With the cold snaps and long-lasting rains of the past spring majorly affecting last summer’s fruit production, we are making a point to focus on ways in which we can support our local fruit trees and provide for our community partners this upcoming harvest season. Pollination is one of the biggest indicators in how well fruit trees will produce in a season, and many tree owners speculated that the bees never came out to help pollinate their fruit trees. With cold weather predicted to last longer into the spring this year as well, it’s clear that our little helpers will require more support in getting the job done.
To hopefully ensure a fruitful harvest season, we have partnered with Rent Mason Bees to offer a 10% discount on mason bee kits to rent/ purchase. Mason bees are incredibly productive in pollinating as many trees as possible, with 400 mason bees doing the work of 40,000 honey bees. By installing your own apiary, you’ll be aiding in the stability and growth of pollinators and local fruit growth! While we cannot guarantee that the bees will help us get past the cold spring of last year, we are hoping to try. If you do end up hosting a mason bee nest on your property, we’d love to hear about how it went for you as part of our own citizen science research. We hope we can learn together and do what we can to support a healthy ecosystem.
To learn more about the benefits of mason bees, visit Rent Mason Bees. For other related questions, please contact Riley at [email protected].