Orchard Mason Bee House-Cartridge Style

If mason bee keeping is more than a pleasant hobby for you, you should consider using the cartridge mason bee house rather than the cardboard tube approach.  It is a little more work, but the benefits are significant.  It provides best flexibility in cleaning and reuse from year to year, provides best thermal protection for the bees, its spacing is said to help bees find their individual nests, and it supports the open cocoon method of mason bee breeding.  See our orchardbees.com website for a more detailed discussion of the cartridge method of keeping mason bees.  The list of benefits of cartridge mason bee houses is extensive. 

 

The house itself affords maximum protection for your bees. Its cedar roof has eaves with long overhangs on front and sides to reduce rain splash.  The main body of the house is made of ponderosa pine. The ledges on the main body are also recessed for reduced rain splash.  Each cartridge has 32 holes of 5/16" diameter. 

 

You can place up to 33 starter bee tubes on the underside of the roof.  This gives you more than enough bees to support the ratio of  starter bee tubes to empty tubes, which is just over 4:1.