Pollinators - bees

[007clint]

My fall vegetable garden's harvest was not what I was hoping for (too skimpy).  Although I had huge beautiful plants and flowers, I never say many pollinators (bees) roaming around!

Don't get me wrong, for a new Texas gardener, I have learned a lot about plant varieties, planting, bugs, watering, and lots of other things but was disappointed in the yield.  I am hoping for a better Fall garden yield.  What is a good perennial flower bush to attract bees?

I did see a few blue-black bees but no honey bees.  Plano doesn't allow bee hives in my zoning but I did some research and found out that the bees that I saw were probably Mason or Orchard bees and they are non-aggressive and don't form hives.  Also, unlike the honeybee, they usually stay within 100 yards of where they were born.  Has anyone around here (Plano) introduced these bees to their garden?

Also, does Plano's mosquito spraying program wipe out bees also?

[Brian Gallimore]

I was going to order some mason bees from crown, but they ran out before I did.

The insecticide programs surely hurt the bees, I think they are one of the more fragile insects out there.

I have a massive trumpet vine that often has bees around it, and they were on my melon vines this morning too. 

Other attractors that I know about are purple cone flower, lavender, borage, cat nip, berries, fruit trees....  I should find a list and post it up.

[007clint]

I found an interesting bee sight with a list and even a bee box picture for these solitary bees.
I think I will run down to Calloway's to see if they have any of these plants and build me a few of these boxes for the garden.
http://www.beewatchers.com/nest-boxes/

[007clint]

I went to Lowes with my 'bee attracter plant' list and Internet-based advise that bees like blue, purple, and yellow flowers. 

Then, I saw all the bees in the place on two red flowered plants that weren't on the list! There couldn't have been more bees on these two plants if the plants were sitting on a hive!

The plants were Pentas and Coralillo (Firebush)

I have added a large pot of these plants in the middle of my garden right next to the 'tube bee hotel' that I built!

[Brian Gallimore]

Could you tell if they were honeybees or mason bees or some other type?   I know honeybees have to gather almost all year, but mason bees are only active for a few weeks.  Maybe you are seeing a certain type of mason bees that do well here?

I went to Lowes ... I saw all the bees in the place on two red flowered plants that weren't on the list...

The plants were Pentas and Coralillo (Firebush)

[007clint]

They were not the blue/black mason bee but I understand that there are some native solitary bees that resemble honey bees so I am not sure,  I added the new "bee garden pots" in the middle of my vegetable garden to attract some pollinators and a new solitary bee hotel to try to establish a native solitary bee population.

I found three new blue/purple flowers at a different Lowes store that had bees all over them (it sure is easy to shop for bee attractor flowers when you let the bees choose): Russian Sage, Mexican Heather, and Blue Fortune Hyssop.

[Brian Gallimore]

I need to get some good pics of the bees hanging out on my lavender and post them up on here.  Where did you get the bee hotel?

[007clint]

I built it out of 7 untreated Aspen 1x6s about 6" long and drilled 5/16 and 3/8 holes along cracks between boards.  I bolted them together with galvanized bolts and then bolted the assembly to a roof/backboard assembly so I could remove, disassemble and inspect the tubes in the winter.

I only painted the roof/backboard assembly because there was some discussion about the bees preferring natural wood - I guess we will see!

I lined half of them with parchment paper.  Why only half? Because the Internet couldn't agree on whether to line or not.  I hope I can coax some local solitary bees to nest there but if not, I plan on introducing some Blue Orchard or Horn-faced Mason bees in the early Spring when they are available.

[Brian Gallimore]

very interesting.  I have lots of respect for people who know lots about bees.... amazing creatures.   On my list of things to learn more about!

Did you happen to take any detail pics of your bee house construction?   That would make a great 'blog post' for everyone to learn from.

[Phil from Krum]

Here's a good site for Mason Bees. You can get "Slurpee" type straws at a party supply place, the 3/8" diameter ones. Make a frame from wood that isn't pressure treated or Cedar to hold the straws. The mason bees will nest in them.

You can also drill 3/8" holes on blocks of wood but they are harder to clean out. The holes can be up to 10" deep.

Here it is     http://gardening.wsu.edu/library/inse006/inse006.htm

[Brian Gallimore]

Phil, I missed the site, what is it?

[007clint]

I just received my 2012 Mason bees from www.masonbeesforsale.com.  Starter kit contains 20 females and 30 males in the refrigerator at 38-39 degrees.

They say that it takes only 300 nesting females to pollinate an acre of fruit trees whereas it takes 30,000 worker honey bees to pollinate the same acre.

[Brian Gallimore]

I'll check that site out because the one I was monitoring (Crown bees) sold out this spring.