Queen number 30!!
Subt queen number 30 is our best queen so far with over 12 larvae developing. We have another 5 or so catching her up but fingers crossed she will produce some lovely workers! All remaining queens have now laid eggs, so all are coming along but they are moving slowly.
Keep posted for more subt updates and keep your fingers crossed for the queens
Till next time Nikki....
posted by Nikki Gammans at
09:36
2 Comments:
I spent a year and a half filming bumblebees for a B.B.C. natural history film; partly in the U.S.A. and partly in the U.K. Prof. Bernd Heinrich, who wrote the excellent book 'Bumblebee Economics' had set up bee boxes in Vermont and Maine which were found and taken up by queens of various species. We would take the bee boxes once the queens had established their initial colonies and from that point on provide them with a small external foraging compartment and feed them artificially. I later did the same thing in the U.K. and worked with some 20 colonies and never lost any, getting them right through the season. You may have some special reason for collecting the queens yourself, but I found that to be a risky and labour intensive process. I managed to get most of my colonies by advertising in the local press. This year, on the North Island it was not a good start for queen bumblebees in my area Waikato - Pirongia Mountain - the weather was cold and wet early on and many queens did not get started. I usually feed the ones I find having trouble and release them. I still keep a colony from time to time - I don't know if there are species specific problems, but I've kept quite a number now and never lost a colony once the queen has established a few workers.
All the best, Stephen Bolwell.
By
Stephen Bolwell, At
1 February 2010 19:45
Hi Stephen
We did put out trap boxes in the known subt areas, we had a 20% uptake but all B. ruderatus. Maybe subt don't like the boxes. Even though it was labour intensive we managed to collect 67 queens. This species is a long tongues pocket maker, which means it is very hard to rear, only two people have successfuly managed to do so in the world. Short tongues bumblebees are much easier and you don't expect as high as mortality.
Fingers crossed the colonies with workers won't be lost, keep your fingers crossed for us!!
All the best, Nikki
By
Nikki Gammans, At
11 February 2010 08:22
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