Blue orchard mason bee
Master Gardener Vione Graham will be holding an introductory workshop on mason bees at the end of October.
According Master Gardener Program officials, “the presentation will cover their role in pollination, their life cycle and habitats and how we can protect these valuable creatures.”
The event will also include a demonstration of nest/cocoon cleaning.
Mason bees at a glance
In North America there are about 140 different mason bee types. In the Pacific Northwest the most common one is Osmia Lignaria, otherwise referred to as simply the “orchard bee.” They look almost identical to a standard house fly, as they have black bodies and a blue iridescent sheen.
On the productivity side of things, mason bees are far more accomplishing than honey bees. According to the Portland Nursery, honey bees pollinate an average of about 5 percent of the flowers it visits in a day. Mason bees pollinate a whopping 95 percent. Mason bees also visit more than double the amount of flowers in a day compared to honey bees.
Keeping mason bees as pets is the easiest way to get them over to your garden. The website crownbees.com (based out of Woodinville) is a good place to start according to Rob Sculley of Shorty’s, a local gardening business in Ridgefield. Once you’ve got the bees, the hardest part is keeping them around, which really isn’t too difficult if you know what you’re doing.
A final thing to know about mason bees should you invest in their services this coming spring is their life cycle. Mason bees emerge early in the spring when temperatures start to average about 50 degrees. Once out of the nest (males a little sooner than females) the bees mate and the males die a short time later.
The females, though, start to gather pollen and nectar and lay eggs in the back of their nesting hole. After about four to six weeks she will die and the new bees will emerge the following spring. During the non-active period of the fall and winter, people who own mason bees sometimes store the nests indoors (such as a garage or shed) so that predators and harsh weather will not harm the coming generation.
