WeeBeeHouse and tips to attract native solitary bees
Solitary bees have a friend in Joe and his WeeBeeHouse designs
Don’t get Joe Prytula talking about bees, particularly those solitary ones. They’ve literally changed his life and there is nothing he wants to talk about more than his bees, unless of course, it’s his WeeBeeHouse designs.
What makes his bee houses so special?
WeeBeeHouse designs serve as breeding space and sanctuaries for solitary orchard mason bees and leafcutter bees. The high quality, well-made wooden homes are built specifically with the bees’ well being in mind. Unlike most commercial products, these homes can be easily taken apart to be cleaned out and prepared for more bees year after year. There are even cleaning tools and detailed instructions supplied with the house to ensure success.
In fact, it took only about a week before bees found my WeeBeeHouse in our garden and began using filling it with offspring.
Afterall, these artisan, solitary bee houses that have taken up so much of his time since he retired in 2014 after 34 years as a tool and die maker at a Hamilton Ontario area manufacturing facility.
He’s the first to admit “it’s been a labour of love” toiling away in his home workshop, where he’s built hundreds of the custom bee houses for gardeners and nature lovers interested in saving the native bees that prefer to live alone rather than the massive hives associated with honey bees.
Joe Prytula looks over one of his WeeBeeHouse designs in his workshop.
“Most native bees are cavity nesting, looking for existing holes in trees or deteriorating stems of ground plants,” Joe explains.
WeeBeeHouse with cleaning tools that are provided with the purchase of a bee house along with extensive instructions.
“Mason and Leaf cutter bees were original pollinators in North America before honeybees were brought over from Europe,” he explains. “These bees collect pollen only and are three times more efficient at pollinating than honeybees. Their method of pollination results in greater yield per acre. As well some plants can only be pollinated by native bees, tomatoes by bumblebees and apples by mason bees,” says Joe.
The mason bees focus their prolific pollinating skills primarily on fruit and nut trees as well as vegetables in the spring. Leafcutter bees pollinate many of our summer garden vegetables, says Joe.
An exploded view of the WeeBeeHouse showing the bee tunnels where the eggs are planted by the bees as well as the chamber where the beekeeper stores the bee pupae in winter before they fly off.
Woodland gardeners may have noticed perfect circles cut out of the leaves of, say, their native Redbud trees. The culprits would be our leafcutter bees who use the leaf pieces to seal off their nesting cavity.
Joe’s bee houses are designed to serve as breeding space and sanctuaries for solitary orchard mason bees and leafcutter bees. The good news is that these native bees are non-stinging, so they are perfect for gardens with children and pets.
These solitary bees do not make honey and you don’t need the protective gear used to handle traditional honey bees, because these bee species don’t sting. They are simply driven by their need for pollen and nectar to support reproduction through the laying of eggs.
Joe’s Mason and Leafcutter Bee Care Sheets
The public is not only aware but also incredibly concerned over the decimation of our bee populations. We have all heard about neonicotinoids and the damage they are causing to our environment. Whether nicotinoids such as; imidacloprid (the most widely used insecticide in the world) are the problem or not, the fewer insecticides being used, the better. These gentle bees are amazing pollinators for spring fruit, nut trees, berries and blooming plants. These bees do not produce honey
What are Orchard Mason Bees?
The Orchard Mason Bee is the common name of a native bee (Osmia lignaria ssp.) that pollinates our spring fruit and nut trees, flowers and vegetables. It’s estimated a single mason bee may visit approximately 2,000 blossoms a day. The mason bee’s name comes from using mud to seal the egg chambers within a nesting hole. A female mason bee will collect a pollen ball (as a food source for the larva), lay an egg and seal the chamber with mud, usually laying six eggs to a chamber. They are the first bee to hatch in the season usually in late March to early April.
These bees wake to the warmth of the early morning sun, and will pollinate until day’s end. This bee is non-social which means it does not live in a hive. In the wild, mason bees nest in hollow stems, woodpecker drillings and insect holes found in trees or wood. You will find mason bees active in your yard until early summer at which time they have laid a new bee for the following season.
Mason bees are known as gentle bees and can be observed at close range. They rarely sting (the males have no stinger) and when they do it is similar to a mosquito bite.
What do they pollinate?
These bees are perfect for spring fruit and nut trees, blueberries, and virtually all flowers in your yard needing pollination.
What are Leafcutter Bees?
Complete instructions and cleaning tools are included with all of Joe’s Weebeehouses.
The leafcutter bees are a useful friend to gardeners as they provide valuable and efficient pollination for plants such as your summer vegetable gardens.
The leafcutter bee is a smaller bee than the mason bee but just as gentle and as hard working.
They tend to hatch out of their cocoons in mid to late July, being cued to do so by heat and daylight hours.
The leafcutter bee is a cavity dwelling bee, so she lays her eggs in existing holes. She does not create holes or damage structures to make holes.
Leafcutter bees stay close to home, foraging for pollen and nectar within 100m of the nest. Like mason bees, these bees are cavity nesting and need ready-made nests such as soft rotting wood, pithy plants stems like roses or man-made tubes.
Once a suitable home is found, the leafcutter bee will build its nest using a piece of leaf for lining, which they will use to make a cylindrical cavity that looks like a cigar. Leafcutter bees will cause crescent or almost circular shaped hole in a leaf. This damage does not harm the plant. Like mason bees, these bees are gentle and observed without the fear of being stung.
Native bee life cycle
The life cycle of native bees begins with the male and female emerging from their nests and mating. Soon after, the male dies and the female is left to find a suitable nest. She gets busy collecting pollen and nectar to make a specialized “bee bread” that will be eventually used to feed her young. The female deposits one egg on the bee bread, seals the chamber and repeats the process until she runs out of eggs. After laying the eggs, she dies. Her offspring will remain in the nest for about eleven months, where they pass through the egg, larva and pupa stages before emerging as adults.
A Redbud leaf with parts of it cut out by a solitary leafcutter bee.
“These bees collect pollen only and are three times more efficient at pollinating than honeybees. Their method of pollination results in greater yield per acre.”
How to attract native bees
• Grow a variety of pollinator-friendly native wildflowers throughout spring, summer and fall to provide plenty of nectar and pollen the bees need to feed their young.
• Ensure access to nesting materials such as moist soil for mason bees and leafy plants such as Redbud trees, roses and lilacs for leafcutter bees.
• Do not remove dead flower or woody stems that the bees use for hibernation and egg laying.
• Install a WeeBeeHouse
It should come as no surprise that the honeybee population in North America is being decimated from chemicals, making the protection of native bees important to ensure pollination continues. The vast percentage of food we eat, explains Joe, depends on pollination directly or indirectly.
In fact, Joe explains, pollination is essential for humans to exist. “If we lose bees, we’ll die.”
Joe hasn’t always been the bee house guy.
He and his wife, Linda, own an 1875 Italianate style home in the historic section of Thorold (near St. Catharines and not far from Niagara Falls) surrounded by many Century Homes. He honed his outstanding woodworking skills through their loving restoration of the home.
It just so happens that the couple also share a love for gardening and the introduction to native bees has changed their way of thinking when it comes to planning their gardens.
However, the path from fine woodworking skills to WeeBeeHouses wasn’t a direct one. He actually started by trying to save our feathered friends, namely bluebirds and wrens.
The decision to use his woodworking skills to create products for gardeners and bird lovers came as a result of a failed business relationship with a local garden supply business in 2014 to build and supply Wren and Bluebird houses as well as Bluebird feeders.
The volume proved too low to make the project profitable, however, the building of nesting habitat for native bees showed promise.
“I was given parameters to design around and came up with two designs,” he explains. “To my surprise orders took off with about 225 units sold between January and April, 2015. The second season saw a similar amount sold,” he says.
But it was around this time that he began feeling too much pressure to supply under tight timelines, explains Joe. Afterall, he was officially retired and wasn’t looking for a full-time job. Asking for more lead time proved fruitless so he was left with the decision to end that relationship. Before long, he was on his own and working local craft shows.
And WeeBeeHouses was born.
He currently offers four different designs. He likes to make them in batches of 40. Many of the parts are interchangeable fixtures to make the various components of the houses, which helps him construct them more efficiently. He estimates 40 WeeBeeHouses requires him to work four to five hours a day for about two weeks.
Perfect for a retired guy to give he and his wife some alone time to pursue their other loves.
The pandemic has pretty well killed sales, says Joe, who relied heavily on selling at outdoor events and events aimed at eco-friendly consumers.
He ships the units through Canada Post pretty much anywhere in the world people want them. He has shipped several units more recently to the United States where the threat to native bees has become an important issue confronting agricultural activities.
So what makes his houses so special?
Commercially available units usually have reeds or cardboard tubes which should be replaced after each season, he explains. “This information is not shared with the buyer, nor are replacement tubes available to purchase,” says Joe. The result can mean death for the young bees in the chambers.
“The lack of maintenance information (from commercial units) is another concern” says Joe. These bees are being asked to live in an environment that is similar to living in an apartment building. In the wild they are scattered and rarely use the same nesting cavity,”
Although the solitary bees have predators, they are able to survive quite well on their own. However, in a bee house that uses tubes or reeds, pollen mites brought back to the nesting site will thrive in this type of environment, explains Joe.
“They will feed on the pollen left for the eggs. Eventually the nesting site will become a Death Chamber,” he says.
After much research, Joe began to use stackable nesting trays which can be easily cleaned each season to ensure an ongoing healthy environment for his bees.
He is also careful to provide detailed instruction procedure sheets for harvesting and cleaning his bee houses.
Joe is always tweaking his designs to perfect his houses both for the bees and to improve construction of the impressive houses.
In fact he is just completing a prototype that will be tested this season. So far, the new style is only on paper right now. The nesting cavity diameters will range in size from 1/8"-3/8" and the goal is to attract a more diverse population of other cavity nesting pollinators.
The four styles he currently offers are : Observation Style, Barn, Villa, Starter.
If you are interested in purchasing one of Joe’s WeebeeHouses, you can either contact him through his instagram account @weebeehouse or by email at [email protected] Be sure to use the code Fernsfeathers10 to receive a 10 per cent discount.
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