Starter Cottages, available from my on-line Beediverse.com web site, are by far the best little box for use as a release box/emergence box. I have tried all kinds of boxes, made from cardboard, plastic and wood. Cardboard is too fragile and predators can get at the cocoons too easily. Plastic sometimes overheats and is slippery for the bees to walk on while exiting. Starter cottages are bee proof, can be washed for next year, and are relatively predator proof. I usually place 100-200 cocoons per cottage. One day before setting the cottage out into the field and adjacent to nests, I set the cottage out in the kitchen table. It gives the bees a head start on emergence. I don’t want bees to fly around my kitchen, so I need a bee proof container= Starter Cottage.
I used this plastic container to carry 5 Starter cottages to the field site. Each has about 100 cocoons. The door to the cottage is secured with a pin, sometimes two. The entrance hole is temporarily plugged with a cardboard straw until the starter cottages are set up in the yurt or other structure. These Cottages have been out of the fridge and into a kitchen environment for 24 hours. This means that some of the males will have emerged.
The D27 Yurt is set up with 9 Highrises in the upper part of the yurt. Each Highrise has Eco-Corn Quicklock nesting trays with 72 nesting holes. Note these Highrises do not have a cedar roof.
Starter cottages are set on top of each Highrise.
This is a Charly- Yurt containing many different
nesting trays, wood, plastic and eco-corn.
Once Starter cottages have been set in place,
the cardboard tube is removed.
Three males have emerged and are examining their new abode. Note their long antennae- nearly as
long as their wings.
They now have to wait for the girls to appear.