Brigit Strawbridge (Bee lady!) guest post

We're massive fans of Brigit Strawbridge here at Green&Blue, what she doesn't know about bees and pollinators isn't worth knowing! So we were delighted when she agreed to let us share this blog post she wrote, 'Some very basic information about bees'. It's a very useful guide to bees, in all their various guises! Enjoy. And you can follow Brigit's own blog here, or find her on twitter here. What's the first thing that springs to mind when you hear the word 'bee'? For many people this word conjures up images of beehives, honey, and people dressed in strange, white, masked outfits; i.e honeybee related images. Yet, if I gave the same people a box of coloured pencils and asked them to draw me a bee, most would probably draw something black, yellow and black striped in the shape of a rugby ball; basically something more akin to a bumblebee. So there is clearly a little confusion. [caption id="attachment_6279" align="aligncenter" width="320"] Andrena cineraria (Ashy mining bee)[/caption] I thought it might help if I wrote down some very basic information to help clear up some of this confusion.......... There are over 20,000 different species of bee in the world. 7 of these are honeybees. 250 are bumblebees The rest are solitary bees! Honeybees and bumblebees are 'social' bees - which means they live together in colonies comprising a queen, female workers, and males. There are tens of thousands of worker bees in a honeybee colony, but only around 50 - 400 in a bumblebee colony. All 'worker bees' are female. Solitary bees do not have queens or a worker caste, nor (with one or two exceptions) do they share their nests with other solitary bees. This is why they are called 'solitary'. They do, however, often nests alongside each other. [caption id="attachment_6277" align="aligncenter" width="320"] Megachile centuncularis (Patchwork leafcutter bee)[/caption] After mating, female solitary bees make nests. They do this either by excavating tunnels in the ground (ground nesting) or using pre-existing cavities in walls, trees, plant stems etc (cavity nesting). The females provision their nests with sufficient pollen for the larvae to feed on when they hatch, then they lay an egg alongside each lump of pollen, seal the nest, and die before their young complete their life cycles to become adult bees. These new adult bees remain in hibernation in their nests throughout autumn and winter... and emerge the following year in spring or summer to start their life cycle all over again. ************************ [caption id="attachment_6275" align="aligncenter" width="320"] Apis mellifera (Honeybee)[/caption] Only honeybees make honey, which they make out of nectar collected from flowers. Honeybees turn the nectar into honey to store over winter, so the colony has something to feed on whilst it's too cold to forage and flowers are scarce. Other bee species also collect nectar, but do not turn it into honey. They just use it as an energy drink. ************************* [caption id="attachment_6276" align="aligncenter" width="320"] Bombus terrestris (Buff-tailed bumblebee)[/caption] Unlike honeybee colonies, bumblebee colonies do not overwinter. Each bumblebee colony produces males and new daughter queens in the summer (at different times depending on the species). These new queens mate and then go into hibernation till next spring. The old queen, together with all the female workers and the males, die before winter. That is the end of this nest. So, in a way, you could say honeybee colonies are 'perennials' and bumblebees colonies are 'annuals'. ************************ As well as collecting nectar, bees also collect pollen, which they use to feed their young. Different species collect their pollen in different ways..... Social bees (honeybees and bumblebees) collect it in pollen baskets on their hind legs. They pack the pollen into these baskets very neatly, so don't drop much off on their way home. Solitary bees, however, collect pollen on stiff branched hairs, either under their abdomen (cavity nesting species) or on their legs (ground nesting species). It is not moistened or packed down, which means lots of this pollen drops off on the other flowers they visit as they make their way home. This makes them extremely good pollinators. ************************ Only female bees have a sting. Male bees do not. If a honeybee worker stings you, she dies. If bumblebees sting (which they very rarely do) they will not die. This is because the honeybee sting is barbed, whereas the bumblebee sting is more like a needle. Apart from a few exceptions, solitary bee stings are mostly redundant and incapable of even piercing the human skin. *********************** [caption id="attachment_6278" align="aligncenter" width="320"] Halictus rubicundus (Orange-legged Furrow-bee)[/caption] The most important thing of all is that we provide food and habitat for ALL of these species. They all pollinate different plants, in different ways, at different times of the year, and in different habitats. DIVERSITY is the key! It is equally important that we provide for other pollinating insects like butterflies, moths, hoverflies, beetles, wasps and flies. Photos within this post are of a honeybee, bumblebee, cavity nesting solitary bee and ground nesting bee.... showing the different ways they collect their pollen. Thanks for reading, Brigit Strawbridge. Thanks so much to Brigit for this guest post, hope you enjoyed it and have maybe learnt something new, we certainly have.