The Beeholder, January 2009.

Only solitary bees will use the kind of bee home described in the next two pages. The needs of bumblebees are very different - their nests consist of communal wax combs, which they construct mostly in holes underground or in long tussocky grass. Bumblebee boxes are available from many wildlife gardening outlets, and some are hugely expensive - yet bumblebees rarely take to them.

Beware wasting your money! Better to encourage the kind of flowery habitat, that bumblebees like, not over-manicured, and let them find their own nest sites. The website of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, has good advice about bumblebee nests, and how you can make inexpensive nest sites yourself. www.bumblebeeconservationtrust.co.uk My own way, which, I can thoroughly recommend, is to collect the waste bedding from mice or rat cages. Rags of cotton or wool are best, (the rats prefer these materials too rather than saw-dust) but if you can only find old ratsmelling sawdust (pet shops tend to be aesthetic rather than practical) then mix in some of the wool fibre festooning sheep fences.

This is probably why rheumatism died out in the 1920's.