Wild Wednesday – White-tailed bumblebee
The white-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lucorum) queens emerge from hibernation early in the spring, being the only survivors of previous year’s bee colonies, as all the males and old queens would have died. She would have hibernated underground, using up reserves of energy, stored as fat in her body and will drink nectar from flowers to gain strength.
The male bees will not be seen until August, when they will mate with the females who go on to become queens in the next year.
These pretty bees can be seen feeding on flowers right through to autumn, in gardens, farmland, woodland edges and hedgerows, anywhere where there are flowers.
The queen will start her new colony by laying a few eggs, that hatch as worker bees, who will immediately attend to the younger bees and the nest, which will often be underground, where they will make us of a burrow – a previous home a vole or other small rodent.
The white-tailed bumble bee’s colony will house about 200 bees, unlike the honeybee, where colonies can number 50,000 bees.
The queen bumblebee has black and lemon-yellow bands and a white 'tail,’ and the males have yellow hair on their head, with tufts of yellow hair underneath.
They are fairly common in Britain, but sadly populations are believed to be declining.
Read more here: White-tailed bumblebee | The Wildlife Trusts
Photo credit Nick Southwood @njsouthwood