5 replies to this topic

[FinWins]

I’m interested in keeping mason bees however I want to keep them indoors, is this possible. My plan is to connect small nest tubes to an “outworld” where I would supply them with pollen, sugar water, and clay, I would also heat their setup.
Could this work?

[ANTdrew]

I don’t recommend it. For one thing, mason bees are only active a few weeks a year provisioning their nests. It would be difficult to provide the amount of fresh pollen they’d need, plus it seems kind of cruel to me. Populations of native bees are struggling worldwide. If you appreciate native bees, making a native plant pollinator garden would be a much better course of action.

[futurebird]

I think they need diapause just like ants? 

[ANTdrew]

I think they need diapause just like ants?

Yes, larvae need to overwinter in their nest cells before emerging the following spring.

[FinWins]

I don’t recommend it. For one thing, mason bees are only active a few weeks a year provisioning their nests. It would be difficult to provide the amount of fresh pollen they’d need, plus it seems kind of cruel to me. Populations of native bees are struggling worldwide. If you appreciate native bees, making a native plant pollinator garden would be a much better course of action.

Would pollen from honey bees work, they sell it on amazon. The reason I can’t keep them outdoors is because:
1. Where I live it gets really hot, like 100+ degrees sometimes in summer.
2. There aren’t a lot of flowering plants around and I don’t want to send lots of time/money to build a garden box. Also planting in ground is not an option because the ground has absolutely NO moisture, it is literally as hard as a rock.

[ANTdrew]

Bee diversity is usually highest in the hottest, driest areas. I guarantee you there are native plants that will have no problem with your native soil. You may not get mason bees, but you’ll see hundreds of other cool bees, wasps, and maybe even hummingbirds. If you plant it, they will come.