Mason Bees

My mother used to keep honeybees in her backyard. I loved the honey, but disliked the bees who would choose to sun on the white bed sheets hung out on the line to dry. I don't recall ever being stung by one of her bees, but as a teenager I was fearful. Now that I'm an adult the fear is gone; however, as a new farmer I'm not keen to set up and manage hives of my own. Enter mason bees.

Christopher O'Toole's handy publication The Mason Bees: Taking the Sting Out of Beekeeping provided me fascinating reading this weekend. His "practical guide for gardeners and fruit growers to the propagation and management of Osmia lignaria, and its relatives, docile and efficient pollinators" is a highly informative, quite readable little book. From the opening chapter "Blue Orchard Mason Bees as pollination pets" through to the colorful illustration plates at the end, this little book got me all fired up for spring and eager to invite these bees to our little farm. We're starting with fruit trees and bushes, high hopes, very rocky soil, and our resident redworms. With the worms processing the compost at ground level, if we can encourage pollinators to settle here--we should be in fine fruit come summer & fall.

I highly recommend O'Toole's book for growers wanting to manage the pollination ecology in their gardens and orchards.