Mason bees are native, so our normal weather changes around here are part of their normal lives. Honey bees get hit pretty hard, along with pesticides, varroa mites, etc,. That's why Glen Andresen was working on that project about honey bees that are adapted to the PNW. Has anyone heard anything about that project?
John S
PDX OR
Over a week ago I had watched Portland news on a reported die-out of a bee hive project for children during the first ice storm in the mid December period. I am not sure if it was Glen's or what the cause of death were. In all probability I might say they suffocated from being covered with ice. Honey bees are vulnerable in the sense they don't hibernate and need to breathe.
My mason bees are emerging from their cocoons this week. This was the first year I have taken the cocoons out of the bee blocks, I had always left them to emerge on their own and just added blocks for new cells. I put the cocoons into a tin cookie can and drilled a hole for the bees to escape through when they were ready. I noticed what looked like light brown mud on the face of the can and couldn't figure why or where it came from. Today I was working on cleaning out cocoons from one last block in the warm garage. The bees were already emerging. When I opened it up, there were bees in each layer coming to life. I observed some of the bees excreting light brown excrement as they came to life and started moving around. Solved the mystery of the source of the brown mud.
It seems to me that they should tend to work together with temps. Bees emerge and trees flower based on the same conditions. They would probably adjust together earlier or later. Kind of like the old sayings like, plant this seed when the ____ leaf is the size of a mouse ear, rather than a calendar date.
John S
PDX OR
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