Bees

We are learning that when you have an orchard you-all of a sudden-become concerned about bees. Bees are needed to pollinate the blossoms so you can have the optimum amount of fruit per tree.
We have lots of bees during the summer on our lavender and in our garden but peaches bloom in early April and not too many bees want to venture out in the early Oregon Spring.
In the last few years we have learned about Mason bees. They are blue, do not sting, do not make honey but are good pollinaters for early blossoms. They come out in early spring and pollinate and are then in hibernation for all of the Fall and then into Spring. They lay their eggs in tubes (like straws) all in a little line in the tube with the one male being laid at the opening of the tube. When they hatch, he fetilizes the other female eggs and then he dies. That is his only function.
This is our 3 rd year of trying to get Mason bees to like our place. We have attended seminars, purchased bees in tubes (not cheap) and learned online.
This is Dad's latest 'contraption' to make our newly purchased tubes more comfy here on the farm.
If you look closely you can see the block of wood with the holes drilled and a variety of straws inserted into the tubes and the bees inserted into those. The chicken wire is to keep the birds out. You will notice that the housing is one of our ever-present plastic buckets in a lovely ash-gray color this time. This is not quite finished. Mason bees need a constant supply of mud so Dad will attach some twine that will allow the collected water to drip down to the pile of dirt at the base of the bee lodgings.
You can find directions for this beehouse at '999uses for plastic buckets.com' (Not a real site).
If everything goes well we will keep you posted on the progress of the bees. Maybe we need a beecam?
As the spring and summer progress, we will try to find more exciting orchard things to post about!