Orchard Mason Bees: Housing

I’ve been fumbling with getting the right bee blocks in my backyard for a couple of years.  I learned a lot about it the hard way– probably harder on the bees than me.

First, they like 5/16″ holes.  They’ll use other sizes, but if you want to optimize, go with 5/16″.

Second, liners are a Good Thing.

Why use liners in an Orchard Mason Bee house?  If you don’t use liners, ultimately, you’re going to have to run a drill right through some bees.  There’s just no way to have them nest in plain wood, hatch out, and then NOT come back and nest in that block.  If you don’t clean it out, eventually, you’ll get all kindsa nasty spooge in there– including mites.

Liners pretty much eliminate those problems because you can take them out over the winter and clean the block how ever you like.

Third, liners are a pain.

It turns out that liners, particularly as sold as glorified paper straws, absorb moisture.  You can’t use plastic because they hold moisture and are slippery.  The paper ones– sold by Knox Cellars, for example– are flimsy.  Trying to stuff them into a 5/16″ hole is impossible (even using a brad point bit), 11/32″ bits are difficult to come by, and 3/8″ bits leave too much gap around the straws.  Assuming you overcome those challenges, over the season they lose even more structural integrity, and when you pull them out, you often end up with… well, it’s not pretty.

I think I’m on to a solution, though, and it doesn’t cost as much as designer straws, but it is a little time-consuming.  Still, it provides liners that come out in one piece.  The answer is parchment.  I use parchment for baking a lot, and it’s nice and strong.  Wax paper seems no better than regular paper, and I suspect it’d be too slippery for the little buggers.

So, here’s what I’m doing.  Use a 3/8″ brad-point bit to drill 5-6″ deep holes in a block (deeper = more females).  You pretty much have to use a drill press to get them started.  It’s too hard to get straight holes with a hand drill.  I’ve tried.  Several times.  I now own a cheap Ryobi drill press which I hope I will someday be able to use for something else.  Otherwise, these are the most expensive bee blocks in the history of mankind.

Side note: I’ve found that the scrap barrel at Home Depot or your lumber place often has 4×6 or better scrap.  Use fir or something non-treated and non-insect-resistant (like Cedar).  Remember, bees are insects.

Use whatever design you like.  I’m of the opinion that the bees don’t care too much as long as there’s 1/2″ or so between them to avoid bickering.   I’ve noticed that they accidentally stumble into the wrong hole sometimes and get real irritated with one another.

Once you have a bunch of holes drilled, cut sheets of parchment about 3″ wide and 1/2″ longer than the holes are deep.  Wrap those around a chopstick or something about that size.  Try to get them tight.  Loose ones get caught on the inevitable little roughness in the holes.  Insert them into the holes and they should unwrap themselves nice and snug in there.

To remove, use a needle nose pliers or one of those small clamps you see in doctors offices.  You can get them at model shops.

Other thoughts:

Some folks drill all the way through and then put a back on the block to seal it.  I may try that, but it seems like an additional step.  As usual, I’m sure it will become obvious to me later why I should have done it.

Also, I’ve generally left the bees in their little boxes over the winter.  I must admit that I’ve not kept stats on the success rate of that.  I’m guessing it’s not too high.  This winter, assuming any of the little buggers move in, I’m storing them in the fridge.  Don’t quite know how that’ll go.  Do I open them up to remove duds?  Clean them in any way?  Some folks say “wash” them.  Surely, they don’t mean WASH them?  Tiny bee bath?  Do I use shampoo?  Tiny, tiny towels?