The Orchard Mason Bee: The Life History, Biology, Propagation, and Use of a North American Native Bee

Given that I haven't actually used the information, and I never intended to even before I bought it, the text seems complete. It manages its completeness without being overly academic. I'd consider it more of a "technical" book rather than an "engineering" book: a brass tacks "how-to" rather than physiology, theory, etc. My biggest "complaint" are the illustrations. They seem to be a bit on the "cutesy" side. Perhaps that was what was intended in order to keep the subject light but I would very much have liked to see some detailed top/front/side views of both the male and the female subject - academic quality. Even jumped on Knox Cellars' website hoping for the diagrams but no such luck. Despite this, keep in mind, I feel this book is more than adequate to get anyone up and running with these little pollinators. The previous review does a sufficient job of summarizing so I won't here.

This book tells all about orchard mason bees (and some other native pollinators), what they look like, what they do, why they're particularly good at it, and most of all how we can help.Orchard mason bees are not honeybees but a small, modest, hard-working, solitary little bee native to the New World. They mind their own business and do a whale of a job pollinating. My blueberry bushes have doubled and tripled their yields since I started putting homes out for the orchard mason bees.The pictures of the bee-faces in the section on telling the difference between the boy bees and the lady bees are cute. But the text, while not heavy in the least, is serious. Here is a man who believes in his bees and in ways in which we can acknowledge our part in the natural order by helping offset the pernicious effects of excess urbanization. The text is written at the layman's level; no technical knowledge is required to read and understand, but there are references for people who want to get more deeply involved with technical issues.Here is everything you will need to know to decide whether you would like to harbor orchard mason bees and how to go about it if you do.I got my first bee block from Knox Farms several years ago and upgraded to a bee condo last year. This year I took my courage in my hands and carefully changed my bee-full nesting tubes for clean ones to wait for spring. It was fascinating handling those tubes stuffed with beneficient bee life! I think this would be a great thing for kids to get involved with. (I'm fourty-something, and I think it's great).If you are interested in giving a hard-working native bee a hand, and benefitting all of the fruit and berry plants in your neighborhood, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Easy to read but packed with information!