I love Bumble Bees. When I was a kid my Dad taught me how to pet them on their furry parts, while they are busy gathering their nectar and pollen. These days I feel like I see fewer and fewer of them. We keep hearing about declines in bee populations and threats to bees. We set out to learn more about Bumble Bees.
Our first discovery was that no one knows very much about native bees. We planned to have a Bumble Bee workshop and would have liked to have an expert come speak. But we never found an expert. We found one man who knew a little, but no one who knew very much about native bees at all. There are lots of folks who know a lot about Honey Bees. But the Honey Bees we hear so much about are not our native North American bees, they are from Europe. There are tons of different kinds of native bees in North America, and lots to learn about them all, but we found no one teaching it. So we set out to learn on our own, become our own experts.
Our first discovery was that no one knows very much about native bees. We planned to have a Bumble Bee workshop and would have liked to have an expert come speak. But we never found an expert. We found one man who knew a little, but no one who knew very much about native bees at all. There are lots of folks who know a lot about Honey Bees. But the Honey Bees we hear so much about are not our native North American bees, they are from Europe. There are tons of different kinds of native bees in North America, and lots to learn about them all, but we found no one teaching it. So we set out to learn on our own, become our own experts.
The first question was, What is a Bumble Bee? I used to assume that every round-bodied fuzzy bee I saw was a Bumble Bee. This is not true. In fact, most of the bees I was seeing were not Bumble Bees. When I discovered how few Bumble Bees I actually see, it was even sadder than I thought.
There are 2 other types of bees that look a lot like Bumble Bees. Carpenter Bees, which tend to be larger, and Mason Bees, which tend to be smaller. But the sizes can vary, so you have to look at a few other details to know what type of bee you are looking at. Carpenter Bees have larger heads than Bumble Bees, but this is one of the harder differences to see. The 2 things I look for are:
Carpenter Bees are shiny, black, and almost hairless on the top side of their abdomen. Bumble Bees are almost fully clothed in hairs on the top side of their abdomen.
Bumble Bees (as well as Honey Bees and Orchid Bees) have corpicula, or pollen baskets. These are places specialized to carry pollen on their hind legs. Bumble Bees therefore carry pollen in large orange or yellow wet balls on their back legs. Carpenter Bees and Mason Bees do not have these. Carpenter Bees carry pollen in scopa, or specialized hairs, on their hind legs or underside of their abdomens. So you may still see pollen on the hind legs of Carpenter Bees (Mason Bees have their scopa on the underside of their abdomen), but it will be collected on hairs not in a wet ball.
There are 2 other types of bees that look a lot like Bumble Bees. Carpenter Bees, which tend to be larger, and Mason Bees, which tend to be smaller. But the sizes can vary, so you have to look at a few other details to know what type of bee you are looking at. Carpenter Bees have larger heads than Bumble Bees, but this is one of the harder differences to see. The 2 things I look for are:
Carpenter Bees are shiny, black, and almost hairless on the top side of their abdomen. Bumble Bees are almost fully clothed in hairs on the top side of their abdomen.
Bumble Bees (as well as Honey Bees and Orchid Bees) have corpicula, or pollen baskets. These are places specialized to carry pollen on their hind legs. Bumble Bees therefore carry pollen in large orange or yellow wet balls on their back legs. Carpenter Bees and Mason Bees do not have these. Carpenter Bees carry pollen in scopa, or specialized hairs, on their hind legs or underside of their abdomens. So you may still see pollen on the hind legs of Carpenter Bees (Mason Bees have their scopa on the underside of their abdomen), but it will be collected on hairs not in a wet ball.
Having learned these identification tips, and more about Bumble Bees, we set out to the garden to observe them and see if we could tell the difference. We then caught them and their flower in small plastic takeout sauce containers with holes punched in the top for air, just for a few minutes of closer inspection while we sketched and painted them. After a few minutes, we let them buzz off on their way, because of course, they are busy.
Carpenter Bee--Large, with Shiny Top Side of Abdomen
Bumble Bee, with Full Pollen Baskets
Sketching with Our Art Teacher
After this art workshop, we combined the art from our Bumble Bee study with some monarch art we had done before, for a display on threatened pollinators at our local botanical garden.
Watch a short film about one of our most endangered Bumble Bees:
http://www.rustypatched.com/the-film
http://www.rustypatched.com/the-film