Bee watchers,

A few years ago--must have been about this time of year--I was cleaning
swallow boxes along our creek. I was eight feet up a ladder against an
alder tree, pulling the nail that lets the bottom of the box swing down. I
could see lots of moss blocking the swallow hole on the front panel, and
when I pulled the bottom board down I could see a compact mass of moss that
didn't want to fall out of the box. Just as I was about to run my hive tool
(how appropriate!) into the moss and scrape it out of there, I heard a loud
buzzing and the box started vibrating. Well, I retreated down the ladder
not too gracefully, and when I'd pulled myself up out of the creek, I looked
up there to see what was happening, and that's when I saw two or three
medium-size bumble bees flying around, like they were not too happy about
being disturbed. I think these were the same kind of bumblebees that
pollinate our raspberries in the summer. Anyway, I was relieved that they
weren't some sort of moss-dwelling yellow-jacket, so I could go ahead and
bully them out of there with a long stick and make the swallows welcome.
Since that time, however, I have always knocked before opening the door.

Darrel Whipple
Rainier, Oregon
dwhipple at columbia-center.org
At 07:51 PM 3/29/98 -0000, you wrote:
>Diann,
>
>Sorry, but I have no entomological references for bees. I'm not that
versed in the field, and was just reporting what I'd seen.
>
>I am not *absolutely* certain that the bees had brought the moss to the
nest boxes, but - on the other hand - I'd never seen anything quite like the
bee nests in nest boxes before. I had the 2 boxes in my yard here in Oly,
and my father had a nest box with the same (or similar) bumblebees and moss,
down in the Salem area last year.
>
>The moss in these boxes did not appear to have been brought in by birds or
by deer mice (which I have seen fill a nest box with 'trash' - sticks,
leaves, grass, etc. - never with just one material). So, I made the
assumption - perhaps in error - that the bees had brought the moss to the box.
>
>The bee's nest was, viewed from the top, a round 'ball' of tree moss (I
have a wonderful reference on mosses in the PNW, "Mosses, Lichens & Ferns of
Northwest North America" by Vitt, Marsh and Bovey. Lone Pine Publishing,
Vancouver BC. But - I've not made the effort to become proficient in moss
ID, yet... there's 170 moss species listed!). The moss had not been
flattened-down, as you might expect if the moss had been brought in by a
chickadee or Bewick's wren. The bees entered the nest through the 1-1/4"
hole, directly into the ball of moss.
>
>For that matter, I was assuming that the bumbles were native bees, because
they were not the big black-and-yellow bumbles that had been brought in from
Europe to pollinate the Red Clover crops here in America - honeybees can't
reach their tongues into the long flower of the red clover. These little
dun and yellow bumblebees might be introduced species, as well.
>
>I'll poke around in the libraries (or the internet) and see if I can find
anything on bees that bring nesting material to cavities... If I find
anything, I'll let you know. Perhaps some of the folks on Tweeters (Dennis
P?) might be able to share their knowledge about this?
>
>Jon. Anderson
>Olympia, Washington
>festuca at olywa.net
>
>----------
>From: Diann MacRae[SMTP:tvulture at mail1.halcyon.com]
>Sent: Saturday, March 28, 1998 5:50 PM
>To: festuca at olywa.net
>Subject: RE: Wood Duck Boxes
>
>Hello, Jon
>
>Can you give me any references to the bumblebee that brings moss to nest
>boxes? That's a new one for me and sounds interesting. Thanks.
>
>>Another possibility is that of bees; in my Olympia suburban wasteland of a
yard, there
>is a species of native bumblebee that fills the wren/chickadee-nesting
boxes I've put up
>with tree >moss.
>
>Diann MacRae
>Bothell
>tvulture at halcyon.com
>
>
>
>
>