
“These large, hairy bees are generally black with varying degrees of yellow banding. Look closely at flowering plants and you’ll probably spot several species. Common bumblebees include garden, buff-tailed, red-tailed, white-tailed and field bumblebees.
They are social insects, living in colonies of up to 200 workers. Queens hibernate underground during the winter, emerging in spring to find suitable nest sites – for example, abandoned mouse holes. Each queen builds a nest of dried grasses and then lays about a dozen eggs that hatch into workers – sterile females.
The workers gather pollen and nectar to feed later batches of grubs. New queens and males hatch at the end of the season and mate. The males, workers and old queens die; new queens hibernate. Bumblebees are not aggressive and will only sting if they feel threatened. They are important pollinators of many plants and fruiting trees.
What they eat: Nectar & pollen.”
Thank you, Amber, for writing about bumblebees as I love them and have many in my garden.
Joanna
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They truly are gorgeous beings and will only sting if they feel threatened.. Many stroke these beings. Blessed. Enjoy you garden and the sun! 🙏🏻♥️
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All the insects in my garden know me and I have never been stung.
Every year one of the mather’s bumblebees winters in my kitchen behind the dresser. When she goes out in the spring, she meets me every time I am in the garden, buzzing as if she was saying Hello.
And the friendliness and intelligence of wasps are astonishing. In the late summer, I give them a saucer of sugar and syrup, and when is finished,
one comes into my kitchen, and will buzz saying, we need some more because those pesky ants had more than half!
Joanna
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Thank you for sharing this Joanna. Aha, nature beings really are intelligent beings. I have heard many of these stories and it makes us re-think what we have been told. How beautiful! 🙏🏻♥️
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