A box of Bees

A colony of bumblebees have moved into an old bluebird house. At first, I noticed that there always seemed to be a bee sitting on top of the box watching me while I gardened. Then I started noticing bees flying in and out of the hole to visit the near by patch of flowers. Sometimes I would get swooped by a fuzzy bee if I was weeding around the base of their home but they never bothered me. Until the day I wanted to show the bees to a friend. There weren’t any bees outside the box so I decided to poke it with a stick. You should never poke bees with a stick! The bumblebees started climbing out of their front door, maybe 10 of them, and flying around. Everyone backed up, except my friend, who got closer “I think those are brown belted bumblebees, I want a photo.” After he got his photo, he turned around and then I saw a bumblebee attached to his forehead, stinger in. I went and got the antihistamines but he was mostly worried about if the bee had been injured. It turns out bumblebees have smooth stingers so they can sting without ripping their stinger out. My poor friend had a nice swollen spot between the eyes after that. So, I will try once again to resist the urge to poke things with a stick.

Bumblebees can form colonies or live solo lives depending on the species. They mostly nest in the soil but can also nest in abandoned nests of rodent or birds. Holes in the gar-den soil may indicate a nest site where bees are laying eggs and provisioning the nest to hatch a new generation. Queens hibernate over winter and then select a nesting area. The colony gradually forms over the summer until the queen dies. All of her children disperse to mate and find hibernation spots. If the old nest is used again the following year it will be because a new queen has found it. Bee nests should be marked off to decrease disturbance and also prevent friends from being stung. Bumblebees are usually very docile flying teddy bears unless they feel threatened. Having a bumblebee colony in your garden is a rare treat.