![]() ![]() Stay away from long fibred synthetic substances as they might strangle your bees. On top of this you provide the nesting materials like, old leaves, finely chopped hay, dried mos, upholsterers wadding, kapok. Things like woodchips (the kind you use for your pet rabbit) or rockwool will do or if you like you can add an extra card bord box inside. Bumble bees are not very clean and soil their own nests, so you should start with a layer of stuff that is easely cleaned out after bumble bee season. ![]() A queen won't bring in her own materials, but works with what she finds in a nest. When you place the box, you should provide nesting materials for the queen. Bumble bees are especially attracted to blue, but can't see a lot of red so that's something to keep in mind. To give the bumblebees an orientation point, you can paint the entrance around the opening in a bright color. The first queen that I added pushed the mesh away and escaped. Make sure to fix it properly as bumble bees are very strong. Last thing to do is to cover the ventilation holes with some sort of very fine mesh to prevent the bumblebees from using it as a 'door' and to prevent other animals like ants and wax-moths to come inside. On one of the boxes that I build, I added a 'landing pad' for the bumble bees so that they don't have to fly directly into the hole. A heavy roof tile is put on top to prevent it from blowing off and to protect it against the rain. The lid is held into place by two strips of wood that are glued on the inside of the lid to prevent it from sliding open. Everything is glued and screwed together except for the lid. I used 18mm plywood for the sides and 9mm plywood for the top and the bottom. The only things that are important are, that the entry hole should be about 25mm in diameter and that the nest chamber itself should not be smaller than 150mm x 150mm x 150mm. My boxes are 350mm long, 196mm wide and 170mm high, but you can alter these dimensions to match bits of leftover wood you have lying around. The measurements of the box are not an exact science. Bumblebees are not very fussy when they choose a nest, but they like a place with a long entrance (some of them can dig tunnels of more than 2 meters to their nest) or a vestibule. If you are interested in the other types of boxes, then you'll find lots of designs on the internet. I will show you how to build just one type of wooden box here. You can keep them in a buried flowerpot or teapot, a cardboard box, stone box or styrofoam box, and many more. You can buy commercially bred bumblebees in a box for pollination, but in this Instructable I'll tell you how to build your own box and how to start your first bumblebee population.īumblebees can be held in a very wide range of nest boxes, made out a lot of materials. These boxes can hold between 50 and 600 bumblebees (depending on their species) and they will pollinate your garden for about 8 to 10 weeks. Having a nest box near your vegetable patch could increase your crops in a significant way. So bumblebees will go from flower to flower much more than bees, who home in on the best spots. They also can't tell their kin where the best flowers are. Firstly because they have longer tongues, so that can get in deeper flowers and secondly because of their ability to carry more pollen. They are one of the best pollinators in the animal kingdom. If you are an avid gardener, then you should welcome these animals with open arms. Most of the time, they will try to fly away from you or they will drop on their back on the ground with their stinger pointing at you. ![]() They are very docile creatures that will ony sting you (yes they can sting!) as a very last form of defence when you attack them yourself. Having a nest of bumblebees in your garden is not a bad thing. They will fly from hole to hole (in the ground or in walls) looking for a suitable place for a nest. You can also recognize queens who look for a nesting place by their behavior. All bumblebees die in autumn each year, with the exception of the new queens who go into hibernation till the next spring. You can easily recognize them, because they are the only bumble bees flying out there for the moment. It is mid-March now and this is the moment, here in the Netherlands, that the bumblebee queens are coming out of hibernation. ![]()
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