Bumblebees: Food, Nests & Co.

The striped flower lovers are welcome guests in the garden. We have summarized the five most important facts and questions about bumblebees for you.

Bumblebees are easy to spot by their sometimes clumsy flight through the garden. The heavy insects take off by creating a negative pressure through very fast, circular wing movements.

In this article we have compiled everything else you should know about the peaceful pollinators in your garden.

Bumblebee species: How to identify and recognize bumblebees

Although the bumblebees are related to the honey bees, they not only have a different way of life, but are also easy to distinguish from bees. Bumblebees are much fuller than the slender bees and also have luxuriant hair. However, distinguishing between all 41 bumblebee species native to Germany is much more difficult. Not only do many species look very similar, as flower visitors, bumblebees usually do not stay on the flower long enough to be identified in detail.

This is how you can distinguish the six most common German bumblebee species:

• bumblebee (Bombos terrestrial): Abdomen white, abdomen black with two yellow stripes; there are several species of bumble bee that are difficult to distinguish. They form large colonies and are also sold for pollination purposes.
• garden bumblebee (Bombus hortorum): white abdomen, black abdomen with three yellow stripes; The garden bumblebee, as its name suggests, is often found in gardens. It is quite large and, with its long proboscis, has specialized in long-tubed flowers such as those of lamiaceae.
• tree bumblebee (Bombos hypnorum): White abdomen, red-brown breast; Tree bumblebees live in forests and gardens and nest in old tree trunks and birdhouses.

• meadow bumblebee (bombus pratorum): Orange abdomen, one or two yellow stripes on the breast; Meadow bumblebees are relatively small and mainly fly in open areas.
• stone bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius): Orange abdomen, black abdomen; male stone bumblebees have a different coloration with yellow hairs on the abdomen, making it difficult to distinguish them from meadow bumblebees.
• field bumblebee (Bombus pascuorum): grey-black to reddish-brown abdomen; the color of the bumblebee's breast varies with region. In the north it is often dark, in the south rather reddish. In general, the common field bumblebees have a wide variety of color variations. Field bumblebees live in many different habitats throughout Germany.

Bumblebee nests: How to recognize them

Depending on the species, bumblebees like to nest in empty cavities, be it abandoned bird boxes, hollow tree trunks or burrows. Every now and then you can discover a bumblebee's nest in such places in summer. They can be recognized by the spherical honeycomb. The queen remains in her nest as soon as the first workers fly out. Bumblebee nests are under strict protection and must not be removed. Since only one queen survives the winter, the nest will be abandoned in the fall anyway. The following spring, the queen bumblebee will colonize a new nest.

Bumblebees can also get in bumble bee boxes be settled. For details, click here.

Can bumblebees sting?

Although bumblebees also have a sting, they are very lazy to sting. Unlike wasps and some honeybee colonies, which are quick to become aggressive, bumblebees are not aggressive. Bumblebees only sting when they are in total defence, when they are afraid of death. Bumblebees threaten to sting. This is done by lifting a middle leg. Even more urgent is the threat of lying on your back and stretching out the spike. Normally, however, bumblebees are peaceful. If you approach them very carefully while they are sitting on a flower, you can even stroke their abdomen.

Can you buy bumblebees?

Bumblebees are important pollinators and increase crop yield. For this reason, they are often released in agricultural greenhouses to replace missing pollinators. In addition, like other wild bees, they fly at cooler temperatures than honey bees. Therefore, some bumblebee species are commercially available. Dark bumblebees are particularly easy to breed and sell, as they accept artificial nesting aids and form colonies of up to 600 individuals. Bumblebees can also be purchased for your own garden, but these are often very expensive for private individuals. Rather, one should pay attention to a suitable environment in order to be able to welcome more bumblebees in the garden. If the environment is suitable for bumblebees, they settle by themselves.

How to feed bumblebees

If there is a sufficient supply of flowers, it is not necessary to feed bumblebees. Since bumblebees are generalists, i.e. they pollinate countless different types of flowers, the variety of flowers in your garden is the only thing that matters. If flowers are present all year round, bumblebees should not have a lack of food. With an insect-friendly seed mix like that Plantura bee pasture that's no problem. It contains a wide variety of herbs and flowers so that the bumblebees and bees in your garden are optimally cared for for months.

In addition, when bumblebees visit flowers, they also absorb compounds produced by plants, such as p-hydroxycinnamic acid, which strengthens the bumblebees' resistance. At most, cool weather in spring can be critical. Nevertheless, supplementary feeding is possible and easy to implement, at least for bumblebee colonies that have been bought or settled in nesting boxes. As feed, two parts of fructose (fruit sugar) are mixed with two parts of conventional sugar and three parts of water - i.e. in a ratio of 2:2:3. For example, the solution can be placed in an upside-down Lego brick so that the bumblebees can drink. The drinking trough is then placed in the porch of the bumblebee's nest.

The most important thing about bumblebees in brief:

• In Germany, six of the 41 native bumblebees are still quite common
• Bumblebee nests are preferably found in abandoned cavities in the ground and trees, as well as in nesting boxes
• Bumblebees can theoretically sting, but are exceptionally peaceful
• For pollination purposes, bumblebees are reproduced and released on a large industrial scale; a purchase is therefore possible, but not the best way to protect bumblebees
• A mixture of two parts fructose, two parts sugar and three parts water can be fed to bumblebees

If you want to introduce bumblebees to your garden, a bumble bee box help. For details, click here.