Its hard to say if I already have enough homes for my solitary bees. This spring will be different from others, as many more females were produced this year. The adult mason bee decides what ratio of sexes it will produce. And I had alot of males in the previous years, this was due to inadequate housing size. So by building these boards the homes are more preferable to the laying bees.
My recent trip to the hardware store had me picking up more 1 bys of pine. I went with three different sizes, 1x6,1x8 and 1×10. I find I can snugly fit 6 holes in the 1x6 and about 8 holes the 1x10s. Though my chop saw does not work well with the 1x10s so I may stick with the smaller 1x6s.
To the left I still have a stack of unfinished bee boards. Those are the 1x8s and I find them somewhere in the middle for sizing and not really great for making bee boards out of, unless I use a larger router bit.
My wood router makes easy work of running channels into each board. These half circles it cuts make a full circle when combined.
The bit inside of the router turns the pine boards into a powder. Much more fine than sawdust. Due to this I always wear a facemask.
The adult female Mason bees prefer homes at least six inches long. Allowing her to lay dozens of eggs in a single hole. A stack of these boards when completely filled would hold a few hundred bees. 1x6s are seen in the picture above.
The larger boards which are 1x10s give me space to add another two channels. Thorough I find it hard to work with such a large board, I'd prefer using the 1x6s and lose a couple channels. Maybe when I have a large chop saw I'd reconsider these larger boards.
What I like about using these boards instead of the old 2x4 and bamboo homes is how easy it is to open and clean these boards out. Soon I will be harvesting the cocoons from this year and storing them until spring time next year. Then I will release them as I did last year.
They are not perfect, some channels are a little longer than others. And occasionally I go too far and make one of the channels to deep.
I used to do all of this routing in my garage. But with the dust build up it was too much. So now a days I cut them right outside the garage in the open air. Still leaves a big mess in the drive way.. haha it will wash away when a good rain happens.
So at this point I plan to finish the 1x8s. And then clean and sand down the channels. If I have extra I will take some to the farm I am working on. Along with some to go where I will be doing the honey bee keeping. Spreading out these homes and taking care of them every year should bring a boom to the local mason bee population.
Hello There!
Happy to see Your at it again this year!
Wishing You continued "Success"!
👍🏼😊🐝🌴🐝😊👍🏼
Hah yup, when my bees are out and about I just enjoy watching them. But when they are sleeping I build more homes for them.
thanks much, I just have one more set to make and I think im done for awhile.
Good Deal!
The World and Me Thanks You!
👍🏼🐝👍🏼
Rule number one: There is never enough bees!
Rule number two: There is never enough bees :)
And hopefully you gonna get a lot of them!
Hahaha so true, well @activate.alpha mentioned if the flight zone gets too busy it might creep her out. I am curious to see how busy the surrounding area will get when I double or triple my bee population.
thanks much, I think I will.. When I harvest them soon I will know for sure.
Filling all of those with bees will make a big difference. Great work on making them. I am not sure any bees using my bamboo and drilled holes this year. They have in previous years. I may build something new for next year. Will plant some flowers for them too.
Sure will, hundreds more bees at least.. Maybe a few thousand if they are all filled.
It is possible the bamboo and drilled holes are filled with previous bee homes mud, spent cocoons and maybe has parasites in them. Its impossible to tell unless you rip over the bamboo and the drilled holes are pretty much impossible to inspect.
If you are good with tools and woodworking try making some of what I did. Or you can just purchase them online. Or I could sell you some of mine.
https://crownbees.com/summer-reusable-wood-trays-for-leafcutter-bees.html
Best of luck building new homes.. Just throwing out the old bamboo and replace it with fresh reeds will get you a couple more years. Just make sure the reeds are at least six inches long. Let me know what flowers you plant, I need some for my bees too.
I'll do some reading on what our native bees need. I don't have a router, but I can drill holes and don't mind too much having to do fresh ones each year.
They like holes 5/16 in size and at least 6" long. Besides that they need cover from the rain, so putting the homes somewhere so rain does not drip or spray onto the homes should be good.
I will be showing how to build ones you can do with basic tools such as a drill. Its not a kind you can maintain but it lasts a few years and then its meant to be thrown away. My bee boards though should last decades and can be cleaned every season and reused.
Hola la verdad que la apilcultura es una buena inversion, porque es estar en contacto con la naturaleza, gracias.
thank you, I think it will bring me closer to nature. Taking care of the bees is important to me.