The mason bees that appeared around our house last year returned and are getting ready to finish up their pollinating jobs. Last year I built a mason bee hotel/house, but it was a bit late getting up. I left it up in the garden and this year it is a hit! Over the last few days there have been dozens of bees coming and going.
We learned a lot about mason bees last year: they are solitary bees so they don’t build hives; they lay eggs in holes and tubes around their environment, they are docile, and they are wonderful (and early) pollinators. You can learn a lot more about them online.
We are hoping to get a few more bee houses made this year and hopefully we won’t miss the short window of them using it. If so we will leave them up again for next year.
Happy bee watching!
