Happy Alfalfa Leafcutters in White County

Map by: https://www.worldatlas.com/na/us/in/c-white-county-indiana.html

Alfalfa leafcutter bee cocoons inside an opened reed. Photo by Barbara R.

Harvested alfalfa leafcutter bee cocoons. Photo by Barbara R.

1/29/2018 - Well, my daughter and I had a bee harvesting party yesterday afternoon. The results were amazing considering this is the first year that we have had leaf-cutter bees. We had a total of 150 bee cocoons that we released during the 2017 summer. We knew we had a huge second hatch during the season and were worried that we would not have any cocoons for this coming summer. We opened around 50 tubes and after trying to count :), we have approximately 110 cocoons! With double that amount or more of empty cocoons from the second hatch! I have included several pictures of different tubes full of cocoons (the paper, unwind tubes were not good for pictures).  Some tubes only had one full cocoon but the prize winning tube had Sixteen!!
Thanks for a great start. We will be seeing you this spring/summer so we can get additional tubes. ~ Barbara

Barbara's bee nesting house is stocked with tubes and reeds she purchased as well as pithy stems she gathered from local plants.