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Re: Orchard Bee Houses

> I purchased an "orchard bee house" yesterday and was hoping someone out there
> could help with a few questions.  Last year I seemed to have a problem with
> pollination in my vegetable garden and hope the bee house will help.  The
> questions are:
>
> 1.  At what height should I put the house?
> 2.  Where should I put the house?  I was thinking about putting it right
> between my HT rose beds and raised bed vegetable area.
> 3.  Will yelllow jackets live in these houses?

I see all the responses that showed up in the SQFT digest I received
applied to HONEY bees, not orchard bees. You are properly asking some
good questions about ORCHARD bees, Toni, the most common being
Osmia Lignaria, also known as a mason bee. Let me take a stab at
more appropriate answers.

First of all, these bees are called "orchard" bees for a reason. They
emerge from their mud holes in early spring, hopefully in time for the
pollination of fruit trees (plum, pear, cherry, apple, etc.). They
(the females) gather pollen and deposit it along with an egg in
mud-separated individual little chambers in the holes. This is all
completed by May or early June at the latest, at which time the adult
bees die. Thus, if you are hoping for pollination of such plants as
tomatoes, peppers, etc., I'm afraid you're pretty much out of luck.
However, if you have fruit trees (as I do), congratulations! You have
made a valuable purchase.

There are native orchard or mason bees in most, if not all regions of
the USA, and I believe in most other countries. The population may be
very sparse or non-existant, and can use some encouragement. It is not
necessary to purchase an "orchard bee house". You can create your own
with scraps of wood and a 5/16" drill bit and drill. Simply drill a
bunch of holes at least 3" deep (I make mine the full depth of the
drill bit, which is just about right) in some short 2X4's, 2X6's, etc.
(dimensions in inches) and place them strategically, sheltered from
rain, with the holes roughly horizontal.

Now for the questions:
1) The height should probably be somewhere between 5 feet and 10 feet
   off the ground. (I strap mine to the exposed rafters under my eaves
   on the garage. This is probably slightly on the high side, but works
   just fine.)
2) Orchard bees don't travel very far from their "nests", unlike honey
   bees. I believe they are supposed to be located within 20 feet or so
   of their pollen source. Again, this is stuff that will be blooming in
   the spring, not summer. Exposure to the sun in the spring is desirable,
   since it gets them started earlier in the morning and gets them to
   emerge earlier in the season (if this is desirable). You could probably
   delay their season be keeping them in the refrigerator for a few weeks
   in the spring, if this is beneficial.
3) No, yellow jackets will not live in the tubes. Yellow jacket burrow
   into the ground, I believe. You will probably have at least some of
   the holes occupied by other insects, but this is generally not a
   significant problem.

If you are looking for garden pollination, you probably need to look
elsewhere. You might consider bumble bee nests or a honey bee box.
In an urban location, neither of these may be deemed acceptible to
your neighbors, so proceed with caution (or perhaps stealth (:-)).

BTW, a good Web site on this topic is:
http://www.accessone.com/~knoxclr/omb.htm

Good luck, and hope this helps.
Don Gross          gross@ims.com
Member, Home Orchard Society (centered in Portland, Oregon)

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