Bumblebee queens, where do they rest?

Bumblebee queens, where do they rest?

After my article bumblebee queens, where do they nest? I thought I would write another aspect of bumblebee ecology… resting! When queen bumblebees awake from hibernation, the first thing on their mind is to feed up and replenish their fat reserves, now exhausted by the hibernation process. The early morning and early afternoon is spent replenishing their fat reserves. Sladen mentions that by afternoon, as the sun descends and the air grows chilly, the queens find hiding places and relapse into a semi-torpor until a favourable day rouses them into activity again. As the season progresses, the activity increases and the semi-torpor decreases.

Where do the bumblebee queens rest mid-afternoon?

With this in mind, I went for a short stroll nearby to where I live. It forms part of my bumblebee walk for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. In the past, I often saw queen bumblebees showing nest searching tendencies, but from later observations in exactly the same area, I have not, to date, found any established bumblebee nests in 3 years of living here. I knew this small area was sheltered, received sunshine all day and would be ideal I thought, for bumblebees to rest in as it was relatively sparse in trees, and had long and short grassy tufts and mounds. Yesterday 22 March 2012, I went outside to the area I usually observed the queens. I saw lots of them either just resting on the grass surface, just hidden in grass tufts or just under leaves. Today 23 March 2012 had similar weather. Both were lovely days, warm, no wind, sunny with blue skies and dare I say it, rather summery. I reckon they wait till their bodies are suitably warmed up and when the weather permits they fly off from their resting site to feed up and after feeding find another suitable resting site. It would be interesting to know if they returned to the same area to rest or just used it as a resting place before moving on to another completely different resting place. Then when the weather was right and they were in nest founding condition they foundered their nests some distances from these resting places.

All photographs were taken on the day and time in question, with an iPhone 4s.  Total species are shown below.

From 1440 hrs to 1540 hrs I went for a stroll along the area, a piece of parkland measuring about 125 m in length, which forms part of a much larger area.

The length I was observing runs in a long an east-west corridor and faces south. The area was receiving full sun and does for most of the day.

The opposite side of my observation area was shaded and I did not see one bumblebee resting there.

She was too quick for me though and as soon as I moved nearer to get a shot, she was off!

It is known that bumblebee queens bury themselves beneath vegetation to avoid the dangers of frost. These queens, some of which were found on top of dead leaves may spend the night underneath these leaves. Others on the grass banks may have to move to the dead leaves to bury beneath.

Queens need huge amounts of protein in the form of pollen and unfortunately, this particular area does not have much at this time of the year, just a few willow trees for pollen and very few primroses for nectar, many of which were planted by the Friends of Gorse Covert Mounds.

 

 

Alford states that bumblebee queens spend time flying, foraging and……sunning themselves on vegetation! He was right!

 

This apparent life of luxury will not last too long. The important tasks of nest site searching, nest building and colony establishment are two acts not too far away now.

 

 

 

 

I found most of the B.lapidarius at rest on a recently mown grassy bank. Bumblebees I have seen like to bury themselves under small piles of the partially dried grass, or dead tree leaves in particular oak leaves.

You do have to approach quietly. I broke a twig as I stood on it about 12 cms from a slumbering queen. The snap which was loud, caused her to jump slightly, her wings crossed over each other, then a little movement, followed by vibrating of her wings and a clumsy take-off ensued. I do not know if they can hear but she certainly was spooked, as many were as I approached them and got quite close to them. This one I managed to photograph just as I disturbed her, many more I did n’t and off they flew.

 

 

 

To be honest, there were far queens more that I disturbed and was unable to photograph than I could photograph!

All in all, I found 17 B. terrestris, 5 B. lucorum/hortorum,  7 B. lapidarius, 2 B. pratorum and just 1 B. hypnorum

I have only seen two queens in my nearby garden this year to date and no wonder as they are all snoozing nearby! Though as I did not see any with pollen on their rear legs, this implies that those I saw had not yet replenished their fat reserves, nor had they set up nest sites.

Updated Mar 2014.

Whilst on a piece of wasteland in Salford, I was amazed at the number of queen bumblebees flying to a large pussy willow tree to feast on the numerous pollen laden catkins. Whilst walking nearer to the tree, I noticed bumblebee after bumblebee queens on the floor, pollen covered and scrambling for cover under the leaf litter. Then they just rested. No nest seeking mode, no flying away, just resting.

I saw several of them almost fall to the leaf litter laden ground immediately after feeding. I had to be careful not to tread on the bees as I walked. In the end, I decided not to walk any further towards the tree as there were simply too many bumblebee queens on the floor and I did not want to tread on any I could not see, hidden under the leaf litter. Pussy willow was growing on a brownfield site at Kersal flats. See the Kersal flats website click on Today for some wonderful photos of the area in question esp number 4

Updated (Feb 2016). I have seen several bumblebee queens recently all resting up in long rough grass with tussocks forming miniature dense bunches fo grass. None of them was in nest seeking mode! I am convinced that after emerging from hibernation it can take quite a while before they are actually fit to start a nest. To gain strength they feed up and find suitable places to rest. Weather, temperature and available forage will greatly determine this activity. In quite a few places where I have found many bumblebee queens resting, not all together but scattered in an area, there have been pussy willows which provide forage for them. In some cases, the bumblebees are literally covered in pollen.

See my new Registered Design award-winning solitary bee box and bumblebee nest box both of which are radical, practical and educational, offering them a safer nesting environment in which you can observe the bees. Great for schools!

For more information about solitary bees and wasps visit BWARS

For more bumblebee information and to help save bumblebees join the Bumblebee Conservation Trust at Stirling University

Refs: Besides my own observations, photographs and experiences;

Alford, D.V.(1975) “Bumblebees”, Davis-Poynter Ltd.

Sladen, F.W.L. (1912) “the Humble-Bee” Macmillan & Co.Ltd