Hurray for the superheroes of the pollinating world – our native bees! From tiny sweat bees to mason and leafcutting bees to fuzzy bumblebees and more, there is an amazing variety of species. Native bees are extremely efficient pollinators, too. Consider, for example, the 250 female orchard mason bees needed to pollinate an entire acre of apple trees, or the 300 needed to pollinate an acre of almond trees, compared to the many thousands of honeybees that it takes to do an equivalent job. Wow!
Bees harvest nectar for carbohydrates and pollen for protein.
Most native bees are solitary — rather than building a hive, they stay focused on one job: collecting pollen for their nests. Bumblebees, however, do gather socially — their colony size is only about 50 to 200, though, in contrast to the thousands of honeybees that form a single colony. Female native bees are the pollinators, zipping from plant to plant to collect pollen. Then they seek out a nest spot to lay their eggs. Depending on the species, this might be a tunnel in the ground, a cavity in a tree, a rock crevice, or a snag hole created by a beetle. About thirty percent of our native bees are wood-nesters, including mason bees, leafcutter bees, and carpenter bees.
A metallic turquoise female sweat bee gets covered in the pollen of a Pavonia.
Whether it’s winter, spring, summer, or fall, it’s a great time to be thinking about ways to provide an inviting habitat to attract native bees. Having a sustainable wildlife habitat is the first step, of course — one filled with a diversity of pollen- and nectar-producing flowers. Strive to provide native blooms throughout as much of the year as possible. Don’t forget about wildflowers, and consider letting friendly “weeds” such as dandelion have a place in your garden. And, of course, avoid all pesticides!
An easy way to help our native wood nesters is to provide bee boxes in which the females can lay their eggs. Bee boxes in their simplest form are untreated wood blocks with holes drilled into them. Use a variety of hole diameters from 2mm to 10mm to benefit a range of bee species. You don’t need to buy wood — a log or untreated scrap block around the house or yard would work just fine.
Bee boxes are easy to create with wood and a drill. A variety of hole diameters will allow different species to lay their eggs.
A piece of wood can be multi-purpose.
Another easy bee box can be made from bamboo reeds — beautiful and functional! In the one below, we created a simple frame to contain the reeds, then selected a variety of reed diameters to fill the frame.
Bamboo reeds are an attractive alternative to traditional bee boxes.
The females will lay their eggs, along with pollen, in a series of cells created from mud. When they are ready, the young bees will emerge.
Wood-nesting bees will create a series of cells with mud, laying their eggs and collected pollen inside.
Have fun with your bee box designs — just make sure the material is safe and the holes are the approximate diameters native bees need.
Bee creative -- there's no set design, other than recommended diameters of 2mm to 10mm for the holes.
What are some ways to help the ground nesters? Consider leaving some bare patches of ground, and avoid using plastic weed-block or overdoing mulch. You can also create special pits of sand or sandy loam just for the bees, or even raised beds.
Here’s a fun fact I discovered while doing a bit of research — many native bees are attracted to the color blue! I’m already thinking about ways to get more blue in my garden.
Some bees, like this Carpenter Bee, are very attracted to the color blue.
By the way, for a great series of photos and more info about native bees, “bee” sure to visit team author Gail’s Clay and Limestone blog. I just happened to visit her site today and discovered she’s been doing a series of bee posts there with some fantastic close-ups of native bees. Dare I say that she’s been bzzzzzy? Great job, Gail! :)
Bee Ready! Spring will be here before you know it!
Meredith O’Reilly gardens for wildlife in Austin, Texas, and writes about her garden adventures at Great Stems.
© 2011 – 2012, Meredith O’Reilly. All rights reserved. This article is the property of BeautifulWildlifeGarden.com If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us
About Meredith O'Reilly
Great ideas! I’m getting ready for a mason bee class this weekend that I’m pretty excited about. Such fascinating insects to watch and attract.
I manage a group pool for insect houses on Flickr, would love to have your homemade houses added to it if you’re interested! http://www.flickr.com/groups/insecthotels/
Kelly Brenner recently posted..Road Ecology and Wildlife Crossings
I enjoyed this post. I keep thinking about making a mason bee house, but haven’t gotten around to it. I always have lots of bees and wasps on my flowers, so at least some kinds are enjoying my garden.
I am behind in my blog reading. I need to get over to Gail’s place and read her recent posts.
Corner Garden Sue recently posted..Critter Happenings
We have several bee nest boards made from scrap pieces of 2×4 inch boards. We drilled the holes on the end so the holes are deeper. We had the most success this year when we moved two to sunnier locations. A good place to place them is on fence posts.
Heather
Heather recently posted..Our Native Landscape Story Part 1- Reducing Impervious Surfaces
These are great pictures. And that bamboo reeds alternative is truly a great idea! It looks cool too! Man’s mind is truly awesome because it doesn’t stop thinking of great, new and exciting things!
Meredith, you always have wonderful posts. I brought up the idea of solitary bee houses as a sale item for our chapter of the Native Plant Society a few months back. I don’t think that a lot of people realize that some bees like to beeee alone Will be sharing this post, thanks!
Loret T. Setters recently posted..Bird in the Night
Super post Meredith – and thank you for highlighting that most bees are NOT the type to swarm or sting…I think bees get a very bad rap in this world but most of them have no interest in humans and are just bzzzzy collecting pollen and nectar. It’s only if you bother them (as in…start flailing around and swatting your arms and screaming, and you are pretty much asking to be stung). That is an amazing shot of a metallic sweat bee just drenched in pollen…quite the stylin’ outfit by any standards!
The blue sage in the rose garden is near the window. Whenever I glance out those stripy carpenter bees are hard at work. Bees are blue, it’s true ;~)
Elephant’s Eye recently posted..On gurus and mentors
BTW Meredith you are one of the ‘gurus and mentors’ in today’s post.
Elephant’s Eye recently posted..On gurus and mentors
I have learned so much about bees in the past year. Consider a native bee calendar through the Xerces Society to learn about bees every month. I have a mason bee house in my garden and finally this past spring it was active. I look so forward to this spring. I have also seen carpenter bees, green bees and sweat bees in my garden. It is a fascinating world once you are aware and I so applaud this post!
thevioletfern recently posted..Bark in the Park
Thanks for the very kind words and link~I am crazy about our bees! You’ve given me even more great ideas on how to draw them into the garden~Love the heart in the log! I’ve a few logs that will be fun to make bee holes in! gail
Gail Eichelberger recently posted..If You Could Plant Only One Plant In Your Garden
I love the idea of the bamboo tubes. I just cut back some bamboo recently – looks like it’s time to finally make that bee house!