Comments on: Cleaning solitary bee cocoons with sand

By: Paul Bee

Paul Bee — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:32:01 +0000

I prefer the sand cleaning method because it appears more effective at cleaning off mites that just water or bleach. The risk with a wet wash is the mould that I hear can cause problems for loose cocoons in storage.
Would be interested in hearing about your new system.
Cheers, Paul

By: Leo Aerts

Leo Aerts — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 08:53:52 +0000

Dear bee friends,
Being a newbee(?) here, living in Flanders-belgium (Europe), I designed a new system to cultivate Osmias.
Is there any problem to wash and rinse the cocoons with city water?

By: Paul Bee

Paul Bee — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:50:14 +0000

Well I have just invested a bit of money buying a router + bench a bit like this although just slightly less solid. I figured that I needed to control the cuts and the set up – produce consistent tray patterns – and with all the safety features it seemed a good deal. The router is upside down and so the blade comes up through the specially designed bench and the wood is passed over it.

I have still to figure out what wood to use, and of course that depends on the local timber yard. What wood do you use for your stacks and trays? And for your peekaboo design (you’ll get the credits), I would assume the lid is perspex, but do you cut that yourself? I find it very difficult to cut.
Oh and one other question, related to your cocoon cleaning… what time of year do you start this?
Thanks in advance for your replies Gord!

By: gord hutchings

gord hutchings — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:52:20 +0000

I know what you mean about routering but instead, I had some individual teeth made by a tool-and-die maker for my dato blade and used round-shaped teeth instead of flat-bottomed. It ends up looking like a routered channel and operates on my table saw. Very quick and easy. Wish I could show you what I mean but this is a 7″hub with 3 individual teeth that are bolted on. I had two sets of teeth made in 5/16″ and 1/4″ size. I’ll put the final product up on my website sometime.
Cheers,
Gord

By: Paul Bee

Paul Bee — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 14:09:59 +0000

OK Gord thanks for the update – I posted your video on the “Campaign for Solitary Bees” Facebook page.

Great to see your technique evolving – I used sand to clean half of my 800 cocoons this year in open pans and it was a slightly messy affair. I can see that containing all of the cocoons, debris and sand in one container tube could be very very useful.

On another note I bought a router and holding bench at the start of this month because I realise that with the quantity of bees I now have I need to become more ‘industrial’ with my nesting habitats. Paper-lined drill blocks are good, but high maintenance when it comes to cleaning.

Keep posting, and again thanks for your contributions (and your father’s) in all aspects of your guidance for people like myself.

By: gord hutchings

gord hutchings — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 07:55:36 +0000

Paul,
Just wanted to let you know that i’ve put up a new video on Youtube, and my website showing how to use a tube for cleaning cocoons with sand. You can just go to Youtube and put in “Cleaning mason bees with sand”, and you’ll find it. Otherwise it’s on this page of my website https://sites.google.com/site/hutchingsbeeservice/how-to-clean-bees Just for you info and another way to try cleaning for the future. Let me know what you think.
Cheers,
Gord Hutchings

By: gord hutchings

gord hutchings — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 04:01:57 +0000

The open tray system really came about because of an accident and then poof, bees galore. So, logically, being scientist types, we pushed the envelope and see if we could encourage them again and it worked. The main thing to remember is to have the height at 7mm (5/16″) but width doesn’t matter. However, we have kept the over width less than ~4″ so far. Makes for easy extraction and cleaning. Also, the sexes that are laid down get mixed up by the female but it is a fascinating observation of sociality of the bee but it’s not eusocial as you suggest. They’re just highly tolerant of one another as they lay eggs and provide for their brood. If you see some of the photos on our website, you’ll see I have several photos of 3-4 bees in the tray at one time doing their thing.
‘Tis the season for cleaning condos now and I’ve got lots of classes coming up. Wish I was out your way and getting involved in your bee community.
Cheers,
Gord Hutchings

By: Paul Bee

Paul Bee — Sun, 16 May 2010 19:26:16 +0000

Aha Gord! – I knew I wasn’t to far off the mark in respect of cleaning the trays and tools.

Good to see you have the site up and running. Fascinating information that you have gathered there, and yes years of work and expertise in evidence. I was very fascinated to see the open trays where they make the entire cells themselves, and yes perhaps they are precursors to social/eusocial bees. Does this mean that for mason bees it doesn’t matter so much if the tubes are quite large in diameter, or is this just for a certain type of mason bee?

I will put your link in behind the article reference above to your service.

Cheers, Paul.

By: gord hutchings

gord hutchings — Sat, 15 May 2010 19:34:18 +0000

We made our own curved tools for the curved channels and a flat blade for the square dato’d channels. An old paring knife or thin putty knife ground down to the right width is what we use. Yes, we bleach the condo trays between seasons and dry thoroughly. Also a couple of coats of floor varnish (water-based) is applied to the channels with no ill-effects. Our website is at http://sites.google.com/site/hutchingsbeeservice/ and yes we do sell and mail out the individual trays, but if you want an idea of how to make, give us a tap back or check out our website regarding Creative Commons Licencing. Give us credit and don’t do a commercial venture on our years of research and just copying us, is mainly what we ask

By: Paul Bee

Paul Bee — Sun, 09 May 2010 20:25:36 +0000

Hi Marylou – thanks for your questions,
I gathered that they lightly bleach or use a sterilizing solution between seasons for the trays… they are dry well before the new season. I also gathered that they made some of the tools themselves, but something like an old-style potato peeler is the correct shape to run down any curved tray channels.
I am not sure if Gord sells the trays themselves right now – I know he teaches people in his local area with workshops. However I would also recommend Andrew’s reclaimed wood products here at Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/44977390/mason-bee-nest-orchard-bee-stacked-tray – he’s a great craftsman.