Mason Bee Drill Block

[The15thMember]

I drilled some holes of varying sizes in a funky piece of wood that my dad had laying around from chopping wood, with the hopes that mason bees would nest in them, and it's been a rousing success!  The mud capped nests are from long-horned masons (Osmia cornifrons) who were active earlier in the season.  Right now the Georgia masons (Osmia georgica) are out; they make a paste from chewed up leaves to partition and cap their holes.  The other morning when it was a little too chilly for them to be flying, I saw 6 bees peeking out at me.  There are also a bunch of little solitary wasps who are living in the holes.  They haven't capped any yet, and they've been flying longer than the Georgia masons have, so I'm not sure if they just don't fill the tubes all the way or if they aren't actually nesting in the holes.  I haven't been able to ID the wasps yet.   

[Bakersdozen]

That's very cool, 15th!  Do you remember what size hole you drilled and how deep?

[The15thMember]

That's very cool, 15th!  Do you remember what size hole you drilled and how deep?

I started with the 5/16 bit that is recommended for orchard masons and worked my way down in my drill bit set, a tip I got from Honey Bee Suite.  I'm not sure what my exact bit sizes are, but the Georgia masons are using the 3 largest diameter holes indiscriminately.  The long-horned masons only liked the largest 2 sizes.  This piece of wood is cone-shaped, I'm drilling into the flat "bottom" of the cone, so the holes closer to the center are deeper.  I just made sure that none of the holes were shallower than 4 inches, because the mason females always put the male brood in the front of the nest (since they are more expendable), and if the holes are too shallow, the nests will contain only males.  I did drill through the back of the wood accidentally a couple of times, and the masons don't like those holes, but the wasps don't seem to mind them (another reason why I'm skeptical the wasps are actually nesting).

Here's the link to Rusty's article about nesting blocks.  https://www.honeybeesuite.com/how-to-make-an-awesome-nesting-block/