In 2001 a special laboratory for bumble bees breeding and tomato pollination was built at the interprise.
Bumble bee is one of the important components of Dutch technology of fertilization of tomatoes and cucumbers in greenhouses. Formerly these fluffy insects were bought abroad. Later the agricultural complex worked out its own technology of its breeding. Specialists shifted the biological clock of the insects; manufactured new equipment that is necessary for restructuring of microclimate in analogy to the climate that nature creates for humble bees. Today local humble bee families nearly whole year round are busy with fertilizing tomatoes. In nature they wake up only in may.
Our own technology of breeding insects makes it possible to obtain approximately 1500 families a year which satisfies the demand of the complex «Zhdanovichy» and some other greenhouse enterprise. In 2002 832 bumble bee families were grown. 255 of them were used for the complex needs and 577 were sold to the other farms. Bumble bees rearing is a highly profitable business as the complex manages to save up to 25 thousand dollars annually.