Search:

Hi,
looking at your pix of the wooden tray inner views...
Please remember that each nesting cavity will be filled with first several larger female larvae/cocoons in the innermost part of the tube,...

CPM, it's a bit too dark to see any details. If the 'mummies' are not chalky with whitish areas, I'd say no, not chalkbrood. Could be fungus or virus, but we'd have to see more photos with better...

That's just awesome. I'd love to see you post a few photos here of your colony, if possible.
Congratulations!

Also has 'fly eyes', not bee eyes. :)

Kincaid, thank you! I'm very proud of the simple yet beautiful boxes my husband made for me, and the ease with which I can now merely load the 6 pineapple juice cans in them and fill with straws. ...

I am having to put up a lot of additionall tubes this Spring as well. lots of bees!

Great photos Gyozu! Thanks for posting them.

I just bought some leafcutterbee-specific nesting tubes from Dave at crownbees.com ...he now carries the cardboard nesting straws that are narrower, for summer and leafcutter bees. I think he sells...

I am having a pretty good year for my mason bees- mostly horn-faced and blue orchard.

http://youtu.be/JxdwuHQLboQ

http://youtu.be/6Pk8CYvGR4c

I lost some cocoons in the stored paper...

JMP,
I've seen my mason bees chew through parchment paper to remove pieces of it that were 'in the way' inside the cardboard tubes. I'd say: if there are big woody bits, you'd want to remove those,...

I still have my mason bee cocoons tucked in my fridge drawer. Despite our weird early Spring, only the daffodils and forsythia has been blooming so far, and I haven't wanted to 'unleash' 400 hungry...

My husband made a new nesting box for our expanding solitary/native/mason bee population. This box holds a total of over 400 nesting straws, in 6 large cans. I found that large pineapple juice cans...

Just be sure you don't put the new paper rollups into the block until right before you put the block out. Otherwise if the weather and humidity dampen the paper for too long before the bees come,...

Excellent! She will be helping her established local bee species then. :thumbsup:

I'm reading about others and their successes and failures of natural reeds/cardboard tubes, etc. Since you are near me in MA, I'll just say that I put out a big can full of japanese knotweed reeds...

What i posted is established common sense that most people who sell, buy, and ship insects are already, or should be, aware of. I don't assume anything- no need to bristle and sputter as though it...

Before sending insect cocoons back and forth to different areas of the US, we really should first determine the exact species and make sure they are already common to both areas. We can wreack havoc...

Yes i do: Dave at crownbees.com

Hi John,
I have some success with wooden blocks using paper liners, but my masons seem to really love the cardboard tubes (either replaceable each year or with replaceable inner paper liners). I...

I agree with Dave in that my first year I saw wasps actively poking around in the bee boxes in the Fall....long after there were any solitary bees nesting. It's best to remove the tubes once Summer...

R, really wonderful pictures! I wish I had some leafcutters in my boxes too, but only saw one or two in the tubes this year. I still hope to get luckier with them- they are so pretty!
I can only...

Is there an article with that, or just the headline?

I think that 'Alex' guy needs to get a clue though. Seems he 'doesn't want to know' much:


lol!

Is it always the ideal goal to have a huge population and heavy honey stores going into winter? Don't smaller clusters eat less honey during the winter? Don't some strains of bees normally reduce...

I generally followed the MDASplitter method this year too, I see the logic in it.
I'm too small scale to see the results much yet, but so far so good. :)
Will be able to test it more next year if...

I'm using the lazy method- Every time I add a new frame (or make new splits that require new frames, or just rotate out very old frames)... I'm giving the bees new deep frames that are...