# Raising Bumble Bees



## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

George,
If I have time later I'll try to find some information for you. I am not sure where it is at the moment. I have a number of farms I pollinate for that also get bumblebees for hothouse and green houses. I believe all the suppliers are from Canada or in northern Michigan. Anyways, I know it is north of here. There are more out there than what you have found so far.....


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## Aspera (Aug 1, 2005)

Bjorn,

Could you pass that information along to me as well? Bumblebees are cool


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## George Fergusson (May 19, 2005)

Thanks Ace, I'm in no screaming rush. Any info you can provide will be greatly appreciated!


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## PA Pete (Feb 2, 2005)

I've got some BB house plans I found on the web at one time - I'll look for them for you George. They might still be out there on the web too - let me see what I can find. 

If I recall correctly, BBs like to nest in fibrous material, and fiberglass works well. They're not real clean, and you have to "sterilize" their nest boxes each year. This from memory, so let me go search a bit and give you some actual useful info if I can find it


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## PA Pete (Feb 2, 2005)

Found what I was looking for









Google "bombus welland plans" and you'll find this page showing an article by R Welland on Bombus and describing plans for a BB house. I have very good full-size scans of the original article quoted and shown reduced on this page - PM me with your email address and I'll send them to you









Here's another page with some addional links:

http://snohomish.wsu.edu/garden/bumble.htm


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## PA Pete (Feb 2, 2005)

Here's another (aparently) excellent (looking) pamphlet on building a BB house:

http://www.xerces.org/Backyard%203%20bumble%20bees%20jan02.pdf


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## Edward G (Aug 26, 2006)

Bumble Bees are really interesting. There is a BB nest in my lawn I've been watching all summer. It's just a hole in the ground, with bees flying in and out.

From what I understand, only the queen lives through the winter. In the spring she begins to lay eggs and builds up the colony. I may be wrong about this, though.

I'd be interested to learn more about them too.

I have a feeling that as EHBs become more and more difficult to manage there will be increasing interest in the various species of wild bees as pollinators.

Ed.


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## George Fergusson (May 19, 2005)

>Google "bombus welland plans"

Will do Pete, thanks!

>I have a feeling that as EHBs become more and more difficult to manage there will be increasing interest in the various species of wild bees as pollinators.

Well, bumblebees are particularly good at some things that honey bees aren't so good at, like pollinating in greenhouses, and servicing certain plants like tomatoes, cucumbers, and blueberries.


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## denny (Aug 2, 2006)

George,

I have a friend who has raised Bumblebees in homemade nest boxes. She would go out in the spring and catch wild Bumblebee queens and bring them home to see if they would accept the nests within the boxes she made. Some queens stuck around,...some didn't. One year she had at least five or six colonies of Bumble bees in a closet space in her apartment. Each nest box had its separate tube entrance to the outside, and she set up a red light in there so as not to disturb them when she would have to feed them , or for maintenance. The bees are red blind, meaning to them the room is without visible light. 
Here's a picture of one of the nests.....the Bumblebees are soooooo interesting to learn about their ways....  

http://img.inkfrog.com/pix/foxlbe/2.jpg 

There'a a one-page article in the Sept issue of Bee Culture, pg. 44,...titled "Bumblebees & Blueberries", by Kathy Birt. It's about someone on Prince Edward Island who raises Bumblebees for pollinating 240 acres of blueberries.....very interesting article.

[ September 15, 2006, 09:51 PM: Message edited by: denny ]


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## George Fergusson (May 19, 2005)

>There'a a one-page article in the Sept issue of Bee Culture, pg. 44,...

Yes I saw that Denny. Don't recall any contact information but I may try to look the fellow up.

That's very interesting about your friend's bumble bee keeping, and a fine picture. I'm totally psyched about this. I've got some learning to do, but I may try and catch some queens this fall and see if I can successfully get them to hibernate and emerge.


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## Andrew Dewey (Aug 23, 2005)

George - give Tony a call about this. There has been a booth at the winter ag fair the last couple of years selling bumble bees for pollination. I've got their materials somewhere. I'm sure Tony will be able to tell you who they are and give you some feeling as to the quality of their product.


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## George Fergusson (May 19, 2005)

>George - give Tony a call about this.

Ayuh, planning to. The first MSBA Bee Line I got had an article about bumble bees he wrote. I spoke to him last spring a bit about solitary bees in Maine, and he's very knowledgeable in that area. Knowing Tony, he'll be an invaluable resource.

Pete- those are excellent bumble bee sites you posted! Just got a chance to poke around them a bit.


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## Dick Allen (Sep 4, 2004)

Bumble bees arent immune to diseases and pests, either. One disease that comes to mind is Nosema caused by Nosema bombi. 

Ambrose, Stanghellii, and Hopkins authored a short 1 1/2 page paper on bumble bees and small hive beetle. 

A scientific note on the threat of small hive beetles (Aethina tumida Murray) to bumble bee (Bombus spp.) colonies in the United States

It can be accessed here (scroll down, its fourth from the bottom):

http://www.edpsciences.org/articles/apido/abs/2000/03/contents/contents.html

Not saying commercially raised bumble bees will get sick and harrassed by pests, but it seems possible when large numbers are kept. It is something to do a bit of looking into.


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## George Fergusson (May 19, 2005)

>Not saying commercially raised bumble bees will get sick and harrassed by pests, but it seems possible when large numbers are kept.

No doubt Dick. Thanks for the link. If it were easy, I suppose everyone would be doing it, eh?

I've joined the Bombus-L mailing list and reviewed the last year's worth of submissions (which didn't take long). I ran across a couple of your posts


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## BWrangler (Aug 14, 2002)

Hi George,

Bee Culture published a series of articles on bumble bee rearing about 5 years ago. The articles were very fascinating. But a few negative letters to the editor terminated the series as I remember. The series was great, but a few narrow minded honeybee beekeepers though a bee magazine should only be about honeybees.

That's the only detailed info I've seen on keeping bumble bees. The commercial aspects are apparently very proprietary and controlled by a couple of families in Europe.

One season, there were numerous bumble bee nest beneath my beehives, especially those near the mountainous areas. They were almost always associated with a old mouse nest underneath the bottom board. I tried relocating some of them to my backyard. But all attempts failed. They quickly succombed to a wax moth that would consume their nest by not bother honeybee combs at all.

Keith Delaplane was the author of the BC series. If you can't get a copy from BC, then he probably still has the info. He might have additional resources that weren't published as well. 

Regards
Dennis


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## PA Pete (Feb 2, 2005)

Here are the scans of the article and house plans from R Welland

Page 1
Page 2

Dunno why I didn't just post them in the first place!


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## power napper (Apr 2, 2005)

I have raised a colony of bombus impatience on the inside of my back door. Attatched a bombus observation hive (bought from Gardens Alive) to the inside of the door and replaced the door knob with a short piece of pipe into the hive. One winter a queen spent the winter inside a bed of upholstery cloth and nested, all went well until the hive started to wreak. Had to take it off the door and put it outside. 
If I remember correctly there are other posts on this forum about bombus.


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## PA Pete (Feb 2, 2005)

Geez thanks George - now you've got me interested in BBs again  

Say I build a couple houses - how do you get a "queen" to nest in one? Will a wild queen just find it and go to town?

At my parent's house there are BBs that nest in an east-facing bank next to the garage. I've seen some coming and going from a bank on the edge of my property as well. Wonder if I can dig one up, or if you have to lure them...


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## power napper (Apr 2, 2005)

Pete--in the fall the bumbles mate. The queen then finds a hole in the ground to spend the winter. 
In spring the queen searches for a nesting site, preferably an old mouse nest, but a pile of straw in a hideaway or a piece of fiberglass in a wall with a hole entry will do.
The bumbles in the spring are all mated queens. the queens that have pollen on their legs already are building reserves for their nest, try to get the ones without pollen for best results.
Place your freshly caught bumble into your prepared bumble home--it can be a can or a box or whatever. If you put the nest site into the ground with a piece of pipe leading up to the surface the bumbles will find it on their own. 
Place some cotton waste or shredded cloth into the nest site (or old mouse nest) and it will entice the queen to nest there. You can place a piece of clear plastic over the nest then a board for an observation hive.
Mostly I find their nests under a flat rock here.
Hope this helps.


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## George Fergusson (May 19, 2005)

>Geez thanks George - now you've got me interested in BBs again 

Hey Buster, I got my own problems. So I'm sorry already









>Say I build a couple houses - how do you get a "queen" to nest in one? Will a wild queen just find it and go to town?

Yes, apparently. The people I've heard of with bumble bee colonies just set houses out in likely places in the spring and waited for a queen to move in and set up housekeeping. Assuming you provide well-sited and attractive digs (to a bumble bee), I think the chances are pretty good you'd be able to attract some.

>Had to take it off the door and put it outside. 

I've heard they're not the cleanest insects. Compared to honey bees, bumble bees are incorrigible slobs but considering their favorite nesting material is an old mouse nest, this isn't too surprising. I can actually relate, I've been called a slob, and worse. One look in my car is all it takes.

>The commercial aspects are apparently very proprietary and controlled by a couple of families in Europe.

So I gather Dennis, from what I've read so far. And thanks for that reference to BC. I'll see if I can dig it up.


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## beecron (Nov 7, 2004)

Can they be kept and honey extracted as honeybees are or are we talking they are pretty much only good for pollination purposes?


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## power napper (Apr 2, 2005)

beecron--the bumbles make a small honey pot about the size of a thimble. They do not build combs as a honey bee does.


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## George Fergusson (May 19, 2005)

beecron- there are 2 reasons to raise bumble bees. The main one is for pollination purposes, the other is just because you can. Benefits acrue in either case. As pollinators go, bumble bees are a lot more efficient at pollinating flowers than honey bees are and they're able to pollinate some flowers that honey bees either cannot or for various reasons will not work.

It's not just a matter of tongue length, as some people think. Yes, bumble bees have a longer tongue than honey bees, and this allows them to obtain nectar and/or pollen from flowers that honey bees can't reach or don't bother with, but that is only part of the story. They also work flowers differently and use different techniques from honey bees. For example, bumble bees have a means of vibrating their bodies to dislodge pollen from tomato and blueberry blossoms which results in more pollen grains being deposited on the female flower parts per bee visit than when honey bees are doing the duty. They also visit more flowers per minute than honey bees, for longer periods, and in different patterns. Bumble bees will fly in much colder, windier, and wetter conditions than the average european honey bee does- bumbles routinely forage in the rain for example, and there aren't many honey bees that will do that. These facts alone makes them better at pollinating some crops in the early spring in northern areas where the weather is typically not conducive to honey bee foraging.

That said, using bumble bees for commercial pollination is problematic and for various reasons, they do not lend themselves to many larger scale production pollination projects. They're better suited for smaller pollination scenarios such as in greenhouses where they're quite happy to work, and for certain crops where honey bees, for various reasons, just don't cut the mustard. For one thing, bumble bee colonies are quite small compared to honey bee colonies, typically containing only a few hundred individuals compared to many thousands of honey bees in a single hive. Bumble bee colonies are also more expensive and short-lived compared to honey bee colonies; the useful life span of a bumble bee colony is between 8 and 12 weeks compared to honey bee colonies which as you know can theoretically survive for years. You can move bumble bee colonies to different crops within the relatively short span of time they remain productive, but typically they're purchased for a one-time, one-shot pollination task. Honey bees of course, with proper management, can be trucked all over the country to provide pollination services virtually year-round, year after year.

Bumble bees don't produce surplus honey, honey bees can and often do. For many people, this fact alone is sufficient reason to invest in and keep honey bees instead of bumble bees. Honey bees can, with proper management, also be had in sufficient numbers, just about any time of the year in any place in the country. This is not necessarily the case with bumble bees.

It's time for breakfast!


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## Dick Allen (Sep 4, 2004)

I'm curious if the small amount of honey made by bumble bees would be robbed out by honey bees if kept in the same vicinity.


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## Dick Allen (Sep 4, 2004)

Bumble bees make it through the winter around here, much easier it seems than honey bees. Guess I'll have to build a bumble bee nest or two this winter also to set out next spring and try my luck. I have a Siberian Pea hedge at the edge of my front yard. Honey bees rarely visit it, but bumble bees are always seen on its blossoms.


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## Keith Benson (Feb 17, 2003)

If you are into bumbles pick up "Bumblebee Economics" By Bernd Heinrich Good read and there is some info in the back about raising them. Not a lot, but the rest of the book is cool enough for the purchase price.

Keith

PS: I have also heard that bumble bee honey is very tasty albeit limited in quantity.


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## swarm_trapper (Jun 19, 2003)

yea there is a place in michigan that sells bumble bees. ill get a number for you sometime. we have gotten bumblebees from them already they ae pretty cool. Nick


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## George Fergusson (May 19, 2005)

>Bumble bees make it through the winter around here, much easier it seems than honey bees.

Wintering over bumble bees could be as simple as putting them in the freezer for a couple of months...

>I have also heard that bumble bee honey is very tasty albeit limited in quantity.

I have heard this too Keith, though not first-hand. Not even second hand. In fact I don't know anyone that knows anyone that knows anyone who has tasted bumble bee honey.


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## Old Buzzard (Aug 7, 2004)

My father grew up during the depression, when money was tight and toys were few, and entertainment was what you made for yourself. I recall as a child, him telling me of one of the things they did for entertainment was to whittle paddles, find a bumblebee nest, and fight them with the paddles until they had overcome them. The prize being as he called it, the honey sack. He told me it was very small. He also said it did not taste unlike honey from a honeybee. He had a chipped front tooth from one of these battles. By the time I came along he was keeping honeybees, so having an opportunity to eat as much honey as I wanted, I never considered taking up this sport, and watching my father as small boys do, I also noted he had given it up long before. I always took him at his word that it tasted like honey from a honeybee.


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## BerkeyDavid (Jan 29, 2004)

Nice story Buzz

Last few years I have stacked straw around my hives as a wind break, spreading the straw as mulch around some basswood trees I planted in late spring.

This year I as I was spreading the straw I found myself face to face with a bumble bee nest. It surprised me and I instinctively threw it into the brush. THen later tried to find it without success.

THere was a little pot / comb with larva. Wish I wasn't so **** jumpy and had kept it. IT did seem like a mouse nest at first...

I have enjoyed this string. I am adding this to my list of retirement projects. WIth all the mouseholes around this place and all the bumble bees I am thinking it would be pretty easy to find a few.


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