Frequently Asked Questions

We now offer a choice of when you’d like to ship your bees. When you check out, select which week you would like them. If you don’t select a date, that is ok. We will monitor your weather in your region and ship you your bees in Spring. Sometimes we will send your bees before you reach those temperatures to make sure they arrive still in hibernation and don’t warm up on the plane or in transit.

If you don’t have any blooms “food” or daytime temps at 55+ degrees, then you can put your tube of mason be cocoons in the refrigerator to keep them in hibernation mode. Once you have BLOOMS + 55 DAYTIME TEMPS = YOU CAN RELEASE YOUR BEES (by taking the tape off the end of the tube and placing on top of your bee block).

Our warm states (Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina) typically warm up first, so we will watch your weather and start sending you your bees towards the end of February – beginning of March.

All our other states we watch your weather and will send out end of March – April.

Our last shipment is usually the last week of April because the bees metabolize their winter hibernation food and will need to emerge to eat.

IF YOU WANT TO REQUEST A SPECIFIC WEEK TO RECEIVE YOUR BEES, please email us at info@rentmasonbees.com and let us know when you would like to receive them. We send bees on Mondays/Tuesdays so they arrive by the weekend.

Nesting blocks are sent back in September once mason bees have spun their silk cocoons. Please click and read our Blog post about: When to send bees back, how to print a new shipping label, watch videos on how to send back and how we unpack and sort everything. Here is the link

In September you will mail your nesting blocks back to us and we will harvest and clean your mason bee cocoons and sterilize your nesting block. YOU KEEP THE BLACK HOUSE. Then, the following season, you order the REFILL of clean bees and clean nesting block to release back into your garden.

People love to build their own mason bee house and we get asked all the time if we just rent nesting blocks and bees. Yes we do!! We have a page dedicated to how to build nesting blocks. You can read more below.

Everyone knows what a honeybee is, but do you know what a solitary bee is? Did you know 90% of bees are SOLITARY? Solitary bees are gaining popularity with backyard gardeners because of how easy they are to care for because they don’t sting and are incredible pollinators. Solitary means each female lays all her own eggs, forages for her own food and makes a nesting chamber for each baby. They do not have a hive or make honey and they have no queen to protect, which makes them friendly and non-aggressive.

Mason bees use mud or other natural materials in building their nests, which are made in pre-existing cavities such as hollowed stems, holes made by wood-boring insects, cracks in bark and stones, or even snail shells. Scientists classify mason bees in the genus Osmia and the family Megachilidae. We work two species of mason bees: the blue orchard mason bee, Osmia lignaria, and the horn-faced mason bee, Osmia cornifrons. They fly during early spring and pollinate plants that bloom in the spring such as fruit trees, some berry bushes, and many of our  native trees and shrubs.

Our program makes it easy to become a solitary bee host. You release solitary bees into your yard and rent our nesting blocks for your bees. The success of our program is releasing solitary bees into your ecosystem to help pollinate and enrich your habitat. They do not chew wood and need to find natural holes in your yard to lay their babies. We mark your nesting block with scent to attract them back, but sometimes they’ll lay their babies in other great spots in your yard, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t have many holes plugged. It’s not about how many holes get plugged up, it’s about helping our solitary bee populations and releasing more bees.

Harvesting and cleaning the cocoons and blocks is a critical step when hosting solitary bees to remove harmful predators. When you rent from us we take care of the maintenance and cleaning for you. You keep the black house and the following year, you will just need to reorder an “insert” with a sterilized nesting block and clean bees.

It may sound confusing at first — “Rent a bee?” You are not technically renting the bees themselves. You purchase the bees to release into your yard, and rent the nesting materials. At the end of the season, you simply return the nesting blocks and we handle the harvesting, cleaning, and winter care of the cocoons.

For those who prefer a hands-on approach, you can also choose to buy and maintain your own bee supplies.

Hosting mason bees provides many wonderful benefits for your garden, your food, and your local environment:

• Increased fruit and berry production
Mason bees are incredibly efficient pollinators and can significantly improve yields from fruit trees like apples, pears, cherries, and plums, as well as berries such as raspberries and blueberries.

• Stronger native plant health
Better pollination helps native plants grow fuller and healthier, which supports biodiversity and contributes to cleaner air and improved water filtration.

• Support local food systems
When you host mason bees, many of the bees raised in backyard habitats are later used to help pollinate local farms, supporting crops that end up in grocery stores and farmers markets.

• Boost solitary bee populations
Some bees naturally disperse and establish nests in nearby habitats, helping strengthen local pollinator populations.

• Safe and educational for families
Mason bees are gentle and non-aggressive. They are an excellent way for children and students to learn about native pollinators and environmental stewardship.

• Fascinating and fun to observe
Watching mason bees build nests and pack mud to protect their developing offspring gives a rare, close-up view of one of nature’s most important pollinators.

You don’t have to worry about getting stung! Mason bees are extremely docile bees. All the females are fertile, which means there is no queen bee for the other bees to protect. They will happily go about their day visiting flowers and carrying mud to the nesting block and not be bothered or aggravated by your presence. You can easily stand in front of the bee house and watch them fly in and out without having to worry about getting stung. Recent experiments out of the USDA Bee Lab have shown that mason bee bodies do not contain any venom which is unlike honey bees or wasps. This means that even if they were to sting you (which might only happen if you were to pinch them or otherwise try to kill them) it would feel more like a mosquito bite than a sting.

Mason bees do not look like a “typical bee”. Blue orchard bees are metallic blue-green and around the same size as a honey bee. Horn-faced bees are slightly smaller, and brown with a furry, golden-orange belly. Male mason bees can be distinguished from females by their smaller size, longer antennae, and light-colored hair patch on their face. Male bees do not have stingers!

Flies, who do not have stingers, mimic bees and wasps to protect themselves from predators but can be distinguished by a few characters. Flies often have large eyes that nearly touch on the top of their head. Flies also have short antennae and only one set of wings. Bees have long, segmented antennae, two separate eyes, and two sets of wings.

Mason bees use mud to pack the holes where they lay their offspring. They go to the back of the hole in the nesting block and place a ball of pollen and nectar that we call “bee bread.” They lay their egg on top of the food source and then build a small mud wall, creating a small cell. They will repeat this process until they have reached the front of the hole, and then plug it with a ¼” of mud that they carry with their mouths. At the end of the springtime, in each hole of the nesting block there will be between 5-8 mason bee offspring behind a plug of mud. When you host mason bees in your yard, you will need to make sure that you mud hole stays wet throughout the season.

It took us 2 years to film “Life Cycle of a Mason Bee”- Please watch and enjoy seeing the inside of a mason bee block and how they spin their silk cocoons.

SPRING
In the spring, male and female bees hatch out of their cocoons. The males hatch first, and scent mark the outside of the tube so they know where to return to find the females. After mating, the males have completed their lifecycle. The females then spend the rest of April and May collecting nectar and pollen, pollinating your yard, and laying their offspring in the nesting block.

SUMMER
By June, the adult mason bees you hatched in your yard have completed their lifecycle. Behind the mud plugs are mason bee eggs, which will develop from egg, to larva, to fully formed bees in cocoons by September. We bring them into our storage facility in June and store them at 78 F to protect them from predators and ensure high survival rates.

FALL/WINTER
By September, the bees are now fully formed in cocoons. At that time, we will open the nesting blocks, clean the cocoons, sanitize the blocks, and store the bees in a walk-in cooler for the winter. This is their hibernation time, where their body systems slow and they remain dormant in cocoons until the following spring.

The following March, the bees come out of the cooler (or if the eggs were laid in nature will emerge from your backyard) and begin to fly around your yard. The next generation has now reached adulthood and will begin their lifecycle process all over again.

No, only honeybees make honey, unlike the other 600 kinds of bees that live in the Pacific Northwest. Mason bees are extremely efficient pollinators that are crucial to the health of our ecosystem. They are native to this area, so they are well-adapted to our climate. Mason bees will pollinate about 95% of all flowers that they land on, honey bees can only pollinate about 5%.

Did you know 90% of bees are Solitary!!! Solitary means that all the females are fertile and there is no queen bee. Each female finds her own nest site, gathers food for each baby and lays her own eggs in each nesting chamber. Solitary… alone… she does it all by herself.

Honeybees are social bees. Queen, hive, worker bees.

There are over 4000 different kinds of native bees in the United States, and we have at least 600 of them in Washington state. We have yet to identify all of the species of bees that exist. This list includes bumblebees, sweat bees, green bees, and carpenter bees among many others.

The lifecycle of a mason bee takes about 1 year. They begin as eggs in the spring, and develop from egg to larva to pupa to adult bee in a cocoon from June to September. Once in cocoon, they hibernate until temperatures reach around 58 degrees (typically the end of March/beginning of April). The males will fly for about 3 weeks and the females typically fly for 7-8 weeks. So even though we only see them flying around for a few months out of the year, a single mason bee lives for one year.

​Hosting mason bees is very easy. You need to provide them with three things:

1. Sources of pollen and nectar during April and May within 300 feet from their nesting block. This could be fruit trees, flower beds, a yard of dandelions or a green belt. Remember, they won’t just stop on your property line, they will travel across the street and into your neighbors’ yards for food too.

2. A nesting block in the sun. We will give you the house to host your bees in, all you need to do is find a sunny spot in your yard to hang the house. To hang, use one nail or screw on the side of your house, fence, or a post in your garden. South facing is great, and you want to ensure that they will get morning sun.

3. A mud source. We have small bags of clay available if you want to supplement your sandy soil with some clay to make it easier for the bees to work with. . Make sure you keep it wet throughout the spring.

WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR BAG OF POWDERED CLAY:

1. Dig a small hole (about a foot deep) somewhere in your yard. It does not need to be right next to where you hung your bee house. The bees will travel 300 feet in any direction from the box searching for pollen and mud.
2. Get the hole wet.
3. Get the clay wet. This can be in your hands or in a bowl. This part is a bit messy as the clay gets very sticky when its wet.
4. Line one side of the hole with the sticky clay about .5″ to 1″ thick. The clay does not need to go all the way around the hole. Mold it as if your a molding a clay bowl. The bees will go into the side of the hole to find mouthfuls of muddy clay.
5. Keep the hole wet throughout May. As temperatures dry out, fill the hole periodically with water when you go out to water your garden. This will keep the clay moist and enable the bees to use it to fill their nesting blocks to protect their developing offspring.

DIDN’T PICK UP A BAG OF CLAY? THAT’S OK.

Dig a hole somewhere in your yard and keep the hole muddy through the season. If at the end of the season only a few holes are filled, consider buying a bag of clay next year to supplement your soil. The bees will thank you!

About a football field in any direction (300 feet or 100 yards) from where you hang the box. That means that when you hang the kit, it doesn’t necessary need to be right next to your apple trees or your mud hole. The bees will seek out foraging resources so it is most important to hang the box in a sunny spot.

When you pick up your kit, we will give you a PVC pipe with two caps on each end. That is where your mason bees start out in while they are still in cocoon. When you get home and mount your kit, take off the tape that is on one of the caps. The mason bees will chew their way out of the cocoons and fly out of the drilled hole. Once the males have hatched, they will begin to scent mark the outside of the tube to know where to come back to find the females. You can leave the tube in the house for the entire season and bring it back to us when you return your bees. If it falls out later in the season, that is OK, the bees will have already emerged and what is left are empty shells. If it does not want to stay put in your house, use some crumpled newspaper around it to wedge it in place.

Those are scent marks left by the emerging male bees. Male mason bees will hatch a few days to a few weeks earlier than the female mason bees. As soon as they hatch, they will scent mark their surroundings with a pheromone marker so that they will know where to return to find the females. You will periodically see them reenter the white tube looking for hatched females.

Absolutely! Of the over 600 different kinds of bees that live in Washington state, each bee depending on size, shape, behavior, and emergence times fall into their own ecological niche. This allows different kinds of bees to forage on different resources and nest in different places so that they can co-habitat in the same places. That means you can host mason bees in your yard and not have to worry about them taking resources away from other bees or vice versa. When planning your garden, it is a good idea to plant a diverse combination of plants to support different kinds of native bees. for ideas on how to select plants for pollinators.

For both mason bees and leafcutter bees, it is important that you hang the bee house in the sunniest spot in your yard. South-facing is ideal as you want to ensure the bees get morning sun and as much sun throughout the day. The bees will travel about a football field (300 feet) in any direction from where you hang the house, so they do not necessarily need to hung directly next to your garden or fruit trees. The houses come with a metal hook on the back so all you need is one nail or screw to hang your house. It will have a slight natural angle down to ensure that rain will not accumulate at the back of the house as it is essential that the nesting block stays dry.

Do not move the house once your bees have begun to emerge. Once the male mason bees have begun to hatch, they will scent mark the outside of the white tube and the nesting block. It is important that you do not move the house because they will be disoriented and not be able to find their way back to the female mason bees. Each year hosting mason bees is an experiment to find the best location for the house so take note of where you hung the house and make adjustments the following year.

Yes! Mason bees are solitary bees which means they do not have a queen to protect so they have no reason to sting you. Kids love watching these bees work in the nesting block and mason bees are a great teaching tool to for children to learn about the importance of pollinators and their role in our agricultural system.

When you return your mason bee kit to us, you are bringing us back the next generation of mason bees. Behind each mud plug, there is anywhere from 5-10 developing mason bees. In June, they are eggs on top of a pollen/nectar food source. They will then go from egg, to larva, to pupa, to an adult bee in a cocoon by September. The bees that you raised in your yard will then be cleaned and overwintered, and then end up either in someone else’s backyard next year, or on one of the farms we work with to pollinate fruit that will end up in our grocery stores. The bees that you hatched out will have completed their lifecycle by June, laying some of their eggs in the nesting block, and some in your backyard to repopulate the local mason bee population in your neighborhood.

It may sound confusing at first — “Rent a bee?” You are not technically renting the bees themselves. You purchase the bees to release into your yard, and rent the nesting materials. At the end of the season, you simply return the nesting blocks and we handle the harvesting, cleaning, and winter care of the cocoons.

For those who prefer a hands-on approach, you can also choose to buy and maintain your own bee supplies.

Hosting mason bees provides many wonderful benefits for your garden, your food, and your local environment:

• Increased fruit and berry production
Mason bees are incredibly efficient pollinators and can significantly improve yields from fruit trees like apples, pears, cherries, and plums, as well as berries such as raspberries and blueberries.

• Stronger native plant health
Better pollination helps native plants grow fuller and healthier, which supports biodiversity and contributes to cleaner air and improved water filtration.

• Support local food systems
When you host mason bees, many of the bees raised in backyard habitats are later used to help pollinate local farms, supporting crops that end up in grocery stores and farmers markets.

• Boost native bee populations
Some bees naturally disperse and establish nests in nearby habitats, helping strengthen local native pollinator populations.

• Safe and educational for families
Mason bees are gentle and non-aggressive. They are an excellent way for children and students to learn about native pollinators and environmental stewardship.

• Fascinating and fun to observe
Watching mason bees build nests and pack mud to protect their developing offspring gives a rare, close-up view of one of nature’s most important pollinators.

Yes. You can buy tubes of mason bee cocoons that have already been harvested and cleaned. If you choose to BUY to own, you will be responsible for harvesting and cleaning them in the fall. If you rent through our rental program you can return the nesting blocks in the fall and we will remove all the predators and safely store them over winter.

The rental program at Rent Mason Bees is designed to make supporting pollinators simple and successful while ensuring the bees remain healthy year after year.

1. Receive Your Bees in Early Spring
You receive healthy mason bee cocoons along with nesting materials and easy setup instructions. When temperatures warm and flowers begin to bloom, the bees naturally emerge and begin pollinating your yard, garden, or fruit trees.

2. Enjoy Spring Pollination
Mason bees actively pollinate during early spring, visiting thousands of flowers each day. During this time, female bees lay eggs inside the nesting materials you provide, creating the next generation of bees.

3. Return Nesting Materials Back in September 
Once your mason bees have spun their silk cocoons, they are safe to ship back to us in September. You simply send the nesting materials back to us using the provided pre-paid shipping label. No cleaning or maintenance is required.

5. Order a Refill the following Season with a Clean Block and Clean Cocoons

By managing these critical care steps, we help maintain strong, healthy pollinator populations and prepare bees for successful spring releases the following year.

The rental program allows you to support native pollinators, improve garden and fruit production, and contribute to healthier ecosystems without the time commitment of year-round bee care.

Yes!

This is why you must use proper nesting material, like stacking trays or cardboard tubes that can be opened and cleaned and avoid bamboo and drilled logs with holes. Millions of bee hotels are purchased every year, but not many people realize they require annual maintenance. The lack of proper care can unintentionally harm bee health. Failing to address this issue may result in infested bee hotels, endangering mason bee populations.

UC Davis entomologist Abigail Lehner, from the Williams Bee Lab, has observed an increase in invasive parasites through her studies. She emphasizes, “Houdini flies and pollen mites are prevalent parasites we encounter in mason bee hotels. The only way to reduce the risk is to perform an annual cleaning and sterilization of the cocoons and place new nesting material out every Spring.” Lehner stresses that, “The traditional method of using logs with holes drilled in them for nesting material is no longer suitable, and a change is necessary to properly care for mason bees.”

STEPS FOR PROPER CARE:
PROVIDE CLEAN NESTING MATERIAL EVERY SPRING: Pollen mites, chalkbrood and Houdini flies stay in nesting chambers and pose a threat to new generations.

USE NESTING MATERIAL THAT CAN BE EASILY OPENED: Avoid materials like bamboo or drilled logs, which encourage predator infestations. Instead, use stacking trays or cardboard tubes that can be unraveled. Watch this video to learn how to transition from harmful nesting material to healthy 

BEE HOTELS DO NOT STAY OUT YEAR-ROUND: Mason bees have a short lifespan of 6-8 weeks, requiring the removal of nesting material at the end of spring to prevent summer predator infiltration. Learn how to store mason bees over summer. 

CLEAN MASON BEES TO REMOVE PREDATORS: Remove cocoons in the fall, clean to remove predators and store over winter. Watch how 

Please read our blog post

We know it can be very disappointing when your mason bees don’t fill many holes, but we want to reassure you that you’ve still impacted solitary bee populations and helped your habitat. The success of our program starts as soon as you release solitary bees back out into the environment. Since solitary bees are such incredible pollinators, when you released them into your yard you helped create a healthier ecosystem by strengthening your trees and flowers that will provide cleaner air, stabilize soils and support other wildlife. You’ve also helped grow the local population of solitary bees, which are commonly eliminated or reduced from urban areas as they are being developed.

If you are seeing brown markings on the white tube, that means that the male mason bees have hatched. Sometimes it can take up to 2 weeks after the males hatch for the females to hatch. They then need to mate before the female bees will start to use the nesting block to lay their eggs.

It could be that you do not have adequate mud for the females to use and they left in search of a better mud source. If your soil too sandy or does not remain wet throughout the spring this may be the case. We offer bags of clay to supplement your sandy soil which can sometimes greatly increase your success with hosting bees. You will also want to make sure that the house in hung in full sun, as sometimes the bees will look elsewhere for warmer nesting sites, such as the shingles of your house or in a rockery (don’t worry they don’t do any damage to your property, they only find preexisting holes).

If the mason bees have chosen to not use the nesting block, that is OK as they have found places to lay their eggs in your yard, which will boost the local population of these native bees.

To protect the health and survival of the bees, it is very important that nesting materials are returned in September. When you participate in our rental program, you are agreeing to return the nesting materials within the designated return window so we can properly care for the developing bees.

If nesting materials are not returned within the 30-day return window, you will be charged a late fee. We truly hope to avoid this. Our primary goal is to protect bee health and maintain strong pollinator populations, and timely returns are essential to making that possible.

We appreciate your partnership in helping support healthy bees and successful pollination programs.

First of all… THANK YOU FOR MAKING A CHANGE to protect future generations of solitary bees. We recently did a video teaching you how you can safely release your bees from harmful nests and transition them to healthy nests.

Please watch this step-by-step guide: