Solitary Bee Hive Management

Managing a solitary bee hive provides substantial benefits for the bees. Over time, all nesting populations of solitary bees will inevitably attract the parasites and diseases that have evolved alongside them. By taking proactive steps to minimise these risks, you can help maintain the health and vitality of the bee population.
In addition to supporting bee health, the annual management offers a valuable learning experience. It also provides a hands-on opportunity for educators to explore topics like ecology and biology with students, making it an engaging and educational tool.
To simplify upkeep, all of our Solitary Bee Hives are expertly designed with ease of management in mind.

The Mason Bee is by far the most common species found so the information here refers to them.

Active season management from March to August is optional and only necessary if and when Nest Chambers have been filled.
Simply remove filled Nest Chambers and replace with empty so female solitary bees still have nest tunnels to use. Store the filled chambers until annual management is done.

Annual management only needs to be done once during October or November. It will significantly reduce the incidences of parasites and diseases and managed bees will thrive year after year.
The process involves removing the contents of the Nest Chambers.
Healthy Mason Bee cocoons are carefully 'harvested', cleaned and stored. Any disease and parasites are eliminated.
Simple household tools and equipment are used in the process.

Go to Solitary Bee Nest to help identify what you might find in the nest tunnels.

Bringing the entire Solitary Bee Hive to the work table could be advisable so it can also be cleaned and maintained.
Advisable to have a layer of newspaper or similar on your work table to facilitate clean up after process.

Remove Nest Chambers from the hive (remove the acrylic observation plate if it has one) so all nest tunnels are exposed.

Remove the contents from each nest tunnel with any tool with a suitable width, for examples, flat tip screwdrivers or just a twig cut at an angle.
Keep the tool in contact with the bottom of the nest tunnel at a shallow angle and slowly and carefully push it down the length of the nest tunnel to prise out the contents of the cells onto the work table. Cocoons are quite robust and are not 'stuck' in the tunnel so they are easily removed.

In this way, either the contents of each cell can be removed individually for examination or the contents of the entire tunnel removed.

Identify and remove healthy cocoons from the removed contents into a container. Healthy cocoons are quite firm to the touch

Repeat for all tunnels and when complete, place all healthy cocoons from the container into a bowl of weak bleach solution (a ratio of 1 teaspoon of household bleach to 1 cup of water).
Stir the cocoons and gently rub the cocoons between your fingers if necessary to clean and remove all detritus.
Cocoons are firm enough and waterproof to withstand this process which will remove any adhering pollen mites and kill chalkbrood spores.

Remove the cocoons (e.g. use a slotted spoon) and place between absorbent paper towel to allow to dry.

Thoroughly clean (e.g. scrub with an old toothbrush) the nest tunnels and nest chambers with weak bleach solution.

Wrap all the leftover detritus, which will include disease and parasites, in the newspaper. This can be destroyed by burning or seal in a reused plastic bag so disease and parasites cannot escape.

Overwinter the cocoons at outside ambient temperature and humidity (e.g. unheated outside building) and protected from predators (e.g. mice).
The following early March move them to allow emergence near the solitary bee hive.