Bumble Bee

[ebee]

Today i saw a strange thing, a large queen bumble bee was squeezing through the mouse guard on one of my hives after much effort it got into the hive but just as quick it squeezed back out chased by the girls, i can only think it must have been desperate for food to risk such feat.

[Jon]

They are looking for nest holes at this time of year.
You see them scouting up and down the hedgerows looking for an old mousehole or a gap to squeeze into.

[ebee]

They are looking for nest holes at this time of year.
You see them scouting up and down the hedgerows looking for an old mousehole or a gap to squeeze into.

Thanks Jon, i have noticed them scouting but not going into a live hive the things you learn when keeping bees. Ta

[Jon]

I have seen the odd one go into a hive and get killed at the entrance.
I didn't know a bumble could squeeze through a mouse guard.

[wee willy]

I was working a hive once when a large bumblebee Queen landed on the frame tops , before she could fold her wings she was dragged down between the frames by dozens of workers only to be, in what seemed like seconds, dumped out of the entrance in pieces !
WW


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[The Drone Ranger]

Here's an interesting article about bumble bee breeding
It goes back a long way and one of the things Sladen did to encourage bumble bee queens to lay was to put them with some honeybees ?
Funny how solving one problem creates another like importing bumblebees
£100 for a bumblebee colony ?
Gardeners tempted to have one removed would be better selling it :)
http://www.webbee.org.br/bpi/pdfs/livro_02_velthuis.pdf

[The Drone Ranger]

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/BAN_ALL_BUMBLEBEE_IMPORTS/?copy
Biobees are worried by the imports

[The Drone Ranger]

Much better value £70 in a nice little hive
For the allotment holders a safer bet than honeybees ?