Season 2 Episode 2: About Bees, Culture & Curiosity Podcast – Bumble Bees 101 with Mathias Fenton

We welcome biology instructor Mathias Fenton of Mount Royal University. He tells us about big bumbling bumble bees. Our chat touches on the relationship between wasps, ants, honey bees and bumble bees. Mathias mentions some of his interesting wild bee observations and we give a shoutout to iNaturalist, a great public resource that all naturalists, regardless their experience level, can appreciate and enjoy.

In this episode, we focus on the bumble bee lifecycle and best places to position empty nest boxes. In the spring, these cool-weather insects start a nest with just a single queen. She mated the previous fall, then waited under snowdrifts for the new season. Then she begins with a search for a suitable nesting site. Mathias explains how the Alberta Native Bee Council surveyed the nesting success of 400 empty wooden boxes placed in back yards by citizen-scientists. Success varied statistically depending on how far above ground the empty boxes were placed, direction of box entrances, colour of paint, and amount of sunlight hitting the bees' wooden homes. Anyone hoping to attract bumble bee pollinators by setting up backyard boxes will find Mathias Fenton's results interesting and helpful.

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Bumble bee box assembly instructions can be found on this page.

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