Bumblebees

Bumblebees, or as the Victorian’s called them ‘Humble bees’, are similar to wasps in that only the queen hibernates and survives the winter. In the spring the queen bumblebee seeks an old mouse- or vole- hole and builds within it a nest of leaves and moss. She constructs nodular wax cells and incubates her young as a bird would. As her first offspring hatch and begin to fly the queen increasingly stays within the hive to produce young. Bumblebees do make a small amount of honey and store it in one special cup like cell. There is no more than a tablespoon at any time. The typical maximum population of a bumblebee colony is tiny, compared to the honey bee, being between 50 and