Here in Ireland, our current good April weather means there are lots of queen bumblebees on the wing. Queens spent the winter asleep underground and are now awake and looking for food and nesting sites.
Nest places could be in forgotten areas of your garden which are undisturbed, or hedgerows and soil banks. The bees are also looking for food. The most popular “flower” in my garden at the moment are the flowers of the kale plants I have left in the ground from last winter.
Early Bumblebee
The photo above is of an early bumblebee queen, Bombus pratorum, with it’s distinctive split yellow abdomen band and red tail. The red tail is not always obvious as it is on the very last segment, and often curved under the bee. In the workers, the yellow band on the abdomen can be very narrow or absent.
Other plants that are popular are blossom trees – this one below is a crab apple, again with an Early Bumblebee.
Early bumblebee on apple blossom
And finally, the comfrey plants are just coming into flower and the bees like those too.
Common carder bee on comfrey
THINGS TO DO
To learn more about bees and other insects in your garden how about taking part in A Flower – Insect – Timed Count. Basically all you have to do is watch a 50 x 50cm patch of flowers for 10 minutes and record how many insects visit.
For detailed instructions and forms, check out the pollinators.ie website, or click here for link.
No matter where you live you can carry out this survey. But if you live in Ireland you can submit your results to the National Biodiversity Data Centre.
If you live in the UK you can find out more here.
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