learned about Mason Bees 2 years ago; never gave them much thought.

Bought 3 'bee houses' from Fedco, for $8 each, April 17, 2005, for a trial.

(They use the design published be the Univ. of Maine extension, free.)

Put one house up on 3 of the 4 sides of the orchard fence with a 1' x 2' wind blocking board so they can land.

Turned over 4 shovels of dirt below the house so the bees would have building material.

May, no residents yet. June, still none.

July....WOW ! all 3 houses have some holes filled in with bee eggs!

This is very cool.

There is a ton of clover around so they don't wander off.

I will now make 20 of these blocks myself, as they are simple to make.

I thought this was bee baloney, but they actually did move in.

 

Murph    zone 4 Maine

 

PS.. they do better mason work than I'll ever do...really smooth.