Horn-faced Bees

Horn-faced Bees

A relative of the Blue Orchard Mason Bee, the Horn-faced Bee (Osmia cornifrons) is native to Japan and was introduced by the USDA in the 1970’s to help with crop pollination services. Similar to the Blue Orchard Mason Bee, the Horn-faced Bee visits many more flowers in a day than a honey bee and is a very effective pollinator. Unlike the Blue Orchard Mason Bee which is native to North America, the Horn-faced Bee has been introduced and in some cases has been seen to outcompete native pollinators. For this reason we only ship the Horn-faced Bee east of the Mississippi River where it has already more or less naturalized. Please do not order Horn-faced Bees if you are in the Western United States as we will have to cancel and refund your order. 

Please note, these bees are shipped dormant in their cocoons. We recommend always opening the box outside as they are live bees and may wake up during transit in warmer weather. If you receive the bees before the ideal time to release them in your area, it is best to store them in the refrigerator until they are ready to be released.

Life-cycle

Unlike honey bees (Apis) or bumblebees, Osmia species are solitary; every female is fertile and makes her own nest, and no worker bees for these species exist. Solitary bees produce neither honey nor beeswax. They are immune from acarine and Varroa mites, but have their own unique parasites, pests, and diseases.

The horn-faced bee emerges early in the spring when daytime temperatures rise to about 50 degrees consistently. This usually coincides with fruit tree bloom. The males emerge first and stay close to the nest site waiting for females.

When the females do emerge, the first thing they do is look for a mate. Soon after the males die and the females start work on their nests for the year. They begin by finding a suitable hole, and then start to gather pollen and nectar from nearby flowers as food for their young.

The pollen is deposited into the back of the nest hole one load at a time. This is done until a suitable store is gathered. Then, the bee lays an egg on top of the mass.

Pollination

Horn-faced bees are amazing pollinators. Unlike honey bees that have leg pockets for pollen storage, a horn-faced bee must stuff pollen into stiff hairs on her abdomen. This less sophisticated method leads to much better pollination because on each flower she tries to stuff pollen into the hairs, but some inevitably falls out, likely pollinating the flower.

While a honey bee typically pollinates about 5% of the flowers it visits in a day, it is estimated that a horn-faced bee pollinates 95%. And on top of that the horn-faced bee visits more than twice as many flowers every day!

Management

The nesting habits of many Osmia lend themselves to easy cultivation, and a number of Osmia are commercially propagated in different parts of the world to improve pollination in fruit and nut production. Commercial pollinators include O. lignaria, O. rufa, O. cornuta, O. cornifrons, O. ribiflorus, and O. californica. They are used both as an alternative to and as an augmentation for European honey bees. Mason bees grown for orchard and other agricultural applications are all readily attracted to nesting holes – reeds, paper tubes, nesting trays, or drilled blocks of wood; in their dormant season they can be transported as intact nests (tubes, blocks, etc.), or as loose cocoons. As is characteristic of solitary bees, they rarely sting when handled, (only under duress such as when wet or squeezed), their sting is smaller and less painful, and their stinger is unbarbed, all attributes cited by different commercial growers.

Horn-faced Bee Supplies

To help your bees succeed, consider these supplies: Mason Bee Tubes & Mason Bee Clay!

Read our full Mason Bee Care Guide here!