A Pictorial Guide
to Orchard Bee Management.
Click on the thumbnail photos for a closer look.

We favor small hutches with a roof for protecting Binderboard™ nests from the elements.  Be sure that the hutch is secured to the ground so that it remains stable even in high winds.  Scatter shelters through the orchard for uniform pollination.

Do your bees have an alternate source of bloom to visit before and after fruit bloom ?  If not, they may not reproduce to their full potential.  Allow weeds like dandelion to bloom, or plant alternative flower sources that bloom before and after fruit bloom.   A succession of different varieties of fruit trees and ornamental flowering trees is great. Herbaceous plants like Phacelia tanacetifolia, (lacy phacelia, scorpion weed, fiddleneck) are also good.   In Portland, Big Leaf Maple is very popular with our orchard bees.   Many other possible flower sources exist, just be sure there is plenty for the bees to forage from so they can continue to provision their cells.  Otherwise they will look for nests elsewhere, or they may starve, and will not reproduce.

After fruit bloom when the bees have finished foraging, remove nests from the orchard to a protected place such as a garage, porch, barn etc.   When moving nests after bloom, carry the nests with entrance holes facing up so feeding larvae stay on their pollen resources.

Nests can also be left outdoors, but be sure that they do not experience excessive hot temperatures, and that they are protected from rain, standing water, and rodents.  Cover the nests with fine netting to prevent tiny chalcid wasp parasites from entering the nests and killing the dormant larvae.  Netting also prevents summer species of solitary bees and wasps from using empty nests.  Chalcid parasites tend to become active in the summer about the end of fruit bloom, so covering the nests can help reduce their populations.  Read more about chalcid parasites in Bosch  and Kemp, How to Manage the Blue Orchard Bee.