Monday 6 May 2013

I'm a Queen Bee and it's all down to Me.


On a visit to Roundball Meadow this week I stopped and watched a Queen Bumblebee for about 10 minutes.  Keeping close to the ground the bee quartered the meadow passing many flowers without stopping, but always checking out bare soil and holes in the ground. 

Unlike Honey Bees which over-winter as a colony, in the Bumblebee world only the queen survives the winter.  After hibernating underground or behind the bark in dead trees, the queen emerges to feed up and then find a suitable site to build a nest. Using old mouse or vole nests, the bee creates a nest site in which she forms a small honey pot from secreted wax . She then fills it with nectar and having been fertilised by a male in the previous year, she then gets on with the business of laying eggs to form a new colony.

The Bumblebee I watched was no doubt searching for a suitable nest site. A remarkable insect with a great responsibility. Being the sole survivor of her colony the creation of the new generation is all down to her. As a friend of mine said 'a woman's work is never done' .

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