Mason Bee Revolution, Jill Lightner
Mason Bee Revolution, Jill Lightner
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Mason Bee Revolution
How the Hardest Working Bee can Save the World – One Backyard at a Time

Author: Jill Lightner, Dave Hunter

Narrator: Michael Butler Murray

Unabridged: 6 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 10/15/2019


Synopsis

The national media regularly features dire stories on honeybee colony collapse and its danger to our food supply. But there's another, unsung bee that has the potential to save the planet—the mason bee.

Mason Bee Revolution explains how docile, hard-working, solitary mason bees (and their compatriots, the leafcutter bees) are even more productive pollinators than honeybees, and keeping them can be a fun, easy, backyard hobby for gardeners, conservationists, foodies, and families everywhere.

While scientists search for answers to save the honeybee, Dave Hunter and his company, Crown Bees, are leading the effort to increase the population of other highly efficient pollinators: One mason bee can produce twelve pounds of cherries, via pollination, where it would take sixty honey bees to achieve the same.

Mason Bee Revolution is an easy-to-follow guide to keeping both mason and leafcutter bees. It tells you how to set up, care for, and harvest your own bees and what types of plants and habitat encourage mason and leafcutter bees, as well as provides general information on other common pollinators and bee-related facts, projects, and personalities.

About Jill Lightner

Jill Lightner was the founding editor of the award-winning bimonthly magazine Edible Seattle. She is also the author of Edible Seattle: The Cookbook and editor of the Edible Communities recipe app. In addition, she has written extensively as a food critic and journalist. Jill lives in Seattle.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Lee on December 28, 2017

Problematic Editing The book indeed contains some good information but the organization and presentation is challenging. I was hoping to find an instruction manual for beginning mason bee keepers that went from acquiring my first nest to completing the first year of the cycle. Instead, it opens with......more

Goodreads review by Harry on January 22, 2020

Didn't actually finish this book bc I realized I was just forcing myself to do so. The book is a bit all over the place, repetitive, and not as helpful as I was hoping it would be. And as another reviewer pointed out, the author only talks about mason bees a fraction of the time and also discusses l......more

Goodreads review by Deborah on October 16, 2019

Mason Bee Revolution is an eye-opening and garden expanding look into another type of bee that can help farmers and home gardeners. I had never heard of them before and was truly quite informed by this book, in an easy, "Hey, I can do this!" way. I am allergic to honeybees so was intrigued to learn......more

Goodreads review by Tammy on December 29, 2016

Recently, I came across this book in my public library. Plans are in the works to start my first bee house in the spring. I am flabbergasted that I have not read about the beneficial leaf cutter and mason bees in your publication. It seems that raising solitary bees is simple and economical and even......more

Goodreads review by Natalia on March 30, 2022

As an aspiring "do all you can" native bee supporter i hoped for more practical advice and logic. After reading this book i confess i have even less confidence that i can sustain the practices described in the book as I was not convinced about keeping the bees in the fridge, have no desire to buy co......more