Special for the Salisbury Post

Bumble Bees

Darrell Blackwelder

June 9, 2005

     Marvin Goodman walked into my office with what he thought was a strange bee. Normally over the years with so many bee questions, I usually have no problem with identifying a bee. However, this time I was stumped.  Goodman brought me a black bumble bee that he found in his dad’s tractor.                                            

It was a black bumble bee, but what was so unusual was its nest. Clutches of egg cases in the nest reminded me of the large a cache of eggs in the movie Alien. Also, the nest did not have a typical comb like honeybees or wasps. It was indeed an unusual sight.                                           

After a bit of investigation I learned that these bees come out of hibernation in May and start their brood in old, abandoned nests of field mice or bird nests. It seems they are not too picky about their nesting sites and can also be found in the ground, old stumps, abandoned mattresses, and old bales of straw or hay in barns.           

 These black bumble bees have the same social structure as honey bees with large over-wintering queens, smaller males and much smaller workers or undeveloped females. Both the queens and workers can inflict painful stings.            

 New queens over-winter in loose bark, hollow trees or other dry protected places. The queen establishes the nest site by lining the existing cavity with dry grass or moss.  As flowers appear in the spring the queen collects a mass of pollen and moistens this with nectar to produce a stored food called "bee bread." The first brood to hatch is workers bees. Only 5 to 20 newly hatched workers help the queen by enlarging the nest and gathering food to feed the larvae. The queen continues to lay eggs through the summer and by late summer reproductive males and females are produced. These colonies only live one summer amassing more than 200 individuals. Those that remain in the colony die with frost or the first hard freeze.

Nests can be spotted by males flying about the entrance. Stinging workers respond quickly when their territory is invaded.  These insects are easily irritated and will aggressively attack inflecting numerous stings.                          

But before we mount a crusade to wipe out all bumble bees; we must recognize that they are extremely important pollinators both for commercial producers and for nature. Honeybees need all the help they can get.