Mason Bees
Today I decided to learn about mason bees. They are gentle bees that don’t sting, and they don’t make honey. What they do is visit all kinds of flowers and help trees make lots of fruit. This is called pollination. Mason bees are a black/blue colour and they are fuzzy. Their fuzzy bodies get pollen all over and some of it falls off as they fly around and the pollen gets spread around from flower to flower. They are messy bees! They bring back pollen to their nests because their babies need to eat the pollen so they can grow up.
Last year at camp we made bug hotels and mason bees love to lay their eggs in tunnels and the bamboo shoots we put in our hotels are perfect for them. Here are pictures of my bug hotel. Can you see the mason bee checking out a tunnel?
In the spring when the weather gets warm, the female mason bee gets to work pollinating our fruit trees and gardens and will lay 5-7 eggs in each hole. She will construct the nest using chewed up leaves and soil to make the chamber walls. Pollen and nectar are provided in each cell for a single larva. She will lay the female eggs toward the back of the nest and the males toward the front because they come out first.
Bug hotels are great to put up by your garden! Mason bees are nature’s super-pollinators!