- Bumblebee have smelly feet, they leave a scent on a flower when they visit them, so other bees know the pollen or nectar has been taken from that flower
- There are over 250 different types of Bumblebee in the world, 26 different types live in the UK
- Bumblebee make honey, they store it in little wax honey pots in their nest, they don’t make honey for us humans, only enough for their own family
- Badgers love eating Bumblebee wax, honey and grubs (baby bumbles)
- Bumblebee need to be warmup to fly, their wing muscles must get to 86degree before that can fly
- They can fly up to 11miles and hour
- Bumblebee love sugar water, if you find one walking on the floor you can give it a little drink, sugar water is a mixture of ordinary sugar and water, preferably on a tea spoon
- Male bees die after mating with a queen
- A cuckoo Bumblebee, like the Cuckoo bird lays its eggs in other bumblebee nests for them to bring up
- Bumblebee do NOT die if they sting, unless you squidge them, and we DON’T squidge bumblebee, their stinger is like a sowing needle and goes straight in and out, a honey bee stinger has BARBS like a hook and gets stuck in your skin……..YOU MUST TELL AN ADULT IF YOU GET STUNG BY EITHER, as some people can suffer a very bad reaction to stings
- Bumblebee do NOT like vibration, so if you see bumblebee going underground there is probably a nest, so DON’T jump up and down or bounce a ball, as the Bumblebee may think its under attack and come out to see what’s going on.
- Bumblebee LOVE blue and Purple plants, such as lavender and chives
- Bumblebee buzz/fly outside a nest to fan and cool on hot days.
- A queen Bumblebee can live for up to a year, yet their workers only live for about 4 weeks
- Bumblebee hibernate over the winter, this means they go into a long deep sleep, so they miss Halloween, Fireworks night, Father Christmas or even go to celebrate new year.
- After a good sleep the Bumblebee Queens first job is starts looking for food, they don’t brush their teeth as they do not have any, have a shower or even make their bed, they shiver and shake to get warm then start looking for Pollen and Nectar from early spring flowers.
- Only a Queen Bumblebee will hibernate and make a new nest, at the end of that nest season all the workers will die
