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Oh happy day!

8K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  dcross 
#1 ·
I uncovered three bumblebee queens while rototilling the garden today. They look like bombus impatiens, which are commonly raised in captivity:) They're spending the winter in my refrigerator.

Amazingly, every one of them went through the tines of the tiller, and I stepped on one, but they all look fine.
 
#4 ·
They were in full sun, fairly soft ground that might have been covered by watermelon vines when they dug in(bare now), they were less than two inches deep. There is a small pile of woodchips nearby but they were at least a foot away from it.

I've got them in tiny Glad ware containers with lots of slits in the top and bottom and some shredded leaves. I put the small containers in a larger one with a damp paper towel for humidity and then covered it loosely.

According to Befriending Bumblebees that should do it. :shrug:
 
#5 ·
I've never tried to keep bumblebees alive overwinter. I do know the biology of bumbles. Only the mated queens survive through the winter. Are you trying to keep the workers alive?

>According to Befriending Bumblebees that should do it. :shrug:<

What does this site say? I'd be interested to see if you can keep the old queen and her workers alive in your frige.
 
#10 ·
Cool! I had 'scheduled' to build bumble bee boxes this week, but have been building/rebuilding a goat barn instead. I demolished this old mini barn and am building a new one with the good hardwood thats still there. In a few of the pieces, I cut into carpenter bee tunnels and found overwintering, mature carpenter bees. I put those pieces up in a dry place and hope to re-establish them in the spring. I think carpenter bees have an untapped potential as commercial pollinators, but it may be one of my many hair-braind schemes! Either way I think they are cool and like having them around.

I also got into looking into my blackberry patch for Ceratina bees. There is a picture of them at this link.
http://www.cirrusimage.com/bees_small_carpenter.htm

Looking in my blackberry patch, I found old blackberry twigs that died probably year before last. The ends where burrowed into, and dissecting them, I found overwintering Ceratina bees. I put some of these up as well and harvested some of the larger blackberry twigs to make bundles and try and make Ceratina nests out of them in spring.
 
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