I have , on several occasions had bumblebees make nests in flower pots, and cardboard boxes ,other random containers, that May have had a mouse nest in them. I have not purposely made such a nest.
I did try raising them once in Tupperware containers.
Providing them with a wax cell, feeding them, pollen and nectar substitute.
Got the queens to nest building laying eggs .
Then something happened ,they all died.
Had a book on it, I will try to find it.
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I was waiting for that.
You hear that sort of thing a lot with Bumble Bees. 
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Well, I think it was a good experiment, I learned a lot.
I was not trying to raise them to increase the local bumblebee population. I do have an abundance of native bumblebees here . Rather, I had just put up a large high tunnel, and was looking for a way to raise bumblebees in there for pollination, when the weather was too cold for other pollinators. Bumblebees can navigate in a high tunnel without getting disoriented like honeybees do inside A high tunnel .
Maybe I just didnāt have enough time to devote to the project, as I am very busy in the spring of the year, Busy as a bee !
I believe I could do it if I tried again.
I found the book, And better yet a PDF.
https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/51331/8484.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
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Cool. Also it must be a joy to take care of those little guys.
I plan to take a look.
Thanks so much!
I have been a beekeeper for several decades, So I like fooling around with bees
Trying to raise bumblebees requires at least twice a day maintenanceā¦
So with all my spring work here on the farm, I kind of felt like I was trying to plant a garden while incubating a hens egg in each arm pit ,!
Hope to try it again sometime when I am not so busy
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Man, for someone who has kept bees for several decades to say itās that difficult really is saying something.
I never meant to say it was that difficult.
I just havenāt got it Totally figured out yetā¦
May be easy, but somewhat time consuming .
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Right, figuring it out. Thatās always the hard part. Then you find out it was easy the whole time. LOL
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I believe @fruitnut has some experience raising bumblebees.
Maybe he could add some comments about his experiences here?
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I donāt raise them. But have ordered a hive in spring to pollinate my greenhouse fruits.
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What would you recommend for Spring flowers?
I dont like to recommend stuff much myself as my area is likely different than some or most on hereā¦ i just know that my local pollinators and beneficials enjoy my local native stuff that i dont mow or maintain more than anything until the things that i have added come into bloom.
*with that being saidā¦ if u want to plant something, Crimson Clover is pretty amazing for an early forageā¦but u really need to sew it in the fall to get that early bloom i thinkā¦ i posted somewhere on it maybe the thread below i dont rememember.
Im not sure if you have read this thread but there is some good information here and ideas.
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Iām in what is now 6b and was seeing bumblebees on the honeyberry plants which are in flower now. The nanking cherries have had blooms as well but I didnāt notice any over there but didnāt look very long.
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What do honeyberries taste like, if you donāt mind my asking?
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The consensus is to compare to a not very good blueberry but can be earlier. Certainly my blueberries arenāt flowering yet and are just starting to have leaves. You may want to search for honeyberry threads for some more details.
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We already have large unripe berries here. Same for Blackberries. 8B
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Could leaving some honey in a prospective bumble bee house incentivize them to stay there? lol
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