Mason Bees Micro Documentary

http://permies.com http://crownbees.com Dave Hunter gets us started in this video about Mason Bees. Famous for using little bits of mud in tubes to store their eggs, Dave tells us about how Mason Bees compare to Honey Bees. He covers both the male and female bee habits, complete with mating.

Dave shows us the cocoon for leaf cutter bees too.

Dave talks about a variety of different sorts of tubes for the Mason Bees to lay their eggs in. Soemtimes reeds, sometimes straw size cardboard tubes. Dave has some experiments going with corrugated cardboard.

Mason Bees eat pollen and nectar. And they are pretty picky about what sort of flower is their food source. So they come out just in time for the blooming of their favorite foods, mate, lay eggs and die in a short span of time.

Jen Davis, in Portland, Oregon shares with us how she manages her Mason Bees. She wants to help the Mason Bees reproduce quickly. So she puts out lots of straws for the bees and checks for possible problems. She keeps the cocoons in her refrigerator until the time is right to bring them out.

Dave helps us understand the difference between Honey Bees and Mason Bees. My philosophy is that Honey Bees will efficiently process each flower. While Mason Bees will haphazardly pop from flower to flower without completely "processing" any one flower. The upside of this is that one mason bee will pollinate 100 time more flowers than a honey bee.

I want to thank Barthélémy Glumineau http://studiomelies.com for editing this video and making it look so damn professional!

You can visit with Dave Hunter and other excellent permaculture bee enthusiasts at the Mason Bees forum at permies.com:
http://permies.com/forums/f-56/mason-bees
Relevant threads at permies:
http://permies.com/t/6849/mason-bees
http://permies.com/t/520/orchard-mason-bees
http://permies.com/t/15945/Mason-Bee-predators
http://permies.com/t/15908/Solitary-bees

music by Jimmy Pardo
http://permies.com/t/30796/Jimmy-Pardo-music

https://www.patreon.com/pwvids

Видео Mason Bees Micro Documentary канала paul wheaton