Honey is a healthy, tasty and quite affordable product of natural origin. It remains only to find out how useful it is for the body and are bumblebees breeding?
Are bumblebees bred?
Beekeepers are often faced with a phenomenon such as a sharp decrease in the amount of honey. Moreover, in the spring, the garden could please with abundant flowering. The reason is that the flowers are pollinated in insufficient quantities. Especially often this happens in unfavorable spring weather - the bees stay in the hives, because they like warmth.
Unlike bees, bumblebees are not afraid of cold weather. Their body is covered with thick long hairs. Also insects are able to raise its temperature on their own. Bumblebees can pollinate flowers in the rain when the temperature drops to 2 degrees Celsius and even at night, as they are well seen in the dark.
Bumblebees are considered even more hardworking than bees. Compared with the average bee, a bumblebee is able to pollinate 5 times more flowers throughout the day, and also work 18 hours a day in the summer. The productivity of the bumblebee is also due to another body structure - the presence of an elongated proboscis, with which it collects nectar from inaccessible parts of the plant.
Special care for bumblebees is not required. They are also less aggressive than bees. Bumblebees can be raised not only on a large scale agricultural business, but also for private use.
Interesting fact: The main task of the beekeeper is to attract the bumblebee queen. Only in this way can a bumblebee family appear on the site. In this case, the queen must look for a nest. If she has pollen traces on her paws, then the nest is already selected, and the queen will not do this for the second time.
Bumblebees are united in families of 100-200 pcs. - The size of the family depends on the size of the nest. As soon as the insects settle in the new house, they will begin to get out of the hive and pollinate the plants that are located nearby. Gradually, bumblebees are removed over long distances.
Why are bumblebees bred?
Bumblebees are bred mainly in order to increase the number of pollinated plants. Having honey is only an added benefit. Also, insects have some features that distinguish them from bees.
They can suddenly leave their nest. Most bumblebees will end their lives in the fall. For the winter, only a few bumblebee females remain in the nest. Such is the life cycle of insects and the peculiarity of procreation - in the spring a new swarm appears and so on.
How is bee honey different from bumblebee?
Among the variety of bee honey, the product of the activity of bumblebees stands out due to some properties. It has a liquid consistency resembling sugar syrup and low specific gravity. The fact is that in the composition there is a greater amount of water. The product also differs in color - unlike bee amber, bumblebee honey is much lighter.
In order for honey not to lose its beneficial qualities, it is necessary to observe the storage conditions.The optimum temperature is up to 3 degrees. With increasing temperature in the liquid, fermentation processes begin.
Bumblebees form honeycombs of an unusual shape. Outwardly, they resemble jugs. They are inferior in number to bee honeycombs, but much more in volume. In the lower part, each pitcher slightly increases in size. Thus, when it is sealed, it becomes like a bag.
Bumblebees do not need to produce large amounts of honey, as they differ in their short life cycle.. Therefore, to breed them for this purpose is not advisable.
Also, honey has a diverse pollen composition, which includes pollen from basic plants, as well as medicinal black root, red clover, pikulnik, etc. Due to the fact that bumblebees process more plants, their honey is more diverse in terms of component composition. It contains proteins, carbohydrates, minerals.
Is bumblebee honey good?
Bumblebee honey contains twice as much mineral and protein substances as bee. Also, it contains copper, iron, zinc, cobalt, potassium and other useful substances that positively affect the human body. A variety of pollen saturates honey with useful components taken from plants.
Bumblebee honey has many valuable substances, has a high calorie content and nutritional value - 100 grams contain 324 calories. It is part of a large number of folk remedies that help get rid of digestive problems, liver diseases, and the reproductive system. Separately, honey should be noted as an effective cure for cough, bronchitis, asthma and other ailments of the respiratory system.
However, before consuming bumblebee honey, you must make sure that there is no allergy to it. Also, the product is not recommended for people with high blood sugar.
Bumblebees produce honey, albeit in small quantities. They are bred, but in order to increase pollination of plants, and honey is an additional advantage. The product differs from bee in color, consistency, composition - it has a light shade and less density. In the composition of bumblebee honey, there are twice as many substances, proteins, carbohydrates, plant extracts and other components.