Canned bees?

Now I have seen some pretty strange things in gardening catalogs and seed catalogs, and working in the garden center many years ago I saw some unusual products come through our hands.  But today when I opened up one of the many lovely seed catalogs that came in the mail something stumped me.  It was a can of bees.

Canned bees.

I mean literally, something that looked like one of those giant Budweiser cans of beer but sealed and called Mason Bees.  I did a double take. Canned bees? You can buy bees by the can, through the mail?

Canned Bees

Yes, apparently you can (pun intended.) They’re called Mason bees, and each can supposedly holds some female bees who each lay 25 to 30 eggs to make little bees.  The catalog sold bee houses and bee colony equipment too.  You purchase your canned bees, put up your little bee house, and hopefully the little buggers go to work pollinating your trees and such.

Considering I have 30 fruit trees needing bees…I’m starting to get interested in this. But one problem. I’m a little scared of bees.  Not phobic by any means, I just don’t like them near me.  If I’m working out in the garden of course I tolerate them. Bees are your friend and mine in the garden, from the tiniest yellow jacket to the giant carpenter bees like my lovesick bee friend.  We all want plenty of bees for good pollination, particularly those of us who grow fruit trees.

As we start looking through the gardening catalogs for nut trees and the fig trees I want to add to the orchard, my eyes keep straying to that can of bees.  A can of bees.  What will they think of next?

And how can I convince hubby that I need canned bees and a cute little bee house in the orchard?