My bumble bees

[robo mantis]

Hello! I'm fairly new here and i currently don't have any honey bees. Though i do keep bumble bees. I build nest boxes for them, make nest sites, and captive rear colonies. I keep my bumble bee colonies in nest boxes with special door flaps. These door flaps keep out parasites such as wax moths. I've had tons of success this year! I would love to share my bumble bee knowledge and answer any questions you may have about them. Here are some of my colonies from this year.

My Bombus bimaculatus colony. This colony was very successful and produced 50 new queens! The average is just around a dozen! Well here is some footage of that nest.

The foundress queen returning to the nest from one of her last foraging trips before the workers took over foraging:
http://www.youtube.com/user/robomant.../4/9oHAS7gWXjc

Here is a new virgin queen leaving the nest for the first time (note how she does an orienting flight):
http://www.youtube.com/user/robomant.../1/80qZ7v8Laa0

Here is a new queen returning to the nest for the first time. She has a little trouble with the door, but she does make it in:
http://www.youtube.com/user/robomant.../0/W4wR7qRDeCA

Another nest in a viewable nestbox. This video has a worker putting pollen in a storage pot:
http://www.youtube.com/user/robomant.../3/KpWBCf21S3c

Here is a different nest. This species is Bombus impatiens. I have them in a viewable nestbox. This video was taken early June. This nest has 150 workers currently and has gone into producing males and new queens. I will make more updates of them soon:
http://www.youtube.com/user/robomant.../2/8cqyOnxQMHk

I hope you enjoy and please comment!

[aprici]

Very nice! How did you get started keeping bumble bees, did you just create the nestbox and a bee found it or?

[seal62]

Awsome ...The door hatch is wonderfull ..

[robo mantis]

I got started keeping them because I love social insects and I thought bumbles would be a good next step. I plan on keeping honey bees soon. So the bumbles really helped me prepare and such. As far as getting the nests... Its really kind of complicated. To sum it up though I basically provided a nestbox with nest materials and put a queen in there and got her to stay. There is a lot more to it, but I don't want to type like a whole page on it haha! If you want to know more you can message me or something.

Yeah the door hatch works great i have this hive and its free of parasites!

[featbee]

nice work plan to see all of your links. I can keep my eyes open on our property. thx.

[Seymore]

Wow! Too kewl!