Worcs Wildlife Trust

Bumbling about

Ilove spring. I love watching the natural world come to life and I love spotting my first bumblebee of the year. The sound of a bumblebee buzzing fills my heart with joy - this tiny creature has made it through the winter and is ready to start her new family.

Red-tailed bumblebee male by Penny Frith

Who can resist these furry pollinators? When threatened, bumblebees would prefer to wave a leg at you (it looks like they’re high-fiving) rather than sting. They’re considerate too – as they visit a flower to grab a drink of nectar, they leave behind a scent so that other bees know not to waste their time at that particular flower.

Bumblebees are sociable, working together for their wider family. Queens spend the winter in hibernation (they mated last autumn) and when they wake they start to search for a suitable nest site. Location is everything but quite where this is depends on the species – abandoned mouse holes, under sheds, in compost heaps, at the base of tussocky grass and even in bird boxes.

When she’s selected her site, she builds two wax cups to store nectar and pollen before buzzing from flower to flower to collect these. Once settled into her nest, she won’t see the light of day again. The nectar will sustain her as she incubates her eggs and the initial pollen store feeds her first young ones. When these youngsters become adults (all female), they’ll head out and do the gathering while mum continues to lay eggs. Later in the season, the queen starts to produce males and another generation of queens.

Our wild bees are having a hard time but we can all help. If you’ve got space in your garden, at your allotment, on your patio or in a window box, make sure you’ve got pollen and nectar rich flowers to give them a boost – the larger the area you’ve got, the more variety and the longer flowering-season you’ll be able to offer. There’s lots of information on what you can plant on the wildlife gardening pages of our website.

If you want to help but you’ve not got space to plant for pollinators, why not help us to know where our bees are. This year, we’re asking the public to report sightings of redtailed bumblebees via a short form on our website www.

worcswildlifetrust.co.uk/wildlife-sightings

Knowing where our bees are, and in what numbers, helps us to know how best to help them. Red-tailed bumblebees are one of the easiest to recognise and your sighting can be verified even by a blurry photograph. The queens and female workers are all black with a red tail whereas the males have the addition of a yellow collar on their neck and a really yellowy face.

Red-tailed bumblebee male by Harry Green

by Wendy Carter, Worcestershire Wildlife Trust

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