Why no one breeds bumblebees, because they also make honey and are more hardworking than bees

Bumblebees, as well as their kindred bees, are excellent pollinators and collectors of flower nectar. They can also make honey, not as demanding for heat as bees, and fly out of the hive earlier. But why then no one bred hardworking bumblebees for honey? Today we will talk about this wonderful insect, as well as about the differences between bees and bumblebees.

Many probably noticed that in spring, when the air temperature is still not very high, bees are not visible on the blossoming flowers, but bumblebees tirelessly fly from one plant to another in search of nectar. But the thing is that bumblebees can maintain their body temperature at 40 ° C, but bees do not have this ability. Thanks to this amazing feature, bumblebees were able to master the more northern territories of the planet, compared with more heat-loving bees.

The genus of bumblebees includes about 300 species that live in different parts of the globe and differ in size and nuances of color. Bumblebees belong to the family of real bees, which in addition to them includes various types of bees. For this reason, bumblebees have much in common with bees, ranging from the structure of the body to the lifestyle.

Bumblebees are social insects that live in families of 100-200 individuals. A bumblebee house, called a bombidarius, can be built in the ground, under old fallen leaves or in an abandoned hole in some animal.

Within the bumblebee family, as well as in bees, each individual plays a role. Home in the family is the female who never leaves the nest and is only engaged in procreation, laying eggs. The largest part of the family is working females who collect nectar and pollen, and also process the collected nectar into honey. One working bumblebee female can pollinate up to 30 flowers in one minute, while a bee manages to collect nectar from only 10-12 flowers. Another large group is drones, which are engaged in the construction of honeycombs and the care of larvae.

But the bumblebee age is shorter than the bee age: in the fall, most members of the family die. Only young fertilized females survive that winter in the grass or earthen burrows, and fly out in the spring, find a place for a new home and lay their eggs, giving life to a new bumblebee family. Those females who remained wintering hibernate, so they do not need honey for nutrition. And the nectar that is collected in the summer by bumblebees is mainly intended for feeding larvae and maintaining the health of adult family members. Things are completely different in a bee family, most of whose members can live for several years. A large family of several thousand individuals requires a significant amount of honey for nutrition. Bees hibernate, but with the onset of cold weather and before hibernation begins, as well as in early spring until enough nectar appears, they need food. For this reason, they make significant stocks of honey from their houses, and this feature is used by beekeepers who breed bees for the sake of getting honey.

Despite the fact that both bees and bumblebees collect pollen from plants, they end up with different honey. Bumblebee honey is liquid, it looks more like sugar syrup, but it is less sweet and aromatic than bee honey. In addition, it has a much higher concentration of various minerals and protein than in bee. Bumblebee honey has a higher water content, and for this reason bumblebee honey is not suitable for long-term storage and can only be kept at a temperature not exceeding + 8 ° C, preferably within + 1- + 2 ° C.

Despite this, some beekeepers still extract bumblebee honey, albeit with great difficulty. Beekeepers arrange on their sites special houses for bumblebees and wild insects settle in them for the summer. But you won’t get a lot of honey from such a family, at best a few glasses, because bumblebees do not store it for the winter. In addition, the behavior of bumblebees is quite unpredictable and they can disappear from their house for unknown reasons. That's why bumblebees are not bred for the sake of obtaining honey on an industrial scale, and work in this direction is carried out only by amateur enthusiasts.