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this morning in the back garden[attachment=1]

Excuse my ignorance, but how can you tell she is a queen? Size? I have always wondered that, the only queens I have seen were in managed hives and marked!

she is at full size, therefore a queen looking for a nest site, the first couple of broods of bees are small, as the queen has to do all work herself, later broods are full size as whole nest can nurture grubs. Hope that helps, Tony

Any big bumble bee this time of year is a queen. It's still too early for the first workers to have emerged, and when they do, they'll be really small. With only the queen to care for them, they won't have been well fed. As the nest expands, each generation of workers is a bit better fed, and bigger, than the last. By the end of the season, they'll be really well fed, the females will be fertile queens, and they'll raise drones alongside them.

Thank you for that explaination.  ;D

I had a queen red tail land for a rest on my shoulder last weekend.  She was there for ages, in fact, I had to lift her off onto my Broad Beans beacause it got to the stage where I couldn't put off going home any longer.  Just love bumbles. :)

My daughter caught me taking to a bumble bee yesterday.  She always thought I was a bit mad but now she says she's got proof!   ;D

G x

wow thats really cool tony.
is there a nest under your shed yet?

got one in last years compost heap. ;D

Georgie. No comment ;D