Topic: Bumble Bees - What is the queen up to?

[Paulines7]

Bumble bees have made a home in my sparrow nest box.  Yesterday. a big queen came out of the box, landed on the ground and five minutes later flew back in.  Today, I found a queen on the ground mating with a drone.  I had to go to get my beans which I was about to plant and when I came back there was no sign of the queen but there was a dead drone a couple of feet from where she had been.  Is this usual behaviour for the queen bees to leave the box like this? 

I don't know whether there were two queens or just the one and whether the one I saw today mating, went back into the box or flew off to start a new colony.  I took some pictures but they are not that clear.  Here is the best of them.

[Paulines7]

I have searched the web this morning and now believe this is Bombus Hypnorum.  It can be quite aggressive if disturbed according to the information on the website below. 

I have been in close proximity to the nest box for the past week as I have been weeding around my onions and preparing and planting my beans and peas.  There have been small swarms of bees around the nest box opening and I now believe these were the drones. 

I think I will stay away from them until I need to pick my veggies!

http://bumblebeeconservation.org/images/uploads/Bee_Craft_May_2013,_Bombus_hypnorum.pdf

[pumkinlover]

I think we may have some of these in the house under the eaves! A bee keeper friend has been called out to a few of these recently, and looking at the picture it looks like ours with the white tail. Already get buff-tailed ( I think!) on the allotment.
Thanks for the link P7!

[SueK]

Thank you for the link as well, Pauline.

I looked at it earlier on today and thought how glad I was that we don't have a bird box in the garden.  Then I brought the boys home from school and found one of these bees sunning itself on the pavement just outside the house.  Hmm!

[ed dibbles]

Since you saw the queen mating with a drone then the queen you saw must be a new queen that will eventually make a colony next year if it survives winter.

The existing queen has no need to mate again.

Once the colony is up to size new queens and drones are produced that are forthwith expelled from the colony spending the summer after mating feeding while remaining outside their original colony.

The drone dies after a week or two but the queen will hibernate when the weather cools in the autumn and begin the cycle again early next spring.

I've no information but as it's still quite early in the season it could be that the new queen will attempt a new colony right away.

[Paulines7]

Thank you for your reply and observations.

A neighbour came to see them yesterday.  She is very knowledgeable and has written many books and given many lectures and talks on flora and fauna.  She emailed someone she knows at the the Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre and they have asked her to send in a report showing a grid reference location and date they were first spotted.  This morning I took her two dead drones which I found on the ground where the mating had occurred.  These gave a positive ID though there is no doubt in our minds that they were bombus hypnorum. 

Some of the workers were busy gathering pollen from the loganberries this morning and they certainly like the pink jasmin.  There is no shortage of bees in our garden and by the looks of the newly forming fruit, we will have an abundance of soft fruit this year. 

I am pleased the nest is away from the house and hope they never come under the eaves as they have done at Pumpkinlover's house!