So this is my mason bee sanctuary on the east wall of our house... the bees like morning sun... that is my kitchen window that looks out over my new Man Garden:
The little box is the cocoons, approximately a dozen, some are big and some are small... the small ones are the males and they will only be around for a short while to fertilize the females of course, and then the females will go about the business of filling the cylindrical tubes with larvae and packing mud in between the larvae and then on the ends of the tube. That is why they are called mason bees by the way... for their mason skills.
Pretty sure this one is a male by the size guesstimates of a professional eye-baller, he was the first one out and then did some sunning and then he was off... it worked out well as I have some plums and some blueberries that need a good pollinating.
Later in the day I was on the front porch blasting out some S Robertson style banjo for the neighbours to digest and I saw a very similar bee trying to crawl under the cedar shingles... I tried to alter my song and tell the good bee that the sanctuary was at the back of the house, not this decoy east facing pillar that you seem to be so obsessed with... it got to the point where I was about to put the grab on him, but then I remembered the obvious... he is a free spirit, he will do what he needs... he doesn't owe me anything for the 24 bones I spent on this exercise... and most importantly. Don’t put the grab on things that can sting. Actually male mason bees cannot sting but years of mental bee sting phobia still play hard on the mind. What the hell you start going around grabbing male mason bees cause you can and then all the sudden you make an identification mistake and put the grab on a killer bee that whiffs out one of them swarm scents and next thing you know you are writhing around in a ditch being stung 400 times per minute while neighbours try to soak you with underpowered garden hoses. No thanks!
I'll try and do a time lapse of a cocoon hatching tomorrow, I guess they will come when they come.
Oddly enough I was in charge of the mason bees last year at our community garden... I got some smart-ass answers from some Vancouver mason bee suppliers. It is quite possible that I missed the deadline, although it appears that the bee cocoons are kept in a refrigerator and then when you bring them out the heat activates the bee... as which is normal for invertebrates that don't regulate their own body heat internally. Perhaps it was too late in the season, so what I did in that case was just wash and prepare the mason bee nesting plastic, and put it out as an environment for natural mason bees to find and use. I guess there is no real guarantee that my bees, or the cocoons I bought will use the house I have for them... I believe our location is optimal (morning sun), so we shall see. The lady at the bee store... it wasn't actually a bee store, but I kind of like that idea... very human... well she was very nice and walked me through the whole process. You don't actually have to stuff the cocoons into the holes... just create an exit hole in the box by opening one side and let nature take it's course.
For the record I also replanted a bunch of tomato seeds... my neighbour and I collected a bunch of heirloom varieties... Burbank slicing, Silvery Fur tree and Manitoba... why not try again now. Buying tomatoes from a greenhouse is always an option, but a wise man takes as many paths as possible, when reasonable of course... reasonable being a word that has great flexibility... reminds me I should some yoga rather than streaming hockey games and cursing events.
That's why the bees make it a good day... I have to say I was pretty stoked to see the first bee. I like bees, I like the bee mantra... ultimate teamwork... do this! Well I don't feel like it... OK everybody, let's waste no time and sting this fucker to death and keep this machine moving. You never see an old fat bee trying to tell the other bees they need to do this thing to help make the old fat bee fatter and more comfortable... no no no the others would have dropped his youth full carcass off the edge of the hive the moment the said bee bastard started coasting.
Why are bee colonies collapsing?
They say it's debatable, but those who are "they" happen to make a lot of money making things called insecticides.
Insecticides- icide, meaning kill... death, and of course insect, meaning insect. Hmmm i think we need more research... perhaps it's this climate change thing we have been denying but also saying it occurs naturally i guess to cover the bases...
Meanwhile the idiot Prime Minister of my home country is fishing for investors of other countries to extract more natural resources from the said country... but that's another story... mother of mercy how did we get to the point where we mentioned that stugot? Oh yea it was the plight of the bees, and so naturally our hate would be directed at corporate lackeys always interested in selling out human and national long term interest to corporate bidders.
Killer Bees are from south America... perhaps we could all prey that a swarm of killer bees will descend and bring some "sting therapy" to this nonsense... we will probably find out that prayers for impossible things don't happen... which is good to know by the way.
That's why you should dig up your lawn and get a proper habitat in there... to provide bee habitat think natural... they like leaves to shelter ground burrows, different plants that will flower at different times... perhaps we should make new shirts "he who has the greenest lawn is the biggest fool"... I doubt you could sell that, but I have been wrong before
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