Bummble Bees robbing honey...

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jezd

Drone Bee
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Just thought ppl maybe intested in seeing bummble bees robbing capped honey as I moved frames around - at one point I had 4-5 of them in the hive!!

Is it me or are there loads of bummbles around in the UK this year??

Jez
 
Yes, it seems like a good year for bumbles here too, and I've regularly had them trying to sneak into hives. They usually get pounced on by a gang of guards but I've never seen a dead one around the hives.

all the best

G.
 
Good photos, looks like a White-tailed bumble bee (Bombus lucorum).

We have a nest of bumbles bees in a mulch box not far from the apiary and generally it does seem to be a good year for Bumble bees, which can only be good :cheers2:
 
Loads around here this year too which is great to see.
 
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Do I see right, there are plenty of crystallized honey in the comb? Old honey or winter food?
 
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Do I see right, there are plenty of crystallized honey in the comb? Old honey or winter food?

old comb, old honey.

Jez
 
Yep there are loads around here also. I am on a swarm collection list and have had around 20 bumble bee calls so far and no honey bees :D

Also have had about four bumbles constantly been trying to get into my hives for around aweek.

I found two dead out front the other day, so not as lucky as some others at geting in!.
 
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In Finland we have bumbble bees too a lot. They are now queens. Workers have not emerged.

I have on my cottage yard Caragana arborescens busches and I estimated that I had on my yard about 200 bumbble bee queens one evenning. (50x50 meter area)

2 years ago we have a lot too in spring but then during rainy summer they vanished almost totally. I suspect that they migrate long distances, and same is with wasps. Hot weather wave brought wasps one week ago.
 
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