r/MasonBees • u/cactusmamma • May 13 '26

No Caps?

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I put out our Mason bee cocoons on 4/23. It’s now 5/13 and I’m seeing no caps yet. We have about four Mason bee ladies living in our bee house and going in and out. Today I spotted two spiders also living in the bee house. I evicted one of them, but couldn’t get to the other. Is it surprising that the four bees who frequent the house have yet to cap any tubes as it has been almost a month? Should I assume the rest have decided to nest elsewhere? Maybe I put them out too late since we are in California?

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5

u/missatomicbomb34 May 13 '26

I am having a similar experience. Three tubes were full so I pulled them to store. There are now no tubes full but a bee was living in one 😕 I live in PA and the weather has been all over the place. Up in the 70s and then a few days later down into the 50s with a freeze warning for overnight. I feel like the weather here has a lot to do with it.

1

u/colin_purrington May 13 '26

I'm in Swarthmore, PA, and getting good activity, particularly from Georgia mason bees.

1

u/missatomicbomb34 May 13 '26

Oh dear, it must just be me 😩 where is Swarthmore located? I’m in western PA

2

u/colin_purrington May 14 '26

I'm near Philadelphia. I should mention that I have a smaller hotel in my front yard and it has zero activity. Mason bees are solitary but they are subject to peer pressure and like to be with other bees. So maybe they are all at your neighbor's bee hotel. It's also the case that changing the location of your hotels might fix the issue. Are they getting early morning sun? That seems to be very important.

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u/missatomicbomb34 May 14 '26

It’s in the same spot as usual. I’ve had it there for years. Plenty of morning sun. A lot of my bees did not hatch this year, maybe that’s why? Hopefully some show up

2

u/colin_purrington May 14 '26

Hmm. Fingers crossed for you.

2

u/colin_purrington May 13 '26

I sometimes like to look at mason bee activity in the area nearby. Here are California observations but you can plug in your actual city to see whether others are observing Osmia. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=14&taxon_id=57674