The grooves should be 5/16 wide as that is the perfect mason bee size (at least here in Victoria, BC. That 5/16 value comes from many years of testing by our local bee guy (Gord Hutchings).

Now I’m not yet clear on why you should not just drill holes in a block of wood. It sure would be simpler.

I suppose from a workload perspective…..you’d have to make a new block every year as you can’t clean out the holes using the method you suggest. You can easily clean the tray based system I described each year with making anything new.

Thoughts?

Bug Blogger Survey

i have been tirelessly researching the tiny bees to find a good example and they are either black jackets or a form of tiny paper wasp, they will not bother you and can fly all around you if you leave the nest alone, I moved the nest not knowing it was tucked up inside the glass and wood bird feeder. The sting was very painful but looked more like a bite it left a bloody circular hole, no stinger but boy it hurt into next day.Hurt worse then any other sting I have had.It is definitely tiny wasp of some sort, but the behavior is what I really want to know about. I am a huge gardener and never exterminate any bees unless I really have to;last year a form of killer bee or very angry yellow jacket took up residence in the entire wall of my home , had to get an exterminator to get rid of them and they had to drill holes in the wall! I know I write a lot but am fascinated by bug behavior and being from Ct every bug here in Florida is new to me.Why if they had a nest would they hang from the underside leaf and about twenty or so all clinging stacked and hanging down feet to feet? They swarmed me when I disturbed them, that is when I looked closer and saw them.

Our bees have been behaving very strangely this summer, eating holes through their wax. Do you know why they might do that? They are supposed to build honeycomb, not eat it!