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People know little about the life of bumblebees. Watching them, flying, sit on flowers in the garden. But I never saw their "hives" in their usual form. They simply do not exist - insects live in nests, hollows, often located in places inaccessible to humans.
Where does honey come from
Do bumblebees make honey? Yes. But in nature, bumblebee queens often settle their wax dwellings in pits, birdhouses, minks of other animals, which often have to be conquered from them. Man almost fails to see the nests and taste the contents of the combs. Do bumblebees make honey useful for humans or not? Like bees, workers produce honey; it exists. Insects produce it from nectar, which, thanks to the elongated proboscis, is extracted even from inaccessible places.
Bumblebee collects amber honey
Does bumblebee collect amber honey a lot or not? Yes, but he first takes nectar, converting it with the help of enzymes produced by the glands into useful honey. In the nest, its reserves are insignificant, since one bumblebee family has only about one hundred individuals. In addition, there are such categories of bee relatives that do not collect nectar and do not produce honey. Instead, males (called drones) line up wax combs in the form of deep cells. Some of them are designed for the development and growth of pupae and larvae. In other "chambers" stocks of fodder in the form of honey, pollen and bee bread are stored for young animals.
Most of the hive is made up of female workers. Collecting nectar is precisely their "mission". Then the collected must be delivered to the family's home. The substance brought on the paws feeds the future members of the bumblebee colony, the main food for them is honey. The “queen” is assigned a different role. It consists in the constant clutch of oblong translucent eggs and an increase in the offspring. The main individual is always inside the nest, without leaving its limits.
The existence and "prosperity" of the entire bumblebee settlement depend on the working capacity of working individuals. But they cannot produce honey in such a volume as in an ordinary bee apiary. Because it is produced by insects in small quantities and is not stored in combs all winter like bees. This is due to the short life cycle of hairy creatures.
The greatest activity of the uterus occurs during the warm period - from spring to autumn. Completely devoting its existence to the replenishment of the hive, at the end of the period of activity, it dies, and young individuals come to replace it. On the eve of winter, they fall asleep and only in spring they warm up and become more active. So bumblebees do not need food in the form of honey reserves in winter.
Bumblebee honey
Bumblebee honey is intended for feeding the hatched larvae and for maintaining the viability of the nest. These products rarely appear on the market, they are even referred to as honey "exotic". You can buy it, but the price is high: the cost of a kilogram of honey is about five thousand rubles.
Characteristics and chemical composition of honey
Bumblebee honey is unique. Its repository is an unusual larger combs, the shape of which differs from that of bees. They are slightly widened towards the bottom, therefore, after sealing, they look like bags. The honey they contain has a low specific gravity. The consistency of the product is slightly different from the usual one: it is not so thick, it looks more like sugar syrup. This is due to the presence of more water in it. Being more liquid, it is well stored at temperatures not exceeding + 3 ° C.When heated to 5-8 ° C, it begins to ferment.
Specificity of bumblebee honey
Since bumblebees can pollinate many more plants (almost all), then, compared to domestic bees, the composition of their honey and pollen is also more diverse. In addition to standard components such as proteins and carbohydrates (glucose and fructose), bumblebee products also contain minerals.
Bumblebees pollinate far more plants than domestic bees
The presence of zinc, copper, iron, potassium, cobalt explains the beneficial effect of honey on the human body. In terms of the amount of minerals and proteins, the substance is twice as great as the bee product. Also in honey and pollen there are medicinal components of various plants: pickle, red clover, purpurea and other medicinal herbs.
Useful properties of the product and treatment
The benefits of honey produced by bumblebees are obvious. It is quite nutritious and high in calories. CAdvantageous ingredients can help get rid of:
- digestive disorders;
- respiratory tract diseases, asthma, bronchitis;
- liver problems;
- violations in the work of the organs of the excretory and reproductive systems.
Bumblebee honey can help cure dry coughs. To do this, add 1 teaspoon to warm milk and a little butter.
Bumblebee honey can help cure dry coughs.
In the presence of elevated blood sugar, the inclusion of the product in the diet should be avoided.
How to get bumblebee honey
If you can't get honey in nature, there is an affordable way to try it. Bumblebees can be artificially bred. To do this, you first need to attract to the site, providing a house and food. Plants in the garden can help with this, because the bumblebee is the best pollinator for flowers in fruits and vegetables. The bumblebee apiary is profitable. Its owners set up a nest for bee relatives in different ways. Some people try to make a special beehive for this with their own hands:
- From an empty birdhouse.
- In the hollow of an old tree located on the site.
- From a piece of asbestos-cement pipe with closed edges on both sides. Will be an excellent place for the settlement of the bumblebee family. You just need to leave the space uncovered - a gap that will function as a taphole.
- You can even adapt a flower pot.
The hive house is made with a removable top of a board, 2 cm thick. Entrances are made in it, which are painted black to attract queens.
Bumblebee apiary is profitable
All versions of the bumblebee "hive" will have to be filled with insulating materials: old mouse nests, foam, moss. Bumblebee breeders do not recommend cotton wool or tow as a heater. In them, insects can get entangled and die. A layer of sawdust is placed on the bottom, about 3 cm thick.
The entrance from the rain is covered with a piece of plank, laid on bars or bricks. Stones are placed along the edges and on the lid, protecting the bumblebee housing from the invasion of animals and gusts of wind. Improvised hives can be placed on support tables located at a distance of about half a meter from ground level. There were cases when the colony chose a greenhouse for settlement.
The owners of the unusual apiary also take care of protecting the house from pests:
- - to prevent the presence of wax moth, 2-3 tablets of the drug for moths are placed on the lid of the structure;
- - installation of a bumblebee remover makes it impossible for ants, mice to invade;
- - the bumblebee diverter will not allow ordinary wasps and cuckoo bumblebees to get inside.
Artificial nests with queens are usually populated until mid-summer. In natural conditions, they like to inhabit mouse holes. Therefore, in order to attract bumblebees to the nesting site, you can saturate the insulation with a characteristic mouse smell. It doesn't matter if some of the devices are left empty. You will need them next summer.
If the queens have chosen a new home, have produced offspring, and the larvae have already formed and grown in the combs, it's time to think about how to collect honey. Working bumblebees do not produce large quantities of marketable honey. How is this small amount of bumblebee honey obtained? A honey extractor will not help in this matter. To get what the insects managed to collect, you need to take a syringe with a thick needle and try to extract the light sweet substance with it.
If you managed to start several families, then you can not only taste honey, but also eat, and even sell. Honey from bumblebees is not only useful, but also has a special energy. After all, he was made by hardworking and without aggression creatures.
