Bumble bee house

Categories: All about bees, Bee hive keeping |



If it’s a clear summer day on your site and bumble bees fly, the good harvest can not doubt. And do not be afraid of bumble bees. It’s more peaceful insects than honey bees.

 You will have no problems with pollination , if you are trying to attract to your site wasps, wild bees and bumblebees by planting a variety of flowers and herbs that attract these natural pollinators . If you want these hard workers to work at your site in the summer midday, it is necessary to take care of house for the bumblebees.

In order to build a nest for bees, take a wooden box-like in size nesting box with a small hole in one side. You insert a small tube diameter (about 15mm) (0.93”) in this hole. Pipe length of about one meter (3.28′). Pipe shall protect the nest hole bumblebees from the ants. It should also be borne in mind that the distance from a hive of bumblebees should not be anthills.

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 To attract bumblebees in the hive you can use any litter of mouse nests. This can be cotton, hemp, straw from a place where mice lived. You fill the box with these contents for 2/3 of the volume.

 To choose the right place to nest, first watch the bumblebees.

Where there are no bees to flowering plants, where females do not fly over the ground in search of a future nest, laying a hive does not make sense.

And there, where in the  good weather you see the flying bees, inspecting the surface of the soil, therefore, you can easily install an original beehive in this place. Bumblebees love peace, therefore a place for the nest is better to build in the garden, away from roads and working machinery.

Now that the place is chosen, you plant a box in the ground along with the horizontal manhole. You place sod on top of the hive. The pipe should go as the entrance hole in the hole next to the nest. In the future, you need to make sure that this hole is not filled with rain water.

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Females bumblebees emerge from wintering grounds in April – May. In the meadows, forest edges, slopes of ravines young females actively examine the soil surface, searching for a place to nest. You better install hives by this time.

Bumblebee female lays dozens of eggs elongated in the new apartments, while starting to build wax honey pot 1.5-2 cm tall (0.78”). A few days later larva spawn, which the female feeds through a hole in the cell with pollen and nectar. After pupation and the release of the first batch of workers bees female-founder becomes a queen. It only lays eggs. At this point, all work in the nest other family members will do, these are the laws of caste. Some of the workers care for brood, but the majority care of feed stores.

Each bumble bee family collect pollen and nectar, flying along its route, covering a large area.

The age of workers is not long. Those who have lived for two months are very old, but the number of families increases every week. In mid-summer in the hive there is a few tens of bumblebees. In the second half of summer  young queens and drones mate and fertilized females seek recesses for the winter, leaving home forever. By the fall hives are empty.

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Bumble bee house

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