I just received a shipment of leafcutter bee in the mail the other daytime . Are n’t they neat ?
Or I should say , leafcutter bee cocoons . The silken cocoons come encased in the leafy cellular telephone the mother bee make when she position her eggs .
Unlike spring Freemason bees , which start flying when temperatures attain 55 ° F , summer leafcutter bees like hot weather and emerge when the weather is systematically in the mid-80 ° f .
We ’re moving into a week of warmer weather so I suspect they ’ll be waking up just as their mason bee cousins start to wind up down . I ’ve had mynative bee houseshanging in the garden for a few weeks and it ’s such a joy to spot the mason bee buzzing around the borage and nasturtiums every day .
I love my aboriginal bee home so much , in fact , that I ’ve ask Crown Bees to give one of my readers an opportunity to own a native bee house too !
Owning a aboriginal bee house is an solely different experience from owning a Apis mellifera beehive . Unlike honeybees , which live in highly unionized settlement revolving around a single queen , aboriginal bees are solitary , so every female native bee is fundamentally her own “ queen , ” put down eggs and nurture offspring without the support of fellow bee . She lives for only six weeks and nest in pocket-size cakehole rather than a hive . These holes can be found all over your yard in natural features like the empty stems of sententious plants or the burrow left by wood - bore beetles .
By hanging a aboriginal bee house in your garden , you help provide a safe topographic point for native bees to nest and place testis . You also ensure that the next coevals of bee will survive , since you could reap the cocoon and clean the nest in autumn .
The beautiful bee household in this game show is a handcrafted wooden house call the Raindrop and it ’s part of theComplete Raindrop KitfromCrown Bees , which includes the bee house , 80 natural lake layer reeds , 20 bee cocoons , and an accessories package for storing and protecting the cocoons ( a $ 125 full value ) . This is everything you want to start keep native bee ! ( And it could n’t be easy — see myoriginal post here . )
The game show will finish at 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time on Friday , May 1 , 2015 . achiever will be pull in at random and announce the following week . in effect luck !
Giveaway Rules
By the way , Crown Bees is currently run anIndiegogocampaign to raise funds for native bee education . One of their perks is a Mother ’s Day special that include a bee cabin with wooden trays and leafcutter bee , and it ’s proffer at a discounted price off retail . They will expedite shipping in metre for Mother ’s Day — a great giving to consider for your garden - love mom , aunt , friend , or even yourself !
Update : A adult thanks to everyone who entered!This game show is now closed . The victor is Anat from Arizona .
