Bumble Bee Story.

[Hedgehoggy]

Hi Pauline, just catching up with all your developments. Delighted to hear of the success of your deluxe new bumble house, and enjoyed looking at all your fab photos too

I showed this thread to my 9 year old son a month or so back and he was totally awestruck by your set up and how much you do to help our bumbles -- So much so, that yesterday he came bursting indoors from our garden cupping a very dead ?red tailed bumblebee pleading with me to save it like the 'bumblebee lady' does!

Keep up the great work, Pauline

[paulinemiller10]

So nice to find young people taking such an interest in small creatures Hedgehoggy, your son has the knowledge now to teach other children to care for wildlife, my grandson is not afraid of bumblebees because he is used to them, he watches them getting on with their job and knows they are not going to harm him, so he will pass that knowledge on.

The bumble house has been really busy, I was mixing up a pint of sugar drink a day a couple of weeks ago, but its all come to an end, and I just have the odd one visiting now, I remember it all came to an end this time last year, at the time I was moving the bumbles to the other end of the feeder because the lead on the new cam would'nt reach, and I thought I scared some bumbles away, but later it all started up again and I had huge amounts visiting, so I think these may be the early nests, I have seen some queens in the garden, so I expect it may be like last year and they will start up again with the later bumbles.

I m having a new kitchen fitted, so I have been very busy with no time to write, hope to have more time to write when the next lot arrive, the man who delivered the kitchen asked 'what have you got in there' pointing to the bumble house, and I showed him all the bumbles inside, he asked if they made honey, he was amazed, he had never seen anything like it.
He was telling me how a bullfinch had started visiting his garden and he had'nt seen them for years, he loves wildlife, but the next day he was watching his new bird visiting when a cat came from now where and his poor bullfinch was gone, he was so upset about it, he was looking forward to having these lovely birds visiting, so a sad little story, but it was nice a stranger stopped a little while and enjoyed my bumblebees for a few minutes while delivering my kitchen.
Glad your still around Hedgehoggy and following the bumble story, hope to have more time to write soon. Pauline.

[paulinemiller10]

The kitchen is coming to an end, not much more left to do, Ive also been keeping an eye on the bumbles visiting the garden, and there have not been many for the last few weeks, all of the first nests have come to an end, I think once the queens have flown, the nest is no longer needed.

Yesterday I started popping one or two into the Bumble House, and a few are now returning to feed, they are clever as I only show them once and most remember, I watch them fly out, then turn to look back several times marking the Bumble House, they will be back later for another feed.
The Bumble House has the shutter doors open, and the tubes are not connected which makes it very easy for the bumbles to use, so far no wasps or honeybees have found the feeder, so its been plain sailing this year, I had the best ever Spring and the biggest lot of bumbles visiting through April,May and early June drinking a pint a day of sugar water.

I remember I had the same thing happen last year, lots of bumbles visiting, then it all came to an end for a couple of weeks, then it all started up again with huge amounts visiting, so I m wondering if it might happen again, posting pic of one of the newly trained bumbles visiting today. Pauline.

[paulinemiller10]

I can't believe we are at the end of summer, it all went so fast, I hav'nt been updating as the bumble house has been quiet with no visitors, I have had a lot on over the summer and hav'nt had a lot of time, but every now and then I would pop a bumble in the house, I have had a steady stream visiting the garden, but they did'nt seem that hungry and did'nt return to the house.

I did try feeding them in the garden, but again they were not interested, but the wasps were very interested, there have been loads in the garden this year, so I had to give that idea up as well.

I still have bumbles visiting the flowers, so yesterday I thought I would have one more try, and this time Mrs Bumble was hungry and did return, I also popped a carder bee in, but they are not very good at returning, and only the odd one will get the message, but today one had returned, she was in the house on the floor, she was weak and had forgotten where the food was,(posting pic) so I gave her a helping hand, and she had a drink.
While she was drinking another bumble came in and they both had a drink from the same bowl, (posting pic)the other bumble flew off with her food and the carder bee kept drinking, then she too flew off to feed her nest, pic of her flying through the shutter doors which are left open as the wasps don't know where the food is.

The bumble house has worked really well, it has kept nice and dry, the shutter doors are still working well, but it does need a good clean out, the huge amount of bumbles that used it early in the year left a lot of dirty feet marks, so will give it a good clean when the last bumbles have finished feeding this year. Pauline.

[paulinemiller10]

All my lovely bumblebees have been gone for some time now, I hope they have all chosen safe places to hibernate for the winter, I miss them, it will be a long wait until next Spring.

This year they all came early in huge amounts, they were getting through a pint of sugar water a day from April to the end of June when the new queens arrived, they too came back to feed for a while, but as the nest had finished they often just visited the flowers, the Nasturtiums have flowered from early Spring and are still in flower now on the 5th of December and have been visited by the bumblebees and honey bees since they started flowering in early Spring, I have kept some seeds and will grow them again next year.

I have been cleaning the bumble house, its kept really well and nice and dry inside, the tubes did nt work so well this year, I had connections where the tubes turned corners and they did'nt seem to like the connections, they would run along the tubes, but when they got to the connection they would turn around and fly out.

So I'm trying a new idea next year, its going to be a one way system, once they go down they will have to carry on as they will not find their way backwards.
Quite a few bumbles learned to go down the tubes and did use them, but a lot did nt, so I ended up leaving the shutter doors open to feed them all.
I was very lucky as the wasps never found the food until late in the year when the bumbles had gone, but if they had found it, I would have been in trouble as I would have had to shut the shutter doors and only the bumbles that had learned to use the tubes would have been fed.
This time last year I was busy building the bumble house which was'nt finished until Spring, so did'nt give me a lot of time to plan how the tubes were going to work, and I need the bumbles to test them and as they are here for a just short time each year, it does nt give me a lot of time.
Posting a pic of the Nasturtiums, fuschia, annuals and the last yellow rose of summer.

[KarinSue]

Hello Pauline,

I've been amazed lately to see the lone bumble visiting our giant lavender bush, still with a few flowers, even last weekend! I wondered what they can find to feed upon at this time of year. Perhaps next year I'll put out a feeder about this time.

I hope you have a lovely bit of holiday to rest up before next spring when I bet you'll be doing spring bee house cleaning.
Best,
Karin

[paulinemiller10]

Nice to hear about your lone bumble KarinSue, I bet she's in bed now waiting for Spring, Yes I shall be sorting the bumble house out long before Spring, I have some new idea's for the tubes that were not so successful this year, I have been working on them, but I have been busy with other jobs and Christmas, so hoping for a sunny day to start again.

Also the nesting boxes need to be cleaned out, I have some hanging basket moss that was been sold off cheap last year, its nice and dry now and I m thinking of using it mixed with old lagging for the nests this year, they seem to like the lagging more than most bedding materials, I had some lagging on top of my washing machine that's in the shed and some in the hog house, and this was used last year, they chewed a hole into it and made a nest, I don't think its ideal, but it seems to be what they like.

Anyway nice to hear your still enjoying your bumbles, seems like your hooked on them like me, sorry I ve been so late replying, just been very busy. Pauline.

[HedgehogRescue]

Found a bumble last week but it was too late. Poor thing must have frozen to death.

[paulinemiller10]

That's a shame Gill, when a queen bumble wakes up after hibernation, she will be weak and must find food soon, once she warms up she will fly off to search for flowers, if she lands where there is no food she may be too weak to fly again and will die, such a shame when they have made it through hibernation. Pauline.

[paulinemiller10]

Here we are in March 2012, Spring is the best time of the year, the birds are singing and building nests, plants are starting to grow and some already flowering, the trees have buds and some have green leaves but the most exciting time is when my bumblebees come buzzing back to visit my garden.

I saw my first queen bumble towards the end of February, and had three visit in one day last week, these bumbles were fit and healthy darting around, one searched along the wall looking for a place to nest, another looking for flowers, they are feeding on heather, flowering currant, a cherry tree, Skimmia and cut flowers, I have moved my weeping willow that's in a pot into the sun and given it a liquid feed, it will be the bumbles favorite food for the rest of March and April, I have shrubs and plants flowering each month to make sure the bumbles have plenty of food.
I always carry a small box with tissue paper this time of the year for bumblebees that are unable to fly, they will spend time recovering in the bumble house with cut flowers and a sugar drink.

I have been busy putting up more nest boxes, they seem to like loft insulation, I had four nests in this material last year so I have used it in some of the beds this year, I think they may not use a nest because they simply don't find them, so I m using small black plastic seed pots with a layer of soil inside to hide the plastic and fixed them on the hole going into the boxes, I ve noticed they like dark places, so I m hoping for more nests being used this year.
The bumble house has kept nice and dry over winter, Ive been setting up the cam and getting it ready to feed this years worker bumbles when they arrive, I ve been changing the tubes for a one way system as they did nt use them a lot last year, I was just lucky the wasps did'nt find it until late in the year when the bumbles had almost gone.
Hoping for another good year with lots of buzzing around the garden. Pauline.