Mason Bee Supplies

Mason Bee General Information

Care of Dormant Mason Bees

We are a non-profit 501c(3) organization dedicated to educating our members and the general public about growing good fruit at home.

For many years, a group of our members have been spending their spare time raising mason bees to sell to other backyard fruit growers. Currently, at nine different sites around Portland and the North Willamette valley, members set out new tubes every spring to increase their mason bee populations, making it possible to sell full tubes to others. These bees are home-grown, adapted to the Pacific northwest climate, and extremely hardy.

If you are interested in ordering from us, please take a moment to read these guidelines

California Residents

California residents are now required to have a permit to raise mason bees. We CANNOT process your order without receiving a copy of your permit with your order form. Applications for CA mason bee permits are available online at: https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/permitsandregs.html

Please mail your permit to:

Home Orchard Society
PO Box 607
Oregon City, OR 97045

Or scan and email to: masonbees@homeorchardsociety.org

Place Your Order Here

Please note that we will only be shipping within the United States this year, and will not be shipping to Canada. All mason bee supplies are non-refundable. We do our best to sort and inspect our cocoons, however it is possible that you may receive a few bees that are not true Blue Orchard mason bees, there may be a few leaf cutter and or hornfaced mason bees (both are excellent pollinators) in your package.

• We only fill orders from December 7th through the beginning of April (weather and supplies dependent)
• We do ship Priority Mail but packing and shipping may take upto 2 weeks
• This is a volunteer-managed endeavor, please be patient; your business is important to us, and we will return your email as soon as we can.
• Plan ahead for what you need – February is busy with bee tube sales, so order early!

This year we will be accepting on-line orders only. Payment is through Pay-Pal and will be due at the time of order.

Receiving Your Order

You have two choices – shipping via mail or in person pick-up:

Shipping By Mail

We ship via US Priority Mail only. We do not have an account with UPS or FED-EX.

Pick Up Your Order

There are two ways to arrange a pick-up:

1. At the HOS Fruit Propagation Fair. Visit our website (www.homeorchardsociety.org) for directions and times.
2. At the HOS Arboretum; open Tuesdays and Saturdays from 9 – 3 pm year round, on the campus of Clackamas Community College in Oregon City, Oregon. You will receive notice when your order is ready for pick-up.

Please note… we do our best to screen our donated bees for pests and disease. We are are unable to offer refunds. If there are problems with your bees, please contact us and we will work with you to find a solution to ensure your ability to successfully grow a population for yourself.

Empty tubes

Empty tubes are cardboard with a thin plastic coating for weather resistance. Tubes need folding in half, as a 12” tube is too deep for bees to use efficiently. We sell bundles of 27 because this is the number of tubes that fit (folded) in one side of a 3” PVC house, or that fills both ends of a 2” PVC house.

If you are buying 3 – 5 tubes of bees, a bundle of 27 empties will serve as nesting space for the first two seasons of your bees. Expect to provide a woodblock or PVC house with one bundle of 27 empty tubes for every 3 – 5 twelve inch folded tubes of bees you purchase.