Mason Bee Fall Harvest - Watch How We Clean 3 Million Mason Bee Cocoons

Whether you rent from our program and we clean your bees or your host your own, it's important to harvest and clean your mason bee cocoons every fall. Watch this video as we walk you through our process step by step to learn how.
FIRE- We sterilize all our nesting blocks to remove predators like pollen mites and fungus.
WATER - We give our bees a bath in a mild water and bleach solution to clean off all the mud and predators.
LIGHT - We pick out every cocoon that is no longer viable on our light table.
About Rent Mason Bees:
Our program makes it easy to become a solitary bee host. Gardeners purchase a bee kit that comes with house, nesting block, clay and bees. You release solitary bees into your yard and RENT our nesting blocks for your bees. When you release the bees into your yard they will lay babies in your natural habitat and your nesting block. Harvesting and cleaning the cocoons and blocks is a critical step when hosting solitary bees to remove harmful predators. When you rent from us we take care of the maintenance and cleaning for you. You keep the black house and return the nesting blocks back to us. The following year, you will just need to reorder an “insert” with a sterilized nesting block and clean bees. Please watch our Fall Harvest Video to see how we clean them.
• Our Mason Bee Fall Harvest (why you Rent… we do all the cleaning) - • Mason Bee Fall Harvest...
• Inside a Mason & Leafcutter Block (the importance of why you need to harvest and clean… remove predators) • Predators On the Insid...
Mason bees need spring blooms and leafcutter bees need summer blooms. We provide a variety of options to help you become a solitary bee host. Our Mason Bee Starter kits come with a black shelter, nesting block, bag of clay and pollinator seeds. If you would like both spring and summer pollinators, our Pollinator Package comes with spring mason and summer leafcutter bees, two different nesting blocks for both bees, bag of clay for your masons and flower seeds. We send you both bees and you put out the mason block out first in spring and swap the blocks with the leafcutter block in summer. Don’t worry, we’ll notify you and teach you along the way. Here is a video we did about swapping blocks: “When to Swap Nesting Blocks” - • When to Remove Mason B...
Here is our store link. rentmasonbees.com/rentals/
Here are some of our favorite videos about solitary bees:
• PBS did a beautiful video on mason bees and how they build their nests - • Watch This Bee Build H...
• Life Cycle of a Mason Bee - • Life Cycle of the Orch...
• How to Successfully Raise Mason & Leafcutter Bees - • Learn How to Successfu...
• A Year with Mason Bees (this is a compilation of the 30 educational videos we made in 2021) - • Mason Bee Highlight Vi...
• Mason Bee Tribute Video in macro lens and slow motion - • Tribute to Pollinators...
• Learn About Mason Bees - • Learn About Spring Pol...
• Learn About Leafcutter Bees - • Learn About Leafcutter...
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If you have kids or grandkids, we created a program to teach kids about pollinators with free printable workbooks and worksheets. Turn Kids into Backyard Scientists - Teach Kids About Mason Bees & How They Make Our Food - Rent Mason Bees
Learn what to plant in your garden to support pollinators. Pollinator Partnership has created “recipe” cards for your region. www.pollinator.org/gardencards
Since we’re on a roll, one more item to share… Birds & Blooms Magazine and Mother Earth News both published articles this month on solitary bees. In addition to all the above information, you’ll learn so much more reading this article in Mother Earth News: “Backyard Solitary Bees”
Visit our website to learn more: rentmasonbees.com/