Dear Bumble bee enthusiast, There are some companies out their which supply bumble bees for greenhouse crop pollination. One that comes to mind is Koppert Biological Supply services ( Quebec, CANADA.) They provide strong Bombus impatiens colonies under the registered name NATUPOL. Colonies are reared year round for many different purposes. Please, don't consider this message as a sales pitch. It is just there are so few bumble bee suppliers around. I do have extensive experience in rearing bumble bee colonies, from queen to colony maturation. Unlike honey bees, the life cycle of the bumble bee is an annual one. That is, a single queen will start her nest in the spring. The nest reaches maturity in the fall, and newly reared queens mate and hibernate for the winter and start a new colony the next spring. The old queen, her workers and males do not overwinter. So if you plan to rear bumble bees on your own, you will have to start a new nests each year. There is a procedure used to break diapause during the winter months. This permits mass rearing of bumble bees year round. I hope to be rearing bumble bees next year for my own research. It is a lot tougher than its sounds, many things can go wrong when rearing them. The first and foremost thing to consider is the species you wish to rear. Not all bumble bee species are candidates for domestication. I will try to rear some of the bumble bees living in the Southeastern US. Good luck with your bees. Faithfully buzzing, Blair Blair Sampson Dept. of Entomology 301 Funchess Hall Auburn University, Alabama 36849-5413, USA [log in to unmask]