Okay, so....here's a little unknown fact about me: I'm a Mason Bee keeper!! 🐝 💕 I'm starting to get super excited about this year's release!!! I can't wait to see how my fruit trees blossom ❤️ Here's a short vid of one one of my babies from a previous year! Gosh, they're so freakin' cute with their little tufts of hair 😍
@Valkyrie_D I have two leaf cutter bee "hotels" in my basement for the winter and am making 3 more. I'd love to do some mason bees as well but have heard they don't get along well with leaf cutters.
@NorthernInvader Mason bees prefer larger 8mm holes and leafcutter bees prefer smaller 6mm holes. You can use the same bee house for both bees since they’re active during different seasons (mason bees are active in early spring, while leaf cutters are active in summer). Just swap out the nesting materials for each bee species 🐝 Both species of solitary bee are non-aggressive and much too busy to care about the other and have been known to share a habitat!! 🐝
@Valkyrie_D Not having a drill press has made me rethink how I'm going to get 6" deep holes that stay separate. I figured it out though - a plywood front plate for the box where I only need to drill through it, then paper straws in each hole - turns out they are exactly 6mm in diameter :) and I can cut them to length.