Any advice for my bumblebee box?

[Chucky egg]

I have a bumblebee box but at the moment it's just full of snails. Can anyone give me any advice on coaxing a bee to take up residence. I've read that they like old mice nests but I don't have any spare.

Any advice would be gratefully recieved.

[aeshna5]

I can't give much advice other than bumble bee boxes are often not very effective in attracting bumble bees unlike some of the other bee homes.

[tameblackbirds]

Sorry I can't help either had mine two years just seems to be providing food for woodlice now

[stigofthedump]

Hi Chucky egg. I am having the same problem. I mailed the bumble bee conservation trust with a few questions regarding attracting a queen to my box, below is the reply.

I have just noticed this email forwarded to me by the Bumblebee Conservation Trust office regarding nest boxes. I'm not sure whether or not anyone from the office replied to you at the time, but if not, please accept my sincere apologies. Hopefully better late than never!

The association between mice and bumblebees is one that has fascinated naturalists for a very long time. Indeed, there are letters from Charles Darwin himself detailing his hypotheses regarding these interactions. However it is still something that we have very much failed to get a handle on. Bumblebee nests are very difficult to find so we still know shamefully little about bumblebee nesting ecology but all the evidence suggests that they do prefer to nest where another animal has nested before them. We think that this is because the previous occupant of the nest site gather plenty of suitable nesting material and shreds it finely so that it is easily manipulated by the bumblebee queen.

There doesn't seem to be a tight link between mice themselves and bumblebees. I have received records of bumblebees nesting in rabbit holes, hedgehog boxes and old bird nests, so I don't think that there is any specific animal that they are linked to. Having said that, we know little of the species-specific differences in nest site choice in bumblebees so it could be that some species will be more attracted to old mouse holes, other to abandoned birds nests etc.

I have been conducting a public nest survey through the Bumblebee Conservation Trust over the past two years and this will hopefully continue this summer. I'm hoping that this survey will provide us with some further insights into these areas and the results of the survey will be published in BuzzWord (the BBCT's members newsletter) within the next year.

Please do let us know how you get on with your nest boxes. Whether or not the box becomes occupied, the data that you provide will be very helpful towards assessing the value of nest boxes for bumblebees thus helping to steer our future work.

Best wishes,

Gillian Lye.

Not much help I know but it seems the Trust need records of box failures as well as success.


Vince

[Chucky egg]

Thanks for that Vince, I have had the box for several years with no success.

Sounds like lots of us in the same situation.

Helen x

[Chucky egg]

I have registered my box with the Bumblebee conservation trust.

[eucera]

Bumblebee boxes have a dismal track record at attracting lodgers I'm afraid. You are more likely to get Bombus hypnorum taking over a bird nest-box than you are to get anything in a designated bumblebox.

Rearing bumbles is a very tricky business and requires catching queens, and providing warmth (c 30 degrees) and humidity.... plus a supply of pollen and nectar.. to get them started. All of this should be done in a dedicated starter box. What is marketed is actually a finishing box, ideal for taking established colonies.

Even when I have been specifically hunting for active colonies of bumbles, I have seldom found more than about a dozen in any one year. Last year I found two - a B. terrestris and a B. humilis nest

There are books available which tell you "How to". The best I have is the one called "Befriending Bumblebees" and comes from Elaine Evans. Elaine knows her stuff, and works in the lab of the outstanding bee scientist Marla Spivak at the University of Minnesota. This book is available directly from the authors, and, I believe, through Subbuteo books (and probably others too)

Sorry to put a dampener on this, but it is probably best to be realistic.

[stigofthedump]

Thanks for the info eucera. I'm just wondering if I could convert the box into a home suitable for other insects. Any thoughts?


Many thanks.



Vince.

[Chucky egg]

Any ideas?

[Peter Nalder]

Some species of bumbelebee are happy in disused bird-boxes. If you put them up, first prize might be bumblebee nest - but second prize, anyway, would be birds inhabiting. Worth tying?