Product Descriptions
Pollinator Kits BOBs Inserts Pollination Services Honey
Pollinator Kits
This is our professional starter kit, capable of housing enough bees to pollinate an acre of typical fruit trees. The NB50 nest box is a 50-hole, 6-inch deep holder for our 6-inch inserts. This is the optimum length for attracting BOBs and for maximum production. Designed utilizing USDA specifications plus our own management and design experience, this is the best BOB nesting hardware on the market, easy to access completed nests from a removable back panel. The box is hollow, allowing air circulation around the nests with developing larvae. This helps in mite control. The box comes stocked with one season's inserts and with this kit you get 2 more season's worth, 3 years total. We include 30 bees, the minimum for getting started with the NB50 under good conditions. (For rapid build-up, order supplementary bees.) Finally, a ship-release box (SR6) can be included as an option. The SR6 may be included if you order over 20 inserts because it is a "shipping" box in addition to a convenient way to cool-store and spring-release your bees. If you have an acre of trees that need pollinating, this is the way to go. Order Kit
Our original nest "block" was made from the stand-by length of 4 X 4, drilled clear through and with a piece of thin paneling for a removable back. This has proved to be a convenient and attractive dimension, even though we have moved far beyond the elbow-killing solid wood format to a fabricated hollow box system. Twenty nests is plenty of bees to keep a sizeable yard pollinated and bearing delicious fruit. In fact, most likely the neighbor's trees will be benefitting as well. Maybe they can help you pick and can! Like the EL50K kit, the box comes outfitted with the first season's inserts plus you get one further season's worth. Fifteen bees should provide a good starter population and may be supplemented by some bees from the wild, depending on your location. A ship-release box is a convenient option. This makes a terrific gift and is perfect for getting kids excited about nature. Order Kit
Bees
When you order Blue Orchard Bees, this is what you get, i.e. adult bees in their natial cocoons. They have developed from eggs laid the previous spring, having fed through the summer on the pollen collected for them by their mothers, last year's bees. The cocoons are highly protective, impervious to water, although the bees can get a little air through special micro-holes. The adults, after metamorphosing from their larval stage, go into "diapause", a deep resting stage, in which they remain through the winter. In this stage the bees can be handled, stored, shipped, etc. We harvest cocoons in the late summer and inspect every nest to make sure the bees we ship out and use ourselves are healthy. You receive the bees inside a straw insert, usually the same one in which the bees matured. In spring, the bees will respond to warming temperatures, become active, and chew out of their cocoons. Soon the females mate and begin to nest, pollinating and producing a new generation of bees. It's amazing to watch and the straw insert system facilitates learning as well as good bee management. Learn more about BOBs. Order Bees.
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Inserts
The straw insert system is the best way to assure clean culture of your bees. The nest box becomes a holder for the inserts and you never need to clean it. In addition, there is no more efficient way to store and handle the bees. Our inserts are made from specialty paper by professional tube-makers. They are lightly waxed for semi-water resistance and designed specifically for bee culture. These are not "soda straws"! As a bonus, we routinely color one end of our straws, which marks the "exit" end of the nest and serves as a trademark for our bees. We are frequently asked about the cost of the straws. When you consider the value of the bees to your pollinationg needs, a few cents per nest of healthy bees (1-2 trees worth of pollination) is certainly worth it. Purchase in quantity to save. Order Inserts
Pollination Services
We provide pollination with Blue Orchard Bees and also with honey bees. The value of BOBs to orchardists is that they can be easily cultivated and made part of the fruit-growing operation. However, we also cooperate with growers to provide pollination as we produce BOBs for sale. Our honey bee pollination is with standard hives. We operate on a contract basis, following recommendations from the Washington State Department of Agriculture. View a sample pollination contract. Download a blank contract.
Honey
Our hard-working bees make premium varietal honey. Unheated and coarse-sieved, it contains a small amount of pollen. Order Honey
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