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(Bumble) Bee nest timeframe?

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  • 22-06-2010 1:24pm
    #1
    jmkennedyie
    Registered Users Posts: 678 ✭✭✭


    Hi. A small bumble bee appears to have tunnelled a hole in a bank in my garden and is presumably nesting there. I was planning to reshape that part of the garden. Anyone know what timeframe it will be in use? Don't mind waiting till he/she/they are done.

    Wasp nest being built onto some hawthorn a few meters away as well...out of the way, will leave them in peace.
    Tagged:


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    #2
    Mothman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,498 ✭✭✭Mothman


    I looked up a bumble bee book I have it mentions usually September, but books are guides so it may be October.


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    #3
    Alun
    Registered Users Posts: 21,422 ✭✭✭✭Alun


    All I know is that the queens, which are the only members of the colony to survive and overwinter, hibernate in "the autumn", whenever that may be. I suspect it's determined in much the same way as other hibernating animals, i.e. a combination of shortening daylight hours and temperature, but I'd imagine around October would be the time you'd be looking at.

    Of course, the queens also often hibernate in small holes in the ground (not the old nest), so you may run the risk that she may decide to do so in your rather convenient grassy bank, in which case you're stumped.


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    #4
    jmkennedyie
    Registered Users Posts: 678 ✭✭✭jmkennedyie


    Thank you both. Will leave it till October so.


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    #5
    Keplar240B
    Registered Users Posts: 883 ✭✭✭Keplar240B


    bump!

    So I have a underground colony in Garden and it appears inactive now

    i think buff-tailed bumble bee

    wiki says
    In the early spring, the queen comes out of diapause and finds a suitable place to create her colony. Then she builds wax cells in which to lay her eggs which were fertilised the previous year. The eggs that hatch develop into female workers, and in time, the queen populates the colony, with workers feeding the young and performing other duties similar to honeybee workers. In temperate zones, young queens (gynes) leave the nest in the autumn and mate, often more than once, with males (drones) which are forcibly driven out of the colony.[37] The drones and workers die as the weather turns colder; the young queens feed intensively to build up stores of fat for the winter. They survive in a resting state (diapause), generally below ground, until the weather warms up in the spring.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumblebee#Cuckoo_bumblebees

    So did this nest die out early or could it have ended naturally?


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    #6
    ytpe2r5bxkn0c1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    Keplar240B wrote: »
    bump!

    So I have a underground colony in Garden and it appears inactive now

    i think buff-tailed bumble bee

    wiki says

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumblebee#Cuckoo_bumblebees

    So did this nest die out early or could it have ended naturally?

    How do you know it is only recently unoccupied?


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