You put them out before they hatch. In my neck of the woods, the males come out in early April followed by the females about two weeks later. Those cocoons are going to hatch on their own schedule. Although you can accelarte that with warmth or delay it by cold storeage. I doubt either of those are appropriate but then again I don't know anything about your location or climate. In general they can deal with being outdoors over the winter and hatch when the conditions are right. Unless you live in an unsuitable climate. The last thing you want is for them to hatch indoors, that's likely a deatch sentence. I recommend keeping them outside protected from rain and exposed to morning sunshine. They will hatch when the time is right. They are able to forage on dandelions and other early blooming plants, even if you don't notice them. It is completely possible however that they will leave the area if there isn't any forage. The best thing you can do to keep them around is provide nesting locations. Where I live the stone fruits bloom before the female mason bees are out. Maybe the later cherries are OK. But they're mostly useful for the apples and late-blooming berries.

Clouds are the best thing possible to hold the temperature up. Clear and no wind is when the worst freezes typically happen. But frost doesn't matter. It's all about temperature which is pretty hard to accurately measure in an orchard setting. After bloom damage starts at about 28 and gets severe at about 24F.

Yes, all my grown Peach and Plum trees burst into full bloom yesterday. The Pears are beginning to open. I have four grown peach trees (on the lower terraces). The two Red Plums and several Cherries are on the terrace just below this plot, and three Peaches on the next lower terrace. Two peaches on the lowest terrace with a Pear tree and a little Apple tree. The previous owners, who were not gardeners, planted a nice little orchard on the lowest spot on the property. Of course, the frost settles there, so the those peaches get it nearly every year when we get those crazy late frosts. One semi-dwarf Pear (Barlett) and the old Apple that I loved so much died last summer during the severe Drought and extreme high temps. It made the nicest fruit every Autumn. Three years ago, we cut the top out of the big Pear and got the best crop the following year. Last year the fruit never fully developed to full size and just dried up on the tree. We only got two cups of cherries and a handful of red plums. That was it! Just too hot and too dry in spite of all the irrigation every day. The water just never got down to the roots. Everything growing was vying for that same water. Moisture depth was only 1-2 inches even though I irrigated my entire yard all day long every day. Native trees all over the state were even reportedly dying. It was a horrible summer. I have hopes that this summer won't be a repeat. We have already received more rainfall this year than we did last spring and more is on its way. Yeah! I have drip lines ready to lay in under these little trees, just in case. Anyway, I am hoping that putting the new fruit trees on this upper terrace will help with the late frost problem. ~Annie

I noticed when we bought our place in the fall of '09 that we seemed to have a LOT of honey bees. I was very pleased to see that. Not sure if maybe the folks that owned the orange orchard that has been abandoned, or maybe the working avocado orchard just above it are keeping bees. I have an entire hillside covered in lavender, rosemary, several large mature bunches of Pride of Madeira and I have 4 large ceanothus. All of which are absolutely covered in bees every day. If you walk out in my yard, you can hear my entire yard humming. It is really rather amazing. They never bother any of us, even though our pool is steps away from a huge rosemary and Spanish and French lavenders, but they never ever stop working. I end up with huge amounts of pollination for my citrus (hundreds of Meyer lemons for example), and I hope this will also be the same with stone fruit. My poor wee espaliered Anna, which is mostly in the shade (and my bees aren't very busy in the shade) already has 25 apples. So, maybe they've helped my little Anna. Almost all my bees are honeybees. I do have a fair amount of carpenter bees, but have never seen any damage to my house or other wooden structures. Some wasps and hornets, but usually later in the fall. Much less so than I remember in Indiana. I can't say I've seen any Mason bees, but maybe they're out there. I think keeping Mason bees sounds very interesting, though. Patty S.