Jim Watts is the owner of Rent Mason Bees and Watts Solitary Bees. He is a founding member of the Orchard Bee Association, a non-profit which is focused on research and growth of the orchard bee pollination industry and protection of orchard bees. Jim grew up around bees working with his dad in the family bee business. His passion led him to start his own business operating now for over 25 years. His expertise includes commercial pollination with solitary bees, propagating native bees and helping local gardeners with their pollination needs.

Craig Watts is located in Portland, Oregon. He has been working with solitary bees for the past twelve years. His focus has been on the propagation of leafcutter and mason bees, and the development of products for the bee industry.

Olivia Shangrow is the biologist and operations and marketing manager for Rent Mason Bees. She completed her bachelor of science degree in biology from the University of Washington. She’s passionate about teaching the public about wild bees and her research focuses on increasing the value of rural and urban habitats for native insects.

Morgan Dunn is our Bee Biologist & Operations Manager for Rent Mason Bees. She completed her Master of Science degree in Biology at Utah State University and her Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife & Conservation Science from North Carolina State University. For her master’s thesis, Morgan studied variation in behavior and phenology (the study of plant and animal life cycle events) of blue orchard bee populations in the western United States and was on the investigative team studying blue orchard bee populations being used for commercial pollination. We are excited to have Morgan on our Rent Mason Bee team to help our mission to promote the health on conservation of mason bees. She is passionate about teaching the public about wild bees, food production, and all things ecology!

Hope Watts grew-up in the bee business helping her grandpa and her father with leafcutter bees in Watts Bees Company. She learned the importance of how to care for bees and their environment. Hope has been an educator and teacher for nearly a decade and wanted to blend her education and bee background to teach youth the importance of pollination and bees. Hope created our educational materials and downloadable packets for parents and teachers so that kids could become backyard scientists.

Thyra McKelvie started out as a mason bee host and quickly discovered why so many people love solitary bees. She enjoys teaching her young children about pollinators and getting them involved in hosting mason and leafcutter bees. Her passion to educate and teach more people about solitary bees has inspired her to write articles about safe gardening practices, create fun educational posts and blogs and help people learn more about these gentle pollinators.