2012 is shaping up to be a great bee year. It seems we are experiencing some karmic adjustment for the awful spring of 2011, which old-timers pronounced the worst spring for bees ever. This year it’s comparatively warm and dry for the season; and the good weather came at just the right time for the bees to make the most of the maple blossom.
And not just the honey bees are happy; the mason bees are also doing exceptionally well. We’ve already got a number of capped tubes and we’re seeing more bees than in any previous year. In fact, they’re doing so well that I added another block of tubes so they wouldn’t run out of space.
10 tubes are already capped. Another is almost complete – note the thin ring of mud around the edge of the hole.
The white tube above the house is my make-shift hatching container.
