There are so many different things you can do on a homestead, from raising farm animals to growing a vegetable garden! Many homesteaders have started adding bees to their properties. While some are getting hives to enjoy their own honey every season, others are focusing on improving their garden yield with leafcutter bees!
These superpollinating, docile bees are a great addition to any homestead and are super easy to care for. Here are just a few reasons why you should consider adding bees to your homestead, and how to find pollinator bees for sale from Kind Bee Farms!
Increase Pollinator Diversity
Native pollinators like bees, birds, and butterflies need habitats to forage, collect nectar, and share pollen with plants, and introducing extra pollinators can help you create these habitats!
Adding one or several bee houses (depending on the size of your land) increases the variety of pollinators, adding more diversity to your crops.
When you keep bees, it is important to plant things that they will be drawn to. Leafcutter bees are low-flyers, and usually go to low-growing fruits, vegetables, and plants first.
While the birds and butterflies tackle taller plants like sunflowers and crawling vines, leafcutters focus on low-growing plants like squash, nasturtiums, and hostas.
Get a Better Yield from Your Fruit and Vegetable Gardens
Adding extra pollinators to your property can help it burst forward with blooms!
Leafcutter bees are fast, hardworking bees that pollinate 20 times faster than honey bees, and adding them to your homestead can help your garden grow faster and bigger; you might even have to start cutting your plants back due to the level of growth!
This is particularly beneficial for homesteaders growing their own food, as better pollination means juicer, tastier fruits and vegetables, and more produce overall.
Whether you preserve and can food for the winter, sell produce at the local farmer’s market, or host a U-Pick for your local community, leafcutter bees can make a big difference in your crop yield!
A Great Family Project for Homeschooling
Kids can learn a lot of important skills and life lessons from homesteading, which is why many rural families prefer to homeschool. If your children are homeschooled, keeping leafcutter bees can be a great opportunity to teach them about pollination!
You can include the Bee Starter Kit in your science lessons, and take care of your kind bees as a family! When the bees arrive, have your kids decorate the bee house (we have some interesting ideas on our Blog!), choose a fun mounting agent, and show them how to release the bees.
Once they are active and flying around your property, you can take daily trips to your garden so the kids can observe the bees and how they work.
Leafcutter bees are gentle, docile pollinators, so you won’t need to worry about little hands and sharp stingers—our kind bees love to play with kids!
What to Consider Before Ordering Your Leafcutter Bees
Homesteads and hobby farms are the ideal environment for active leafcutter bees, benefiting both your property and the surrounding area with enhanced pollination!
At Kind Bee Farms, pre-orders are currently available, so you can order now and get the ball rolling on your summer growth plans! Before you order, make sure to keep the following points in mind:
- The temperature and peak growth period: Gardens benefit most from leafcutter bees when they are already in bloom, which, for most areas of North America, is during peak summer temperatures in June and July.
- Don’t order too early: Leafcutter bees thrive in the heat and are at their best in 20°C or above. If you have already selected a shipping date that is too early, contact us, and we can fix it for you!*
*Disclaimer: If the weather is not conducive to bee survival when your shipping date arrives, we may choose to change the shipment without customer input. You can contact us if you have any questions.
Find Pollinator Bees for Sale from Kind Bee Farms
If you are ready to add a leafcutter bee house to your homestead, partner with Kind Bee Farms! For over 30 years, we have been raising leafcutter bees on our Saskatchewan-based alfalfa farm, aiming to increase bee populations across North America. We are so excited to help you along on your beekeeping journey!
The best way to bring our bees to your front door is with our Bee Starter Kit, which includes everything you need to set your kind bees up for success: an orange box of 200+ bees, paper nesting tubes, and our weather-resistant acacia wood Bee House.
Visit our Shop to place an order today and get ready to see these super pollinators buzz off to work!