Unlike honeybees, where the entire colony hibernates, a bumble bee colony is only annual. In the autumn, all the worker bumble bees die, and it is only a few young queens from each hive who, after mating, go into hibernation and save the family through the cold weather.
The bumblebees that can already be seen buzzing low and searching over the ground in March are precisely such young queens who have emerged from their winter quarters and are out to find a suitable place to found a new community. Our Humlebihus could be the place where the new family "starts" on a new home in the spring.
Most species of bumble bee build nests on the ground under a woodpile etc., and the bumble bee instinctively likes to crawl into a channel that we have made on our bumble bee. The humie bee is also attracted to the smell of mice, perhaps because it instinctively feels that it can rest there.
