Bumble Bees

Bumble Bee Identification Poster – Cuckoo Bumble Bee

September 27, 2009 in Articles, Bees

Below is a poster that can help you identify Bumble Bees. There has been some recent talk about the not very well known Cuckoo Bumble Bee.

I must admit I never even knew the existence of the Cuckoo Bumble Bee. Seemingly it finds a different bumble bee varietys nest then it will either kill the queen bumble bee straight away or hang around the nest for a while picking up the scent and then get rid of the queen.

The workers are sterile and dont really have much other choice but to accept the new Cuckoo Bumble Bee Queen and rear its young instead. The new queen will lay as many larvae as the workers can cope with these then mature and leave the nest and the cycle begins again.

The main difference between a Cuckoo Bumble Bee and other varieties is that the Cuckoo has no pollen sacks on its legs. Because it is parasitic in its nature it does no work and therefore does not need the pollen sacks!

Amazing. Anyway below is the poster which I hope you find useful. Click on it to enlarge it (you may have to use the zoom in bottom right if using Internet Explorer):

Bumble Bee Identification Poster

Tags: Bees, Bumble Bees, Cuckoo Bumble Bee, Identify Bees No Comments »

Bumble Bee Explosion

Whats with the bumble bee explosion over the past month? Their numbers seem to have boomed this month; last week I thought one of the trees in my garden might actually take flight it had so many bumble bee wings beating on it! The buzzing was so loud you could hear it 10 metres away.

The numbers are incredible and give me hope, as the poor bumbler hasnt seemed to be doing terrificaly well in recent years, perhaps its the media attention of the plight of the bumble bee and the upsurge in purchasing of bumble bee nest boxes. Maybe the weather conditions have just been ideal for them this year; no flash flooding and windy conditions like last year!

At a recent trip to my allotment I discovered a bunch of poppies absolutely teaming with bumble bees, there was about five bees on each flower head (not many honey bees though ) and I stopped to have a quick look. I spotted atleast two different varieties:

White Tailed Bumble Bee – Bombus Lucorum
Garden Bumble Bee – Bombus Hortorum
Possible even a Buff Tailed Bumble Bee – Bombus Terrestris although Im not sure.

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