Hi John,

I prefer to use teasel stems, which is what you see in the photos. Teasel is an introduced plant which grows all over this area. I also use bamboo if I run out of teasel.

If you like to clean your cocoons, teasel is a lot easier to open vs. bamboo. I just drive a wood chisel through the joint lengthwise, give it a twist, and it usually splits the entire length. The same method works for bamboo, but it requires a lot more force to split, and when it finally goes you sometimes send your cocoons flying.

I was watching the bees this evening, there was lot of activity, probably 40+ bees coming and going, and one couple was even mating. The male is much smaller than the female.

They have filled about half the tubes in the two pots just in the last 3 days. So I cut some more bamboo last night. I also bought some tubes to see how they like those. I don't need that many bees, but since I seem to have lots here I figure I might as well share them. I sent about 300 tubes to the guy at Crown Bees last winter.

I need to figure out a better way to bundle them though. The joint at the back of the tube is wider than the rest of the tube, so when you bundle them together it makes a sort of cone shape instead of a cylinder. It is really hard to keep a cone tied together. Last night I tried tying some strings across the bottom of the "cone" to pull the "bands" down, which worked OK. I think I need to make some kind of box which is sort of a cone shape.

I mentioned that I had bought some cardboard tubes (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mason-Bee-Nest- ... 0921219110). I will definitely never use those again, for the following reasons:

1. They are very difficult to open.
2. 99% of the bees had been killed by parasitic wasps (monodontomerus). The wasps had no trouble at all piercing the cardboard.

I don't think I have lost any bees to mono wasps when using teasel stems.

I guess the mono wasps become active around June 1, and you are supposed to protect your tubes from them by putting them in a fine mesh cloth bag or something. I have a few of the cardboard tubes left, I'll definitely do that this year.