It’s both fun and easy to make nesting blocks for mason bees, a
highly useful pollinator for orchards and gardens. Although they
don’t produce honey, there are several advantages to keeping
mason bees. They are gentle, with stings no stronger than a
mosquito bite. They are very efficient pollinators; only a few
hundred are needed per acre to pollinate an orchard. Mason bees
are remarkably easy to keep, having few pest or disease problems
and minimal management needs. Last, they are very industrious
and fun to observe in action. Mason bees are one of many types
of small solitary bee species that aid greatly in pollination.
There are two primary species of mason bees used for
pollination: the native blue orchard bee (Osmia lignaria) and
the hornfaced bee (Osmia corniforns) from Japan. Unlike
honeybees, mason bees don’t live in hives with queens and
workers. Each female bee mates and makes her own nest of mud,
stores pollen and nectar, and lays her eggs. Although they don’t
live in colonies, they do prefer to ne