Mason Bee Box
Brasstown Mason bees have stylish new homes at the Folk School. Next time you walk around the Folk School Campus near the Vegetable Garden keep your eyes out for the new boxes created by Session #3 Work/Studies and Joe Baumgartner. The boxes have a very special painted touch added by Sarah Boggs’ of Brevard.
Welcome Home, Eat More Greens, Hope, Castle by Sarah Boggs
The boxes feature charming themes like castle walls, Masonic lodges, suitcases, and chard. Our Mason bees are going to be living in style with the new additions to the vegetable garden “neighborhood.”
Masonic Lodge! Get it? Mason Bee… Mason Lodge! Love the creativity.
Wikipedia tells us: “Mason bee” is a common name for species of bees in the genus Osmia, of the family Megachilidae. They are named from their habit of making compartments of mud in their nests, which are made in hollow reeds or holes in wood made by wood-boring insects. Spring mason bees are increasingly cultivated to improve pollination for early spring fruit flowers. These gentle, solitary bees are pollinating powerhouses. One mason bee can do the pollinating work of 100 honeybees!
Finished Mason Bee Boxes
Cory Marie Podielski is a freelance graphic designer, photographer, and writer for the John C. Campbell Folk School. She has been writing for the Folk School Blog since 2012 and enjoys interviewing artists, musicians, and craftspeople. In her spare time, she enjoys playing the banjo, dancing, printmaking, playing in clay, and assisting in Folk School bread baking classes. podielski.com
What an awesome addition to the garden! Well done Sarah & the indomitable work study crew!
Thanks Julie!!! I love Sarah’s art. So beautiful!
These are really quaint and a great reminder that we share this world with all the creatures…Love this site and hope some day I can come and spend some time there learning what I might get good at.
How lovely! I wish I were small enough to live in them 😉
Emily! I’ll let you know when we have a class in building a human-proportionate Mason bee box!