Mated queens

Dear all
 
News from New Zealand the queens are now all mated and have been put into hibernation. So its an exciting time for the project entering the next stage. We have quite a small number of queens for this years release. However, we are now planning for this November's collection and rearing in New Zealand. We hope this will be the first of many releases for the next few years.
 
A big thank goes to Rosemary for all her hard work and patience in rearing subt. The queens will now be kept in hibernation until the end of May when they will be flown back to the UK for their release. This release will mean the first time this bee species has been seen in the UK for 22 years!!
 
Meanwhile back in the UK I have been doing some school visits. Two weeks ago it was the British Science Associations, national science and engineering week. As part of this I visited three schools, one secondary and two primary's to talk about the conservation and importance of bumblebees and a bit about the project. Many thanks to the schools who invited me, it was great fun and really good to see the pupils engaging about conservation and the work that were doing.
 
So watch this space for more news about the bees!!
 
Till next time...............

---

Do you want a Hotmail account? Sign-up now - Free

6 queens

Dear all
 
We have six queens now. They have hatched from two colonies queen 48 and queen 45. We have also had many males hatch. So this week over in New Zealand they will be mating the queens and putting them into hibernation. Then they will be flown back to the UK at the end of May ready for release in June. So its been tricky rearing the bees and a very slow process. However, this has taught us a lot about subt and its requirements and will help us for our continuing collection and rearing of the queens. It is hard to say whether any more queens will be produced. The original queens are getting old and its getting late in the season but Rosemary will keep a watchful eye.
 
Meanwhile back in the UK I am busy planning the spring and summer events. I shall post the event listing very soon. This last week I meet with a couple of farmers to discuss coverting some of their land into good bumblebee habitat. Over the next few weeks I will be doing some school visits where I will be teaching primary school children about bumblebee conservation!
 
Keep visiting for how our breeding queens get on.......
 
 

---

Do you have a story that started on Hotmail? Tell us now