Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Sexy Mason Bee's


I was looking at something. I found a bee in my yard! He was a sexy little guy, pollinating all my squash flowers. First one I had seen in a while.Then I found out he was what they call a "Mason Bee". Masons are named from their habit of making compartments of mud in their nests, which are made in hollow reeds or holes in wood made by wood boring insects. Mason bees are increasingly cultivated to improve pollination for early spring fruit flowers. They are used sometimes as an alternative, but more often as an augmentation for Western honey bees.
So after looking at wikipedia, I had to find out more. You can purchase and learn about masons at Bee Diverse.com (BC) or locally (Seattle) at Knox Cellars. They dont produce honey BUT they dont sting. And my sexy little guy was probably a girl. I found out that masons mate and the boy bee dies. C'est la vie, little bee, c'est la vie

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay for bees! I saved one the other day, floundering on it's back, and it flew up at me and I screamed! Too funny, but in the old days, I would have squished him, and now I know better.....cute post.....

Chile said...

I love bees outside but they don't love me inside.