anyone interested in bumble house?

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yolanda huang

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Sep 7, 2025, 4:23:59 PMSep 7
to The Alameda County Beekeepers Association
I rescued 2 bird houses of bumble bees and was charmed.  However, those bird houses are too flimsy, so if I want to put out habitat  for bumbles in the Spring, I need new bird houses.

Amazon sells the same size (5.5 by 4.5 and 8" tall), unfinished, paulownia wood and plywood, but they only sell 8 at a time.  8 is too many for me.  I only need 2.   Is anyone interested in sharing an order?
The total (with tax) comes to $6.88 per bird house.  (I could bring them to a meeting)


Yolanda

Maryly Snow

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Sep 7, 2025, 5:15:52 PMSep 7
to The Alameda County Beekeepers Association
Where does one place bumble bee houses?
Facing in which direction? How high up or on the ground?
With more information, I might be interested.
Maryly










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Duncan Harris

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Sep 7, 2025, 6:32:14 PMSep 7
to the-alameda-county-b...@googlegroups.com, The Alameda County Beekeepers Association
I’m also on the “depending on info” list
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Duncan

On Sep 7, 2025, at 2:15 PM, Maryly Snow <mar...@snowstudios.com> wrote:

Where does one place bumble bee houses?

yolanda huang

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Sep 8, 2025, 12:58:05 AMSep 8
to The Alameda County Beekeepers Association
When I rescued these bird houses, the backyard owner had these bird houses - one on a post around 4" high, and the other over a door way, in full afternoon sun.  When I brought them into my yard, I hung them on a fence facing south, that got half a day of sun.  The bumbles lived in the bird house until mid-summer, and then flew away, as is normal.  When I opened the bird houses, they had some soft, fluffy material in there.  Not sure who put them in there.  But I thought I would harvest the fluffy seed pods from  late winter blooming anemones, which I have seen humming birds harvest - probably for nest building.  But I would think any type of fluffy seed pod should do  ie. milkweed, or thistles/artichokes. So I'm going to put one house back on my fence, and one house in the shade and see what the bumbles like.

The website says bumble bees like shady spots, but my bumbles seemed to do fine with a half day of sun.  So let me know if you'd like a couple of bumble bee houses.  Yolanda

Mimi

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Sep 8, 2025, 11:41:02 AM (14 days ago) Sep 8
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Placing bumble bee house out is like placing out swarm traps - it doesn’t guarantee that bumblebees will nest there.  The few wild bumblebee homes near me have all been in the ground under mulch like materials.  

Mimi 

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 7, 2025, at 9:58 PM, yolanda huang <yogre...@gmail.com> wrote:

When I rescued these bird houses, the backyard owner had these bird houses - one on a post around 4" high, and the other over a door way, in full afternoon sun.  When I brought them into my yard, I hung them on a fence facing south, that got half a day of sun.  The bumbles lived in the bird house until mid-summer, and then flew away, as is normal.  When I opened the bird houses, they had some soft, fluffy material in there.  Not sure who put them in there.  But I thought I would harvest the fluffy seed pods from  late winter blooming anemones, which I have seen humming birds harvest - probably for nest building.  But I would think any type of fluffy seed pod should do  ie. milkweed, or thistles/artichokes. So I'm going to put one house back on my fence, and one house in the shade and see what the bumbles like.

Robin Chatham

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Sep 8, 2025, 11:57:48 AM (14 days ago) Sep 8
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I think all the bumbles, except for the queen, die out in the winter and the queen burrows in the ground, or something like that and the original nest site becomes empty.

Robin Chatham

Mimi

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Sep 8, 2025, 12:09:11 PM (14 days ago) Sep 8
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Bumblebee home only last one season.  The following year they make new nest.  Materials in old nest has to be cleared out as it can attract pests harmful to bumblebees.  My old bumblebee birdhouse nest only attracted field mice.  So now I through all rescued bumblebee nest out in the winter.  
image1.jpeg
Mimi 

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On Sep 8, 2025, at 8:57 AM, Robin Chatham <angel202...@gmail.com> wrote:


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