Bumble Bee Story.

[paulinemiller10]

Glad your going to keep an eye on the bumbles Cowgirl, they only need a drink and warmth, once they can fly they are ready to go.

Its wonderful you have seen so many bumblebees about aeshna5, but it is always a lot warmer in London, I m hoping for lots in my garden this year.

I hav'nt seen any Bumbles here in West Wales either Susie, but I m looking forward to hearing them buzzing around again in the garden.

Pauline

[Hedgehoggy]

Just catching up with this thread, and your stories are truly inspirational, Pauline Keep up the good work, and please keep us all updated with any new tales, I really enjoyed reading this thread

[paulinemiller10]

I m just writing about last years tale Hedgehoggy, its nice to know people enjoy reading them, I m very fond of the bumble bees, I love watching them buzzing about, and in this next story I m going to write about how my bumbles became my little friends. Pauline.

[Tracey.A]

Just read your Bumble Bee story, it was lovely and very heart warming I will be looking out for other tales. I love the way you told this story. I have a ten year old son and I think he will enjoy reading it as well

Tracey

[Tracey.A]

Pauline, Just read your story to my son, he loved it! He didn't know you could give a bee a honey drink or that bees can sometimes be covered in mites, so not only did he enjoy the story he learnt something as well.

Tracey

[paulinemiller10]

I make long boxes for sick bumble bees, they can also be used for them to nest in, they have three compartments, one for food, the nest and a small one on the end with a shutter to open when they are well enough to be set free, I m always hoping they will decide to stay and make it their home, but I have yet to have a bumble stay and use the nest.

If I find a bumble that needs help, I put them in a bumble box with sugar water, if they won’t drink it, I might try honey, if they are not interested I take them out in the garden and see if they will feed from the flowers, posting pics of a bumble that was nt interested in drinking, she would climb from my finger onto the flower, if she did nt like it, she would climb back onto my finger, once I found the flower she liked I could then feed her this way, when she finished with one flower she would then climb back on my hand to be lifted to the next one.

You must remember these are wild bumble bees and have got a sting they can use, I m careful picking these bumbles up, nice and quiet and no quick movements, they soon get to know you are helping them and soon learn to trust you, I also buy cut flowers in Spring for the visiting bumbles, and any that are in the sick box, they will last a lot longer in the garden, and it all helps to feed them.

My Bumble Friends.
Last Spring I opened the shutter for a recovered Bumble, and I noticed her flying around the box a few days later, and all the sugar drink had gone, so I filled it up again, I m quite excited now thinking she might be staying, but watching the cam for a while I soon found she was’nt using the nest, just coming back for food, and as time went on, baby bumbles arrived, and they too found the hole and went in for the food, I also noticed they where looking for anything that was blue, I use the blue milk tops to feed them, and Mrs Bumble must have told the babes the direction and what colour to look for, very clever I thought, they would buzz around anything that was blue, if I had a blue cup of tea, they would buzz around it.

It was nt long before I had loads coming, and from different directions as well, and different nests, so I made a small feeding house out of an old bread box with a glass top which opened, and holes in the side to go in, it was easy to get them in, just left the lid opened and put it next to the sick box, they could see the blue milk caps with the food and flew straight in, they soon found the holes and used them, I needed to keep the lid closed, if it rained all their food would get full of water, there were bumble bees coming from all over, they also used all my plants to feed on as well.

But like all wildlife we feed there are always problems, if you leave food out for hedgehogs and birds, Mr ratty wants a share too, but the first problem I had was ants, they found the food and it was soon black with ants, but I had a quick fix for them, made small legs on the box and a bowl of water for each leg, no more ants, the next problem was the garden door, it was buzzing lol, and visitors found them scary, so would have to move it, another problem was the food, I could nt go out for the day as the bumbles would run out of food, this I solved with giving them a bird water dispenser, but after one getting right under the sugar water and floating on the top inside the dispenser, it was lucky I found it in time, I found a small stone the right size for a quick fix, later I cut a small bit of plastic to block the hole but let the drink come through, it was a very busy time, so many problems, and I know these are the small problems, it was still early in the year, the honey bees or the wasps hav nt arrived yet...... story to be continued if people are not fed up with my Bumble Friends.

Pics of bumblebee on my hand feeding on flowers, she was too weak to fly, but could manage to crawl.

Pic of the feeder with the legs ready to put the bowls of water to stop the ants, note the green frame behind with red bowl under the leg to stop ants, the bumbles in sick boxes are above on this frame, so have to keep the ants out.

Pic inside the bumble feeder and bumbles feeding on the dispenser.

[Cowgirl]

Not likely Pauline, I'm hooked! I have an old bread bin that I'm now eying up.

Could you post pics of your sick bee boxes. I'd like to know what they look like as well.

Keep writing

[artdemole]

Over bumbled about the looking after the sick..I'll bee back to see more..

[Hedgehoggy]

What innovative ideas you have, Pauline. You are clever

For one thing, I’d never have thought to use bowls of water to deter the ants! Me thinks you should patent your bumble feeding station, it’s ingenious and I want one too! I googled for a water dispenser like yours and the closest match I could find was this.
2x M Savic B Bird Waterer Feeder for Cage Birds Aviary on eBay (end time 24-Feb-10 17:17:10 GMT)
Would this be suitable do you think? The drinking trough in the others I came across all looked far too deep.

This instalment, along with your superb pics, has totally enthralled me. Keep ‘em coming please

(P.S. Just have to ask, have you ever been stung by one of your bumbly friends? I always look around for a suitable leaf to pick up any lethargic bees I come across!)

[Moonmoth]

Hi , I always give the newly woken queens diluted honey or maple syrup if I find them wandering around looking lost ,this seems to perk them up enough to send them on their way again .Though I'm sure they would prefer your Five star treatment !