Early Mason

[The15thMember]

We had a cold day a few days ago where we had the wood stove going, and due to the warmth in the house, a long-horned mason bee emerged out of one of our pieces of wood.  It was too cold to put him outside, so I put him in a jar with a mesh lid and gave him a Q-tip soaked in sugar water, which he gladly drank from.  He spent the night in the house, and then when it warmed up the next day, I released him.  I found the log with the nest in it and pulled it out of the pile destined for the fire so the females, along with any more males, can hatch a little later in the spring.   

[BeeMaster2]

Yesterday I received a call from my brother and he told me that he and his boss was going to a hud house because the tenant was complaining about bees coming out of the ground in the front yard. He sent me some pictures. They are ground bees. Hi boss was going to spray them. I told him that I was on my way and asked him to wait before they did any spraying.
When I got there they had the sprayer hooked up to a hose but hadn?t sprayed. There were about a hundred male bees flying just above the ground and there were little mounds of dirt with a hole in the center. Luckily I was able to find a little ball of bees and I picked them up with the tenant watching there was 4 drones surrounding a larger queen. Her thorax was covered in brown and red hair. I showed the tenant that they had no intention of stinging me even though they were being very aggressive towards the queen. Eventually the drones fell off one by one leaving only one  with the queen. At that point they took off with the queen carrying the drone. I explained that we have very few wild bees and these bees may bee the only ones that will pollinate the fruit trees in this area. After seeing this the tenant didn?t want to kill the bees. I suspect that as soon as all of the queens hatch out, the males will stop hovering in the front yard, probably by the end of today.
Jim Altmiller

[Kathyp]

I wish more people would pay attention to the pollinators other than honeybees.  There are so many beekeepers in my area now there are not enough resources.  Some of them are really good at managing their hives.  Some are not and are sure to either lose them or spread disease by way of them.

The commercial beekeepers used to come and go out of the berry fields, but now they are keeping them in the field year-round.  I am not sure where this is going, but the "save the honey bees" thing is certainly impacting the wild bees in my area.

[The15thMember]

That's great, Jim!  It always makes me sad how quick people are to want to kill bees, or bugs of any kind really.

The commercial beekeepers used to come and go out of the berry fields, but now they are keeping them in the field year-round.  I am not sure where this is going, but the "save the honey bees" thing is certainly impacting the wild bees in my area.

I agree, I think that everyone tends to think that "Save the Bees" means honey bees, because people don't know other bees exist, and poorly managed honey bees are probably just exacerbating the problems.