I was out last night watching the mason bees exiting their cocoons and wondered about a mud supply. How many people supply mud for their mason bees? Do you just fill a bucket with mud making dirt and add some water when it dries? Mason bees are so interesting. I have taken a few tubes and opened them and took out the cocoons. Then I watch them as the bees come out. Some I have helped along. I just hope I can convince them to stay home and not go off looking for the neighbor's flowers.
I just select an out of the way location near the nesting sites and dig a hole about a foot deep. Then I fill it with water and walk away. The water drains away leaving the hole and a large selection of moist layers of soil to select from. The bees find their favorite spot in the hole where the soil's consistency is to their liking. Then they dig a tunnel laterally as they "mine" the desirable layer of soil.
Adding water is actually usually not necessary where I live, as the soils are usually quite wet in April.
I keep my mason bee blocks inside a chicken wire enclosure (my old brooder house) since I detected birds preying on the bees as they returned to the blocks. Under the eave of the brooder house I keep a shallow water heater pan with a pile of dirt. The runoff from the roof falls into the pan to maintain a steady supply of mud and water for the bees. A friend of mine has several buckets with water in his yard but the bees fall in and can't get out again. The shallow pan with the pile of dirt allows the bees to climb back up to dry off if they fall in.
Idyllwild
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