Tag Archives: Mason Bee Condo

Sustainable System Series

Posted on by
west-coast-cloose

Nature is the great sustainable system. Humans have always altered nature to supply our own needs. How will the human family learn to live in balance? This question will be answered by the myriad of choices facing today’s generation.

“A community economy is not an economy in which well-placed persons can make a ?killing?. It is an economy whose aim is generosity and a well-distributed and safeguarded abundance.”
Wendell Berry’s 17 Rules For A Sustainable Economy

What is a sustainable system? Over the next few months I will try to answer that question for myself. I have dreaded writing this series because of very obvious pitfalls.

First, I want to make a statement about where I’m coming from. I started to study botany and ecology at university but I did not have the hardiness to become an academic. Nor did I want to transform my love of nature into what I saw as “pea counting”.

Nevertheless, I am a lifelong, autodidactic learner with a deep interest in these topics. I am also a reformed environmentalist. These days I have more in common with hunters, fishermen, wildcrafters, ranchers, farmers and gardeners than conservationists.

I do not see myself as a steward of the environment.?The human family does not possess this world no matter what some of us might think. The world possesses us. I will try to avoid the human condition of hubris.

I will focus on simple systems that the household can implement. I am not interested in grand plans or movements that want to force people, through government regulations and laws, into changing their practices. If an idea is?good, it will take root without force.

Actually, grand plans scare the living daylights out of me. If you wonder why I deeply fear grand plans, please read Ecofascism: Lessons from the German Experience. It is a cautionary tale. Governments have a monopoly on the use of force. If the environmental need is perceived as the highest good and the only value then, backed by the forces of government, even genocide is acceptable.

hand-split-steps

Appropriate technology and appropriate materials change with our environment. Here are some hand-split cedar steps. On the west coast, wood and water is never in short supply.

Nature is a beautiful example of a sustainable system. Everything lives, dies and is recycled in its time. It’s a messy, complicated process. Can the human family find a way to make peace with this system and live within its sacred balance? Or are we predestined to rise and fall and be recycled like everything else?

Back in December 2011, I wrote Dreaming in the New Year: “Maybe we need to learn how to tame our technology and harness our brilliance. All the answers are out there, we just have to apply them.” Tame our technology. Harness our brilliance. These words have haunted my nights and filled my dreams. What a simple idea with such complicated, possible outcomes. Here are just some of my experiments as I try to answer the question: “What is a sustainable system?”

Sustainable System: Gravity Water System
Sustainable System: Mason Bee Condo
Sustainable System: Solar Electric Fences
Sustainable System: Rocket Stoves

I would like to end this post with a TED Talk by Allen Savory called How to Green the Desert and Reverse Climate Change. Allen Savory talks about his own personal journey of discovery that has made him question current wisdom about climate change and solutions. Shaen has tried using Allen Savory’s methods here in Kamloops. If you would like more information please see Brittle Grassland Pasture Update: Photo Essay.

“To be truly radical is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing.?
Raymond Williams

Sustainable System: Mason Bee Condo

Posted on by
mason-bee-condo

I have attached the Mason Bee Condo onto a planter in my front garden. It is facing southeast. There are numerous fruit trees in the area. Note the different colored chambers.

Honey bee populations all over North America, Europe and parts of Asia are in decline due to colony collapse. Many of our cultivated food plants require the pollination services of bees and other insects. Without pollination there will be no fruit.

apple-tree-bees

It is hard to see in this picture but this plum tree is swarming with hundreds of bees of different sizes. It's wonderful to lay under the fruit trees at this time of year and hear the buzz of so many busy pollinators. Take time to watch the dance of life.

One solution to this problem is Mason Bees (Osmia lignaria). Mason Bees are a native species that has been in decline due to destruction of their habitat. With a little help from us they could become a major spring pollinator in our gardens. Building a Mason Bee Condo will help these bees have a place to nest.

Mason Bees hatch out around the time plum or early apple trees come into bloom. The males emerge first and a few days later the females. Males do not pollinate but mate and die. The females find a suitable nesting site.

Mason bees naturally nest in insect holes or hollow reeds but we can help them out by setting up a condo. The female proceeds to collect nectar and pollen which she brings back to the nest. Then she lays one egg and builds a wall of clay. The nectar and pollen will feed the growing larvae. She will repeat this process about thirty times during a five to six week period.

We can help out the female by placing a small bowl of damp clay near the condo. The bee will use this clay for her masonry work. The female can control the sex of her eggs and only lays male eggs at the end of the chamber so they will emerge first.

Mason Bees like to live together but do not want to share chambers with other bees. Coloring the ends of the chambers different colors helps the female find her nest. A female will fill about two chambers during her laying period. You do not have to buy Mason Bees for your condo. If you build a condo, your local bees will happily move in!

If you would like more information about attracting Mason Bees to your garden please see Blue Orchard Bees. There are plans for making your own condo and numerous videos on how you can care for your bees and condo. If you would like to get more involved with your bee’s life cycle there is a video on how to clean mites out of your bee cocoons using sand.

mason-bee-move-in

This picture was taken on July 28, 2012. I had just returned from a short holiday. I was pleased to see some bees had moved-in while I was away! Note the clay plugs in fourteen of the holes.