Helpingthebumbles

About three years ago in Spring, I found a bumble in one of the birds nest boxes, I have a live cam in the box, and I noticed this bumble, she would come up to the top of the old robin nest, and go to the toilet, then back to bed, I was looking forward to new bumbles hatching, but nothing happened, and the next year I had two bumble nests, and again it used to get busy, then nothing, and this year there was a bumble nest in an old birds nest box, all my boxes have a place in the roof to slip a cam in, so I was enjoying this busy bumble nest, then out of a dark corner came a spider, I watched as it waited by the bumble hole, then just as bumble came flying in, quick as a flash, spider had him, poor little bumble, I went down and poked a stick in the hole to try and frighten the spider off, but it was no good, and it was happening time after time, spider taking the bumbles, was thinking then, must do something to stop it happening next year.

Started reading about how to move bumbles, I have built a shelter for my hog and all wildlife at the bottom of my garden, so had this idea, I could move the bumbles there, and open the back up, and maybe take the spider out, but was nt sure if the bumbles would like this idea lol, anyway best do it after dark.

Bumble Story.

The nest that was cold and wet.

Bumble in the new clean nest.

Bumbles in their new house, with glass on top, there is also a cover for the glass as bumbles like to be in the dark.

Showing one bumble house, and one half made, there is room for seven bumble houses, and they all slot on the large unit, with the entrance hole facing the front and open to the hedge.
and the heater made with a tin, and
a ten watt bulb, the bumble nest rests on the top, they are mobile, so can be dotted around the garden in spring for the new queens, and a place above for the live cam.

The very last bumble that died on November 9th 2006

These are the strays with the honey pots they had made, thay had been in the box for sometime and were moved to a new warm nest .

This is the front of the unit where the bumbles will fly out through the hedge which is in front of the unit, you can see two of the bumble nests in place

A close up of the front of the bumble nests, I'm going to make black and white patterns on the front of each bumble nest as bumbles can remember them and know which nest belongs to them.
I have made a cut in the wood where the hole is, and I can shut their hole if I need to, one of the holes is shut in this pic as only two bumbles are left and they will die as it was too cold, they will die anyway as its the end of their year.

This is one of the bumbles that was moved to a better place, look how thin this bumble is, after a warm house and extra food, they soon were looking so much better.

I marked one of the bumbles with water based tippex, It was interesting to see her on the flowers around the garden, but she did nt always find her way home, and I used to collect her from the bird box.
And one day it was really sunny, she was in the end of the bumble house waiting to go out, at this time there were only eight bumbles left in the nest, so I opened the lid and left it open, and when I checked as the light was going, there were only two left that had nt gone out, checked their old house, but none there, so closed the lid.
It was a very cold night that night, and I did nt see any of the bumbles return, so I just had the two bumbles left.
The bed has two holes, one to the feeding place, and one the other side which has a hole to the outside which looks out to the hedge, so hungry bumbles go through the hole and into the front to get their drink, and I found one of the last two bumbles half way there, he had died, he was weak and could nt make it to the suger drink, so I put the suger drink in the bed for the last bumble, and he would look forward to a drink, and get excited when a new pot arrived, and used to go straight for a drink, he sadly on the 9th of November he died.

The bumbles enjoying their new nest with underfloor heating, all snuggled in their wam bed, note the marked bumble with tippex.

The garden where all these bumbles are looked after, I buy flowers in Spring and put them out in the garden for them

Bumble with honey pot.

This Spring bumble was cold and wet, so locked her in this bumble nest with food for the night, and let her out in the morning

This new bumble Queen came from a nest in a boxed in pipe with lagging.

She's a big girl.

This is the biggest bumble Ive seen, she was on my friends medow land which has been left to go wild.

I moved the bumbles nest when it got dark, I taped the hole in the nest box, then carried the box down to the shelter, there was a bit of buzzing going on, opened the back of the box to find just a damp heap of old bird nest with loads of beetles running around, no bumbles to be seen, they were all underneath the heap of old nest, so lifted the whole nest into a new clean box, and left a dish of suger water by the heap, then set a cam up to see what happened, and through the night bumbles came out to the toilet, found suger bowl, and were soon all coming one by one for a drink, they were very slow, and some looked half dead
I put another bird box up where the old one used to be, and checked it every night, there were quite a few there for over a week, I caught them and put them back, then did nt check as there had nt been any for a while, and was surprised when I checked one day and found quite a few in there with their own honey pots, they had no bedding, so moved them to the shelter, and put them in a new bumble box with a honey drink and underfloor heating.
The heaters are made with a 10 watt bulb and a slightly larger baked bean type can, push the bulb inside and it gets nice and warm, and the bumble box just sits on the top, the large unit will hold seven bumble nests, and there is a place underneath for all the heaters, but they may only be needed in the early spring if its very cold, I move these heaters about, I have used them for my pet rabbits when they have not been well, or after operations, also for any sick wildlife.

The bumble nests have three compartments, one near the front door, the middle for the nest, and the other end for food, and they all have glass on the top for inspection, and there will be a cover to keep them in the dark, also above the glass is a place for the cam, it can slide along to view any of the bumble nests that I want to keep an eye on, or check how they are getting on.