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Author Topic: Helping the local pollinators  (Read 1528 times)

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Offline ksnow

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Helping the local pollinators
« on: May 09, 2018, 06:23:31 am »
I decided to help out the local, native bee population and use up some old lumber I had laying about. These are mason bee houses, pretty simple to build. They'll be hung around our gardens, a friend's gardens and my dad's apple orchard. I still need to clean up the holes a bit, to remove the splinters.

Kyle

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Offline Knoll

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Re: Helping the local pollinators
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2018, 06:54:03 am »
Way to go!

I gotta google these to learn more.
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... alone in distant woods or fields, in unpretending sproutlands or pastures tracked by rabbits, even in a bleak and, to most, cheerless day .... .  I suppose that this value, in my case, is equivalent to what others get by churchgoing & prayer.  Hank Thoreau, 1857

Offline Hawkdancer

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Re: Helping the local pollinators
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2018, 11:35:26 am »
Neat project!  Do they work like hives to make honey retrievable?
Hawkdancer
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Life is far too serious to be taken that way!
Jerry

Offline ksnow

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Re: Helping the local pollinators
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2018, 12:16:32 pm »
Mason bees do not produce honey at all. With the overall decline of all pollinator species, I just want to help in any way I can. Mason bees are a solitary bee, each bee will live in its own little hole, then pack it with mud before fall. Next spring the larva will hatch and leave as bees. The boxes will be taken down over the winter to protect them from wet weather and predators.

Kyle
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Offline DC

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Re: Helping the local pollinators
« Reply #4 on: May 09, 2018, 12:38:22 pm »
Mine are just about full. I have three like this drilled 5" deep. The screen is to keep the Flickers out during the winter.
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Offline ksnow

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Re: Helping the local pollinators
« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2018, 12:43:25 pm »
Nice to see some of them out there working. I've read about the screens, I may have to dig around and see if I have something that will work. We have flickers here all summer.

Kyle
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Offline DC

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Re: Helping the local pollinators
« Reply #6 on: May 09, 2018, 02:49:27 pm »
I say it's Flickers but I've never caught them at it. With the deep holes they can't get them all. I think they lay the eggs so that one sex(male I think) comes out first. If that's the case then I was losing more of one sex than the other.
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