• Author Dave Hunter is at the leading edge of bee and pollinator issues • Mason bees are part of the solution to honeybees’ decline • No other bee book addresses the topic with such depth and interest • Includes useful information about leafcutter bees too! The national media regularly features dire stories on honeybee colony collapse and its danger to our food supply. But there's another, unsung bee that has the potential to save the planet—the mason bee. Mason Bee Revolution explains how docile, hard-working, solitary mason bees (and their compatriots, the leafcutter bees) are even more productive pollinators than honeybees, and keeping them can be a fun, easy, backyard hobby for gardeners, conservationists, foodies, and families everywhere. Why these bees? Bee pollination is critical for about 80 percent of US agricultural crops, increasing crop value by an estimated $15 billion annually. Since 2006, nearly a third of all honeybee hives have been lost each year, due to parasites, pesticides, habitat loss, climate change, and a newer malady called Colony Collapse Disorder. While scientists search for answers to save the honeybee, Dave Hunter and his company, Crown Bees, are leading the effort to increase the population of other highly efficient pollinators: One mason bee can produce twelve pounds of cherries, via pollination, where it would take sixty honey bees to achieve the same. Mason Bee Revolution is an easy-to-follow guide to keeping both mason and leafcutter bees. It tells you how to set up, care for, and harvest your own bees and what types of plants and habitat encourage mason and leafcutter bees, as well as provides general information on other common pollinators and bee-related facts, projects, and personalities.

Finding Home shows readers an inside look at the lives of six beneficial native creatures through an engaging and educational tale of a mason bee's search for a new home. North America is home to almost 4,000 species of native bees, most of which fly below our radar as they perform indispensable environmental services. Finding Home: A Story of a Mason Bee is an informational realistic fiction, with a focus on science, nature, and conservation written in prose focused on bringing attention to these forgotten creatures. Finding Home: A Story of a Mason bee shows readers the unique lives mason bees lead, and also gives a look at some other common beneficial wildlife. Follow a mason bee as she emerges from her nest to discover her habitat is being destroyed by human development and is propelled into the surrounding landscapes in order to find a place to make a new home. During her search, she comes across various other important wildlife, such as bumble bees, ants, and hummingbirds. Each encounter teaches the mason bee and the reader a little bit about the animals encountered, and the book ends with a glossary of terms including more information about each animal seen in the story.

Introduces concept of pollination and bees/ mason bees to gardeners in order to increase fruit production. Includes information on nest construction and mason bee build-up with detailed pen and ink illustrations.

The most up-to-date and authoritative resource on the biology and evolution of solitary bees While social bees such as honey bees and bumble bees are familiar to most people, they comprise less than 10 percent of all bee species in the world. The vast majority of bees lead solitary lives, surviving without the help of a hive and using their own resources to fend off danger and protect their offspring. This book draws on new research to provide a comprehensive and authoritative overview of solitary bee biology, offering an unparalleled look at these remarkable insects. The Solitary Bees uses a modern phylogenetic framework to shed new light on the life histories and evolution of solitary bees. It explains the foraging behavior of solitary bees, their development, and competitive mating tactics. The book describes how they construct complex nests using an amazing variety of substrates and materials, and how solitary bees have co-opted beneficial mites, nematodes, and fungi to provide safe environments for their brood. It looks at how they have evolved intimate partnerships with flowering plants and examines their associations with predators, parasites, microbes, and other bees. This up-to-date synthesis of solitary bee biology is an essential resource for students and researchers, one that paves the way for future scholarship on the subject. Beautifully illustrated throughout, The Solitary Bees also documents the critical role solitary bees play as crop pollinators, and raises awareness of the dire threats they face, from habitat loss and climate change to pesticides, pathogens, parasites, and invasive species.

"This volume contains all the essays on the Chalicodomœ, or mason-bees proper, which so greatly enhance the interest of the early volumes of the Souvenirs entomologiques. I have also included an essay on the author's cats and one on red ants--the only study of ants comprised in the Souvenirs."--Translator's note.

An introduction to the roughly 4000 different bee species found in the United States and Canada, dispelling common myths about bees while offering essential tips for telling them apart in the field