Bumblebeekeeping

[Erichalfbee]

Spotted these at the Hampton Court Flower Show.
A colony of buff tails in a plastic box enclosed in a little crafted wooden box with a hinged lid so that you could look at your bees.
They were taking orders for these and a chap was arranging one to be delivered to him in two to three weeks..... just when the colony would be thinking of raising new queens and breaking up
£130 - 160 depending on box design

People will buy anything!

 

[Graham40]

Just the thing for pollinating fruit in polly tunnels... nice idea but i think I'll pass.. Im in it for the honey

 

[betterbee]

once hired bumblebees in cardboard boxes to pollinate 4 acres of tomatoes,they arrived in a cardboard box similar to photo if only i could have put a little wooden box around them and got £160 i would not have bothered with the tomatoes.we had to sign an agreement not to open the boxes,no prizes for guessing how long threy were in the glasshouse before i had a little peek

 

[Finman]

.
An university made in Finland couple years ago a research, that if you buy a bumble colony, you may get 6 fold blueberry yield from natural forest.

I wonder how university can go in that kind of business.

- with bumble box price you get ready berries for whole winter
- we have bumbles in nature so much and wild blueberries that the whole reseach is humbug.
- Billberries do not produce berries in the place where you want. When it gives a good yield, it takes many years that you may pick berries again in that place.

- I looked a turnip rape field couple days ago. There were about 1 bumble/ square meter. It means that on that 10 hectares rape field there are
100 000 bumbles. And more are in clovers and other flowers.

- We have an enormous Siberia where we get new bumbles if our bumble stock vanishes, as it has did quite often.

 

[nematode]

My understanding that the commercial bumble bees (the easiest to breed) are a sub species that must be confined to a poly tunnel / greenhouse in the UK and they must be destroyed after pollination.

 

[Lucky Bee]

My husband bought me one of these for Christmas. The box was given to me on Christmas day and the bees arrived in the post in April. They have been an absolute joy in the garden. I agree though I wouldn't get them at this time of year.

 

[alanf]

A colony of buff tails in a plastic box enclosed in a little crafted wooden box with a hinged lid so that you could look at your bees.
... £130 - 160 depending on box design

Commercial bumbles sold for poly tunnels are noted as the equivalent of 50-100 quid in some US discussion boards, supplied in a card box. If the box is well made at least you see what you get for your money. If someone offered me 150 quid for a box of bumbles I could supply some bird boxes with hypnorum in them.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I could supply some bird boxes with hypnorum in them.

 

[Erichalfbee]

My husband bought me one of these for Christmas. The box was given to me on Christmas day and the bees arrived in the post in April. They have been an absolute joy in the garden. I agree though I wouldn't get them at this time of year.

Maybe putting some mouse droppings in next spring might entice more?
I agree having bumbles in the garden is lovely. Luckily we have zillions and there will be even more when the sedums bloom

 

[BDCS]

The bumble bee nests I've collected this year live quite nicely in last years compost bins with their rock wool from the roofs. I've been called to loads of bumbles this year but no honey bees or wasps.