Building drying baskets for my mason bees
Since I have started harvesting the cocoons from my solitary bees, I have been building special hardware to make it easier to do so. Once the cocoons have been removed from the mud homes, I wash them and dry them. Its important for them to be dry as they might mold or might soak through the cocoons otherwise. So drying them is a must, and finding a good way to do this has proved to be a little harder than I thought. But I think I found a good design and I plan on doing this method, but with more baskets as I need them.
This video is from before my harvest, a few months old now. And the baskets worked out great, I had four of them this year to dry out the cocoons since I had thousands of them.
Using milk crates I bought from home depot, and some window screen. I cut it to the size of the crate and lay it inside. This will allow the cocoons to lay flat, but able to have airflow.
Using some old server fans, and an air circulator I lay them on top of the stacked milk crates and allow the air to dry them out. I dry the cocoons overnight, so around 12 hours before I store them in a refrigerator for long term storage at a consistent temperature.
My first design of these drying baskets had some small welded wire, but I found the male cocoons would pass through or get stuck in the squares. Since the male cocoons are smaller than the females this material did not work so well. So using something smaller like screening you put on windows to keep the bugs out worked well. But I guess I am keeping the bugs in with this design, how ironic.
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Love honey - so keep up the good work.
These bees do not produce honey, but thanks will do!
So, what do they do?
They pollenate my fruits.. my blueberry yield greatly increased when I made homes for them. They visit every flower and greatly increased my berry count.
Anything that flowers between feburary and april gets their attention.
That's so cool
Hehe it sure is, Ive learned alot just helping to raise them.