Bumble Bee Collecting Goodies

[blueblood]

It's not a honey bee but just as interesting to watch.

[riverbee]

it is!!! very cool, the pollen on her legs, and the wind, and she just keeps working!!!  what plant is she on dave? 

[Zweefer]

thanks for sharing this!
It makes me wonder if one could employ bee-lining techniques to trace a bumblebee back to its nest as well?

[blueblood]

it is!!! very cool, the pollen on her legs, and the wind, and she just keeps working!!!  what plant is she on dave?

Testing me River?  It's Salvia,  .

[blueblood]

thanks for sharing this!
It makes me wonder if one could employ bee-lining techniques to trace a bumblebee back to its nest as well?

Z, I had to Google Bumble Bee nest.  Just type it in like that and you select images.  Pretty cool.  Looks like a mix between capped drone cells and wasp nests.

[riverbee]

"Testing me River?  It's Salvia,  ."

......... no i wasn't dave, but that's funny!

[apisbees]

thanks for sharing this!
It makes me wonder if one could employ bee-lining techniques to trace a bumblebee back to its nest as well?

It is hard to transfer wild bumble bee colonies.
Build nesting boxes and put them out in the early spring and a queen may make it home for the year. Once colonies are established in the nesting boxes they can be moved, if you want to establish populations in other areas, or use them in green houses for pollination.

[Beeboy]

One thing in noticed was the the bumble bee was on a purple flour but had yellow pollen in its basket.

I don't think a honey bee would do that would it?

[apisbees]

The color of the petals and the color of the pollen are not always the same color. Bumble bees are much more efficient foragers that the honey bee. They forage at cooler temperatures, they fly in the rain, they visit different flower sources in a single trip, and they will collect both pollen and nectar during the same trip.

[blueblood]

I was just thinking about their work ethic this week.  I have hyssop and other irresistible flowers near my windows so I can not only enjoy the smell the view, I can check out the pollinators.  The bumble is the first and last on them of a day.  Very hard workers.

[Beeboy]

Blue, apis,  I did not know that about the bumble bee. Very interesting! Thank you for that bit of information.

[apisbees]

More Bumble bee facts.
Bumble bees fly and forage at around 52 deg our honey bees wait till it warms up to 62 deg to go and forage. A colony of 200 bumble bees will out pollinate a colony of 20,000 honey bees. they will stay within the confinement of a green house to pollinate hothouse crops. a honey bee colony in a green house the bees will fly against the glass in an effort to forage further from the hive.

[Barbarian]

A possible further fact.

Tree Bumblebees are more likely to occupy a bird box that contains bird's nest remnants rather than a clean box.

[Gypsi]

I have a lot of bumbles this year but no clue where they are nesting. Some of my neighbors have old junk behind fences, hoping no one finds the nest until they have moved on.

[Gypsi]

well I was successful tonight. The tree with the bumblebee hive will be left alone until after first frost, when the bees will have died anyway,and the newly hatched queens will have all sought new quarters for next year.

If the tree had come down today the bumbles would have been killed and the tree removal person and possibly others seriously injured. I will go with him when he goes back and get the honey bees out

[LogicalBee]

Around here (Michigan) the bumblebee nests tend to be at, or slightly above, ground level.  I’ve stumbled upon a couple of wild hives in mid spring among my gardening debris.  It’s said the spring queens like to move into old mouse nests.  I haven’t found that yet, but it makes sense when you see the spring queens flying just above the grass as if they’re looking for something (ie an old mouse nest).  I’ve tried to bee-line those big ole spring queens, but I haven’t been successful with that yet either. 

I would like to relocate a colony into an observation hive for study this spring if I get the time.

[Barbarian]

The UK has the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

I find their website handy for when I get calls about Tree Bumbles in eaves, soffits, and fascias. The website has a useful video of a swarm (sic) of bumble drones outside the entrance of a nest.