£188.00
This Dragonfli voucher includes a Live Beepol Bumblebee Colony and a hand made wooden Beepol Bumblebee Villa specifically designed to house the colony of Live Beepol Bumblebees. This voucher is the perfect gift for anyone with an interest in Bumblebees and wildlife.
The Bombus terrestris audax bees are UK native and known as the Buff-tailed Bumblebee. Each colony includes:
Bumblebees are fantastic pollinators and wonderful to observe at work in, and around, the garden.
A simple trap door on the outside of the colony should be opened to release the bees. The worker bees will then orientate themselves as to where the colony is located in the garden. The workers will then start flying back and forth to the colony with their pollen loads to feed the young bee larvae inside.
The Beepol Villa is handmade in the UK, from timber sourced in the Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC) plantations, and will look stunning in any garden.
Key features:
This villa has been designed specifically to fit our Live Beepol Bumblebee Colonies and will allow them to thrive by providing them the perfect home and shelter.
The exact villa measurements are: Width - 31cm / Depth - 34cm / Height - 32cm
We expect each hive to last between 2-3 months, which is the average life cycle of British Bumblebee colonies. The colony will not overwinter and the lifespan is often dictated by the environment, and therefore can vary depending on the weather and availability of pollen.
The colony will produce new Queens that will proceed to create colonies of their own in your local environment in the subsequent years.
Once all activity has stopped inside the villa, the old colony can be removed and the villa stored. A new colony can then be ordered to use with the Beepol villa the following year.
The voucher offers a number of delivery dates in the spring and summer when your Live Bumblebee Colony can be sent to you, ready for placement in the Beepol Villa already received.
Each voucher has a unique number allocated to it, the receiver of the gift and voucher should simply contact Dragonfli by email or phone, quoting the unique number, and then confirm a delivery address and date of delivery.
The Live Beepol Colonies are delivered by courier and full instructions will also be provided.
Once the easy to install Live Beepol Colony is delivered and installed in the Villa, the enjoyment of watching a live bumblebee colony in action in your garden begins! Bumblebees are not only fascinating to watch but are fantastic pollinators of many plants.
Should your colony be attacked by the natural pest, the Wax Moth, we strongly recommend that you purchase our Wax Moth Killer Nematodes which can be found here. These nematodes are deadly to the Wax Moth grubs but safe to the humans and wildlife. The nematodes enter the grubs via a natural opening, like the mouth, and feed on the contents of the grubs. A natural bacterium is produced by the nematodes inside the grubs, which kills it. Infected grubs will be completely broken down by the nematodes and will often turn brown. The nematodes also reproduce inside the grubs, releasing more nematodes into the surrounding area.