Purple wildflower field wild habitat for bees.

Yellow-faced bumble bee on lavender flower.

Bumble Bees in Trouble

The fate of an entire colony rests on one queen bee that comes out hibernation from a shallow place in the soil in the early spring, so if something happens to the queen, an entire nest will not produce any offspring that summer and no new queens will be born to start new colonies the next spring. That makes a colony pretty vulnerable to human activity.

There are a number of factors causing the decline of nearly one-third of North America's bumble bee species. Habitat loss, the use of pesticides, climate change, competition with honeybees, and diseases that have been accidentally introduced to native bumble bees are some of the issues affecting bumble bees populations.

It's not all bad news, though. Ordinary people are beginning to realize how important all of our pollinators are, and we are taking steps to change the outcome. For bumble bees, it isn't very difficult. We just need to remember that bumble bees live among us, peacefully foraging on flowers in our gardens and fields; and nesting and hibernating in places like grassy meadows, stumps, soil, old birdhouses, and leaf piles. We need to give bumble bees undisturbed areas to gather pollen and nectar, and we must leave places where queens can hibernate, as well as build nests to feed and raise the next generation.

Bumble bees are amazing to watch as they gracefully move from flower to flower in a garden, and if you look closely, you'll disover that there are differences between the species as well as visible differences between the males and females. My fascination with bumble bees started in 2014 when those in my lavender garden suddenly disappeared too early one spring. Since then I have been trying to learn all that I can about them, and I now dedicate most of my gardening efforts to making sure there are always flowers blooming that will help them thrive. I leave overturned pots partially buried in the soil, piles of leaves here and there, and uncut areas of field.

Every spring I look forward to the bumble bees' return, and to expanding my gardens to accomodate them. I have learned that I have three different species bumping along from flower to flower every spring and summer, and one autumn day I was fortunate enough to witness a queen going into hibernation beneath a small rock in one of my gardens.

For so many years I never noticed bumble bees at all, and I knew nothing about how imperiled they are by human activity. But we can change that if we all become more aware of how bumble bees live and what we can do to help them.

What About the Queen?

The queen bumble bee spends winters hibernating in alone in the soil.
She comes out of hibernation in early spring to feed on the nectar of flowers to give her energy to search for a nest site. Once she has found one, she brings pollen back from flowers to form a mound of pollen and wax, and she lays her first eggs.
She also forms a nectar pot from the wax and uses it to store some of the nectar she has collected, which she drinks from for energy while she incubates her first brood of eggs.
When her eggs hatch, she feeds the larvae on pollen and nectar that she collects from nearby flowers. About 2 weeks later, the larvae spin a cocoon and inside, they develop into adult bees.
This first brood is made up of female worker bees. Some will guard and clean the nest, and others will forage for nectar and pollen from flowers.
The nectar will be fed to their worker "sisters", as well as eventually being fed to the next batch of offspring.
At this point, the queen will remain inside the nest, laying more eggs that will also be worker bees.
Later in the summer, some of her eggs will be males, and some will be new queens.
The males leave the nest and do not return. They feed on the nectar of nearby flowers, and they mate.
Soon after the males leave the nest, the new queens leave to mate, too.
The new mated queens feed on pollen and nectar to provide energy for a winter hibernation underground, and the next year the whole process is repeated. As summer turns to fall, the old queen dies and her nest is left behind.
This is the life cycle for most bumble bees, but the cuckoo bumble bee is the exception. They have no queen, and a female cuckoo lays her eggs in the nest of another species of bumble bee to be raised by their workers.