An organic apple orchard is a great place for mason bees. No worry about pesticide applications.
When we arrived, we noticed that dandelions were out, but apple blossoms were still closed. The perfect time to set up the bees so they can emerge and gt ready for pollinating the fruit trees. It was a very cold rainy day when we set this up a couple of weeks ago. Brrrrr!!
We arrived at the orchard with the top of the yurt and the base-hexagon pieced together. Both hexagons were marked out to indicate where the vertical uprights had to placed and screwed to make the frame.
This is important, since the spacing of the uprights maximizes the number of Highrises that can be placed at one level. Nine Highrises can be set at each level. There is enough height in the yurt for 4 levels. We started with 3 uprights balancing the base and the roof, and added the remaining uprights soon after.
We then dug some dirt to cover the base of the tarp. This prevents wind from getting into the yurt and creating a draft.
We finished the yurt by stapling the tarp around the yurt.
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| Tim has just finished using 4 screws to hold each upright in place, 2 at the top and two at the base. I attached the tarp with staples to the upper and lower hexagon and then covered the tarp at the base with dirt. |
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| Completed Yurt. You can see that the wind is pushing the tarp against the uprights. |
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| We left the hole we created so that bees could easily get mud for making their nest partitions. |
