Protect & Store Your Spring Mason Bees! 

May 22, 2024 Seattle, Washington

is it time in NJ to do this too?

We had a banner year for our mason bees and I just did this last week, putting them in a layer of double netting. I left it outside though in a large plastic nursery pot next to the bee house (sits on bench) to keep it from getting wet. The past 2 years we refrigerated our tubes, but this year we had a much better colony by leaving the tubes outside since last summer and having them emerge naturally without any predator control. My question is whether any bees will be emerging from these harvested reeds in a few weeks? Do they ever have a 2nd batch of bees that emerge? I don't want them to emerge and be trapped inside the netted bag.

I have always stored our bee block hotel units (with the tubes on their side just like they are outside) in the garage during the summer protected by the Crown Bees bee guard bag. Never had an issue with any of the bee larvae maturing. What is the advantage of taking the tubes out of bee block or turning the bee block to be mud side up?

Is it true that the eggs in the back of the tube are female and the ones in the front are male? Or is that a myth?

Is it time to do this even though I only put my bees out 4/26/24? Should this be done at night?

Do you only store reeds that are mud-capped on the end, or should i check for cocoons with the cocoon finder?