The CREC is trying out mason bees, Osmia lignaria, this year, aka: blue orchard bees or orchard mason bees. These are wild bees that can easily be managed by humans. Mason bees are native to places ...

BOTHELL, Wash. — Jim Watts calls himself a farmer, but he doesn’t raise livestock or crops. Watts is a bee farmer. Across the West, growers are turning to a tiny, overlooked insect to pollinate crops: ...

As concern grows over the decline in the honey bee population, alternative pollinators are gaining attention. Mason bees, which are native to North America, are one option. These gentle-natured bees ...

Mason bees are pretty incredible: They’re docile, they are easy to raise, and they are amazing pollinators of spring flowering fruit and nut trees. These bees don’t use hives the way honey bees do, ...

Mason bees do not have the classic yellow and black stripes of the honeybee, or the plump fuzziness of the bumblebee. Rather, they are a metallic blue-green — like a house fly. (In fact, they are ...

Editor's Note: This story was originally published in 2019. When Dyan and Mark Eisenberger decided to make their garden in Columbia more pollinator-friendly, they started by removing nonnative plants.

Backyard beekeeping has exploded in popularity in recent years. By adding a hive or two in our own backyards, we could help do our part to keep the population in balance. Most cities probibit the ...

Why is Christian Science in our name? Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The Christian Science Church, and we’ve always been transparent about that. The Church publishes the Monitor ...

The harvest looks like nothing more than little piles of dirt. Here inside Landis Homes’ woodworking shop, they might be mistaken for sawdust. Look closer to see tiny circles of mud, a yellow ball of ...

HERE’S A DIFFERENT kind of home-design idea: Set up a bee house in your yard this summer. These might not be the bees you are thinking of. No hives. No honey. No aggressive behavior. Instead, gentle ...