Bumblebees are useful but have become rare. If you want to give bumblebees a home, you can find instructions for building a bumblebee box here.
Countless insects are used in summer to ensure that the garden is lush and blooming. Not only the bees - in the pollination of plants - are important. Bumblebees also make a contribution that should not be underestimated. Bumblebees are already on the move long before the bees and promote the fertilization of the fruit trees. Unfortunately, like bees, bumblebees have become rare. They don't seem to have any more room in our well-structured and almost spotlessly clean tidy gardens. Prove the bumblebees wrong and give them a welcome opportunity to retreat and raise their offspring with a bumblebee box.
Bumblebees in the garden - a rare guest
When did you see the last bumblebee? Can't remember? In fact, bumblebees have become rare. Around 30 bumblebee species are native to Germany, many of which are rarely found. Only six species are still guests in our gardens. With the construction of a bumblebee box, you help to preserve the endangered bumblebees' habitat and also enrich life in the home garden. There are exciting observation opportunities, especially for children, and you promote the development of an understanding of nature as a living space in the offspring.
Why build a bumblebee box?
Bees and wasps haven't ended up in the late winter garden yet. Bumblebees, on the other hand, can already be on their way. This is the queen bumblebee who survived her colony and is now looking for a nesting place to start her colony again. Natural nesting opportunities, such as old tree trunks or other dead wood, are often scarce in our well-tended ornamental gardens. A bumblebee box provides the animals with a species-appropriate nesting aid.
Note: Bumblebees are protected in Germany.
Set up a bumblebee hotel in your garden and diligent little helpers will grow up to ensure a rich fruit and vegetable harvest. Bumblebees have a busy day at work. They are on the road for a full 18 hours and fly to up to 1,000 flower heads every day, regardless of the weather.
Bumblebees and theirsLikes
It is admittedly not that easy to convince a bumblebee queen of your bumblebee box. It helps to know the natural preferences of the insects and set up your hotel accordingly.
Preferred Materials:
- wood chips
- Moss
- stone
- Tone
these materials avoid bumblebees:
- Metal
- Plastic
While the moss bumblebee prefers to stay in depressions overgrown with moss, tree bumblebees often use empty bird nests as nesting sites. Field bumblebees are looking for dead wood and have also been spotted in disused power boxes. The bumblebee, on the other hand, likes to hide under stones or in crevices in the ground.
Hummel box for those in a hurry
Would you like to buy a bumblebee box but invest as little time and material as possible? Then just try to impress the queen bumblebee with this simple variation.
A larger clay flowerpot serves as the basis. Turn this around. The hole there for the drainage of irrigation water now automatically becomes a loophole for the bumblebees. Chopped wood shavings, preferably bark, serve as a base for the clay pot. Fill the flower pot with moss, which you can get from your own garden by raking the lawn. This also benefits your lawn, because it can then automatically breathe better again.
Tip: Only use moss from an unfertilized and otherwise chemically untreated lawn.
To protect the entrance hole from moisture, place two short slats across the flower pot and place a slightly larger board over them as a cover.
Build the bumblebee box - Instructions
Would you like to offer the bumblebees more comfort? Then simply build a stable bumblebee box. This should be about 30cm square.
Components and Materials
You need in detail:- a front panel
- a rear panel
- two side walls
- one floor
- a roof
- a cardboard box
- an enema tube
- wood glue
- Wood preservatives
- Brushes
- roof felt
1. Preparatory work
Drill a hole in the middle of the front wall, where the tube that gives access to the Hummelhotel can later be placed. Several small ventilation holes are made in the side walls so that itBumblebee box no mold will form. A drill stand can be very helpful here. Then cut the individual parts to fit exactly and provide screw holes.
2. AssemblyYou can seal the boreholes for ventilation from the inside with a rustproof grid. Cut the grid to fit and glue it with waterproof wood glue. Now the individual parts of the bumblebee box are screwed together.
Tip: Use countersunk screws for assembly. Nails are unsuitable.
Once the crate is assembled, cut two strips of wood to use as spacers. A cardboard box is then inserted into the wooden box. This should not contain any chemical agents and be as neutral as possible and have no imprints.
Tip: Also provide the cardboard box with small air holes so that heat and moisture can be exchanged. Because in the bumblebee nursery, there can be a development of moisture and heat that should not be underestimated. Installing air holes is an important prerequisite to prevent mold from forming.
3. Insert entry tube
Now insert the hose that will later serve as access for the bumblebees to the nest. You can easily help yourself with the cardboard tube, which appears when a roll of aluminum foil runs out. Another alternative are pond spiral hoses. These can be screwed clockwise into the drill hole. The cardboard tube or hose is passed through the wooden box and cardboard box and should reach into the cardboard box by a few inches.
4. Prepare nesting siteThe box is filled with untreated, chopped wood. Put the moss you have harvested in your own garden on top. Use the moss to form an optical extension of the passage created by the entry pipe.
Form a nesting hole in the middle. You can use a table tennis ball for this. Now cover this nesting place with loose, long hay and close the cardboard box. The cardboard is weighed down with stones or wood. Attach a strip to the entrance hole. This ensures a small landing pad. Then close the wooden box and place it on blocks of wood or bricks so that no moisture can get into the bumblebee box.
5. Weatherproof Roof
If you want your bumblebee house to be set up in a sheltered place that is covered, you don't need any additional onesPrecautions to be taken and can also leave the wooden roof, which has been treated with natural wood preservatives.
If the hummel box is unprotected, it must be ensured that no moisture can penetrate through the roof. You should apply roofing felt for this. Plain roofing felt is attached to the sides with roofing felt nails. You save yourself the use of nails, which will rust over time, if you opt for stronger roofing felt. This has a layer of tar a few millimeters thick and can be glued to the roof after you have liquefied the tar layer with a heat gun.
Tip: Let the roofing felt protrude a few millimeters at the edges so that the rain can drip off easily.
Construction of the bumblebee house - summarized step by step
- Select Location
- Cut parts
- Drill holes
- Screw parts together
- Insert spacers
- Insert cardboard box
- Insert entry hose
- Fill the bumblebee box
- Close Hummelkiste
Alternative: Hummel box from the trade
The trade offers a wide range of bumblebee boxes for all nature lovers who don't dare to build the bumblebee box themselves or simply don't have the time. These are available in different versions.
I found a small selection for you on Amazon:
When should the bumblebee house be installed?
Winter, when there is little to do in the garden anyway, is a good opportunity to get busy building a bumblebee house. The first bumblebees can already appear in the garden at the end of February. Then at the latest it is time to set up the Hummelhotel. If you notice bumblebees sitting on the flowers, it's already too late. These bumblebees have already found their nest and won't leave, no matter how hard you put into your bumblebee hotel.
Tip: If a bumblebee flies zigzag across the ground, apparently uninterested in flowers, it is most likely the queen looking for a nesting place, then you should set up the bumblebee box quickly .
Where should the bumblebee house be placed?
Selecting the right location for the Hummel Hotel is particularly important, because once the queen has taken possession of it, the hummel box may no longer be moved. The bumblebee saves the coordinates of the location and this database can no longer be overwritten. Even if you doIf you move the bumblebee house a few centimeters because you have found a seemingly better location, the bumblebees will no longer be able to find their home.
A semi-shady place is ideal for the bumble bee box. Under no circumstances should bumblebee houses be placed in the blazing sun. Only the less intense morning sun should hit the bumblebee house. When choosing a spot, remember that the position of the sun changes with the seasons. In the middle of summer, the sun can already get very hot in the morning and heat up the Hummelhotel dangerously.
This is how the hummel box doesn't stay empty
The bumblebee box is set up. Now it's time to wait. There is a 30% chance that the queen bumblebee will find her way to the bumblebee hotel on her own.
You have a good chance if…
- the nesting box was set up last year and had found residents at the time=the offspring prefer to return to the old nesting site
- the nesting box is placed close to the ground=bumblebees often only discover the raised entrance hole if they create a connection to the ground, for example with a plate that is leaning against the loophole and runs down to the ground
- Your garden is green and blooming=a rich offer of flowers attracts the bumblebees to your garden
When did the bumblebee accept the box?
If you have spotted a bumblebee at the Hummelhotel, which visited it briefly but then quickly flies away, it will look for another home or already have one. If, on the other hand, the bumblebee comes out of the hole and does smaller flight circuits in the vicinity of the bumblebee box, this is a typical orientation flight. Expect to see buzzing offspring in your garden soon.
What happens to the bumblebee box in winter?
The bumblebee colony dies before winter. The bumblebee box is no longer needed. Clean the box and store it in a dry place indoors. Don't forget to put the bumblebee hotel back in its original place in late winter, as many young queens return to the old nesting site. Especially with rock and garden bumblebees, you can most likely hope for animal residents in your garden again.
Hint: Multiple queens never share a nest site. So make sure you have several hummel boxes.