March 21, 2 0 2 0 Mason bees enjoying the warm spring day

I saw mason bees today. Not really possible to catch them in a photograph unless there are

many because they just fly so fast.  They are skittish.  Since they have no stinger, the fast flying behaviour is their defense.  

Seeing some mason bees.

Encouraging,     this bag of cocoons comes from my collection of bees out of the bamboo in October

flowers on "winter daphnia" very fragrant flowers.
I have 3 of these bushes. I think the bees like them.

"

my mason bee bag is protected from the nasty birds with the quarter inch hardware cloth
There are live bees in the bag. I have the top open to allow escape.

  I also open the bag wide to make it easiest to get out.

March 2 0, 2 0 2 0

A very nice mason bee was darting about condo-1 today.
No tubes have been filled and I did not witness a bee entering
a tube.
But with only one bee surveying the tubes, it is likely I will not see the real
activity for a few days.
Temperature was over 60 degree F today. Lots of sun.
I am optimistic that more bees will show up soon.

March 19, 2 0 2 0

NEWS
I saw an insect up on the wall where condo-1 is located.
The insect was so far away that I could not be 100% certain
but I think it was a mason bee.
I think it was a female because of its size (a bit on the large size).
It has been in 60 F so I think this may be the beginning

Night time temperatures are around 40 degrees F at night
and around 55 to 60 during day time.

These are good temperatures for mason bees.

So far I have seen only a few small wasps and one mason bee.

The mason bee I saw was certainly from my bees saved from
October 2019 because he was in the bag.

I look forward to finding mason bees any day now. I will check around the
bee condos every day.

I have a dozen medium sized blueberry bushes of various varieties.
In all my bushes there are only about 7 flowers are in bloom.

The bees may know the flowers are not in bloom and the bees may
be waiting for the flowers.

I do have many other flowers:  bleariana plum, daffodils (dozens), crocus, winter daphne,
HYACINTHS AND GRAPE HYACINTHS.
So there are plenty of flowers. Just no bees.

This is a terrible situation, older people are stuck at home. A virus lurks in the
bodies of any number of people walking around loose.  I cant imagine
when the world will get back to pre 2020  times.

March 18, 2020 Day after St Patricks day NO BEES NO BEES

Going outside to check on the mason bees (MB)

I will snap a photo if I see one
Stay tuned  1:51 pm
I spent about a half hour looking for mason bees. No activity at all.
This is real disappointing.
a
I  about 30 cocoons from last fall. Yet it only appears that one emerged.
Today it got up to 60 F degrees.
I saw few small wasps but nothing else. No bumble bees, no honey bees and
worst of all no mason bees.

              seems warm enough, BTW, you may wonder why I put  hardware cloth over the thermometer,  The reason 

          is racoons are very active in this area,  they think it is necessary to knock it                              down,  so I protect the device 

watched for activity for 20 minutes, alas, NOTHING

great x?? grandfather

March 17, 2020 5;36 pm St Patrick's Day

I thought the mason bees emergence would be important
No, not significant, so far it didn't happen

I thought Pi day would be important, it wasn't

I though the Ides of March would be important, it wasn't

The only thing of significance has been the lousy corona virus.
Hope it doesn't affect my bees.😈
Midday temperatures have been consistently 50 F  or slightly higher
What ever I write , no one reads.

Walking around the yard and inspecting the mason bee condos I saw no
mason bees.  I did see an flying insect about the size of a mason bee high up
on the wall near the mason bee condos, but I could not see if it was a housefly
or a mason bee. It was just too far away.

I checked the bag of cocoons to see if there was any movement. None seen.

I have read that it is a bad idea to purchase mason bee cocoons by mail because it
can contribute to spreading mason bee diseases and parasites.
So I am just going to stand pat.  They either want my condos or they don't.

March 16, 2020

Not a single bee yet,
It is just too cold

The corona virus is shutting down everything.

Our radio club has no place to meet.

THE IDES OF MARCH March 15, 2020

Well 3.14 is over and the weather has not been warm enough to encourage
any mason bees to emerge in my yard.

The temperature was at 50 degrees F. But that was a high not an average.

I hope I can see some mason bees soon.

Well, the mason bees ignored the illustrious Pi Day. I will be searching all day
to see if a mason bee will show up on this famous (infamous depending on whether
or not you are/were a fan of Julius Caesar) day.

here is Pi So now is after midnight Happy pi day !

http://www.pi314.net/eng/index.php

Pi squared (Π²) is 9.8696…, which, if you round to 9.87 and ignore the decimals, is 987, the 17th number of the Fibonacci series

MARCH 13 one more day until Pi day it is coming MARCH 14

Yes indeed just one more day until Pi day
Yes indeed just one more day until Pi day
No bees yet

3.14
March 14
Einsteins birthday
big deal

Mason bees love pi day,,, no note Pie day,  Pi day

I love my mason bees
My bee condos are ready for occupation
Not a bee in sight

3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679

I must have cut at least a dozen bamboo sticks.  Once cut , I need to
cut to the 4 to 5 inch length. Then if the stick is at a node, the node has
to be trimmed so they can be stacked.  I probably have one third of the tubes
made out of parchment paper.   Last year, the bees avoided the parchment
paper.  

It is not difficult to remove the bees from the bamboo. Just crack the tube at the front
and then break it open.  Dump the cocoons onto a large clean cloth.  The
the bees get a quick wash with a VERY dilute solution of  bleach in water.
I have to get all the yellow pollen off and make sure the cocoons look healthy.
I keep them in a box on the north side of my shed. That way they are shaded and
I cover the bag with quarter inch hardware cloth.

March 11, 2020

Still cold . Looked for mason bees and found none.
My bee condos are open for business. This is March 11
3 more days until  Pi day


This corona virus thing is making a mess out of everything.  Hope my mason
bees don't worry about it.

3.1
4  Pi day is coming

I am attempting to sell trout flys on ebay.
I will report on success or failure.

March 10, 2020

No bees yet.
4 day until pi day
All Mason Bees celebrate the day by emerging.
At least I think that is why they emerge on the day.
Probably some connection with Albert Einstein who
shares his birthday with March 14.

Can't help but wonder if Julius Ceasar thought there
was anything special about the day before the Ides
of March.

March 6, 2020 The world wide celebration of Pi day approaches

3.14 is a milestone day for mason bees.  They all know about it.

March 6 is the count down to 8  for March 14

Mason bees may be small but they are powerful pollinators.

I don't expect any bees until 3.14 but I will keep a look out.

There were a grand sum total of zero today.

I use a chromebook to update this blog. I also use my smart phone for most photos.
I will be sure to take a photo of a corona virus if I see one. Of course, I will only take
a picture of a corona virus if I can recognize it.  Maybe I ought to be realistic?
People remark that mason bees do not sting.From my observations the mason bee
does not need to sting. The fly very fast. They dont stay long in one spot

Has anyone every heard of Alexander Ulrice? He would have been born between 1841 to 1861. He would have lived in Mecosta, Michigan between 1881-1882.

I plant lots of flowers which are scheduled for early spring.

May 5, 2020

The air temperature on Monday-Tues and Wednesday are supposed to be all highs over
50(F).  Three days in a row seems to signal the little rascals to get busy.
We will see.

winter daphne flowers, extremely fragrant

both condos ready for new tenants

white plastic mesh containing pupae  protected by 1/4 inch mesh hardware cloth

On 3.14 I may drink canada dry.

May 4 2020

shaaaarooooooom

No bees today

Palm in Austin Texas, big flower coming out

Coyote in the park.

here are a few fun photos
We put a few plastic coyotes in the park to scare off the Canadian geese.
It is not totally effective, but the geese tend to avoid our park as a result

Some people call these shrooms.  The are not really safe to eat. 

I raised some of my yuccas from seed. But this one(above) I cheated and purchased it from a local nursery.

march 3rd, 2020

Full view of the first condo installed.
The plastic keeps the condo dry in the
worst rain storm,

No bees today, it was way too cold.
The first day where no frost is guaranteed in April 3.
That may be true, but I think Pi day will be pretty good.
I see a few common flies but, so far, I only saw two mason
bees on March 1.
This year I have a mix of parchment paper tubes and fresh black bamboo
tubes.  I cut the bamboo from my garden. I only get about 20 new shoots
per year, so next spring I will have a problem. I estimate I need twice that
many for my two mason-bee-condos.   Maybe I will need to rely on
more parchment paper.

This year none of  mason bees are in tubes. In October 2019 I
took all the bamboo tubes and split them open.  I carefully
put the cocoons in a basket and then washed them with a very
dilute solution of bleach and water.  Then I stored them in a shaded
area on the wall of my shed.  I kept them  the white plastic cloth
which allows plenty of ventilation.

Just waiting for the emergence now.

I don't expect much until Albert Einstein's birthday (March 14 aka pi day).

Only 11 days now.

The Corona virus is the talk of the town. Stores which sell household supplies
are busy.  The biggest think seems to be toilet paper.   There is a crazy rumor
that supplies will be unavailable. I don't understand why but the hoarders are cleaning
up all packages as soon as the stores put them out. 

The problem with the corona virus for people over 70 seems to be it can be fatal.
We will see. So far about 6 people have died in Washington, all over 70.

I have been trying to get my radio shack setup.

I am sure there are already enough flowers to support the first mason bees.
Photos show  yellow and white daffodils, winter daphne and some crocus.

daffodils

winter daphne shrub, flowers are extremely fragrant

White daffodils with yellow centers
The mason bees should be able to find plenty of nectar and pollen.

March 2nd, 2020

It is rather cold today.  So no mason bee activity.

The condos are complete and the bees have been released.

I will just keep an eye on the situation.

The temperature has to get to 50 degrees F .

Only 48 degrees today.  Got to be at least 50 F

In two weeks  we will probably get there.

March - 1st - condo-installed today

Today I installed the second condo today.
Only 13 days to Pi day.  Bees love March 14.
They like the fact their emergence is celebrated.
The bee pupas are set out near the condos.  Distance is about
five feet,.

Add caption

mud for the bees. This is made out of cat litter,

white mesh sack. it is open to let the mason bees out. the 1/4 inch screen protects the bees from birds

bag of pupae, one already emerged. Will keep an eye on this every dau

a

Add caption

When I opened the bee sack, I saw one bee already emerged.
As a result, I just set the bag out and opened. I covered the open bag
with 1/4 inch hardware cloth.

I will be watching closely over the next few days.

I have noticed 2 bees buzzing the condos.  Probably both males because
they are small and it is quite early. (Males emerge first.)

Below are photos taken today

count down to Pi Day This is February 27

17    This is February 27
Soon the festivities will begin as all adherents to the Pi Day celebrations look to that
marvelous day.
March 14 will soon be here    3.14
Mason bees love Pi Day

February 27,2020 First condo is installed for March 2020.

First condo is installed for March 2020.
I am focusing on using black bamboo this year. I plan to watch my little
bees every day.
Will report news of the first bees to arrive.

😎😎
I am working on the second condo. These bee condos chew up many bamboo
sticks.  I only use well blackened sticks. I have read that irregular sizes and lengths
are appreciated.  I do have some bee pupas from last year.  I don't know how well
I kept them. I will release them very soon.

Feb 23 2020

added a few bamboos today
I will be gluing the tubes to the condos in
a few days

Feb 17,2020 working on tubes

cutting, shaping and installing black-bamboo tubes into condo-1
got about one third of condo-1 completed
target date range for completion is April 1-14

New Year's day 2020 (Chinese)

New Year's day for Chinese

January 25, 2020

Getting ready for Pi day  March 14, 2020
For some reason Mason Bees love Pi day.

I have got to chop down another black bamboo and fix
up some tubes.  Less than 3 months until Pi day.

Watching the Boeing 777x doing its first flight on youtube.

January 24, 2020 Mason bees

The weather is cold and raining.  Mid day is around the 50 degree F level.
Also my callsign KK7JB is official.   I plan to join the Sunday night
net meeting for the Federal Way hams.

I have on mason bee almost populated with both black bamboo sticks and
 paper tubes. 

I did not have good results last fall with the paper tubes.  So most of the tubes this year will be made of the black bamboo.

It is so wet and cold there is not much chance of loading the new bamboo tubes.

Chinese new year is tomorrow. Hope the bees are energized .

Our Federal Way Amateur Club is planning on building some magnetic loop antennas.  The president says he has a stock of aluminum of a good size for the antennas. He also says he has some air variable capacitors (essential part for such an antenna).

November 28, 2019

Working on the tubes for the mason bees.  This year I will have a combination

of black-bamboo tubes and paper-tubes.

So far I have enough tubes for one condo.  Over the next two weeks I will have to

make more paper tubes and bamboo tubes.

November 18, 2019 Cutting black bamboo tubes

It is a long way until pi day. None the less, I am working on the mason bee condos.

Fortunately, I acquired a ¨clum¨ of black bamboo twenty years ago.  Since that time I have
tended to the bamboo.  It is a great species which has great features. Just the type of bamboo
which mason bees will like.

Once a single piece is about three years old it is ready for harvest.  I have already cut two or three
pieces.  I cut each piece into 4 to 5 inch lengths, The end often can contain the natural blockage.
In any case the tubes must be stuck to the back of the condo.

I happened to get a pair of shears a few years ago. The shear have a replaceable blade. This is essential because the bamboo must be cut and NOT cracked. A sharp pair of shears is essential.

I plan to have a mix of paper tubes and bamboo tubes. I do not plan to use the routed wood shelves which came with the little condos.

October 16, 2019 Reset for the mason bee house

I removed all the cocoons from the bamboo tubes.  I found lots of parasitic
wasp larvae. I found may fungus layden cocoons.

I saved roughly 60 cocoons.  I hope I did a good job. We shall see on or about
pi-day, 2020.

I plan to use a mix of the wood trays, new bamboo tubes and diy paper tubes.
We will see if any of my work is rewarded with filled tubes.

I mounted the cleaned house on the side of my shed.  I put the cocoons in a air screen
type of bag.

Nothing more to do.  Now we just wait for results in 5 months.

harvesting the cocoons October 13, 2019 Sunday

I have not done this before.   None the less, I attempted to harvest my mason bee
cocoons.
use
My bee house is divided into two types of places for cocoons

First there is the routed out wood which was supposed to be a favorite place for the
mason bees to deposit their larvae.  They completed avoided putting ANY larvae into
the routed out wood.  So much for that !

Second there is the bamboo tubes.  Approximated 60 percent of the tubes were used by
the mason bees.

In a very few cases, there were 5 or 6 cocoons.  In most cases there were only one or two cocoons.
The mason bees would seal up the tube in though the bee only put one or two larvae.
It was like someone told the bees of the concept of a Potemkin village.  If I my propose a
theory, I think the bees do this on purpose .  I think they put one larvae in a tube to throw off the parasitic wasps. 

I did find a few 6 larvae tubes.  In a very few cases, there was no nasty fungus and no nasty wasp larvae.

I harvested the cocoons. I washed them. Then I dried them off and put them in a breathable plastic
bad and put them into the bee house. I covered the bad with quarter inch hardware cloth.

August 6, 2019

Here one of my large bumble bees is enjoying a bloom from a rose of sharon bush.

I just discovered that my great grandfather was born on a Saturday on the date March 15.

So  his birthday is one day past pi day.

Because I want good flowers in the middle of March, I plant many blueberry plants.

I have be playing around with the soil. So today I went to Starbucks and after buying a coffee, I asked if I could get a bag of used coffee grounds.  They provided me with a huge bag,  I put them

around the base of my Duke variety.,   We will see what happens.

august 4 Bumble Bees are happy

Got bumble bees and they are happy.

In particular, I try to have an artichoke flower in the summer.

Here is a video where one of our local talent has found the flower

August 5, 2019 Bumble Bee gets her own artichoke flower

Here is a bumble bee enjoying an artichoke.

I don´t plant artichokes to eat.  I just provide them for the bumble bees.

At this time of year there is no mason bee activity. But the bumble bees are in full force.

My garden includes many summer flowers, so bumble bees are very plentiful in my garden.

Hoaxes   are fun to review

June 19

I installed 1/4 inch hardware cloth over the face of condo #2
Hopefully that will protect the cocoons from hungry birds

June 13

I bought some new dowels. I compared sizes to the hole sizes used in condo#2.
I also bought some quarter inch grid hardware cloth.  I need to cut a piece and fit it
over the condo#2 to protect the cocoons from hungry birds.

june 7

Bumble Bees are plentiful this year.
Of course, mason bees are done for the season.

June 6

Lots of bumblebees on flowers.  Lavender is very popular with the bumblebees.
I have an artichoke plant with a growing bud.   The weather is in the 50s so inspecting
the garden is not very comfortable today.

June 5

Checked the mason bee condos today.  No change, So basically the season is over.
I am going to get the dowels and start rolling paper tubes for next spring. 
I have a large crop of bamboo so I will use both bamboo and paper tubes for next spring.
 I certainly will not roll large diameter tubes.

June 3

Returning to my mason bee condos very soon for inspection.
I really don't think there is any more activity

May 29 some musings about counting and time

Warm today in Austin Texas
The weather people say occasional showers are due over the next few
days. The sky looks dark, so it is certainly likely.

Observing local flowers, I have seen no bees of any kind.  On the other hand,
people don't seem to plant a great many flowering plants.  The most common seems
to be the red yucca. It has a very narrow flower spike and the small red flowers
are currently blooming.


Today
I added a new time page and a page devoted to how Fred Flintstone figured out how to count.
I have seen methods which several primitive societies developed.  But the use of 12 and 60
are the two systems used by most of the western societies.

I think the idea of a base ten has little or nothing to do with Fred Flintstone type people.
See my pages for my point of view.

May 28

Ok, I have been traveling. I visited Wichita Kansas and checked to see the vegetation in the area. Moved on to Austin Texas.

My daughter has an apartment in Austin and luckily she has access to the grounds with a nearly limitless source of Tillandsia recurvata.   I will see if I can help her sell the stuff. Most people in the area view the plant as trash, so picking it up is no problem.

Some experts say the Austin area never has temperatures lower than freezing. Yet other experts say the temperatures do drop below freezing for a very few nights per year.  Other experts say freezing temperatures will nearly instantly kill Tillandsia while other experts claim a short term freezing temperature will not kill the plant. 

Hard to know which expert to believe. 

I may set up a max/min thermometer to check the actual range.  Then if I notice Tillandsia is killed or survived, we will have some real data.

May 23

No action at all today.  I really think the mason bee thing is finished for the year.
Now I just wait for October.

May 22

No activity on the bee condos.  I think the life cycle of the mason
bee is over for adults. Now the egg is developing into the pupa
and as the cocoon develops a new generation is coming for next
March

May 21

Some ducks and geese at Country Lake 

May 20

While some sources say the end of the mason bee life cycle is May 30, it looks like I am
not getting any visitors.
I think the life cycle is over.
I will remove the tubes in October and put them away.
Also, I will make paper tubes of the correct size to replace them.

I am going to keep an eye on the tubes but it does not appear any
new tubes are being filled and no bees seem to be visiting.

May 18 bumble bees plentiful

Today in applied a two layer piece of aluminum foil on the west side of
condo#2.   This will reflect the setting sun so that the temperature will not get
excessive.

The bumble bees in this region seem plentiful this year.

I saw one bee working on her tube today.

protecting the cocoons

Some mason bee keepers use hardware cloth to protect the cocoon nests from raiding birds.
I plan to fit some hardware cloth over the front of the condo #2.

My new chromebook

I  just got an Asus Chromebook.  It works pretty well.  My old hp Chromebook became a problem and since it was 5 years old and it was low cost, it wasn't worth fixing it.   New Asus has a touch screen
and the speed seems good.   According to specs, I am supposed to get 10 hours worth of battery.
Ten hours is good because I hate being connected to an ac line.  I only had to pay $300 so it was
an easy decision. 

I have a  video camera (Canon) but I usually use my smartphone.  I take photos then email the photos to myself.

Then I go to my email and save the photo to Chromebook.  Then I go to blogger and load the photo
to this blog.  It is pretty quick and the photos are good from my smartphone.

Tillandsia recurvata from Austin, Texas

I took some black bamboo and cut various lengths. Then I tied the tubes together with a piece
of wire.  I purchased a drinking glass at a dollar store and inserted pups from Tillandsia recurvata (this is the correct spelling for the ¨small ball moss¨ )  into the ends of the bamboo.  I put water in the bottom of the glass.

I capped the glass with a piece of plastic.  I may try small glass vases, that seems like an attractive place for Tillandsia. (On May 18, I removed the plastic from the glass. Many people on web say you should not totally close the ¨terrerium¨.

We will see how this works.    If this does well, I will return to the dollar store and buy more
glasses. (My black bamboo is the type which does not run. It grows very slowly. I have two clums (clum is the name for a group of bamboo stalks)  and each only produces 3 to 5 new shoots twice per year.  Still, it is enough for most of my uses.)


Also, I have mounted pups all over my yard. Several are tucked in the bark of some trees and some
are fitted into gaps in my fence.  We will see how the pups develop.

A friend of mine lives in Texas, I saw the Tillandsia laying in balls the size of tennis balls.  He told me it is a nuisance which grows in the trees and falls to the ground whenever there is rain or
wind.  He didn't know what it was and I told him.   He was happy to have me collect some.  Next time I visit him I will load up a large box and mail it to myself.

 think I will take a photo that does not have the Venetian blind in the background.

Most people go on a trip and during the trip, they purchase a souvenir.  I also like souvenirs but I like to collect some local plant and make my own totally unique souvenir.  Nobody has anything like my black bamboo mini-terrarium with Tillandsia recurvata.  For me, it is my Austin, Texas souvenir.

May 16 Three photos including the poor dead mason bee (RIP)

I added a few paper tubes to the condo to see if accepted 

so sad, a mason bee died on the ledge of the bee condo #2. Must have run out of the life cycle. Some estimates say end of the cycle is the end of May, so this is close

notice how full the right side of the condo #2 is.   very few tubes are unfilled on this date

Some of the tubes are fairly large diameter.

Notice the extra tubes (made from white paper). So far,  the bees have avoided any of the white paper tubes.

Yesterday I became impatient with two of the mason bee tubes I purchased online.

One of the tubes contained a LIVE male bee (very small bee). All the rest of the cocoons were dead.

I examined the other tube and found one live female.  She looked in good health.

Let me pause to count my chickens before they hatch.

I  have about 60 tubes.  If each tube contains 10 females.  Then if all cocoons emerge on the Ides of March next year, then I will get approximately 600 bees.    I had better have lots of tubes ready for next year.   Now adding some realism, I will say only 300 bees will survive to hatch on Pi day.

Each bee will need 10 tubes , so I will need to produce 3,000 tubes. I think I  will provide some bamboo tubes.  I don't have confidence in the routed wood.  There was something wrong with the scent on the wood...my guess.   Maybe I will wash the routed-wood. Maybe that will help.

H ___ E ___L___ P what species of bumble bee is this?

oo

which species of the bumblebee is this?   I have many of these during this time of mid-May
I took this photo today.   I have a lot of bumble bees just like this one. I also have bees with
yellow bars and no yellow.
I am no expert on bumblebees.  The literature says the rusty patch has a range which includes the eastern United States.
I am not saying that this is a rusty patch but it sure does resemble one. 

Another possible rusty patch..   This is state of Washington, so I think it is unlikely unless the range for rusty patch is far larger than Easter United States.  See below

May 15

Here I stuck some tillandsia in the bark of a tree. This tillandsia plant has two significant
characteristics

1.  It only uses a plant as a substrate. It gives nothing and takes nothing away from the
host plant.  It is not a parasite

2.  If tillandsia is left on the tree, the first freeze will kill it, so it can never be an invasive
species.

I will remove it shortly before the first freeze.  I am thinking it will increase in size. Just an experiment

May 14

Checked out the bee houses today.

Left side bamboo tubes have 24 tubes completely filled.
Right side bamboo tubes have 36 tubes completely filled.

I suspect there is a slight difference in temperature so that
the right side is very slightly cooler. ( so the left side faces west and
the front faces south.)

After 2 months of activity, there is not a single routed-wood tube filled.
While the routed tubes are recommended by many mason-bee authorities,
the bees simply avoid the routed-wood tubes.  I have seen bees hover
in front of routed-wood tubes, but they clearly reject the idea of using the
routed-wood.

Just below condo #2  is condo #1. Condo #1 uses paper tubes. No paper tubes
were used.  Also, the paper tubes were on the large side of the diameter.

As I have said in previous posts, I will be using smaller diameter dowels to
roll tubes for next year.

Today the temperatures were in the mid-50s and rain was on and off all day.

May 13

I would like to identify this bee. Obviously, it is a bumble bee, but what is the species?

The above photo from condo2 shows bamboo tubes on the right side of the condo are loaded with complete mason bee nests.  Notice the white paper straws.  No bee of any kind showed the straws were useful.

lk

 photo of condo #1, showing my hand made paper tubes. The bees looked over my work and decided my amateur craft was worthless.   Not a single bee thought these tubes were worth using as cocoon depository locations. NOT ONE

There continue to be some mason bee activity, however, nearly all the tubes are filled
and I only saw one bee flying around the bee condo #2.

I broke up some of my recently acquired tillandsias and "planted" the sprigs on my
north fence. We will see if it increases in size over the next few weeks.