I set up a webcam just a few feet away from the homes of a few hundred solitary bees. I streamed this over VIMM for many days. And during that time I recorded some of it and put it all together into a single video. During the months of February through May thee bees are out and building homes. They will use specially designed homes that I made for them to lay their larva in. Still working on the perfect design but every year I improve upon the last and I think eventually I should have a pretty final design all made up.
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When removing the boards this year I realized the paper that was under the planks was not antiquate. I lost a bunch of larva when removing them, but thats not shown in this video. Just a point of how I am always trying to find ways to improve growing these bees.
Please enjoy the video of these female solitary mason bees visiting the bee boards I made, they work all day long to make these their homes. And I take care of them long after the bees are gone.
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I plan on streaming again next year and will do a post about it when its getting close to that time of year. But for now, since its mid May these bees are done. But we can still enjoy them watching some video I captured of them a few months back. They get so busy at the peak of their cycle and just watching them can be alot of fun.
While the pollen count is through the roof I try to wear a mask outside while watching them. The little bees have a tendency to add pollen into the air, so my nose gets very annoyed fast when I get exposed to it. I try to wear a mask anytime I handle the homes as well, even when harvesting in the winter.
I wonder how far I can scale this, this year I had a population of at least 100 mason bees. And hoping I can continue to grow that number. Seems I have more than enough homes, just need to keep increasing their numbers year after year.