Books
- Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants by Douglas W. Tallamy, 2009
- The Orchard Mason Bee by Brian Griffin and Sharon Smith, 1999
- Pollination with Mason Bees by Dr. M. Dogterom, 2002
- How to Manage the Blue Orchard Mason Bee by Bosch and Kemp, 2001
- Pollinator Conservation Handbook: A Guide to Understanding, Protecting, and Providing Habitat for Native Pollinator Insects by Matthew Shepherd, Stephen L. Buchmann, Mace Vaughan, and Scott Hoffman Black, 2003
- Bees of the World by Christopher O’Toole and Anthony Row, 1991
Protein Diet or Carb Diet? Both!
Like all bees, Orchard Mason Bees collect flower pollen as a protein source for their young, and get their energy from the sweet nectar the flowers produce to attract them.
Maybe not so cuckoo after all?
Cuckoo bees enter the nests of solitary bees while the female is away and then lay a hidden egg. When the Cuckoo bee larva hatches, it consumes both the host larva's pollen ball and the host larva itself. So the Orchard Mason Bee does all the work and the Cuckoo bee reaps all the benefit!