Mason bee homes and nest types

from Holland- Osmia rufa

Published February 20, 2012 | By Margriet

Roeland Segers from Holland contacted me the other day about nesting alternatives. We continued our conversation about Osmia rufa, an European Mason bee. I asked if he would like to share some of his photos with the blog and its readers. I was most delighted to receive the following photos. If you’d like to contact him direct, go to his web site. The website is in Dutch with some gorgeous photos. He writes

“ My company has recently been rebranded to: De Bijen, Bestuivingstechniek (translating to: The Bees, Pollination techniques) from Nijmegen in the Netherlands. My websites: for masonbees http://www.metselbijen.nl/ (for honeybees http://www.rendementdoorbijen.nl/ )”

Roeland’s mason bee web site

Mason bee se-up while pollinating cherries.
Mason bee nests are made of routered channels cut out of compost board.
Boards are held together with a tie-strap.

Osmia rufa doing the finishing touches to her nest.

Osmia rufa male. Note the long antennae.

Females resting over night inside their nesting tunnels.

Embrace (Osmia rufa)

Fierce competition

Posted in Holland, Mason bee homes and nest types | 1 Comment

Nesting materials- 4mm corrugated plastic

Published November 5, 2011 | By Margriet

I use a wedge of corrugated plastic to secure nesting trays into a Highrise home. Corrugated plastic sheeting is made from 100% recyclable plastic and it is easy to cut and fold to fit any cavity. I jam it into the space above the nesting trays and trays are secured into the Highrise.

For the second year in a row, I have had mason bees nesting in these tiny nesting cavities. These tiny cocoons are similar in colour as Osmia lignaria cocoons, but much smaller in size. I have not seen this small bee fly, so I do not know what they look like nor do I know what time of the year they appear. If you have a piece of corrugated plastic, set a piece in amongst your other nest materials and see what happens.

Here is the Highrise with nesting trays (without the cedar roof). The gap above the nesting trays is where I insert the folded plastic corrugated material and use it as a wedge to securely hold trays in place.

A folded piece of corrugated plastic acts like a wedge above Highrise nesting trays. Most holes in corrugated plastic are used as nesting tunnels by a species of summer mason bee, as can be seen by the presence of mud plugs.The nesting material below the blue corrugated plastic are the Beediverse Quicklock Corn trays. Here the different coloured mud plugs indicates that mason bees use different sites to collect their mud.