Breeder!

I realize I haven't been on here much lately, but I have been trying to be good and get housework done on my lunch hours and be productive on my weekends.  House is much cleaner than it's usual state (still not what I would call clean, but it's heading in the right direction at least) and I've gotten sets of some starter plants done up in paper pots to get them sprouting, so we are going to do a garden this year.

To that end, last Saturday I went to a local seminar about mason bees.  Some years ago I did purchase a house, tubes, and bees, but I've never done anything else to them since, assuming it would be an ecosystem which would just continue to cycle.  Well, they may be continuing to cycle (as I do have some tubes out back which are sealed with mud and not breached by predators, at least that I can see), but if you do just a bit of work with the bees and collect the filled tubes to let them mature and then clean the coccoons, it makes the bees healthier, and much easier for the female bees laying eggs next year as they have clean tubes to work with, rather than having to clean out old tubes first.

Rose (the lady who held the seminar) mentioned that she partners with folks to be her breeders, so that they set up the house, tubes and bees, then as the tubes fill up collect them over the summer and store them until the end of the season, then return them to her for her to let them mature and have the work of cleaning tubes and sorting coccoons, etc ... and she supplies the house, tubes and bees free of charge.  So, I signed up and she just dropped off the supplies today, and I will get the wee house installed this weekend, I am sure, at the front of the house where they will be closer to my plum trees.  I'll also pull the old tubes out of the original house and bunch them up there to wait to see if they do hatch, replacing new tubes into the house and if they fill up as well I can return those to Rose at the end of the season as well ... just making sure I can get as many as possible for help pollinating my garden, and figure a house front and back is a good idea!

I still want to stop off at the place south of Nanaimo where I see bat houses advertised, to set up a bat house in the back yard, sometime.  They're north of the apiary, but we never seem to have the time to stop in and see what their hours are and if we can purchase a house when we're out that way.

Oh, well, will have to keep it on my list of "to do" items for the spring when Maxx and I have days off.

Right now I need to go over my list of seeds and supplies I still need for what we want to grow this year (or at least TRY to grow), and see how much it will cost to complete what we're looking to have set up.