Last year we didn't get any pears on our pear tree because the bees arrived after our tree started flowering - so this year we thought we'd try with mason bees. Although, we wonder if we have wasted $15 on 10 bees that may have flown away, hard to say. The bees started waking up pretty soon after the store clerk took the jar out of the fridge. We made a hive out of a piece of wood drilling a bunch of 5/16" in diameter (min) holes, about 6" long or so. In nature, mason bees usually live in the holes left behind by termites so we figured these hole would do just fine. We were instructed to get the hive and jar set up as soon as possible after leaving the store, as the bees were going to start waking up (due to the temperature change). They did. Let's hope the bees found a home close to our garden. It would be nice to see them come in and out of the hive we made for them. I will keep you updated.
PS One of our 'to dos' this year will be to figure out an early budding spring flower that the bees love, so that they will stay around for the fruit trees. Apparantly the bees are super busy in my sister's heather shrubs.
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