Getting a bit up close and personal with the natural world this week and looking at an incredibly important cog in the grand wheel that keeps this whole thing called life on earth going: the bumble bee.

Bees in general have been making the rounds in the news and social media circles for nearly a decade, having faced a devastating possible future with colony collapses wiping out billions of bees worldwide. While they still face danger and colonies are still struggling, the situation, thankfully, is not as much of a threat as was once purported, and the general population is on the rebound.

Bees and many other insects (and some birds) perform a very necessary task: aiding plant and flower pollination. While plants utilize several techniques, from basic wind dispersal to interactions with all manner of animals, one of the most effective methods is known as “buzz pollinating.”

It is this method that makes bees so very important, and the bumble bee is the master of the craft. Honeybees are typically out and about gathering copious amounts of nectar to make honey, and have evolved specifically for this purpose. Bumbles, on the other hand, don’t typically produce much honey, usually only enough to get a colony through potential “rough patches” lasting only a few days, and thus have differently specialized anatomy that makes them a better overall pollinator.

You can see in the image a characteristic we know well about these larger members of the bee community: their thick hair, or pile. This feature allows them to gather much more pollen than other species of bees to be carried to other flowers. As they seek out nectar, the pollen collects on the hairs to be distributed to other flowers.

Another feature which sets the bumbles apart from many other wild bees is that they have what are known as pollen baskets. These “baskets,” found on the hind legs, are made of finely woven hairs, and as the bee forages among the flowers, it will scrape pollen off its legs and body, packing it into the baskets using nectar to cement it in place for transportation back to the nest.

Bumbles also differ from other types of bees in that they don’t maintain a colony year-round. In the fall, a queen will leave the nest in search of a mate, but once mated will store the male sperm in a specialized chamber. While she is out looking for a mate, she will consume as much food as possible. Then, once mated, she will head underground for diapause, a type of hibernation, leaving her entire colony to die. As conditions warm up in the spring, she will emerge and find a suitable place for a new nest where she will lay her eggs in wax cells. Some of those eggs she will then fertilize with the stored sperm.

The unfertilized eggs become males and the fertilized eggs become female workers and new queens. The queen will tend to this first brood, providing nectar and pollen to the larvae, but once they have grown into adults, they will continue the tasks of foraging and providing food, as the queen will then stay in the nest to lay eggs and further grow the new colony.

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, while colony collapse has not shown to be quite as disastrous as once imagined, and many species have rebounded quite healthily, the bumbles still exist in a precarious position. The species in general is in decline in Europe, North America and Asia, and while some types (there are over 250 worldwide) are considered stable, many others are listed from “Near Threatened” to “Critically Endangered,” and in some areas the prevalent types have ceased to exist altogether.

While there are certainly fears by humans when it comes to stings and allergic reactions, bumbles are the most placid and gentle of all bee species. While they can sting, they rarely do (typically, only if a nest is threatened), and can even be handled and petted gently. It is in our best interest to take care of these incredibly unique creatures, live by an easy and general rule, and simply “bee” kind to them, let them “bee,” and help continue this beautifully grand and incredibly complex thing we call life!

For additional information about James DeWalt Photography, check out https://jamesdewaltphotography.com.