Blue Orchard Mason Bees

We found this native bee 🐝 house at costco and have already had a blue orchard mason bee visit and start getting it ready for her eggs. 

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Blue Orchard Mason Bees are pretty amazing!

🐝 They are from the genus Osmia

🐝 They are solitary bees, so each female is a queen and lays eggs on their own. However they do like to be by each other and will lay eggs close together.

🐝 They are not aggressive.

🐝 They are non-stinging. The males don’t have a stinger and the females use their stinger to guide them to lay eggs. They are also so busy collecting pollen/nectar and laying eggs that they will only sting if they are about to die.

🐝 They pollinate 80% better than honey bees.

Here is more what I have learned:

In the spring after they have mated and get some food the females will look for a place to lay their eggs. They cannot drill holes, so they find natural holes such as holes made from other insects or like in our bee house. She picks somewhere safe, protected, and has the morning sun. Once she inspects it, and likes it, she comes out and does a dance (in-flight dance). This is so she can find her way back after collecting pollen/nectar or mud.

After her dance she collects mud to fill in the back of the hole to protect her offspring.

Once she has blocked off the back of the hole, she then collects pollen/nectar for her to lay her eggs on and for her babies to eat. She doesn’t go to far from the nest, so they are great at pollinating your crops. She will visit about 75 flowers 🌸 around 25 times to get enough pollen/nectar for just one egg. She will work nonstop from sunrise 🌄 to sunset 🌅 Sleeping at night and waking up when the morning sun has warmed her.

Once there is enough pollen/nectar, she will back into the hole and lay an egg. Blue Orchard Mason Bees, like many insects, can decide which egg to lay by fertilizing it (Female) or not (unfertilized are Male).

Then they collect more mud to close off that section and start over. She will lay 5-8 males and 2-4 females, depending on the length of the hole.

Once the hole is full she closes it off with mud, thicker than in between each egg, and moves on to another hole. She can fill about 4 holes/reeds before dying, which is about 20 days.

She will lay the females in the back and the males in the front. This protects the females in case a predator attacks the hole. Also, the males emerge from their cocoons before the females.

Around early summer when the eggs hatch they will consume all the food their mother got for them. They will spend most of their life in these dark lonely “caves” that their mother worked so hard on.

Once they have eaten all their food, they will start spinning a cocoon around them.

By late summer they have changed into adults. They will stay dormant and in their cocoons through the fall and winter.

By spring when the temperatures are around 60° the males will emerge and wait for the females, who will come out in a couple days after them.

Then they mate and the whole process starts over again with this new generation.