Talk:Mason bee

message: I recently discovered by accident that I have mason bees in my garden. I went to prune up my out of control grapes and needed to move a large black plastic pot full of dug fall bulbs.
When I picked it up, it began to hum with bees and one even stung me. I became quite alarmed because in the past I was allergic to bees and wondered why I didn't react, my hand swelled for only a day. I refused to kill them until I talked to my boss who raises honey bees. He came over and looked at them and knew exactly what they were: mason bees.
So here I am reading up on these harmless creatures who let me watch them work like the busy little bees that they are preparing for new life come next spring. 
So, tell me if these working bees will make the move to the new block home that I plan on building for them and attaching to the fence over my compost bin where they currently reside?
:I think I read in a book that there are some that make their tubes out of small stones and "mortar", which is where the name came from?  Is this true?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.167.62.120 (talk) 04:29, 4 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Mason bees in my garden

message: Hello! I'm evaluating this article for a class so I welcome questions/comments on my critique.
The first thing I noticed is that the article is lacking a lot of sources. There is some good information present, but every factual statement needs to be sourced. If anyone has those sources it would be great if they could add them, I will try to find sources for the information as well. The citations present are factual rather than opinion pieces which is a good start, there just needs to be more citations. Some more recent sources would be a great addition as well, improving citations can only improve the article's credibility!
The article is very short, and I think it could benefit from having more subsections. I would suggest a section on specific morphology of the mason bees, describing what features define them and separate them from other bees. The end of the first section has a fantastic start to that, but it could be elaborated on. Pollen preferences and nesting behaviors would be good too, although I saw that nesting behavior is covered to some degree in the lifecycle section. This type of bee has an extremely diverse range of nesting behaviors and I think it would be important to cover that! I also noticed that there is a short mention of many species and where they are from, maybe there should be a section about what it is they need from their environments and why they live where they do.
The management section is a great start, but I think it could use more information and definitely more citations. For example, the final statement says "cited by different commercial growers" doesn't really give a legitimate factual citation. I know a fair amount of management information is spread by word of mouth, but there still needs to be a factual reference for the legitimacy of the article. 
The photos used are fantastic, they're all high quality and it's a great idea to show natural and artificial nesting structures. Perhaps adding a picture that shows the physical features like the scopae would be helpful to add as well.
Again, please feel free to send questions and comments on this critique. I love these bees and I want to right by them with a high quality article!
Vagabond95 (talk) 15:29, 17 March 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Evaluation for Writing for Biologists 

message: This article states that "Osmia females... They do not excavate their own nests." But the one about Osmia avosetta says "The female O. avosetta digs shallow tunnels in the ground." So shouldn't it be rephrased here to say that "They Most of them do not excavate their own nests" or "They With exception of O.avosetta, Osmia females do not excavate their own nests" or else?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.211.252.234 (talk) 15:47, 5 February 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  To Dig or Not to Dig 

message: A fuller description is needed, perhaps under a separate heading. The info about behavior is thorough, but basic information is lacking—how large are they? how much do they weigh? And I'm sure there's much more to be said. The pages on individual species provide nothing in this category either. KC 02:22, 27 April 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Description