This morning while reading the lovely book, "A Blessing of Toads" by Sharon Lovejoy I enjoyed the beautiful prospect of our garden filled with bumblebees this summer! Some interesting facts:
1) bumblebees are named from the the Middle English word bumblen (to hum), in German the bees are called "hummels", and latin Bombus.
2) they have a higher metabolic rate than hummingbirds, with wings beating more than 200 times a second--isn't that amazing?
3) they are wonderful pollenators, and are invaluable guests in greenhouses.
4) they will be out and about on the coolest, wettest days and are found far north in the alpine regions.
5)skunks are one of the few animals that find bumblebees tasty, stings and all.
6)bumblebees nest in abandoned mouse nests, and can be encouraged to set up housing in a buried teapot or an overturned clay pot with a hole drilled in the side and a piece of slate on the top. bumblebees like nesting materials of dried grasses and lint.
7) the queen bumblebee sets up housekeeping in the spring when she emerges from hibernation and the colony she produces survives only one season.
8) the honey that a bumblebee colony produces is eaten by the newest members as they develop.
9) the pollen basket (corbicula) on the back legs of the queen and workers is surrounded by inward-curving hairs to hold the pollen in place. A bumblebee can carry a load of pollen 20 percent of its body weight, as Lovejoy says, that's a lot of groceries in one basket!
Last summer Ken's basil garden attracted many bumblebees, I wonder how many had nests nearby? This year I will try to entice some queens with a teapot or two or an overturned clay pot, and look forward to our new neighbors!
1) bumblebees are named from the the Middle English word bumblen (to hum), in German the bees are called "hummels", and latin Bombus.
2) they have a higher metabolic rate than hummingbirds, with wings beating more than 200 times a second--isn't that amazing?
3) they are wonderful pollenators, and are invaluable guests in greenhouses.
4) they will be out and about on the coolest, wettest days and are found far north in the alpine regions.
5)skunks are one of the few animals that find bumblebees tasty, stings and all.
6)bumblebees nest in abandoned mouse nests, and can be encouraged to set up housing in a buried teapot or an overturned clay pot with a hole drilled in the side and a piece of slate on the top. bumblebees like nesting materials of dried grasses and lint.
7) the queen bumblebee sets up housekeeping in the spring when she emerges from hibernation and the colony she produces survives only one season.
8) the honey that a bumblebee colony produces is eaten by the newest members as they develop.
9) the pollen basket (corbicula) on the back legs of the queen and workers is surrounded by inward-curving hairs to hold the pollen in place. A bumblebee can carry a load of pollen 20 percent of its body weight, as Lovejoy says, that's a lot of groceries in one basket!
Last summer Ken's basil garden attracted many bumblebees, I wonder how many had nests nearby? This year I will try to entice some queens with a teapot or two or an overturned clay pot, and look forward to our new neighbors!
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