Partners 101

Click links below to see what Hunter’s Mason Bees Does for you if you are …

• New partner without mason bees
• Existing partner
• New partner with your own mason bee

Your role

• Meet with HMB to receive bees and tubes in a tote bag. Central meeting sites and prompt arrival are essential. If you have scheduling issues, contact us to find a nearby partner to receive the tote bag for you. See Schedule.

Carefully place your nesting house. Securely locate it on the south side of a structure where sun can reach it, under an overhang and at least 5 feet above the ground. Bees warm up on walls on sunny mornings. If this isn't possible, please contact us for a solution.How to Attach the Nesting House Place paper tubes in nesting house. Paper tubes are positioned horizontally with holes facing out. Mason bees need help finding their holes! Put twigs, pipe cleaners or other markers between the tubes to provide a better 3-D image. Bee creative! Please watch for predators. Birds looking for food may pull at tubes. If this happens, put chicken wire over the entrance to halt this. Mason bees will fly through the gaps.

• Ask questions! Our weekly email and FAQ page will quide you.
• Monitor progress. If the bees are too active and you get low on empty paper tubes, contact us. We’ll get you more tubes.
• Meet with HMB in June to send back full and empty tubes in the tote bag. If you have scheduling issues, contact us to find a nearby partner to deliver the tote bag for you. See Schedulepage.
  

HMB roles for new partners without mason bees:

• We assess your yard size and the types of April and May blooming flower and fruit trees in your yard. In March, an appropriate number of mason bee cocoons, nesting house and paper tubes are given to you at a central meeting site.See Schedule.
  

 

HMB roles for existing partners:

• We provide mason bee cocoons and paper tubes in March so the bees can reproduce in your yard between April and May.
• We retrieve paper tubes with mason bees larva/eggs in early June so they can be professionally managed away from your yard.
• We responsibly eradicate pests, analyze each partner's results and store cocoons in a refrigerated environment from June to March.
• We return an adjusted number of mason bees each March to partner based on the previous year's results.
  

 

HMB roles for new partners who have mason bees:

• We discuss the status of your existing mason bees and provide an appropriate number of paper tubes and a nesting house in March.
• We teach you how to enclose old blocks in a sack or cardboard box so the mason bees easily transfer into the new mason bee nesting house (seeShifting Bees)
• We welcome you back the following year as an existing partner
• And we understand if partners must opt out of Hunter's Mason Bees. An approximate number of cocoons are supplied to you the following year, based on the original estimate. Arrangements are made to return nesting house and paper tubes to Hunter’s.