Horn-faced bees are imported. Mason bees are native, so, over time, the mason bees dominate because they acclimate better. Did you buy the mason bees, or did they naturally colonize your nesting material?
I bought mason bees from Oregon this year. They are in my refrigerator. I live only a couple hours north of you, but there’s nothing going on blossom-wise here. At best, my apples are tight-cluster, so the bees are going to have to tough it out until the wind shifts to the southwest in a week or two. Then, we’ll have summer, but, by then, it may be too late for most of them.
Bees of any kind that are acclimated to the orchards of the West Coast generally don’t do very well in the Midwest because they tend to emerge too early, so I’m curious whether you’d care to share a start of your native population.
I’ve tried mason bees and horn-faced bees before, of course, and I’ve sworn off ever doing it again, of course, too, because they all disappear after a couple of seasons. Technically, more of each generation “absconds” than can be made up. I’ll admit to an aversion to moving insect populations from areas where they do well to areas where they don’t, but they’re so darn cute!
I bought the masons several years ago, from Crown Bees in Oregon
Usually, unless disaster happens [like the year squirrels got into them] I get more bees than I can house. Then they’re on their own. I don’t wait til my fruit trees bloom - the bees are already at work and filling tubes with whatever they find out there - they always seem to find something.,
And they will, in April, often hatch in the refrigerator, which is trouble.
I was having problems with squirrels stealing my tubes. I was losing most of them. Then I wrapped many of them tightly with a bungee. Too heavy and large to move by a squirrel, so It seems to have stopped them from removing and eating the cocoons from inside the tubes. Yay!
John S
PDX OR
My masons seem to use the blocks only as a last resort. They much prefer natural reeds, bamboo tubes, and paper straws. Some hornfaced bees did use a leafcutter board that I left out though. They seem to prefer the smaller holes. My blue masons I bought look like they all flew off. Only feral hornfaced bees that preexisted remain at my location.
Very happy to report that after putting out my cocoons earlier than I should have the mason bees along with many other pollinators were out in force today. My first blooms of Zestar, Granny Smith, Smokehouse and Wolf River are going to have bumper crops if everything else goes well.
@DrakeJ
In your climate you may not need drain holes for your bowls. In my climate, it might rain or maybe not. It often dries up and there’s no water nor mud for them to make the mason mud cement in my bowls. When it rains, the holes make sure the mud isn’t under water and accessible. I check on them in dry weather because I have seen where it is too dry for them to get the mud.
John S
PDX OR
The weather was a little nicer today and I had time so I decided to harvest my mason bees. This is my third year raising them, I started with a dozen or so cocoons I bought from OGW. I have to say that this year while thinning fruit I was kind of mad at the little buggers because everything I had way over set, even the elephant heart plum.
Here are the bundles I have more outside that are in bamboo but I cant get those guys out to clean them. I started with bamboo when I didn’t know much about raising them. I wanted to get rid of it but the bees keep using it along with the phragmites reeds.
I have just always moved them into my shed but I have very little knowledge on what there success or failure rate is and just replace reeds every two years for disease (I try to every year but sometimes when the weather is off they start using them while others are still popping out) Does this allow you to repack fresh bamboo every year or what do you do in the spring?
I do have some in bamboo tubes that I just leave outside, but like you in the spring time I can’t get to them soon enough before the bees start using them. They have made it just fine in the bamboo, it usually gets down to -5 F for a few nights. I don’t understand why places say that they will freeze because they are native to areas colder then where I live, maybe they are more vulnerable after they come out of dormancy?
I also use phragmites reeds like in the pictures. They are invasive and grow pretty much all over the US. The reeds are strong enough to provide protection for the bees but week enough you can break them open. I have read on websites that the bees actually prefer the reeds/bamboo because they allow for some variability in size. In the spring I just put out more reeds I can pick them right down the road from here. The reason why I clean them and put them in the fridge is supposedly it helps increase their survival rate. Half of my bees get no attention at all and the other half get catered too it is just insurance that some will make it through.