They may not follow a queen or produce honey, but the native mason bee is still a pollinator.

And Missy “Queenbee” Anderson is on a mission to get more of them into the community.

Dressed in all black, head topped with antennae, Anderson imitated her “favorite bee” at the Feb. 13 talk held at the Sammamish City Hall. The talk is one of five Washington State University Master Gardener workshops held in Sammamish through June.

Anderson, with Rent Mason Bees, offers mason bee kits to gardeners and fruit growers in need of pollinators in the Pacific Northwest.

“Mason bees are very gentle,” Anderson said.

Due to their non-stinging nature, Anderson likes to use them in teaching children about bees and pollinators.

Mason bees, about the size of a house fly, emerge in the spring, when fruit trees bloom. And while they are only briefly in flight, they live year round.

They spend most of their lives — about 10 months — developing in darkness and hibernating in the winter until temperatures reach about 55 degrees.

The female does not emerge until she’s mated, at which point the males die off, no longer useful.

“Belly flopping” into flowers, the female mason bee zips about gathering pollen for her eggs, Anderson said. “Dare I say these bees have ADD.”

Over the next six weeks or so, she will fly from her home, a hole about 5/16th of an inch wide, in search of flowers.

Back and forth. Back and forth.

As a short-flight bee with a 300-foot radius, she’ll collect pollen 25 times before laying an egg. Through the process, she can decide the sex of her offspring.

Then she gets dirty, scooping up mud and bringing it back to her hole. She compartmentalizes her offspring, starting with the first egg at the back of her hole.

And back to pollen.

For each egg, she might visit more than 1,800 flowers. (On her scale, for example, each dandelion floret would count as a single flower.)

There are several natural predators, such as birds or spiders, or environmental conditions, such as mold, that can kill the bee.

Rent Mason Bees provides several bee kit options, which includes the bees, a clay mix for mud and the structure where females will lay their eggs.

“If we provide a man-made structure … we can easily increase the population of these bees,” Anderson said.

When the females are done laying eggs, around June, customers drop off the mason bee structure for Rent Mason Bees employees to take care of the rest.

For more information on Rent Mason Bees, visit www.rentmasonbees.com.

The next Master Gardeners workshop at Sammamish City Hall will cover growing garden vegetables March 12.