Bringing in the Bee's....

So it was time to remove the Mason Bee tubes today. I collected them from the two houses. I was very cool to see about 43 full tubes and about 14 half or partly filled tubes. I put them in a nice burlap bag I saved from an event. I will take the tubes apart in the fall and then store them in the fridge like last time until spring. My family thinks I am nuts for storing bee's in the fridge. But they are very clean and just need to be stored in a constant temperature of about 40 degrees.

About less then half of the 100+ tubes I had out were empty. I will use them next season.

 Here are some of  the full and part full tubes. The full ones are the ones that have mud all the way to the ends. The rest are part full. Each full tube could have between 5-8 cocoons in it. So over all I could have from 200 to 280 bees for next year.

In process - all houses are not cleared out. I ordered some new bees (Leaf Cutter) for the summer. I bought some smaller tubes for them too. I will post on them once they arrive.

A sad note - while cleaning out the house and tubes I found this female. She is perfect but alas thier life cycle is very short. Sorry to see her go. I will care for her off spring next season.