Time to get the mason bees in for the winter. The idea is to clean them up (and get rid of any mites) and put them in the fridge until spring.
The inside of the nest box. The "mason" part comes from the work they do with dirt separating each cocoon. You can see the mites in the box and surrounding the cocoons.
Separating the cocoons from the box.
Wasps had invaded the box. There were about 8 or so that had made there way in. Didn't notice them until I pulled one of the trays apart. Luckily it is pretty cold out, so they were pretty groggy. The wasps get in and eat the cocoons.
We washed, soaked, cleaned and rinsed the cocoons.
Then we dried them off and put them in a box and into the fridge. Overall we started the season with 20 bees. There were about 50 in the nest, but a few were hit by the wasps as well as the mites. We ended up with a little over 40 for next year.
The inside of the nest box. The "mason" part comes from the work they do with dirt separating each cocoon. You can see the mites in the box and surrounding the cocoons.
Separating the cocoons from the box.
Wasps had invaded the box. There were about 8 or so that had made there way in. Didn't notice them until I pulled one of the trays apart. Luckily it is pretty cold out, so they were pretty groggy. The wasps get in and eat the cocoons.
We washed, soaked, cleaned and rinsed the cocoons.
Then we dried them off and put them in a box and into the fridge. Overall we started the season with 20 bees. There were about 50 in the nest, but a few were hit by the wasps as well as the mites. We ended up with a little over 40 for next year.
Oh cool. I didn't know you were raising bees. But why mason bees? Don't you want honey?
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