We've got a nest of the white tailed bees in one of our compost bins. They're loving the nearby roses, irises and nepeta. It's not very convenient for us, as we can't evict them until the autumn apparently and we have to run the gauntlet up to the shed. Does anybody know exactly what they do - I'm presuming it's not honey production? Why are some twice the size of the others?
We've got a nest of the white tailed bees in one of our compost bins. They're loving the nearby roses, irises and nepeta. It's not very convenient for us, as we can't evict them until the autumn apparently and we have to run the gauntlet up to the shed. Does anybody know exactly what they do - I'm presuming it's not honey production? Why are some twice the size of the others?
Bumblebee nests are a lot less productive than honey bees but the principal is the same. The queen hibernates somewhere full of fertilised eggs, wakes up in the spring and builds enough of a nest to lay the eggs and raise them into bunch of female workers, they expand the nest to make more workers and a batch of male bees who go off with the sole purpose of mating and don't help the nest (yes I know ) then the final batch of eggs makes next years queens who go off to mate and build up their energy reserves in order to hibernate to start the cycle again next year. Once the new queens have gone the nest, the original queen and the workers just die off. The males die off and don't hibernate. The queens are the really large bees you see, the workers vary in size but are usually much smaller and the males are medium size. Only the females sting but they don't really bother with nest defense unless you actively attack it and they're not aggressive like honeybees or social wasps.
The new queens also carry a lot of mites and mite eggs off with them and stay with her until next year. Some are parasitic but a lot of them are beneficial nest cleaners. So if you see a queen with mites don't assume they're a problem.
I don't think I could tell the difference between Bombus terrestris and Bombus lucorum (white and buff). The 'buff' looks very white to me. At least Bombus hypnorum has a ginger mohican.
Mix 2tbsp of white,granulated sugar with 1tbsp of water and place on a spoon for a Bee to reach. Sometimes they're too exhausted to reach back to the hives when it's hot and dry.
Thanks @wild edges , that's really interesting information for me. I wondered why there are so many bigger bees, now I know they are the females. Do you think it's likely they will nest somewhere in the garden next year? This is the first year I've really noticed the ones with "white bums" as somebody very elegantly put it!
Posts
mine are also some sort of white tailed bumble bee.