What a beautiful couple of days we have been having. The swallows are back, the fruit trees are blooming, the daffodils are smiling at the world. Everything is waking up from a long winter nap and ready to do what they do best. What I'm most excited about are the Mason Bees. My little friends are emerging from their tubes and wondering around looking for things to pollinate. Gosh, I love those little bees. This is the third year now that I have been making an effort to make the Mason bee happy. There is some nice information on my little friends on Wikipedia. You can buy these bees from seed catalogs, but I'd like to tell you how I got mine. The research I did said you needed special sized tubes and houses etc...well one day I was cutting up bamboo and noticed what a nice cylinder bamboo was. It seemed to me that if I was a Mason bee I would love to make a home there. So I cut the bamboo in 6 inch lengths and stuck a group of them in an old ceramic pot I had and stuck it under the roof of the barn. The next day my little friends were in and out and mudding up the tubes of bamboo. The next spring I added more bamboo and when they hatched they got to work on the new tubes and also reused the old ones.
Have you ever noticed small holes in lawn furniture or on the porch or odd places that are full of mud. Don't rush to clean it out because it is probably a Mason Bee nest and a little egg is in there waiting for spring. I do not like bugs, but the Mason Bee has helped me with my fears.
So read up on these hard working bees. They are so important to our food supply and don't swat them, they are gentle and just want to put a hard days work in.
