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Subject:
From:
Lloyd Spear <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 3 Dec 2013 09:33:20 -0500
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Lennard asks about traps for collecting pollen from bumblebees.

As the manufacturer of Sundance traps, I can do some speculating...

1.  The trap would have to be designed for the worker bees of the specific
species.  The size of the worker bees varies tremendously.  If bumble bees
are similar to honey bees, they must not have an alternative to walking
through the stripper screens, and the stripper screens must be gauged to
fit 'just right'.

     Honey bees can get through a six mesh wire, but not a seven mesh.
However, if a six mesh wire is used for the stripper screens, too much
pollen is removed and the colony goes into failure.  Accordingly, we use a
five mesh stripper screen, which removes about 50% of pollen removed by a
six mesh screen.

2.  Unlike honey bee queens, bumblebee queens forage.  They are 2X or
larger than a worker bee.  I have no idea how a trap could be designed to
let both queens and workers forage, while removing a percentage of the
pollen from each.

3.  The workers for some species of bumblebees (and perhaps all) start out
very small, because their diet is pollen deficient because the queen is the
sole forager.  As those small workers start to forage, the pollen available
for the next generations is increased and the resulting workers are
larger.  Toward the end of the summer, bumblebee nests around here will
have some workers the size of the queen, and some up to 50% smaller.  Any
trap would have to accommodate this variety of sizes.

So far I have only addressed potential difficulties with collecting
incoming pollen.  In addition there are potential difficulties with
letting the bumblebees leave the nest to forage.  Extensive tests have
shown that if honey bees are forced to leave via the same route they
arrived that *nectar* collection significantly decreases.  (That is why the
Sundance traps provide a different exit that is much easier for the honey
bee to navigate.)  I don't know if the same would be true for
bumblebees, but if it is *and* the decrease in nectar collection adversely
affected brood nest (which I think it would have to), then designing an
exit strategy would be a real challenge.

Finally, we can sell 1,000 or so Sundance traps a year for honey bees, so
our design efforts can have a payback, despite the fact that traps have a
life of 15-20 years.  I'm not at all sure that one could sell even 100
bumblebee traps a year.  (Sundance traps are used extensively to collect
pollen to feed bumblebees!)

Hope this helps,

Lloyd

-- 
Lloyd
Office/Honey House 518-370-4989
Cell 518-573-8246
Lloyd Spear Beekeeper Inc.
Ross Rounds Inc.

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