Bumble
Bees
Queen Bumble Bee warming in the sun, note
the hairs on her legs ready to load with pollen.
Bumble bees are large, noisy and colourful. In the spring the
large queen bee can be seen buzzing around the gardens gathering
nectar and pollen to help her build up her strength and she starts
to build her nest alone, just like the queen wasp.
The nest might be under a shed, in a compost heap, a pile of grass
cuttings, or any where nice and dry, they sometimes take over
an old mouse nest or even a bird box and start her nest in the
dry material left over from last year.
Thanks to one of our visitors for this fine photo of a bumble
bee nest in a bird box, this family of bumble bees will be happy
to be in such a grand setting for the rest of the year and looked
after by some friendly people. At the end of Autumn when they
are no longer to be seen, it is best to remove all nesting material
so that the birds (or the bees) can start again in the spring.
She will make a small cluster of wax cups and lay her eggs in
them, these are made from her own wax and look rather dirty compared
to our honey comb made by the honey bee. The Queen bumble bee
is seen foraging alone as she is feeding her developing larvae.
When her daughters hatch out they will help her build the nest,
feed the larvae and collect pollen and nectar from the flowers
in the area, only a small amount is stored in these wax pots.The
queen bee stays inside the nest to lay her eggs.
The early bumble bees that hatch out are smaller than their sisters
that follow as the nest builds up in numbers as the spring and
summer get into full swing.
Late summer and the queen produces drone bees and queen bees who
will mate, these mated queens are the only bumble bees that over
winter to start the cycle again next year, the rest of the bumble
bees including all of the workers, drones and the old queens die
out late Autumn as they come to the end of their life.
The newly mated Queens find a suitable place to hibernate and
over winter to emerge in the spring to start the cycle again.
If you notice a bumble bee nest and feel that it has got to go,
just remember that they will all disappear at the end of summer
and the nest can then be safely removed as it is not used again,
they do not cause any damage and are best left alone since they
are difficult to re-establish once moved. It is easier for humans
to accommodate bees than it is for bees to accommodate humans.
Bumble bees are very important pollinators as they will visit
flowers that other species of bees might not and they are out
flying at different times of the day than other bees
Do Bumble bees make honey? well yes but only a very small amount,
about a tablespoon full of watery honey is stored in their open
wax pots to keep them going in the summer
The Bumble bees only have enough honey and pollen to help them
build their colony and keep ticking over, unlike the honey bees,
they do not over winter. So they do not have any surplus to give
to us.
Bumble bees do have a sting but rarely use it, she will only use
it to defend their nest or if she has been trapped causing a her
to over react.
Do Bumblebees return to their nest next year? Many people ask
this question, no is the simple answer, because apart from the
mated Queens, all of the bees die and the old nest is not used
by any other queen in the spring.
Just like our honey bees. the bumble bees are suffering from our
modern world with intensive farming, the use of pesticides and
their natural habitats of flower rich meadows being lost to cereals
and silage. There are 25 species of bumble bees here in the UK,
three are extinct and seven are listed as endangered. The Bumble
Bee Conservation Trust was launched in May 2006 and to find out
more visit their web site on
http://www.bumblebeeconservationtrust.co.uk/
Hover Fly
These are not bees, but some have a similar appearance to our
honey bee and can be seen hovering around and landing on similar
plants visited by the bees, they are noticed from about April
to September, there was one spotted on the orhids in Derbyshire
and another was visiting the ivy flowers in October.
They have a shiny waxy appearance and look like motionless bees
in the air as they hover and then dart about, they look like hovering
bees, but our bees don't tend to hover like these, when our bees
are hovering they tend to be moving around all of the time looking
for food supplies or hovering around their hives entrance to get
their bearings.
Hover Fly inspecting an Early Purple Orchid in The Derbyshire
Dales at Spring time.
Hover Fly on the flowering Ivy in the Autumn
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