Jan Verhulst: Bumblebeebox

Hello Everyone,

(Because i think my german is not good enough for this kind of technical conversation, i resort to english)

A week ago i got a nestbox with bumblebees. Because i think it is to late in the season to find any nectar or pollen outside, i am feeding them with a strong sugar solution and i provide pollen by grinding beepollenpellets to dustlike particles, so the bumblebees can collect them in the corbiculae.

I keep the temperature of the cage at 18-20 degrees during day and night and provide artificial light(Fluorescent tube) between 08.00 u and 18.00 u. I also put a camera inside: View on Ustream :
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bumblebee-nestbox

I have introduced some plants inside that i found outside, flowering Broccoli, (Very popular)
Taubnessel (Lamium something)(Does not attract bumblebees in this setting),
impatiens glandulifera, (Yet to be tried)
some other brassicaceae, ( They appear to like brassicalike flowers)
cornflower (For some reason they immediately liked cornflower very much, even if they did not taste from the nectar before. They scrambled like crazy for the cornflowers at first sight !? )

Anyone some nice experimental ideas ?

Does somebody have any experience with keeping them alive during winter and producing a new mated queen ? The problem ofcourse could be a severe inbreeding because there are no drones from other colonies.

Thanks a lot,

Jan Verhulst
Wageningen
The Netherlands

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