Bumblebee on Astrantia flower
The importance of bumblebees as agricultural pollinators can’t be overstated. Unlike honey bees, they are able to forage in cold, rainy, and cloudy conditions, so it is possible to see them in all kinds of weather. Even on a cold morning you can find a bumblebee sleeping inside a flower blossom waiting for some warmth to arrive. Some of the crops that bumblebees like to pollinate include tomatoes, peppers, raspberries, blueberries, chives, cucumbers, apples, strawberries, alfalfa, blackberries, soybeans, sunflowers, beans, cherries, apricots, plums, almonds, nectarines, peaches, rosehips, eggplants, and cranberries.
Buzz pollination
Bumblebees are also important pollinators of many flowering plants and are generalists, which means they pollinate by visiting hundreds of flowering plants. Their wings beat anywhere from 130 times to 230 times per second. The beating of their wings shakes the flowers until pollen is released, resulting in what is called buzz pollination.
Bumble bee decline
There is evidence that in North America some bumblebee species are declining and a few are
threatened with extinction. Species that seem most vulnerable are those with smaller climate tolerances and those that emerge later. Many species in North America and around the world, are declining at a rapid rate.
The suspected threats to wild bumblebees include the following:
1. Habitat loss due to agricultural
2. Urbanization or pollution
3. Pesticide use
4. Pathogen spillover from managed bees
Move-in ready
Most bumblebees nest in underground nest, logs or other crevices. You can help the bumblebees come to your property by providing a in nest, just as you would for mason bees.
Since most bumbles nest in the ground or a dark, dry cavity, you can provide a simple ground nest with a clay pot, a saucer, some straw, piece of chicken wire, and a short piece of garden hose for an entrance. The low zig zag flight of a queen searching for a nest can be observed in the spring and is very distinctive.
A mature bumblebee nest can contain up to 400 residents, as compared with 50,000 to 80,000 in honeybee nests. The bumblebee nest is typically located in the shade of a dry location. The straw used is often obtained from a mice nest, as a queen will be attracted to the smell. For complete instructions and diagrams, go to Hartley Botanic. The queen will overwinter in the nest to start a new colony in the spring.
7 Comments
I’m am so very fascinated with all things bees!!! I really need help showing my love and support for bee colonies everywhere! I plant sunflowers for the bees! (Squirrels sometime destroy them ) I don’t ever spray my grass and won’t spray weeds ! I would love a hive I buy honey every trip to the grocery and wax pollen etc etc. thanks for the info and all that you do for us !
Thanks for caring!
Is there a way, or should we peek in from time to time to make sure that is in fact occupied by bumblebees and not wasps or other unwelcome guest?
Just observe who goes in and out. I wouldn’t open to check
Does this information apply to Northern Climates, such as Central British Columbia, Canada?
What a lovely webpage. Thankyou for the helpful bumblebee nest design :-).
I’ll give it a go next winter.
Some bumblebees have nested between the layers of a flannel bedsheet that was folded up on my porch, previously used to cover and protect plants from the late frost and freeze we had this spring. I don’t know what to do with them. Some of the hatched out bees have gotten caught under the sheet layer and died. I humped it up in the middle so they can fly in and out. It has to be hot though because there isn’t much air flow. What should I do with them?