*This is just a snippet of information. More will be added shortly!
These hard-working little bees are solitary, not hive dwellers.
They’re called Mason bees because they use mud to make their tube nests. As they have no queen to protect, they do not sting. They are not aggressive and are laid back and rather friendly.
A house expecially designed for Mason bees contains multiple tubes that will be used by the females to build their tube nests in. First, she’ll add mud to the back of the tube, then she’ll add a big ball of pollen, then she’ll lay an egg and then finally she’ll close it up with more mud. Then she’ll repeat this process 5 or 6 more times until the tube is filled. She’ll end up laying about 30 eggs in her short lifetime of 4-6 weeks.
Once the egg hatches in its chamber of pollen it has all the nutrients it needs to develop into a full-grown bee that will hatch the next year to pollinate that year’s crops!
They’re also known as Orchard bees as they’re fabulous for pollinating fruit trees. One single Mason bee can pollinate enough blossoms to produce 12 pounds of cherries.
It takes about 100 honeybees to do the same amount of work as one Mason bee.