I am located in Winston-Salem, NC.

A little background.

Last year I made two wood blocks and lined them with parchment paper. 40 holes total. Got them out around March 16-18.

Placed them 6 - 7 ft off ground on east facing brick column that holds porch.

I overwintered the block with the most filled tubes on a screen porch. The other stayed in the hanging box exposed to the weather.

Ended up with about 15 holes used.

Today, I decided it was time to check the tubes.

The block that had filled first and had overwintered on the screen porch yielded about 80 cocoons of various sizes.

The block that had filled last and overwintered outside only yielded one tube with 4 cocoons and two had been eaten.

Of the other 3 tubes, two were filled with a series of mud blocks and long brown plastic looking cases (??wasp??) and the other tube was actually stuck together (???) with some sort of sticky brown material.

My questions:

A: How do I handle the cocoons that I have pulled from the tubes?, till they are ready to emerge?

B. How do I check that the cocoons I have are viable?

C. Would covering the blocks in fine mesh and leaving them in place from end of laying season till Feb. be a better way to handle the bees? Not sure when small predators are active. I guess I was worried that the bees on the sceen porch would dryout being in a sheltered location. Is that a real fear?

Anyway, I am stoked for this years activity. I am getting ready to refill my tubes and get in place for this years tenant. May even make a few more blocks for the property and friends.