How weather can affect your bees
My mailbox can get hot during the summer. Is this an issue?
A hot summer mailbox is an issue for leafcutter bee cocoons because intact leafcutter bee cocoons are unable to regulate their temperature.
Options to consider:
- An automatic tracking number is emailed to you once your selected shipping service receives the package, please pay close attention to the tracking of your bee shipment and retrieve them from your mailbox as soon as possible. Consider placing a folded note card upright in your mailbox where your postal deliverer can read "Please place order from Crown Bees on front porch" or similar.
- Ship leafcutter cocoons to your workplace.
- Order the optional FedEx 2 Day shipping for just the leafcutter bees. These packages are not placed in hot mail boxes. Hard goods (house, nesting holes, etc.) with the same order will ship the method you choose in checkout.
I have an unexpected heatwave, what do I do?
Spring Mason Bees: Watch to see if the abnormally warm spring weather caused your blooms to open earlier than usual. If flowers are still closed, keep your bees in the fridge until open flowers are available and the daytime high is consistently around 55F(13C). Mason bee cocoons should be released by mid-May.
Summer Leafcutter Bees: Intact leafcutter bee cocoons can’t regulate their temperatures above 90F(32C), bring them indoors and release adult bees as they emerge (in the early morning) until the weather cools. Emerged adult leafcutter bees can manage the heat waves.
How to release mason bees when it's raining
- Mason bees perform well in lightly rainy environments but can't fly in steady rain. Look at your weather forecast and if there are days of rain and sun, then place the bees out in the morning. If solid rain for days, wait until the weather system passes.
What do I do with leafcutter bees in cold weather?
- Leafcutter bees that we carry prefer to fly in daytime temperatures of 75F/32C or higher. They can survive fine in lower temperatures.
- Place the leafcutter bee cocoons outside into the bee house as you would during warm weather. We incubate our leafcutter bee cocoons and ship them so that the bees are nearly ready to emerge. The cold weather will slow down their development and it will take longer for the bees to emerge.
- Temperatures lower than 60F significantly slows leafcutter cocoons development. Your leafcutter bees may not survive in cold weather that lasts 2 weeks or longer.
- We highly recommend that our customers choose a leafcutter bee ship date during weather that consistently has daytime highs of about 75F.
If you need to change your leafcutter bee ship date, please open a Support Center Ticket and let us know the new date.
