"Bumble" Beekeeping

[TheMaineBee]

I was just having another one of my random thought attacks again-
I wish it was possible to keep Bumblebees
I could watch them pollinate flowers for hours. I love it! and it is so relaxing!

[bnatural]

How about some orchard mason bees? They sell kits on-line:

http://www.masonbeehomes.com/

Bill

[KQ6AR]

I believe there are people who keep them. I know they are purchased & used in greenhouse pollination.

Don't know of any good places for you to learn more about it.

[wayacoyote]

I think it is called Bombiculture.

[TheMaineBee]

I was just looking up on Bombiculture..I never knew about it
I'd love to keep Bumblebees one day...
Thanks!

[Mr. BeeKeeper2]

There are people who keep bumblebees. I saw I book about it at a bee meeting

[abeeco]

befriending bumblebees by u of MN

[TheMaineBee]

I just looked up the book and found it!

Befriending Bumblebees ( A practical guide for raising local Bumblebees) by Elaine Evans, Ian Burns, Marla Spivak

I'd love to participate in this one day!

[beeman7467]

Look up "The Humble Bumble Bee Home". I usually keep a colony every year if I am lucky enough to find one.

[Natalie]

I just saw the cutest bumble bee house in a catalog the other day and it was the first time it had ever occured to me that you could keep bumblebees.

[Carl F]

Our county's cooperative extension has a person (or maybe even a program) devoted to alternative polinators. He spoke briefly at one of our short course sessions last year. Bumble bees are fantastic polinators. They do not store much excess honey because the bees themselves do not over-winter. It is only the larvae that survive winter to fully develop in the spring. I think he said that they only store about a week's worth of stores for their relatively small colonies so a prolonged period of bad weather in spring or summer can be bad news.

[France]

Must be a diferent kind of a bumble for the larvae to survive the winter?
The ones that I had and the ones that live in our parts - only the queen survives and starts them going in the spring.

[sahara007]

where did you find a bumble bee house. i have spotted the most unusual queen in my yard i want to give her a home.. she is very large and appears to have a red fuzzy mane and white and black stripes on her ab or tail section

[Olive]

Oh, I LOVE bumblebees....they are so CUTE...they're so round and bumbly :P I would love to keep them!