Athena Rayne Anderson

This post was originally published in June 21, 2011, on my blog “Pollinators Info” (no longer online).

I just discovered that I have something(s) nesting in my bee condos! I call them bee condos because they’re made for orchard mason bees, leaf-cutter bees, and similar bees that nest in stems in the wild. And they’re grouped together like a little apartment complex.

Anyway, I bought the bee nesting system in the photo from Knox Cellars. The bamboo stems tied together were made by yours truly.

While the vast majority of bee species all over the world are ground-nesting, many species nest in abandoned tunnels in wood. Some chew their own tunnels into stems and stalks. These little nests are similar in structure to the ones made by ground-nesting bees. There is a tunnel with compartments, each containing enough pollen and nectar for the developing offspring to reach adulthood. The mother closes the tunnel with mud, leaves, or some other such thing that she collects when she’s filled the tunnel.

Learn more about stem-nesting bees in this great article from the NC State Extention office: Provide Nesting Habitat for Native Bees Through Plant Stems in Your Garden.

Do you have stem nests set up in your garden? We’d love to hear about them in the comments section!

Featured image copyright June 30, 2010 by Rob Cuickshank from Flickr, CC BY 2.0.

Download and use of images from this site is a violation of copyright law and legal action will be pursued, unless permission has been granted by the author. All images are copyright Athena Rayne Anderson unless otherwise stated.