If you want to raise a bumblebee, you can feed it with a variety of different foods and drinks. Here are some ideas: Honey, Pollen, Pear, and Pear juice. These can be given to the bees on a daily basis. Nevertheless, you should never make sugar water their main diet.
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Pollen
Bumble bees can regulate their nutritional intake by selectively foraging on different types of pollen. They can differentiate between flowers with high P:L ratios and those with low P:L ratios. They can also regulate their dietary intake by comparing the ratios of lipids to proteins. This ability helps them optimize their diets.
Pollen-starved bumblebees had weaker immune responses than their pollen-fed counterparts, resulting in upregulation of putative immune signaling molecules and energetically expensive antimicrobial peptides. Consequently, a diet of low-protein sunflower pollen would negatively affect host immunocompetence, as the bumblebee would lack amino acids and therefore be at greater risk of parasite growth. The authors speculate that such changes in host nutrition may limit pathogen growth and reproduction.
A recent study found that sunflower pollen reduced the intensity of Crithidia bombi infections in bumble bee workers. Two-thirds of bumble bees fed sunflower pollen did not display any signs of the disease after a week.
Honey
Bumblebees need the right kind of energy to make it through their life-cycle. They feed on pollen and nectar from flowers, which are essential for their survival. You should avoid feeding your bumblebee with honey or brown sugar. Instead, use white sugar mixed with 50 percent water.
The queen of a bumblebee colony is the first one to make honey. She will locate a prime nesting site and make a nectar pot from a wax-like secretion in her abdomen. Then, she will head out to collect nectar from flowers. Her body is covered in pollen. This nectar does not need to be digested; it remains in her honey-stomach, which is located before her digestive tract. It takes up almost half of the bee’s abdomen.
Although bumblebees have lower populations than honey bees, they are essential to pollination. Unlike honey bees, bumblebees do not need large amounts of honey to survive, but they do require a cavity to build their nest.
Pear
The bumblebee is one of the most important pollinators of many plants. Many commercial companies raise colonies for pollination purposes, including tomatoes. Pears, however, bloom early in the season, and insect pollination may not be adequate. One study from 1992 explored the impact of bumblebee colonies in pear orchards.
Pear flowers have five styles, each associated with a pair of ovules. Pears require cross-pollination for fruit set and fertilization. When grown in small orchards adjacent to a wild habitat, bumble bees can be valuable pollinators.
Pollination of pear flowers is difficult for bees because of their low sugar content in the nectar. This nectar is very low in sugar and is not very attractive to honeybees. This makes it a difficult crop to pollinate for honey bees.
Pear juice
Bees are a key part of pear and apple crops. These crops need efficient cross-pollination and bumblebees are much more efficient than honeybees. Apple and pear crops are usually in bloom early in the spring, when bumblebees get to work. The nectar produced by these crops is low in sugar, making them more attractive to bumblebees.
Bees are vulnerable to the antibiotic streptomycin, which is used to control bacterial disease fire blight in pear orchards. Recent studies have shown that exposure to this antibiotic reduces bumblebees’ foraging abilities and can negatively impact plant pollination.
Sugar water
Sugar water for bumblebees is an easy way to give these insects a treat that will keep them alive. Bees are omnivores, and they don’t prefer to skip food during the winter. You can buy sugar water and mix it with water, but make sure that you don’t boil it because this will change the chemical composition of the sugar and make it indigestible for bees.
Bees are not like other insects, and their needs are different. Sugar water is often beneficial for bumblebees, but you must know when to give it to them. Ideally, you should only give sugar water to bees that are resting or in need of it. Providing sugar water will help the bees in rebuilding their population, but it should be used sparingly.
