What is this little mason bee doing? See how she's covered in all that pollen? Now you can see why they're such incredible pollinators. That loose pollen sticks to her belly hairs, called scopa. She then goes headfirst into her nesting chamber and jiggles and rubs the pollen off her body. The sticky pollen is then molded into a pollen loaf for her baby. Throughout the day, she repeats this process gathering food for her baby. Once she has a solid loaf of food, she reverses her bee bum back into the cell and lays a tiny little egg, smaller than a grain of rice, onto the pollen loaf. But she's not done yet! She goes back out to collect more mud to cap the cell and protect her baby inside.
MUD, POLLEN, BABY, MUD! She'll repeat this for every egg and will lay about 15 babies in her lifetime.
Thank you, momma mason bee!
At Rent Mason Bees, gardeners release solitary bees into their yards and rent nesting blocks. When you release solitary bees into your yard, they will enrich your habitat and support a healthy ecosystem that cleans the air, stabilizes soil and supports other wildlife. Harvesting and cleaning mason bee cocoons is a critical step when hosting bees, but for those that want to support bees and not worry about any maintenance, they can rent and return nesting blocks in the fall to be cleaned.
• HEALTHY BEES ARE RETURNED TO THE ENVIRONMENT - By removing all predators, gardeners will release healthy and strong bees the following spring.
• WATCH OUR FALL HARVEST VIDEO - [ Ссылка ]
• ONE OF NATURE’S BEST POLLINATORS – Solitary bees are extraordinary pollinators due to the tiny hairs on their body called scopa. Honeybees collect pollen on their back legs, whereas solitary bees belly flop onto flowers and collect pollen all over their bodies. This enables them to pollinate 95% of the flowers they land on and they can visit over 2,000 flowers a day.
• HONEYBEE PARTNERS – The stressful workload that is placed on honeybee colonies is reduced when they work alongside solitary bees.
Gardeners can welcome two types of solitary bees into their garden, mason and leafcutter bees. Mason bees are spring pollinators and leafcutter bees are summer pollinators. You can help solitary bee populations thrive by taking proper care of your gardens and releasing healthy bees back into your habitat.
Check out our website for more information
www.RentMasonBees.com
