Bumblebees for pollination

I'm thinking about buying a bumblebee hive. One of these: http://www.koppert.nl/e0120.shtml

According to the website, these are essentially intended for plants grown in greenhouses, for pollination. I'm assuming that if I set the hive outside the bees will propagate and form new colonies in the wild.

Is there any reason to think they will not?

Only the young queen bumblebee survives winter around here. She selects her nesting site and lays eggs that were fertilized the fall before and gets her brood going. So I don;t know how those hives work .

I'm assuming that these bumblebees would do the same, that the new queens would leave the hive and go off to find a new site of their own.

I've never heard of a bumblebee hive. That's fascinating. We have lots of bees -- especially bumblebees. I found out the other day that blueberries are pollinated by bumblebees, not honeybees.

Karen

Sounds like a fun and useful project. Did you know there's a bee forum here too?

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/beekeeping/all/

I did, but they only seem to deal with honeybees.

That's weird; I thought bumblebees nested in the ground.

It's my hope that they will fly away and make regular wild nests of their own.

But the bees aren't cheap, and I don't want to buy them if they're just going to die out in a month or so.

They nest in the ground at least some of the time. They had a hole in the ground under some straw I had mulched my roses with. I encouraged them to move with frequent watering. I love to watch them working but was afraid they'd get aggressive.

Hi all. I saw your thread on bumblers and jumped in. I think its worth a shot if you have enough pollen producers to suppport a colony so they hang around. I can't find the nest sites of the colonys that hang in my yard every year but I've seen nests in bird houses and old trees before as well as the usual ground sites so I think they're pretty adaptable to nest sites. Moss phlox, honeysuckle, roses, bee balm, coneflowers and dahlias are their favorites in my garden. They sleep in the big dahlias in the fall when the nights get cold. They have competition from wasps and hornets who nest in my yard and honey, miner and leaf cutter bees who don't. Thank goodness the leaf cutter bees moved out when we took out the clematis tanginca cuz it was getting pretty buzzy in some spots LOL.

I've not read anywhere that bumblebees get aggressive but maybe they do. The ones here just move away if you come close. I tried to take a photo of one pollinating my hardy hibiscus -- he took off faster than the shutter could close, though - so no bee in the photo. LOL.

Karen

Bumblebees aren't agressive by bee standards but I'm not sure about their nest zone though. Bees attack anything within a certain perimeter of their nest so how big or small their attack zone is a good question.

I'm not worried about aggressive. Bumblebees are supposed to be around here, they belong.

I'm concerned about spending $$$ for a hive of bees that totally dies out before the end of the season and doesn't reproduce itself.

You don't want to import non-native bees. Why not just attract some pollinators by creating a good habitat for them?

Short but good article on attracting pollinators (U of CA)
http://celake.ucdavis.edu/files/53043.pdf

A cute and helpful pollinator garden for kids:
http://www.kidsgardening.com/growingideas/projects/jan03/pg1.html

I have a wonderous habitat for bees. I have bee balm and milkweed and clovers. But no bees.

I believe these bumbles are supposed to be natives.

We currently have a large nest of bumbles in some old straw bales around a water hydrant. We were going to clean the area up and my husband weed whacked the grass around the bales and we loaded that up and then he grabbed a bale and pulled it back and a cloud of bumbles came out and buzzed around. They didn't move more than a foot or two from their nest and so we got a really long pole and pushed the bale back in place and they were happy little campers again. We had no idea they were there and even when we disturbed their nest they didn't get aggressive, altho, I wasn't going to hang too close by when we saw that swarm. :) I was mowing by that area again in about two hours and you would never have known they were anywhere close by. Sweet little bumbles. :)

Unless you mow their nest, they are sweet and nice. I have a lot of them. They really like cone flowers and raspberry blooms.

So, honestly, you go out and never see bumblebees? That is scary. I have read that native bumbles are on the decline.

If I were you (and I actually will be doing this for my area soon), I'd research the exact species of bees native to your area of IL, and then the exact native pollen (do bees need nector too?) sources and nesting habitat. That's gotta put you on the right trail.

I hate to add another link - I know they can be tiresome to read - and you might know the Xerces Society - (their interest is invertibrates), but it's got lots of links on the home page which might be helpful.

Bumble Bees in Decline (Xerces Society)
http://www.xerces.org/bumblebees/index.html




This message was edited Jul 14, 2008 12:58 PM

Wow, that article says the major threat to bumblebees is these commercial hives used to pollinate tomatoes and such in greenhouses--just when I was feeling comforted by the increasing number of bumbles in my garden as the honeybees have declined over the past four years. Shoot, now we have killed off huge numbers of our honeybees with our foolish doings, we have to start on the bumbles?

I have to say that this year I have seen many more kinds of bumblebees than before, plus lots of mason bees, which are living in my carport roof, other bees I don't recognize, and plenty of carnivorous critters like wasps and yellowjackets. I have seen one single honeybee, and it was messed up, not able to fly well and couldn't seem to figure out how to get into the flower and get some nectar.

Seven years ago we had hundreds of bees in our lavender
and salvia. For the last two years they have virtually
disappeared.

This year I began planting some veggies in large containers
and today, more than a month after planting, I actually saw
a bee buzzing around the tomato flowers. One bee --- how sad.
I am avoiding all pesticides and hoping that more bees will be
encouraged to come.

This bee disappearance problem portends far greater problems for us all, I fear. It is worldwide and no explanation fits except an atmospheric thing such as maybe ozone depletion.

I live in a sparsely populated area surrounded by miles of natural woodland, swamp and salt marsh. It is so natural that the Feds have been buying up land for years and calling it the "last untouched savannah" in the country, aka The Grand Bay National Wildlife Preserve. The winds are almost always off the Gulf which one would think would be clean.

I have a yard full of fruits, nuts, vegs and flowers and no bees. What's going to be next?

I know that the commercial bees are a species native to my area - B impatiens -

What gives me pause is a study that says a species of native bumbles declined into near-extinction when commercial hives of that species were introduced.

I walk regularly through a prairie with fields of clover, with all kinds of milkweeds - no bees to be seen. Just a few years ago, the milkweeds were alive with bees of all kinds.

I'm fortunate that my bee populations have not declined yet but there is a noticable decline in other areas near me and in the rest of Canada so I think it will only be a matter of time before I experience the results of colony collapse disorder. Very sad and scary for us all.

There may be less honeybees here than when there were a couple hives where my garden is now, but I see several working the melons daily.

Thanks for the good bee news Indy.

Luckily, we have lots of bees of all types - they especially love blazing star liatris (not the most haralded native here, but does very well in old clay farmland) and nepeta catmint(Walker's Low) which is not a native, but I was trying to grow my own catnip. Turns out it doesn't make good catnip, but bees love the flowers. Mason bees are attracted every year to our old horsechestnut - so much so the buzzing sounds like a plane taking off in the distance! Horsechestnut is not a native either.

Strangely, I do not see as many pollinators or butterflies on some natives like Joe Pye Weed, but we have barely started planting natives that support invertibrates.

When I look around my neighborhood - it is all new homes and 1-5 acre lawns (!) - I am astounded by the lack of suitable habitat for any critter - no topsoil, no flowers, no grass goes to seed, very few shrubs or trees, only water source is chlorinated swimming pools, no piles of wood or leaves for fungi. Basically, a sterile environment. Roads, development, and parking lots. Whatever else is going on with bee collapse, surely destruction of habitat is a major player in the demise of wildlife.

OK, don't get me started! I mainly wanted to list a few flowers that are attracting a lot of bees here.

I think you hit a big nail right on the head CompostR. Thanks for sharing.

That can't be the case here. I'm surrounded by prairies, woods, streams, ponds, a variety of plants and trees. No bees.

When I was a kid, a blooming basswood tree would be alive with bees - dozens of species of them - so that you could hear it hum from yards away. I walked under one this spring - nothing.

All I see are those tiny, tiny bees I don't know the names of.

Admittedly, something seems to be out there pollinating a bit. While I've been crawling around the melons, diddling the females with the little male parts, a volunteer seems-to-be-cantaloupe was setting several fruits, all by itself, in another part of the garden.

Well that is the darndest thing. That is sad how other people are not seeing bees either! I see why you wanted to buy some.

Meanwhile:

Here's something interesting right in your area. They are asking people to report the bees they see. I thought you might be interested in learning what bees other people have spotted in IL.

Univ. of IL Bee Spotter program:
http://beespotter.mste.uiuc.edu/topics/index.php

Hit "Topics" and scroll down to "Download Bee Spotter Data" and choose "Verified Data" - you have to know your own latitude and longitude to find nearest locations.

Interesting that they're officially recognizing bumblebee decline.


I just wish I could be sure whether adding commercially-raised bees to the environment would be helpful or harmful.

That is so cool. I wish we had that here.

LTilton why not ask the beespotter experts what they think? Their email contact is on the site.

Fortunately Mother Nature has provided some backup. I have excellent pollination aided by I don't know what. Last year I saw more butterflies than I've seen in many years but they're not here this year. I have legions of ants, stinkbugs and grasshoppers. I have observed grasshoppers eating pollen. They'll sit in my daylilies and clean the pollen off one anther at a time just like a kid with a popsicle. If the bees were here, they'd have to be quick to get any. Very few song birds around. I have blueberries still hanging in the tops of the bushes to dry up and fall to the ground. Not too long ago, birds would have stripped them as soon as they got ripe.

There are some other very strange things going on here. I have 3 mature plum trees that bloom and bear successively with a small overlap. Not this year. Only after the first was finished did the second start blooming and same with the third. The third only got about 5 blooms and yielded one plum.

I've been puzzling over the fact that many of my daylilies are almost twice as tall as normal. I just read on that forum that this is also happening in other parts of the country. This is after a "normal" spring with all cultural things being the same.

All of this is upsetting and confusing to me. I want things orderly and reliable like it used to be. I wonder if the bees got confused. I know there are lots of brilliant minds trying to figure all this out but .....hurry up already. It seems to me that a purchased group of bees or bumbles would suffer the same fate as the natives.

Great point about the other insects twiggybuds. I'm an ant fan. They are great aerators which I need in my clayey soil and ant colonys are easy to move if they're in the way. I think they get a bad rap for being aphid herders. They do more beneficial things IMHO.

I am promised an answer from an expert on bumblebee decline, which is apparently so much acknowledged as a problem as to have a name.

Hello, all!

I started to prune my white lavenders, here in the Northern California Foothills, when I finished about half of one plant, I decided to forego that activity until the flowers were spent due to the huge amount of bumblebees! While I was cutting, they did not bother me in the least, nor when I brush by the plants. I read somewhere in a old book that they used to be called "humblebees"! Has anyone ever heard that before?

I haven't seen any honeybees since early spring, on the rosemaries. There were not so many as in past times, but I don't see any of them now. I will check when the other rosemaries come into bloom again, as it seems to be their favorite.

I have been considering beekeeping, as my mother did so in the past, though it seemed to be a complex operation with a lot to do. I just would like to be able to help increase the bee population, though I grow plenty of flowers, and will be doing more, since my operations. I have been rejuvinating my flower beds as well as planting more varieties. I also enjoy the butterflies, so I have planted several milkweeds and well as 3 Buddlieas. What other flowers do they prefer the most? I have several kinds of daisies as well as coneflowers, campanula, anchusa, roses, yarrow, daylilies, lilies, callas, a bunch of colorful annuals in the color bowls as well, and some flowering shrubs as well as others. I heard the honeybees prefer blue flowers. In that case, I will look for more to plant. I have some seeds of bachelor buttons and chicory, which I have not yet sown.

Thanks,

Evelyn

Honeybees love bachelor buttons, shirley poppies, white clover, squash/melons. and linden trees[basswood].

Also honeysuckle, monarda (bee balm), knautia are big magnets in my garden and very hardy. If anyone is on an acreage and can let it run wild clematis tanginica is probably the best for bees I've every had but its agressive.

Here they work mostly the yellow sweet clover and dandelions. Yesterday I was trying to disconnect a water hose that had a bad gasket and small leak. There was at least twenty of my honey bees on enjoying a nice cool drink, It was quite a battle! I think they won:-)

Usually near my water faucets are yellowjackets and wasps. I trap the yellowjackets, but the wasps don't usually bother us, unless we sit on one! LOL! :-)