Bumble bee boxes

[hunter001]

Hi
As Bumble bees are on the decline. i think we should try and help them. i found this link on how to make a bumble bee box.

I've made one and its already got visitors

http://www.english-nature.org.uk/about/ ... eaflet.pdf

[wendy]

Thanks for that Hunter001.
Unfortunately I have had one for well over a year, and the little blighters have not used it. Cost me a fortune, from the Chelsea Flower Show. I love bumble bees
Wendy

[Citrine]

..well, apparently they love to use old mouse nests. And the boxes to be underground! (why wasnt i told this when i bought one, eh??)

[wendy]

you and me both. This is the first I have heard of it :cry:

[chickenchaser]

I built them one last year and they ignored it but if you leave a messy bit of garden with lots of prunings,grass cuttings etc (doesn't have to be very big) I find they will over winter and nest in that. I love bumblebees too but was quite shocked when I found out they live in colonies.

Call myself a nature lover! I thought they lived alone like the little solitary bees

[wendy]

No problem with messy bits in my garden, I got plenty.

[seahorse]

I had a bumble bee nest in the bluetit box. I wondered what the buzzing was inside it , tapped it and it buzzed even louder , so I left it alone

[Citrine]

...they like the smell of old nests, you were very lucky, in my humble opinion, to have Bumble Bee nest!!

[seahorse]

Well, I wasnt sure it was bees to start with, Maybe wasps but I watched it for a while , big fat stripey bees going in to feed their baby bees....aaah. They still make wax tubes for the grubs to grow in, I looked inside at the end of summer when all was quiet again.

[saint-spoon]

At the end of the summer when the new generation of queens has fled the nest the drones all turn on the queen and each other in a macabre killing-fest. It's all to do with the hormone that the queen produces to demand obedience form her subjects and prevent them laying eggs; once it has gone they all go power mad and fight to the death. The new queens all fly off and winter in snug places ready for the new spring.